Ruby Dixon Interview - Barbarian’s Prize
Photo Content from Ruby Dixon
Ruby Dixon is an author of all things science fiction romance. She is a Sagittarius and a Reylo shipper, and loves farming sims (but not actual housework). She lives in the South with her husband and a couple of geriatric cats, and can’t think of anything else to put in her biography. Truly, she is boring.
Beyond your own work (of course), what is your all-time favorite book and why? And what is your favorite book outside of your genre?
I am really in love with R. Lee Smith’s Last Hour of Gann. That is intensely epic and takes you through the wringer. Outside of my genre, it’s hard for me because I love the concept of a lot of books more than I love the execution, if that makes sense? But one book I’ve re-read multiple times is Stephen King’s On Writing (is that a copout?).
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Oh my god these are hard questions! I think seeing my book in a store for sale next to other famous authors really solidifies the “You belong here” feeling. That might be the most rewarding!
What advice would you give to someone who wanted to have a life in writing?
Write a lot, but don’t show it to anyone until you’re ready for them to tell you all the things they don’t like about it. Everyone thinks that if it’s not completed, you want a critique and not a compliment. Sit on it.
If you could have written one book in history, what book would that be?
I mean, I guess one that sold a jillion copies? So I could buy an island. J
What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
I am really bad at turning a video game off. I am very much a ‘just one more quest’ sort of person. Lately I’m addicted to farming sims so they tend to pull me away when I need to be working!
Has reading a book ever changed your life? Which one and why, if yes?
This is probably a weird answer, but I was struggling with writing this super long fight scene I was not very interested in writing. I picked up the Kelley Armstrong book I was reading (A Women of the Otherworld book) and there was a fight that was summarized in maybe a paragraph? And the story kept going. MIND. BLOWN. I was like, oh, I don’t have to go into excessive detail about fists and punching and like, all that junk! I can get right back to the characters!
TEN RANDOM FACTS ABOUT BARBARIAN'S PRIZE
- 1) I never expected to get to Tiffany’s book when I started writing the initial series! I thought I’d get to write 3 books, max.
- 2) Tiffany is a farm girl and based off of my husband, who grew up on a ‘hobby’ farm that had 100 head of cattle.
- 3) I kept forgetting to include Chompy in scenes (or it wouldn’t be appropriate to have him around) so Farli ended up getting the pet. It’s not easy to get sexy when there’s a baby animal staring you down.
- 4) Tiffany is ‘good at everything’ and tackles all the arts and crafts with aplomb. This is wishful dreaming on my part because I love the idea of doing crafts and I am honestly dreadful with them. I cannot sew. I cannot draw. I cannot knit. I have zero eye for color. Visual art and craft things are a hill I cannot conquer.
- 5) I did not anticipate how invested people would be in Chompy. I get emails about how the barbarian tribe should domesticate a herd and then would have milk and wool. I get at least one of these emails a week.
- 6) I also did not anticipate how invested people would be in Tiffany’s crafting. I get emails about knitting and dvisti wool and how Tiffany can make them work. I also get these about once a week.
- 7) Salukh is one of my favorite heroes. I kinda mentally envision him holding up the (mental) boombox like John Cusack in Say Anything.
- 8) This is one of the last books set at the South Cave!
- 9) I kept forgetting the number of medallions in the competition. I have literally counted on my hand a dozen times how many medallions there should be and somehow the wrong number always ended up in the manuscript. Basically, math is hard.
- 10) This book started the BARBARIAN’S trend in the titles. Prior to this they were all BARBARIAN. But I wanted to use the ‘prize’ aspect of the competition, and BARBARIAN PRIZE sounded less loving and more icky to me. One specific prize that belongs to someone felt more tender…and this is how my brain works. J
I worked at a fried chicken place. I don’t like fried chicken to this day.
What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning?
Did the cat throw up?
Which would you choose, true love with a guarantee of a heart break or have never loved before?
True love, of course.
What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?
Did the cat just throw up?
What was your favorite subject when you were in school?
History. J
Most horrifying dream you have ever had?
I used to dream I was running down the stairs at my high school with a screwdriver and I would trip and it would hit me in the teeth and they would all fall out into my hand.
Any Camp stories you would like to share?
My camp counselor was convinced I streaked across the showers naked and gave her son an eyeful. It was never me, and no one would believe me. I am still angry about it. Lol.
What is one unique thing are you afraid of?
Well, I’m going to go with screwdrivers and stairs. J
What is the weirdest thing you have seen in someone else’s home?
When we were house shopping we’d see a lot of mounted animal heads. One house we entered had them covering every wall and a room full of mounted guns. We left quickly.
Tiffany doesn't care about all the attention she's getting from the alien men, but there is one particular hunter she can see herself with--if only she can find a way to move forward from the past. . . .
It's hard being the most popular girl on the ice planet. The alien men are falling all over themselves to impress me in the hopes that I'll take them to my furs. But they don't know my secrets. And they don't realize that behind my smile, I just wish they'd take their courting presents and their competitions for my affection and go away. I want to be left alone. But on a planet where women are a scarcity, that won't be happening.
If I had to choose a mate . . . it'd be someone with a gorgeous blue body, big horns, and the most intense gaze ever. Someone who knows the truth of what happened to me and why I don't like attention. Patient, handsome Salukh knows my secrets. He knows why I have nightmares and why I don't trust anyone. He's willing to let me "experiment" with him. I can use him. Take what I need from him to work through my trauma. He's been a good friend and the best shoulder to cry on.
There's one small problem.
When it comes to us, he doesn't just want to be my friend. He wants to be my forever. And day by day, he's getting harder to resist. . . .
jbnlatestinterviews