Interview with Ruth Axtell Morren

Originally from Connecticut, but transplanted early on to Florida, Ruth Axtell Morren wrote her first story when she was 12—a spy thriller—and knew she wanted to be a writer. But it wasn’t until she surrendered her writing to the Lord that she received her first publishing contract in 2003. Along the way, she studied comparative literature at Smith College, spent her junior year in Paris, taught English in the Canary Islands and worked in international development in Miami, Florida, where she met her future husband. Since then, Ruth, her Dutch husband and their three children have divided their time between the Netherlands and the coast of Maine. Her second book, Wild Rose, was selected a 2005 “Top Ten Christian Fiction” novel by the American Library Association’s Booklist. She loves writing about both the Regency and Victorian periods in England, as well as 19th century downeast Maine.

Tell us a little about your road to publication.

It was a long road! I’d been seriously writing historical romances as a SAHM since about 1990. My second completed manuscript finaled in RWA’s Golden Heart contest in 1994, yet, despite that early encouragement, it was a long road to a contract. Around 1996, my Christian walk began to deepen and I began writing inspirational romance. However, a couple of years after that, when I felt myself growing much closer to publication (with encouraging, personalized rejections), I reached a point in my faith journey where I received a very strong directive from the Lord to put my writing on the altar, symbolically speaking. This period ended up lasting about two years, in which I did no writing. Then, I received a very strong story idea. It took me about two more years to research and write it, then polish it through contest submissions.
It was in the second contest submission that I came in 2nd place, and the final judge was a Steeple Hill judge. She asked for the complete manuscript and a few months later offered me a 3-book contract. And I’m still writing for Steeple Hill.

When you first entered the publishing world, what surprised you the most? Was there any aspect of the business that caught you off guard?

My priorities might not necessarily be my editor’s, LOL! I discovered that publication schedule of a completed, contracted book had a whole different timetable and took priority to the manuscript I might be working on at that moment.

Why historical fiction?

It’s what I most like to read—historical romance.

What are you working on now that you’d like us to know about?

I’m currently working on a new regency set series. I don’t really like to call my books ‘series’ because they are all stand-alone. Yet, many times I’ll get interested in some secondary character and want to write his or her story. My Aug. ‘08 book is a London set regency about a fugitive who has escaped the hangman’s noose and a woman who has a prison ministry. The book I’m working on now is her brother’s story. He is a curate who falls in love with a young lady who is way above him socially. This book is slated for May ’09.

Do you have a favorite historical novel?

Perhaps Jane Austen’s Persuasion.
I recently rediscovered Grace Livingston Hill and always enjoy her novels.

Is there anything or anyone that inspires your writing?

Come back tomorrow for the answer and part two of the interview with Ruth Axtell Morren. Leave a comment for a chance to win either The Rogue's Redemption, a single title regency romance, or Hearts in the Highlands, a Victorian Love Inspired Historical, one of Steeple Hill's new line. That’s right—there will be two winners this week!