"When my first historical came out, someone asked me how I researched it," Scofield says. "And I had to laugh. Some of what I wrote wasn't research at all; they were memories. I remember the warm taste of milk right from the cow, the heat radiating from a wood stove, or the awful smell of wet chicken feathers."

 After that first year of school, the family moved to the city where Ruth finished her basic education. As was common in those days, Ruth married her husband, Charles, right out of high school, had two children, and followed her IBM husband around the country for thirty years. While living in New York, Ruth took some college courses in English and History, and worked for a weekly newspaper for one year. She wrote social news and features there.

 Among the places Ruth and Charles have lived are Chicago, the suburbs just west of New York City, and on the outer edge of Washington, D. C. In 1993, Ruth and Charles returned to the midwest. Together they love to travel and study history, and have seen most of the United States, England, some of Scotland and Wales, and visited Paris and the Normandy beaches. They've felt the lava heat of Hawaii's live volcano and stood on the ancient ice of Alaska's glaciers. Ruth has a passion for the Santa Fe Trail history and has visited most of it.

Ruth is active in her local RWA chapter, Heartland Romance Authors, and holds a membership in Romance Writers of America, Faith, Hope, and Love, an outreach chapter, Heartland Writers Guild, Novelists, Inc, and The Authors Guild.

SWEET AMITY'S FIRE, released in 1993, placed in the RITA finals "Best First Book" category. 

TAMING MARIAH won a Silver Certificate from RomCom in 1994 

YOUNG MAN'S DARLING and A SLENDER THREAD won a Spirit of Romance Award from RomCom in 1995 for Best Americana. 

IN GOD'S OWN TIME, Ruth's first inspirational, won the 1999 HOLT Medallion award for Short Inspirational.

 Well, folks, this is a long story. But I have to tell it long for you to understand the punch line. Now, I'm old enough to remember how life was one year when we lived on a farm without modern conveniences. It was at the start of WWII when many states still had out-of-the-way pockets of back country. The two-room schoolhouse where I began my formal education had no kindergarten, and I received no preparation for school at all, anywhere else, either. So when I began first grade I hadn't a clue of what the alphabet was, or even how to count. I was taught how to write my name in cursive but never taught to print. I was expected to begin addition and subtraction without knowing numbers. Add to that mix is, what we now have come to understand about learning disabilities. I'm borderline dyslexic.

 Jump ahead to seventh grade. School was a struggle. I seldom read for fun. "Let's pretend" was a big part of my vocabulary, but reading for sheer pleasure hadn't yet entered my life. Movies, though, were every Friday night's treat.

 Then one day between Christmas and New Year's in my seventh grade year, our house caught fire. I'm the second of four siblings; we shared one bedroom. But on the morning of the fire, I was whiling away the time in my mother's bed because I had the flu. Now remember, television wasn't even known to most of us yet in those late 40's, and we had very few books in the house. All the other kids were otherwise occupied. I was bored. Until I saw smoke rising from between the floorboards.

 After that it was a scramble to get out of the house. I ran out the back door in only my nightie, barefoot through ankle deep, ice encrusted snow. I still remember what that felt like, how frightened I was, and the moments of panic before knowing the rest of the family was safe. They, you see, had all run out the front door.

 Then for a month the family led separate lives, split up between relatives and friends. My older sister and I lived with a family who had a very big house. They had a *whole set* of Zane Grey novels. Boy, was I impressed. I was introduced to reading for the sheer joy of reading. I discovered a whole new world. And from that day on, I wanted to write my own stories.

 It took me a long time to arrive at this place. But I love doing what I do. I'm a storyteller, an age-old profession, and well honored. Thank you for asking.

1. Romance novels are often the best in women’s fiction; it teaches women about themselves.  Romance novels speak to a woman’s heart. 

2. Women still want heros in their lives, and each of these novels has one.  In the growth and change of each romantic heroine and hero, a reader can and often does define what kind of mate will suit themselves. 

3. They help women define what real love is. 

4. They illustrate and validate women’s intelligence and emotions. 

5. They promote strong women, women who are not afraid of life, women of courage. 

6. Women often see themselves reflected in romance novels in ways they would like to be. They encourage and challenge women to reach for their own dreams. 

7. They encourage and empower women to think for themselves and take charge of their lives.  To spread their wings. 

8. They take a reader out of the mundane of daily life. They give entertainment, a mini-vacation. Often, they’re better than a tranquilizer, a movie, or a night out. 

9. Women find the laughter and tears of life in romance novels, sometimes hilarious and wild fun and adventure, impossible dreams fulfilled, and often deep comfort.  They bring hope that love can, indeed, win out over all odds.  In the case of Inspirational Romance, they also find expressions of faith in God. A real Someone besides themselves to help and heal. 

10. They encourage women to value themselves...as God does.

©1999, Ruth Scofield.
This article may not be reprinted without the author's permission.

Streisand. Pavarotti. Johnny Cash. Sting. Madonna. What do these singers have in common? Not much besides their talent; they find their audience and fans from different stages. Yet when you read those names, you instantly know who they are, don't you? 

Wynona. Randy Travis. Reba. Kenny Rogers. These singers have one more thing that further defines them. They've chosen to perform from the country music stage. When you merely hear them from a radio, you seldom fail to recognize any of these voices, either. Why? Because each singer has that identifiable something which makes him or her unique—their own God-given, evolved voice and style. 

Nora Roberts. Julie Garwood. Stephen King. Louis Lamour. Mary Higgins Clark. Michael Creighton. John Grisham. These are writers from the top of the heap. They're well read, much loved storytellers offering their own special brands of entertainment. They, too, are—themselves. 

Unique voice and style...  Beginning writers ask about it. Successful writers know what it is but often recognize it in their own work only after they've achieved it. It's something every writer, singer, artist, and any other kind of performer dreams of attaining in enough recognizable form to have strangers say "Oh, that's so-and- so...quiet, please, I want to listen. Or watch. Or read. To take it in. To be entertained, lifted out of myself, to feel and understand what they have to say." 

Style and voice. Are the terms interchangeable? How does one find them? What makes them what they are? And where does talent fit into it? What does the dictionary and thesaurus have to offer in defining those unique qualities? 

Talent is an ability, or singular aptitude for a given thing— that flair, spark of brilliance, or genius of creativity or execution. It is God's inspiration and gift. 

Voice, in the literal sense, is the faculty of utterance— to talk, or to sing, sigh, shout, whisper, etc. All of which is used to express thought, to give information, to articulate, tell, and communicate emotion, feelings, ideas. Writers hard-copy that communication. Your voice is formed out of your background: 

1. What kind of family you were born into, their thought patterns and approach to handling life, their speech patterns.
2. Where you were raised, what region of the country or earth and its accents and way of life. 
3. How much and what kind of formal education or training you received.
4. Other influences you've accepted into your life, like religion, travel, politics, or a specialized study of anything specific. 

Style, however, does have something more to it—it evolves. You can choose to change your style, and the choices are many.  You can choose:

1. the mode, tone, manner 
2. the shape, format, layout, structure 
3. the specialty classification, or genre 
4. the character or brand 
5. the method, approach, or technique 
6. the motif, amount of detail, or the theme. 

©1999, Ruth Scofield.
This article may not be reprinted without the author's permission.