Ruby

Interview with Mary Summer Rain

We recently had the opportunity to discuss Ruby with Mary Summer Rain:

HR: Why have you returned to fiction after so many years of writing nonfiction? 
 
MSR:  I suppose it was in the grand scheme of things.  Remember at the end of Woodsmoke I said that we'd meet again one day?  That perhaps we'd meet while visiting some of those old familiar places—between the pages of a future novel or two?  Well, here we are again.  Though nonfiction has it's place, I think too much can seem to verge on preachiness, if you know what I mean.  I wanted to get away from that; yet because there were a couple major issues I still needed to convey, I knew those ideas could just as well be passed on through the telling of a story.  One of those major concepts has been given life through Ruby, literally.  The second concept is more difficult and will be a much more controversial novel.
 
HR: Are the characters in Ruby based on people that you know?
 
MSR: Not personally. However, they're composite personalities—meaning that I see a little of all of us in each character.  We all experience times that we're in denial or avoidance.  We all have times when we shift the focus of important issues so we don't have to face them head-on.  We all have heartaches and disappointments in the area of our love life.  And we all sometimes lose sight of (or faith in) the existence of  possibilities when our faith is most tested or needed.
 
HR: Who is the Ruby in your life?
 
MSR: Surprisingly enough, the Ruby in my life is actually Ruby!  For about the last five years the name Ruby kept coming to mind.  The name would pop into my consciousness at the oddest times.  It'd be on my mind when I woke up in the morning.  And it'd come to mind while watching the nightly news or reading the paper.  Who, I asked myself, was Ruby?   I just couldn't figure her out.  What did it all mean?  Then about three years ago, when I realized that I could no longer support myself through writing, I slid down the rabbit hole.  It was a dark time.  I was getting up there in age and things were looking mighty scary.  And without the use of antidepressants or any drugs, I was literally pulled back up into the daylight by a spectral little old lady who kept beckoning to me.  While in that black tunnel I'd look up and see a pinpoint of light at the end.  And in that light was Ruby calling to me.  "You gotta do my story!  Get off that sofa and speak for me!  C'mon!  I haven't got all day!"  Ruby brought me back to life.   But how do I tell her story when I didn't even know who she was?  Then one day while I was driving home from town and passing the brilliant autumn aspens on my road, I suddenly recalled a saying I'd written—that somebody very special could be behind the eyes of a beggarman.  WHAM!  And my whole body tingled with the sudden knowing.  Of course! That's who Ruby is!  She's a bag lady!  The idea felt so solid, I knew I'd finally gotten it right. And then I was off and running with her story.
 
HR: How has your own personal spirituality evolved since you first published Spirit Song?
 
MSR: I'm a lot more mellow, more tolerant.  As I see the growing signs of the Phoenix Days, I just take note and continue to take one hour at a time.  The panic attacks I was getting from worrying about making the monthly bills stopped, because after seeing that they somehow got taken care of at the eleventh hour, I realized faith had taken over.  I have more faith in possibilities that can't always be foreseen.  And I have a whole lot more acceptance of things I've no control over.  The faith in my beliefs has never been stronger.
 
HR: You have so many fans who look to you as a source of encouragement and empowerment.  Do you find it hard to live up to that ideal?  What are the challenges in your life?
 
MSR: I don't see it as "living up to an ideal". I see it as pulling the ideal down to where we all are while we're struggling through our daily routines.  An ideal can't be effective if it's up high somewhere, on a pedestal, or up in the air beyond our reach.  We have to incorporate those empowering concepts into the food we eat, the water we drink, the air we breath.  They have to be a part of our cellular makeup, our instinctual reactions. 
    The challenges?  I think I've experienced just about every kind of stressor one can have during a lifetime, so I'm no different than anyone else out there.  We all have to just realize that we've been blessed with undreamed-of potential and a wellspring of inner strength.  Coming to that realization changes everything.
 
HR: Do you know where you are going next?  Will you be working on another novel?
 
MSR: Like most folks, I think I know where I'm going, but sometimes life throws us curves.  Right now I'm working a job outside the home.  That's where necessity has currently led me and I've had to put my research on that other "major concept" novel aside.  You do whatever you have to do at any given time in order to meet your most pressing needs head on.  I still have a load of work to accomplish.  Wellspring Mission is somewhere in my future.  So is Magdalene Abbey and the Safehouse complex for abused women.  However, we've got to live one day at a time and deal with whatever is the best way to reach tomorrow.  I've no doubt that my projects will materialize and I accept whatever time frame destiny has in mind for them to become realities.  One day at a time.  The future will take care of itself.
 
HR: What is your relationship with No-Eyes now that the years have passed?  Is her presence still strong?
 
MSR: My relationship with No-Eyes hasn't altered over the years, though sometimes our shared times seem like several lifetimes removed from the present.  What is most evident today is what our experiences instilled in me . . . and that is belief.  There have been times when things would've been easier if I could've just denied the paranormal, the experiences in quantum realities, the starborn, and my premonitions, but I couldn't ever really do that—not when I'd seen, heard, and experienced so much of it.  Denial isn't a luxury for those who've been there.  And so my old mentor has, instead, gifted me with the quiet contentedness of gentle knowing and a mellow acceptance of it.
 
HR: Again, your fans have often longed for more of No-Eyes in your writing.  Any chance of that happening?
 
MSR: The idea isn't a stranger to me, but in order to reach her, I'd have to bring my readers along on a quantum journey.  The idea currently exists as a possibility, nothing more.  I've got that other novel to work on before anything else.
 
HR: Ruby has a powerful message.  Without giving the story away, why do you think it has resonated so strongly with the early readers?
 
MSR:  he seed of possibility will always find fertile ground in open hearts and in minds that aren't boxed in.  Ruby reaches out to all who believe in possibilities.  She's there for them.  She always was.  Truth, no matter how outlandish it may initially seem, has a way of peeling away preconceived notions and instilling an exciting and brilliant new perspective that makes our hearts quicken with hope.