Interview--RC RYAN 2

BIO: New York Times best-selling author Ruth Ryan Langan, under the pen R.C. Ryan, has written more than ninety fiction novels, both contemporary and historical in a career spanning more than twenty years. Other titles include: Montana Destiny, Montana Glory, Heart’s Delight, Paradise Falls, Ashes of Dreams, Cover Up, Wanted, Passions Law, Angel, Deception, and Nevada Nights. She resides in Farmington Hills, Michigan.

Thanks for being here again, Ruth. It’s a pleasure.


#1- Tell us a little about yourself outside of your writing career…

I love to garden. There’s nothing quite like digging in the dirt, planting tiny seedlings, and watching them grow and flower. Because I live in Michigan, with four distinct seasons, I get to watch the amazing change each year that transforms the landscape from snowy-white to spring green to lush summer to fiery autumn.

My husband and I love to travel. We’ve seen a good bit of this country, and several others, including Canada, Mexico, Jamaica, England, Ireland.

When we’re not traveling, there’s no place I’d rather be than home.

I’m a bird-watcher. I keep a pair of binoculars alongside the floor-to-ceiling windows of our home. The windows look out on a golf-course and a huge pond, and beyond that, woods. We have several bird-feeders that attract the most amazing species. Yesterday a hawk landed on the deck railing. I watched, transfixed, until he flew away. Outside my window now I’m watching two deer amble out of the woods and pause at the pond in our back yard where a flock of geese are swimming alongside a few ducks and a muskrat. Earlier today we watched a red fox trotting across the field, and looking not at all shy of being observed by humans.

And then there’s my lifelong love of reading. I always have more than a dozen books ready for those precious times when I can lose myself in a great story.

#2- After more than ninety novels, do you ever feel stuck for new ideas, plots, or characters?

Having new ideas is never a problem. Time is the problem. If I live to be a hundred, I still won’t be able to turn all my ideas into books. But I’m giving it a good run while I can.


#3- With writers encouraged to aid in marketing now, do you find the social media sites helpful?

The Internet has completely transformed marketing. I used to mail out newsletters that reached a few thousand readers. When you consider the time it took me to compose the newsletter, take it to a printer, print out mailing labels from my reader list, take them to the post office, spend enormous amounts of money and time on post office runs, stamps, etc. and then have to deal with the returns of perhaps a hundred newsletters from readers who had moved and the time had run out for the post office to forward their mail, you can imagine the toll it was taking. Now, with the stroke of a key, I can reach readers around the world. What an amazing tool.

#4- If you could meet any deceased author from the past, who would you choose and why?

Besides all the famous names such as Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Yeats and Keats and the Bronte sisters, there’s a little-known author (by today’s children) , Albert Payson Terhune, who wrote many wonderful children’s novels about animals. I couldn’t get enough of them, and to this day, love stories about animals that rise above neglect or abuse to find a life of ease and service.


#5- Assuming you get any time to read, what authors do you like to read, and were there any books that stand out from your childhood as favorites?

Oh, how funny that you ask about childhood favorites, since I spent so much time on the above question with my favorite, Albert Payson Terhune. Besides his animal books, I loved everything I could get my hands on as a child. Everything from the Nancy Drew mysteries to the classics. I loved Mother West Wind’s Children, which is fun and fanciful. And To Kill A Mockingbird. What better way to teach a life lesson than through a poignant story.

I have eclectic tastes. I love Philippa Gregory’s historicals. I read Stephen King, Dean Koontz, James Patterson, and of course, Nora Roberts and so many of my friends in the business. This year’s favorite book of mine was Kathryn Stockett’s The Help. I couldn’t put it down.


#6- Are there any upcoming releases we would like to know about, and could you give us your web site so readers can check it out?

I hope readers will visit my website: www.ryanlangan.com
I have my covers there, along with a few blurbs and teasers, and my readers can always leave me a message there on my guestbook page.

THE OTHER SIDE. The next novella from Jove, with J D Robb, Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, Mary Kay McComas and me will be released in December. My story is entitled ALMOST HEAVEN. I hope my readers will watch for it. These are stories that we consider the other side of the twilight zone. Fun, fanciful, and filled with endless possibilities.

We’ve been asked to write yet another novella for 2011, and that makes us all very happy, since we love doing these. The title of this novella is The Unquiet. The story I’m just completing for it is entitled The Unforgiven (though I may change that before it goes to my publisher.)


#7- This about concludes it. Thank you again for joining us. Is there anything else you would like to share?

I love to hear from my readers. I try to set aside time to read and respond to every note, letter, e-mail and message sent to me or left on my website. This is my connection with all the wonderful people who may have been reading my books for years, or that brand new reader who has just discovered me and wants to read more.

Thanks for giving me this forum for chatting with you. Always a pleasure.