"I was born Jack Rourke. My father was a demon and my mother was a whore. I was a thief. I was good at it." Kit St. Denys, THE PHOENIX Lethe Press; New Edition, 2009 ISBN-10 1590210468 ISBN-13: 978-1590210468 E-Book ASIN: B001PTG3PQ

Welcome to the Ruth Sims' website!

I hope you enjoy your visit. Please take time to read the excerpts, and the comments from readers, reviewers, and other authors. I'm working on a number of things and since I work with all the speed of a glacier, my work-in-progress list hasn't changed much since the last update!

Once I figure out how it's done, there will be giveaways. And now, for the first time, you can download a free short story PDF, with more to come. This time it's TOM: or, An Improbable Tail" in which a small-town lawyer finds a beautiful, naked, strange young man in his apartment...or does he?

I also now have the services of a professional to get my newsletter mailed out. I've done the past newsletters (last one was two years ago!) myself, and since I have always operated on the principle of "Do It The Most Complicated And Difficult Way Possible" they took forever and didn't go out very often. On the site you'll find a sign-up page.

I am terrifically excited about the new edition of The Phoenix just released by Lethe Press. The new cover, as you can see, is a stunner, the video has been updated, new bookmarks bought (want one? Or a half dozen? E-mail me!) And for the first time the book is available as an E-Book. Amazon rankings last about as long as snowflakes in July, but when they're good they really pump you up - and three times in one week the Kindle version was No. 1 in the LGBT Fiction and even crossed over into mainstream historical fiction!

I love this quote from my new publisher, Steve Berman of Lethe Press. "The Phoenix is a thoroughbred."

With so many great reviews to choose from, it was difficult to pick one for the home page, but my ultimate choice was this one because the publisher quoted from it on the back cover of the book.

Review by Lee Benoit for Uniquely Pleasurable http://unique.logophilos.net/?p=480

Rich and thick in the best Victorian tradition, and cool and smooth as the best contemporary romances, The Phoenix is that rare bird: a convincing historical novel with a compelling modern sensibility. I can't recommend it highly enough.

Ruth Sims has a deft touch, conveying equally vividly her varied settings, from the stews of London and the Bowery to the grace of an English manor house and the garish opulence of New York's nouveaux riches, from theaters to surgeries to squalid flats. She avoids the common pitfall of historical novelists, that of overemphasizing details, objects, or behaviors that would seem ordinary to her characters. The result is deliciously naturalistic; we are transported into each new setting via the details that set them apart to the characters observing them. I was particularly impressed with her theater imagery. Early in the tale, we see theaters through the wide eyes of the young protagonist, Kit, then later through the skeptical lens of Nick, an upright doctor's son from the hinterland. When Kit and his actor friends take on the renovation of a New York theater later in the story, we get fresh details from a more experienced perspective. Sims brings us full circle, giving us yet another view of the theater through the jaded, predatory eyes of her villain. Each layer is delivered at precisely the right moment, drawing us readers deeply into that aspect of the story. (I also loved the characters' childlike fascination with a new-fangled "shower-bath.")

... Sims' writing chops are on finer display with the voices of her two protagonists. Kit's and Nick's voices are internally consistent, making for very strong characters. But their voices are far from stagnant; they develop, lighten and darken, age and deepen, over the course of the novel.

In a certain twisted way, Kit St. Denys is a classic Victorian hero, starting life at the very bottom of London's social hierarchy and rising by dint of fortune, effort, and guile to its very heights. He's haunted by his early life, however, which tarnishes his later triumphs and provides the fulcrum for the novel's narrative conflict. Kit's a dashing, charming rake, unabashedly sexual in an era that demanded discretion and punished transgression. He's also fiercely loyal to those who elevate him from his humble origins (including the theater itself) and generous to a fault. ... The dominant image in the novel is the phoenix, and Kit is its incarnation. The book hinges on Kit's various transformations by various forces. His fulfillment as a character comes when he makes his final transformation, all on his own and with no audience to applaud him. For all his flaws, like his literary forbears Kit's an easy character to love and root for, and Sims does him great justice.

Trailer Video:

This stunning video book trailer was created by Brenda Adcock. Author of Pipeline, Reiko's Garden, Redress of Grievances, and The Sea Hawk. Visit her at: http://www.brenda-adcock.com