We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ruth Douthitt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ruth below.

Alright, Ruth thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you have a hero? What have you learned from them?

When I was ten years old, my mother brought home a book by an artist named Joni. I didn’t think much about it, but on the cover was a young woman drawing something with a pen in her mouth. My mom knew I was an artist and loved to draw horses, so it made sense that she would bring home this book for me. When I flipped through the book, I saw these wonderful sketches of horses. Intrigued, I read the book and discovered my hero: Joni Eareckson Tada. In a wheelchair as a quadriplegic since a teenager, Joni didn’t settle for being disabled. Since she lost the use of her hands, Joni taught herself how to draw and paint with her mouth. Amazing.

Her story inspired me to become an artist, author, marathoner, and more. Whenever I feel like a failure and I just can’t go on, I remember Joni. Not only is she an accomplished artist, but she also sings and writes books. She uses her talents to raise money to provide wheelchairs for the underprivileged all over the world. Her art, music, and books have raised millions of dollars. And all this from a wheelchair. So how can I feel useless when I have the use of my hands, arms, and legs? She encourages me to never give up. I keep drawing, writing, running no matter what.

Joni has been in that wheelchair as long as I have been alive. She has battled cancer, loss of loved ones, and other setbacks, yet she keeps going. She is my hero.

Ruth, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have been an artist since a young age, but at age 41, I decided to be an author in 2008. I took a writing course and learned how to outline a book. My first book, The Dragon Forest, released in 2011 and I haven’t looked back since. I love creating art and writing, so I combined my two passions and illustrated my Dragon Forest spin-off series, The Elves of Vulgaard and also created two fantasy art coloring books. The third coloring book releases this fall. But I didn’t stop there! I wrote a spooky ghost story called The Children Under the Ice that went on to be book one in an award-winning series. After that, I wrote The Road to Home about a young girl coping with grief with the help of an abandoned dog. That book won the Christian Indie Award for first place in YA. In addition to writing for kids and teens, I have my women’s adventure fiction books set in Italy: The Doors of Rome and The Windows of Venice.

To help build my social media platform, I host a podcast about writing called “A Writer’s Day” where I chat with best-selling authors about their books, their writing journeys, and their processes. This podcast is for anyone interested in books, the writing craft, and what it takes to get published.

I’m most proud of the various obstacles I’ve overcome to be an award-winning indie author. It isn’t easy to write and publish your own books, but I also have to market them and my brand as an author/artist. The self-publishing platform has changed through the years, and I had to teach myself how to use it. Luckily, it’s much easier now. Because I create my own book covers, I had to learn how to use Photoshop and Illustrator on my own. But I did it and readers love my book covers. Finally, my website, podcast, and newsletter were unknown territories for me, but through webinars, workshops, and networking, these all came together rather successfully.

So learning new things is what challenges us and makes us grow. If someone out there needs to learn a new skill, there are so many resources available today that weren’t available when I was just getting started back in 2012. Tap into those resources and overcome those challenges. If I can do it, so can you.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

What helped me build my reputation in the market was building trust with readers. Authors and artists have to build trust and that happens by putting out into the market a quality product. It’s tempting to put out “junk or fluff fiction” (as I call it) monthly just to gain readers, but they’ll start to see the low quality of books and stories you’re providing. Relying heavily on tropes and formulas to write a book only lasts for so long. You’ll begin to lose the trust of your readers. It’s the same with coloring books. Coloring books can be created easily with applications like Canva, but it takes talent and effort to create the drawings, edit them in Photoshop, convert them into vector images in Illustrator, and then bring it all together into a book that readers will enjoy.

My reputation has been built on putting out good stories that resonate with readers. They recognize the themes in my stories and how I take into consideration what I want readers to take away from my books. I want to entertain, this is true, but I also want to inspire, comfort, and provide hope for my readers.

I follow other artists on social media to keep learning new techniques and challenge myself. I know there are many artists out there much better than I am, so I work at improving my skills to keep building my brand.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is how my books and art make people smile and how they inspire others to challenge themselves.

Authors and artists would love to make it big and be the next BEST-SELLING author or artist in the market, and that’s true for me, too. But when I see a little kid on social media coloring in my coloring book or I receive a 5-star review for one of my books, my whole year is made! And then when I’m contacted by a teen who read my book and is asking how they can write a book and get it published, that means the world to me.

When the products I put into the market motivate others to create, then it’s worth all the hard work involved in producing my books and art.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.artbyruth.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_ra_douthitt/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063202599768
• Other: A Writer’s Day Podcast
  https://www.buzzsprout.com/432652

Image Credits

2023 Tom Becker Photography