Corner Cafe Talks - Ruby Dixon

Ruby, thank you for answering our questions. We appreciate this very much!

Most welcome! Thanks for letting me play along!


1. Do you have an interesting writing quirk you would like to share?

Oh gosh, I think all writers are pretty quirky. I can’t listen to music, I can’t let anyone see my screen, and I don’t put in chapters until the book’s done. Lots of quirking!


2. Do you also have a writing Kryptonite?

Scene transitions. Haaaate them. Necessary, but evil.


3. Are your characters based off real people or did they all come entirely from your imagination?

They are all purely from mah brainz. I might take a personality trait from a person or two (like Liz’s pottymouth, or Josie’s exciteability, or Ellie’s shyness) and play with it to see how it fits in the story.


4. If you could have been the author of any book ever written, which book would you choose?

Oh wow! Maybe Anne McCaffrey’s Dinosaur Planet and Dinosaur Planet Survivors just because my version would have had a lot more dinosaurs and sexin’ and less science fiction. Loooots more sexing.


5. I love your Ice Planet Barbarians from Not-Hoth series! Why did you make the setting a planet that is in never ending Winter? What inspired the idea of the "cootie"?

Thank you! I didn’t actually plan ahead about making an endless winter planet (story of my life, I’m terrible at planning ahead) and so when I started writing the book, I had them crash-land, and I wanted it to be the most desolate, shitty place you could possibly land, and so I made it an ice planet. Of course, then I stumped myself and put the book aside for about 4 years (really!) before dragging it back out again during a writing break in early 2015.

The cootie came from an old, old manuscript where the hero had a symbiont that gave him super powers. I guess I was fascinated at the thought of being physiologically changed by this critter inside of you. Of course, then I wrote it into IPB and I thought, well, people are either going to be grossed out, or they’re going to go along with it. Fast forward a few years and it seems like people are cool with it!


6. I read you publish under a pen name. Do you write a different genre under another name, and if so, would you share that name with us so we can read your 'other' books? Also, if we attended a book convention, like Romantic Times, would we find you there?

I do have a pen name. I haven’t shared it because I like how ‘free’ it makes me as Ruby. I like being that separate identity. It is definitely under another subgenre and I have been to RT in the past, yes. That’s all I shall say!


7. How did you decide what your barbarians would look like? Do your barbarians talk to you if they want their own stories?

I wanted them to look alien, but not…gross? No tentacles! So I tried to think of the usual things that might come up. Okay, so they’re from an enlightened society (space travel!) but they’re also warlike and possessive (horns! Plating!) and they need to be able to survive on an ice planet (suede skin! Cootie!) and it kind of spitballed from there.

I don’t know if they ‘talk’ to me as much as they come out of my head, fully formed, like Athena from Zeus.


8. What type of writer are you? Do you spend hours of researching and planning before beginning a book or do you just sit down and start writing? In other words are you a plotter or a pantser?

I am an unholy hybrid of both. I start knowing the first chapter or so, and then make an ugly, overly detailed list of bullet-points to hit, and then pay zero attention to them.


9. Of all the characters (across all books ) you have created, which is your favorite and why?

Nooooo I can’t pick just one. Some are easier to write about than others, though.


10. How did you get the idea to create a erotic sci-fi-romance series? Did you dream about it? Did you read something that inspired you? Or did the ideas just popped up?

I’ve wanted to for years (like, four!) and I started a book and never got back to it. I was feeling particularly fried after my latest set of New York deadlines and when I had a break, I decided to write something completely and totally different than what I normally do. So there you go.


11. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

I apparently like everyone to have babies.


12. What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I have a really, really hard time NOT writing. So when I’m on ‘vacation’ I…write. Or I read. It’s tough to switch things off when your hobby is also your job. When I’m not writing, I am probably sleeping!



13. Could you tell us a bit about Prison Planet Barbarian, your most recent book. What inspired you to write it?

I dreamed about it, actually. In my head, the heroine was severely beaten by a guard who was trying to get into her pants, and the hero (who was in lock up) just grabbed her and held her so tightly. I woke up and remembered that, and it morphed into Chloe and Jutari’s story.


14. What question do you wish that someone would ask about your books, but nobody has? Write it out here, then answer it.

What happened to the island???? Just kidding, because EVERYONE asks that! It’s coming!


15. What are your future project(s)?

More barbarians! More dragons! And probably a book about Jutari’s brother.

Thank you Gem!  That was wonderful!  

Very good interview.  Thank you to Ruby, Gem and Gabby.  

We ask good questions don't we 

Mitzie wrote:

Very good interview.  Thank you to Ruby, Gem and Gabby.  

We ask good questions don't we 

You're welcome...and yes we do.

Thank you to all were involved in this. Great job.