12 Flavours of... Author Ruth Madison

Today, we learn twelve very fast favourites of Ruth Madison, author of (W)hole and Dev Dreams, romances with "imperfect" heroes.

1. Favourite book - Treasure Island. I read this book when I was eight years old and I fell in love with Long John Silver. I loved the complexity of the characters, and him in particular because he couldn't be easily classified as bad or good.
2. Favourite genre - Literary and Chick Lit. When I'm looking for something to read I either go for dark, serious, and intense or else really light and funny. It all depends on my mood.
3. Favourite movie - Born on the Fourth of July. I saw this movie when I was twelve and it affected my world view significantly. It was my first taste of disability rights issues and that's something that has become a huge part of my life.
4. Favourite TV show, magazine or newspaper - Dr. Who is my favorite current TV show. I'm also a huge Firefly fan. I love quirky characters and dry humor.
5. Favourite kind of music - Musicals like Wicked, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserables. I have a particular soft spot in my heart for Man of la Mancha; seeing the world not as it is, but as it should be is a big theme with me.
6. Best invention ever in the history of humankind - Language. I am endlessly fascinated by languages and I wish I could learn all of them. Currently I am only fluent in English, but I can speak a little bit of Hindi. I really want to learn Irish Gaelic, German, Russian, Dutch. I could go on and on!
7. Favourite subject in school - English. That's probably predictable!
8. Favourite website/blog - Oh this is a tricky one, there are lots of sites I enjoy! Website: www.paradevo.net I spend a lot of my time there and I've made great friends. Blog: www.rachellegardner.com She is an agent writing posts about questions that writers often have
9. Favourite #hashtag - #novelines - I love reading those enticing little sentences from people's books or books that people enjoy.
10. Favourite way to decompress/relax - Watch something funny on TV with my dog laying on my stomach.
11. Best thing about writing - Connecting with people. I wrote something very personal and very difficult, but it has connected me with people like me from around the world who have expressed gratitude that I was willing to put our experience into words. That feels amazing.
12. The best thing about/in your life - I am so grateful to live in this era where there is so much freedom to choose what we want in our lives. I also think there has never been a better time to be an author. As a woman I don't think there has been any other time in history where I would have the freedom to live on my own and pursue my dreams.

There isn’t enough fiction out there with characters who have disabilities. Ruth Madison aims to fix that. After years of combing through the dusty back shelves of libraries looking for her elusive, imperfect hero, she started writing her own. Ruth’s romantic tales are full of wounded heroes: men physically challenged by life, but not defeated. These men overcome the difficulties of amputation, paralysis, or cerebral palsy to find acceptance, happiness, and heroines who love them exactly as they are.