At fourteen, Kit St. Denys brought down his abusive father with a knife. At twenty-one his theatrical genius brought down the house. At thirty, his past-and his forbidden love-nearly brought down the curtain for good. This is a compelling Victorian saga of two men whose love for each other transcends time and distance-and the society that considers it an abomination. Set in the last twenty years of the 19th century, The Phoenix is a multi-layered historical novel that illuminates poverty and child abuse, theatre history in America and England, betrayal, a crisis of conscience, violence and vengeance, and the treatment of insanity at a time when such treatment was in its infant stage. Most of all it is a tale of love on many levels, from carnal to devoted friendship to sacrifice.
Ruth Sims has lived her entire life in small town Mid-America, surrounded by corn-, wheat-, and soybean fields. Like Emily Dickinson she has never seen a moor and has never seen the sea (except, unlike Dickinson, in films) but she's seen plenty of silos, Amish buggies, whitetails, and amber waves of grain. She's the wife of one and mother of two ... or vice versa. She gets a little confused by the rush of living.
Though many years past schooldays, her education is continuous and far-ranging, with interests running the gamut from Shakespeare to awful puns and limericks; from criminal psychology to the science of baking towering chocolate cakes and artisan bread. Her special love of theatre (as reader and observer only; never a performer) is apparent in The Phoenix. Originally published in 2004, The Phoenix was revised and republished by Lethe Press in 2009. There were a number of changes, so she urges potential buyers to get the 2009 version. Her passion for Classical and Romantic music comes to life in Counterpoint: Dylan's Story, published by Dreamspinner Press, July 2010.
She has always loved short stories, especially Jack London's. Though best known as a novelist, she is proud to have several short stories published, most of them by Untreed Reads as e-books. Like her interests, the stories range wide, from poignant literary works to comedy and sly mystery.
Words, imagination, books, music and writing have always been the means by which she could travel the world and slip into other lives. After retiring as a librarian, she was able to turn to full-time writing and set loose the characters who have been living in her head all this time. They are relieved. It was getting crowded in there.
