Ruby’s Place Books
The Original Ruby’s Place Christmas Collection
In 2017, I wrote a short holiday story. Christmas at Ruby’s. I very briefly described Ruby’s Place, a long-closed supper club where the “spirits” were not confined to the dusty liquors behind the bar, and that wish to spend one more holiday with a long-lost loved one might not be made in vain.
That was going to be it.
Until the next year, anyway. When I started to think about writing a new holiday story, I found that all I wanted to do was go back to Ruby’s Place.
I Remember You features a second-chance love story, and centers on the grand re-opening of Ruby’s Place.
In 2019, I kept coming back to a line buried in the original Christmas at Ruby’s: one about the building having once housed a speakeasy. Sentimental Journey travels back to that time, to show how some of the Depression-era events continued to have an impact on Ruby’s Place.
In 2020, I wrote a story about Angela, the current owner of Ruby’s Place. And I was able to find an ending that allowed readers to interpret the entire series as they wished: either Ruby’s Place was quite literally a place where a person could reconnect with a loved one who had passed, or the series was actually a sweet tribute to the power of memory.
That was it. I was done. The series had wrapped.
But Ruby’s Place just would not let me go.
Ruby’s Regulars - The Spinoff Series
How could I walk away when I’d left so much story on the table? I’d written fairly extensively about Angela at this point, but what of Ruby herself?
Ruby’s Story tells the tale of how Ruby Westbrook returned to her hometown and opened the magical supper club.
Each subsequent book in the series focuses on a different regular.
Rare Gems focuses on Elizabeth, Ruby’s best friend.
Tinsel Town focuses on Walter, the banker and keeper of the town’s memories.
In A Troublesome Heart, the focus is on both Walter and also the very earliest regulars—the speakeasy patrons.