Susan and John Ruff, Fantasy Authors

Tag: writing

  • Observatory Observations

    Observatories and planetarium shows have fascinated me all my life. When John and I stopped in Flagstaff, Arizona on a road trip a few years ago, we had the pleasure of visiting the Lowell Observatory on a clear summer night. We got to peer through one of the telescopes and…

  • Fun With Fellow Authors

    What’s more exciting than going to a writers’ conference? Attending a conference that is specifically designed for self-published authors. In mid-October, I attended the Self-Publishing Live conference in North Carolina. (Fortunately, the area around the conference hotel was not damaged by the recent hurricane. Some of the local businesses we…

  • A Blog on Fog

    Yesterday morning, I went for a walk in the fog. While the San Diego County coastal region often gets a “marine layer” of low morning clouds, a heavy ground fog is not as common. As I often do while I am walking, I thought about writing. With all those heavy…

  • We’re Keeping the Ruff Part

    In our upcoming book, John and I will do something different from our previous novels. We’re writing under a pen name. Why switch to a pen name after four years of publishing fantasy novels? We’re doing it to avoid confusion. Up until now, our novels have fit mostly into either…

  • Fiction Writing as a Group Activity

    Some solo activities lend themselves well to working around others. Quilting, for example, is always more fun when done in a room with other quilters. Even when each participant is working on a separate project, being in the same place as people engaging in similar tasks provides a spirit of…

  • Opening the Doorway to Magic

    With the publication of The Grand Door, the third and final book of our Doorway to Magic trilogy, coming up on March 16, this seems like a fine time to reminisce a little about the twisted path we took to get there. It all started in a Fuddrucker’s restaurant. Back…

  • Writing in the Rain

    Writing in the Rain. It sounds like song lyrics: “I’m writing in the rain. Just writing in the rain. What a glorious feeling…” In truth, I am not actually writing this blog post in the rain. Which is to say, I’m inside my house and my computer is not getting…

  • Welcome to Travels, Walks, and Tales

    What’s more difficult than hiking up a mountain? Trying to find a good title for a literary work that hasn’t been used before. I’ve done both. I find the former much easier and more satisfying. When I published my first author blog post back on May 1, 2020, I had…

  • A 50-Year Dream Fulfilled

    When I was young, there was an adventurer/archaeologist whose stories of daring and discovery captured my imagination. I watched him on the big screen and read about him in books. And, in case you are wondering, his name was not Indiana Jones. Yes, I think Dr. Jones is great. But…

  • And…It’s Done!

    The first draft of the 3rd book in The Doorway to Magic trilogy is finally complete. At the moment, it is about 106,000 words long, but that is likely to change in the second draft. As I finished the manuscript, I was reminded, once again, of the importance of having…