Well, Hi. I’m Ruth.

There is not a lot that I have to say about myself, I’ve always felt more comfortable speaking of family or friends and lauding them and praising their achievements, so I never gave much thought about what to say on my own behalf.

What can I say? I’m a costumer. I’m a wife. I’m a mother. Does that about cover it? If you seek details, I was born in Jacksonville, Florida and grew up amid a large and loving family of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and my wonderful sister. I met my husband on New Year’s Eve at the age of twenty-four, and we married on New Year’s Eve 1995.

Since that time, we’ve moved to Orlando, Florida, worked at Universal Studios Theme Park and on independent films, and I had a son, Nicholas. I can’t say as I’ve had very many grand accomplishments in my life. That is not to say that I haven’t had fun.

But, perhaps on this website, I should say something pertinent to the stories that have floated around in my head, after all, there are other places to talk about myself, like Myspace or Facebook.

The seeds of Jorthus grew in my mind some twenty years ago while staring at a geology book in junior college. The map of the ocean floor fascinated me and the concept that the mountains under our very sea were larger than any that we see on our lands was too intriguing to resist. The idea of walking across that landscape began to reel and form in my mind until I reshaped the map into another plane. Daydreaming in school had always been a problem.

Then the characters came, peopling my infant world in order to explore and give it meaning. Many of the characters were a collaborative event as my best friend in this world, Khanada, and I would write scenes and short stories to share with each other and brainstorm. All three of the main characters were born this way and as I wrote more and more, they became flesh and blood to us, friends that we had never met in a way. That was back in junior college. Seems ages ago! Along the way, I found two sister worlds of Jorthus, Quorrelles and Gerellus, both with their own personalities and problems.

Fantasy and faerie tales touch on things that are familiar and strange, calling to something inside all of us that love them, I think. And the wonder of unlimited possibilities gave rise to the question, What if all the Tales and Monsters imagined throughout time were not only real, but also existed on a plane or place that we touch with our inner consciousness each time we pick up pencil or ink? As the old saying goes, there is nothing new under the sun. Not that a world of magic and medieval style adventure is such a profound or new idea, but it lent itself to blending the familiar with the history of Jorthus; and helped me include, or allude to, all the things that I have always loved from childhood like pixies, unicorns, and especially dragons.

But as usually happens, life got in the way of these tales ever developing into complete novels. Why did it take twenty years to write one story down? Well, that can be explained by the timeline I made just for laughs, though unfortunately its true!

As my desire to read about these characters and perhaps one day see them on a big screen kept nagging at me, I wrote more. I moved out of town, then my friend moved farther away, our brainstorm sessions ceased and it became a long distance email experience. That was how most parts of the stories became written; in order to share them with her I had to type them out. Well, then I had hundreds of disconnected scenes and chapters that were only connected in my head! So in order to stop having to preface each piece with a background for both her and my husband, who kept after me to finish the stories, I sat down and finally began to put them all in order. That was back in June of 2008. So, practically 20 years after it was conceived, Jorthus and its story arc became real and solid.

I enjoy visiting the other worlds, in my mind, whenever I have a spare moment and I hope that you will as well.

TIMELINE OF CREATION (a lot more than six days, let me tell you!)

1988—Living with my grandmother, who was rapidly growing senile, and going to a Florida junior college. Fascinated by geology and daydreamed of a world that looked like the bottom of the ocean, sans water.

1989—While writing a research paper on Celtic Mythology, found some old names for earth, and combined them to name the world I had continued to think on and put characters into…Jorthus. (The first story and main characters of it became the secondary plot for the second and third books eventually.)

1990—While writing an epic vampire novel series (also never completed) I came up with Keinigan. He stood out to me and used his name for a thief character in another plotline and he kind of escalated from there.

1993—While working on doll refurbishment, my best friend and I made up a red-haired mage named Lylith and a handsome, mysterious, elf-like guy named Darromar (later re-spelled as Dharromar). 1993-94—Through several brainstorming sessions with my best friend and my boyfriend (soon to be husband), we put these three main characters into scenarios and saw how their personalities blossomed. Then I began to write down the “hey, what if …” ideas and watched them change and develop into new possibilities and paths. This filled my free time while I cared for my grandmother with my family.

1995-96—Married and moved. Lost opportunity to create new plots and ideas as working full-time took the front seat in my life. 1997-98—Best friend moved away, working and doing independent film projects with my husband. He became a makeup artist and I made costumes…then got pregnant.

1998—Decided to compile stories while incubating…. computer crashed taking all my non-hand written notes and scenes with it to the grave!! Started over with old notes….sigh.

June 1999—Gave birth to lovely little boy, Nicholas Hays! Too tired to think straight, writing stops for a long time. For the next few years, I write new short stories and scenes to send to best friend via email. We share different creative outlets that we have been developing long distance. Not the same as sitting and talking, but it keeps me going and I try to think of new things for her to read about our favorite dark fae.

2004—Discovered I cannot retrieve my old scenes because of format. Scream in frustration. Decide to go hand written.

2005—Another hard drive crash, have to rewrite from notes and scenes in spiral notebook. Growl in frustration.

2006—Lost spiral notebook in supermarket parking lot!! Bang head on wall in temporary insanity!! Start from scratch…. From then until June 2008, the stories of Lylith, Dharromar, and Keinigan (among others living on Jorthus) were saved on various media, in several notepads and composition books, and in a general chaotic mess.

June 6, 2008—School out, Nicholas at a friend’s house, Tim at work…nothing good on TV. Sat at computer and thought, what the hell, lets get this thing together and see what we’ve got.