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Lois
Ruby You may contact Lois Ruby with comments or to inquire about school visits at: Lois Ruby Tel: 505-293-5478 Email: loisruby@comcast.net Visit Lois' website at: http://www.loisruby.com |
 Authors Among Us - Children's Writers Who Are or Who Have Been Librarians |
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Featured Titles by Lois
Ruby:
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Steal Away Home
Hardcover: ISBN 0-02-777883-5 Paperback: ISBN 0-689-82435-1 |
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Soon Be Free Hardcover: ISBN 0-689-83266-4 |
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Swindletop Hardcover: ISBN 1-57168-393-3 |
| Find out more about Lois Ruby's books on her website. See above. | |
| Please tell about your library work
or career.
I chose the right career for the wrong reason: I was in a hurry to get married. I really wanted to be a lawyer, but three years of law school would have been impossible since I was poised to marry a guy just starting grad school, and somebody had to have a job to keep us eating. Girls made decisions that way, back in 1965. So, with my criminology minor, I considered being a probation officer, but my husband-to-be convinced me that I was way too soft for such a career. What's an impoverished engaged English major to do? I found out I could work like a dog and get a master's degree in Library Science in a year and a summer, and that wedding would be the carrot dangling at the end of the summer. So, I did the course work at California State University/San Jose Campus, but didn't finish the thesis for another three years. (I got the M.A. in Library Science in 1968, with a baby bouncing on my knee.) Off we went to Dallas for Tom's grad school, and I applied for my first position with the Dallas Public Library. I fancied myself a children's librarian, but, as there were no openings in the Children's Department, they offered me the next best thing: Young Adult Department. That was back in the days when libraries had so much money that each Dallas branch had it's own YA specialist. I knew nothing about books for teens. However, there wasn't much to know in those days, as the YA genre was just beginning to flower. I spent two wonderful growth years in this specialty area, coming away with two facts that would shape the whole rest of my career: (1) YA books wouldn't be too hard to write; I could do it, couldn't I? and (2) I love teenagers, who are about the most interesting people I know. We moved to Columbia, Missouri, where Tom continued his studies for a Ph.D. in psychology. I went to work for the University of Missouri Library, as (believe it or not) the art and music librarian. I knew even less about those fields than I'd known about adolescent literature. Fortunately, I didn't remain in that job long enough to do lasting damage to the university collections, as I quit to have a baby and be a stay-at-home mother when two more babies followed in rapid succession. So, I'm no longer a working professional (read: paid) librarian. However, on a volunteer basis I organized a staff library at the University of Missouri hospital and three congregational libraries. Since 1973 I've been the volunteer librarian at my synagogue. I've been a member of ALA so long that they've awarded me free membership status! I keep my hand in library business by serving on the Board of Directors of the Wichita Public Library and an ALA Intellectual Freedom Committee in the Young Adult Division. It's unlikely that I'd ever work again as a librarian, as I'm woefully behind in the technological sophistication that marks the career in the 21st century. Besides, I'm having much too good a time writing to give that up and actually work for a living. Which came first, your career as a librarian or writing for children? I've probably answered this in the previous section, but let me just add that I hadn't intended to write for children. I actually think I was/am writing for and about teenagers. But two things changed all that. The first is that kids -- at least those who read -- are "older" than they were when I first started writing in the 1970s. Books I thought were clearly YA were promoted (demoted?) in the 80s as middle grades by the publishers. The other is that the market for YA fiction is much smaller and harder to crack than the market for children. So, maybe unconsciously, I've been aiming at a younger age, i.e., using younger protagonists, in the vain hope of getting more books published. And what I discovered is that it's great fun to research and write these middle grade historical novels! Still, my heart is in the hard-edged, realistic, contemporary teen stories. Did your library work directly influence your work as an author? Yes. What I responded to was a paucity of realistic, contemporary stories for teenagers that went beyond hot rods, football games, dates for the prom, and the Problem of the Week. I was so lucky to get into the field just as the YA genre was beginning to mature, and as soon as I read Robert Cormier's I Am the Cheese and The Chocolate War, I knew I'd found a home and a class of writing to which I might aspire. He's still the greatest, all these years and hundreds of authors later, and I was so saddened by his death in 2000. Did librarianship increase your knowledge of children's literature and influence the kinds of things you chose to write? Indeed it did. Prior to my Dallas Public Library days, I'd hardly read anything for children and even less for teens. I had zoomed from Little Golden Books right to adult fiction, bypassing the body of exquisite children's literature, which I discovered only by accident in college. Then, as an English literature major, I was consumed by Shakespeare and Spenser and had little time to pursue those lovely children's books until I was catapulted out of the secure world of college. As a librarian, I began devouring those books I'd missed and the burgeoning array of marvelous juvenile titles, especially since we were all encouraged to read on the job. What a way to make a living! Did incidents from your library work ever make it into your books? Did you ever set any scenes in the library? I don't think incidents from my library work actually made it into my books, but I've set several scenes in libraries, most recently at the University of Kansas Library in my book, Soon Be Free. Lots of my characters do research to solve mysteries and problems, and this clearly implies libraries. What are the greatest benefits of being a librarian to you as a writer? Knowing how to navigate through libraries, great and small, and how to get information -- this has been an invaluable benefit of my library work. Another benefit is access to children and teenagers, so I could find out who they are, what they were thinking, how they were speaking, what worried and delighted them, what they needed and wanted in books, and what the barriers were to getting those needs and desires met. Are/were there any drawbacks to being a librarian and also a writer? I'm not sure how to answer this question, as I wasn't really writing while working in libraries. The major drawback to being a librarian is really poor pay. The pay's no greater for children's writers (unless they're Judy Blume or J.K. Rowling), but the worst drawback is the frustrating struggle against all the odds to get things published. Do you feel that librarianship has or had specific benefits to you as a writer? Librarianship has had many specific benefits to me as a writer. Some I mentioned above. In addition, I feel a kinship with other librarians as I visit schools and libraries around the country. I sense that my fellow librarians are more comfortable with me, since I understand their work ethic and myriad responsibilities, than they might otherwise be with a visiting author. Here's another thought, and I'm not sure if this is a benefit or not. I have a skewed view of one aspect of my career. I care deeply about whether classrooms or libraries have copies of my books available to check out. My main concern is getting the right book into the right kid's hand, just when he's absolutely ripe for it. The obverse is not flinging a book into a kid's hand that she's not ready for. Consequently, I don't care whether schools sell my books when I visit. But let's say a school does sell my books, and a 5th grader wants to buy one of my grittier YA titles because it's the only paperback available for sale and therefore the only one he or she can afford. If I believe the book's inappropriate for a reader of that age, I'm very likely to talk that kid out of the sale. These are library ethics and are often counter-productive to book-selling priorities. Of course, don't get me wrong -- I love to sell books, too! Special Quote from Lois Ruby: With every word and thought I put to paper, I'm conscious of the enormous responsibility of writing for young people. These are the things I worry about: Did I model proper English with at least one character in my story? Did I get the facts right? Did I mislead the reader with ambiguous or erroneous messages? Will my information be outdated by the time the book is published, or years down the road if the book's still in print? Am I being presumptuous to believe I can communicate with young minds from my over-the-hill vantage point? Am I out of touch, or are there stories and values that transcend time and place and generation gaps? Despite these worries, I'm ultimately aware of the great privilege I have in doing the work I love most and seeing young people read and think robustly about my stories. Lois Ruby's Books: FICTION FOR TEENAGERS: Miriam's Well - Scholastic, 1993 & Scholastic
Paperback, 1995 FICTION FOR READERS 8-12: "L'Dor V'Dor," a story in a collection called Ghosts and
Golems, Jewish Publication Society, 2001. FICTION FOR READERS 9-14: Shanghai Shadows - Holiday House, August 2006 |
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Last Updated April 8, 2007