Colcord author publishes ‘Ruby Among Us’
Posted on Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Tina Ann Forkner may be a distinguished author within the national publishing community but in these parts, at least according to her, she's still little Lisa Gray.
She's still the quick-to-smile daughter of Dennis and Barbara Gray, still a former Miss Colcord, still Sherry Gray's sister. She can vividly remember high-kicking on the sidelines as a Colcord Hornet cheerleader at football games.
"I think that my story is kind of a Cinderella story," Forkner said. "I feel very blessed and never want to lose the passion of writing that keeps it pure."
In May, WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House, Inc., published Forkner's debut novel, Ruby Among Us.
"It's amazing to walk into a bookstore and see your book," Forkner said. "It's very exciting and kind of like a dream - a writer's version of Star Search."
The 336-page fictional novel highlights a multi-generational cast of dynamic female characters. With a sense of grace noted by critics across the country, Forkner dips into the women's personal triumphs and characterchanging life struggles.
"This book is absolutely amazing ! In this her debut novel author Tina Ann Forkner has done an outstanding job of capturing the very essence of her characters … She writes as one who is well established and this is only the beginning," said Cheri Clay, a reviewer for Midwest Book Review.
While growing up and attending school in Colcord, Okla., Forkner was an attentive student who could be found endlessly poised over a spiral notebook with a pen. As a preteen, amid cheerleading escapades and slumber party gossip, her proud best friend would read aloud poetry that Forkner had ghost written to classmates.
"It was this teenage angst poetry that no one ever believed I wrote," Forkner said with a chuckle. "My friend would read this love poetry and then tell them that I wrote it and they'd say, ' Tina ? No way - Tina doesn't even have a boyfriend."
Forkner's meager beginnings as a young novice poet with larger-than-life aspirations eventually lead her to a future as a writer.
Following a three year stint living overseas in England, Forkner eventually relocated to California where she earned a degree in English with a focus on literature and writing.
"People wondered what I would do with such a degree," Forkner said. "But I just knew that I didn't want to waste my time getting a degree in something I didn't want to do."
After years of travel, work and sporadic writing, Forkner settled in Cheyenne, Wyoming with her husband, daughter and two stepsons.
She currently serves on the Laramie County Library Foundation Board of Directors.
"I started writing Ruby Among Us in late 2004, and it took me about nine months to write once I actually got into it," Forkner said. "I wrote early in the mornings before my family got up."
Much of Forkner's inspiration sprouted from wanting to prove to herself and her family that she was, indeed, a bonafide writer, she said.
"I had been so busy as a single mom, worrying about my daughter and trying to make things good for her," Forkner said. "It just kind of got pushed aside."
Attempting to raise a child, work as an executive assistant at a technology company and maintain a sane, balanced life, disallowed extra time for a then single Forkner to concentrate on writing.
After marrying her second husband, Albert, tension eased and focus and determination appeared on the horizon, Forkner said.
"He is very left-brained and I thought that he was completely crazy when he suggested that I get up at 5 a.m. to write," Forkner said. "I wanted to prove to him that I was a writer so that's exactly what I did."
While the story is not based on Forkner's life, several characters from Ruby Among Us carry traces of traits true to people important to the author. The characters' personality qualities, unbreakable familial connection and profound female influence, of the story have been present in Forkner's life for as long as she can remember. It was actually Forkner's sister, now Sherry Kaufman, who slipped the Ruby Among Us manuscript on a agent's desk for critique.
In a forgivable anger reserved solely for siblings, Forkner was angry at her sister for what she had considered an intrusion.
"You can definitely say that the whole mother-daughter connection in the story was inspired by the women in my life," Forkner said. "There are so many wise, brave women in my family who are all so meaningful to me - there is no way to ever cut those ties."
For additional information about Ruby Among Us, Forkner's writing blog and updated information, visit her personal Web site at www. tinaannforkner. com.
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