Susan and John Ruff, Fantasy Authors

Author: susanandjohnruff

  • Writing Inspiration Destination: Balboa Park

    Sometimes, you don’t need to go any farther than your own hometown for writing inspiration. This becomes much easier, of course, when your hometown happens to be a major tourist destination with beaches, parks, culture, museums, and other fascinating places to visit. I grew up in San Diego County, and…

  • Writing Inspiration Destination: Santorini, Greece

    (Note: as mentioned in an earlier blog post, one of my friends suggested that I write about some travel destinations that had a direct influence on my writing. This is part 3 of the series.) A writer of any genre could find inspiration on the Island of Santorini, with its…

  • Writing Productivity vs Burn Out

    Being an Indy author is tricky. You must learn to market your own novels. You need to find others to help with proofreading and editing, and you need a circle of friends to encourage you to keep writing when sales are low. More than anything else, however, you need to…

  • Writing Inspiration Destination: Heidelberg, Germany

    (Note: as mentioned in an earlier blog post, one of my friends suggested that I write about some travel destinations that had a direct influence on my writing. This is part 2 of the series.) The old section of Heidelberg, Germany is a fantasy author’s dream destination. Fairytale sights abound:…

  • Writing Update for July 2021

    A lot of exciting news from Emerald Cove today. First and foremost: John and my new fantasy novel Prophecy’s Malignant Son is now for sale on Amazon. You can find it at: Amazon.com: Prophecy’s Malignant Son: A high fantasy novel eBook: Ruff, Susan and John: Books The book is available…

  • When Travel Influences Fantasy Literature

    A friend (who also loves to travel) suggested that it might be fun for me to blog about how I draw inspiration for my fantasy stories from the real-world places that I visit and photograph. It was a great suggestion, and really got me thinking about the ways in which…

  • Fortifications, Walls, and Battlements

    After I wrote the blog post about castles a few weeks ago, I started considering other types of structures that can be important in fantasy literature. One of the easiest to overlook (no pun intended) is the stone wall. Ranging from hastily constructed piles of rocks to elaborate edifices seen…

  • Keeping Honest with those Writer’s Resolutions

    We’re now half-way through 2021, and it seems like a good time to review your progress on all those writer’s New Year’s resolutions that you made. How is your writing coming? Are you satisfied with your progress? If not, are there things you can do to get back on track?…

  • Visiting the Stones that Speak

    Last week, my blog discussed ancient ruins and fantasy novels. Today, I want to write about a special subset of that topic: carvings and rock art. Humans have been communicating by leaving words and pictures on stone for thousands of years. As a fantasy writer, I find petroglyphs and rock…

  • The Literary Lure of Ancient Ruins

    “On the top they found, as Strider had said, a wide ring of ancient stone-work, now crumbling or covered with agelong grass.” – J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring. Ancient ruins, both real and fictional, have always sparked my imagination as an author. They combine the mysteries of centuries…