Born of Fire – Book Excerpt

Hello friend! Today I am chatting with author, Ruby Carter about her Fantasy novel, Born of Fire. It’s the first book of her Myths and Whispers series. This one is on my TBR and look forward to writing about it in the future. Let’s welcome Ruby and learn more about the book. You will also find a book excerpt after the interview. 🙂

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Get to know the author: Ruby Carter

Welcome back to Armed with A Book, Ruby! Tell me and my readers a bit about yourself!

Hi, I’m Ruby and I love the written word. It’s a huge part of who I am and how I understand myself and others. Growing up I found myself escaping into the pages of books rather than living within my own reality. Novels became the salve for my soul, and authors were the healers, giving me strength to carry on. I discovered parallels within our world and the sci-fi/fantasy I heaved myself into. Between thousands of paperback covers, I discovered a universal truth. Anyone could be the hero of someone’s story, especially their own. Reading turned to writing as I struggled to voice the thoughts and emotions I waded through, breeding within me a passion that never subsided. Now I want to give to others the peace that was gifted to me, books that showcase the conundrum of the human spirit. How we as people are a fascinating mix of champion and adversary, hate and love, justice and cruelty. There’s beauty in realizing that even people who seem unattainably benevolent struggle with doubts, worry, and self-condemnation. We are the light and the darkness, writing is an amazing medium to feel it all out in. 

When I’m not feeling existential in words, you’ll find me with my family playing video games, singing off-key, planting in my garden, or working on the grouping of my archery in target practice. I am obsessed with dragons and pretty much all mythology. As the world deals with so many horrible things, I still find myself believing that people are generally good entities doing what they believe is best for those around them, it’s a driving force for me and I want to put that energy into the world.

What inspired you to write this book?

Weird answer, but it was a mix of the tile in my shower and my husband. The tile is kind of like an inkblot that changes the longer you stare at it. One day it went from the outline of a person to a dragon flying. It inspired a daydream about being able to change into a dragon and how amazing that would be. My husband is one of those people who wants to help everyone he comes across, and actively works to do it. I’ve seen him protect those who couldn’t protect themselves and support people when they needed it most. I’d written long pieces about how that type of energy in the world should be sought after and nurtured. The ideas collided and the Myths were born.

How long did it take you to write this book, from the first idea to the last edit?

About two years. The writing itself was fairly fast, maybe two months total, but life is messy and I had to stop writing to deal with it for a long time. When I finally got back to a schedule where I could actively write, rejoining the people of Mythaven felt like coming home.

What makes your story unique?

A huge part of the premise of the book is the stark contrast of the darkness and light within all people. In a world where everything seems very cut and dry, we wade through the murky middle with our protagonists, because no one is solely good or bad, we’re a mix and so are the Myths.

In the long run of the series a unique factor I love is that each book switches main characters. In book one we follow Jax, so we see the world through his eyes, what he thinks and feels, how he processes everything around him. In each book following we follow other characters from Mythaven as the story progresses toward its climax. I like getting to see each of the characters through multiple eyes, we get such a fun view of how everyone sees things and the differences in them.

Who would enjoy reading your book?

I’d like to think anyone would, but realistically, fantasy readers, dragon lovers, mythology fans, and people who devour progression fantasy are the ones I think will be most drawn to it.

What’s something you hope readers would take away from it?

A sense that family isn’t solely who you’re born to, it’s something that builds and grows with you. It’s the people who you chose to love, and who choose you back, and that those people, your people, will love and understand your strength even when you can’t see it. 

Do you have a favourite quote or scene in the book that you find yourself going back to?

Jax’s nightmare scene is probably at the top of the list for me. 

What is something you have learned on your debut author journey so far?

To listen to the people that have done this before. The amount of resources out there for writers to hone their craft and get a leg up is monumental. Taking advice from the people who know the industry inside and out will help you in ways you don’t even think to imagine. 

What’s the best piece of advice you have received?

Hire an editor and cover designer. Moreover, search for the ones that fit your style and your work. When you get the right people on your team everything lines up and what your left with is something amazing.

If you could give a shout out to someone(s) who has helped in your writer journey, please feel free to mention them below!

Oof, that’s a hard one because I’m so thankful to so many people. My beta readers were amazing and insightful. My editor, Augustin Kendall, not only edited my work in the most perfect way but helped me to better understand my shortcomings and the industry itself. My cover artist, Jeff Brown, brought Jax to life and paved the way for others to see him as I did. And far from last, my family. My husband and children have been my biggest supporters and cheerleaders in this process. They all took on every hardship and success as their own, laughing and crying with me as we figured everything out. Special shout out to my dragon, who read and re-read every updated version, pointing out little things like missing chapter breaks, she’s such an incredible person.

You mentioned this is the first book of a series. How many books are there? Do you have ideas for another series or story?

This will be a long series. I don’t have an exact book count, because the story is still evolving and so many characters are tackling so many avenues of what needs to be done to save the world. I have too many ideas for other stories and series. Only one of which is a sure thing, which is a collab I am beyond excited about. 

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Book Excerpt from
Born of Fire

“Hee-hee-hee, slow down, bunny wabbit.” The sound of a little girl’s voice stopped him cold. He strained his ears, trying to pick up where the voice had come from. 

“Hey! Stop that!” There she was again.

The sound was coming from directly ahead of him. She must have followed an animal out here. He was facing a grouping of waist-high, barely alive bushes. She’s probably behind them.

As Jax walked around the shrub, he saw her. The girl with braided pigtails and a dainty watermelon pattern dress. Hunched over something and completely involved in whatever it was, she didn’t even notice Jax. Relief flooded through Jax to find her here and unharmed.

“Tasha? Sweetheart, is your name Tasha?” The girl whipped around in a swirl of her black-spotted pink skirt with a bemused look on her face. Jax still couldn’t see what had held her attention the moment before. She stood in a way that suggested she didn’t want him to see what was behind her.

“How d’ya know my name?” Her sweet voice was tiny and fragile. Brown eyes, wide with curiosity, fixed momentarily on Jax before shifting back behind. Her curiosity wasn’t for Jax but for whatever she was hiding.

“I heard your parents looking for you in the park. They sound awfully worried, Tasha. I think you should run on back to them.” Jax stood still. He didn’t want to scare the little one, who already seemed halfway spooked.

“I don’t want to go. Wabbit said stay fowevew.” This time her voice wavered slightly like something lingered in her young mind. With her last words, Tasha stepped to the side so that she could show Jax her “wabbit.” 

It looked like a rabbit, but wrong, shrouded in black mist that seemed to emit from the creature itself. Where a normal rabbit would have tiny paws, this one had huge, dingy maroon claws that jutted out in a way that looked painful and impossible. Its pelt looked closer to a half-bald rat than a bunny. The hair was thin and sparse on its gray skin. Its ears appeared broken in different directions, making them resemble flaccid, fleshy lightning bolts. The worst part was its face—no cute nose or whiskers to be found on this crooked thing. A mouth overfull of jagged teeth, with no lips or discernable nose. Pitch-black eyes, in burned-out sockets with tiny pupils of the same muddy red color as its claws, darted from Jax to Tasha and back again.

“RUN, Tasha!” In one fluid motion, Jax lifted the stunned girl in the air, placed her on the other side of the shrub that had kept her from his view earlier, and kicked the thing she had been calling her wabbit with every ounce of strength he could muster. He heard it thump against a nearby tree while he shouted.

“Go, Tasha! Run straight to your parents. That’s not a rabbit. Go NOW.” At the fear and command in his voice, Tasha squealed and ran as fast as her tiny legs could carry her. His throat tight with panic, Jax spun to face the thing Tasha had been calling a rabbit. Why would she follow something that looked like that out here?

It was gone. The tree it had struck sported a puddle of black goo on the trunk. Did it explode when I kicked it? Staring at the abhorrent mess, Jax knew in his bones this was the evil putting him on edge. Is it an alien? Nothing on Earth looked like the thing he saw splattered across the tree trunk. 

The blackness on the tree began to boil. Not a regular boil, with bubbles bursting on the surface of the liquid. A sinister movement that was more reminiscent of frogs frantically trying to escape from beneath a heavy trash bag without success. It was growing. He could see the outline of the puddle expanding in every direction.

Repulsed but also curious and eager to get rid of this bizarre thing before it could find the little girl again, Jax bent over to get a closer look. It was even stranger up close. It almost had a voice, but without sound. Like it was calling him to touch it. Every impulse in his body told him this thing was wrong, but his curiosity pushed him to go farther, to feel it. 

Tentatively he reached out. Caution was still nagging at him, so he moved slowly, trying to be as gentle as possible. With his finger millimeters shy of touching the surface, he stopped. 

“Don’t touch it, dumbass.” A woman’s voice rang out. 

Too late.

In a bolt of black lightning, the goo stretched out and stuck to Jax’s fingertips. Jax pulled his arm away, trying to shake it off. The blackness stretched away from the tree. It grew longer the farther back he stumbled, until it released its hold on the wood altogether and snapped onto Jax’s hand, like a rubber band that had been released.

Jax shook his hand over and over, trying to rid himself of the blackness to no avail. He watched as it climbed up his hand to his wrist. He became more violent and desperate in his actions. It continued its climb from his wrist to his forearm. Jax felt something underneath the rising ilk. 

Pain. Sharp stabs coming and going like the roll of a tide, graduating into an agony he couldn’t comprehend. It felt as if life was being leached from him everywhere it touched, bled out after it flayed him. 

In his torment, Jax could feel his emotions getting away from him. Pain. Panic. After all he had survived in this life, he was going to die, here and now. Killed by a faceless black entity that had no right to exist. 

Anger. PAIN. Panic. Fury. Then a new sensation. Heat. It traveled from his neck down into his biceps, rolling like spilled honey over his body. With the warmth came a sense of calm. 

He looked down to find yellow flames engulfing his chest and upper arms, moving down toward his elbow where the blackness had crept to. As the flames reached the invading substance, three things happened. 

First, the flames shifted from bright yellow to brilliant gold, silver, and white-blue, looking like someone had painted them with metallic paint while his whole body was engulfed in the divine blaze. 

Second, the fire consumed the dark thing. Small bits of black shadow tried fruitlessly to escape. With a final bloodcurdling soundless-shriek that brought thoughts of hate, greed, and murder to mind, the darkness shattered into pieces and floated away like dandelion wishes into the sky. 

Third, Jax felt deep exhaustion, as though he had pulled out his soul and wielded it like a weapon in a long-fought battle. From this weariness coupled with the shock of seeing his body fully ablaze, Jax passed out.

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Interested?

Find this book on Amazon and Goodreads.

Thank you for hanging out with us today. Connect with Ruby on Facebook. You can also check out her website and learn more about her work on Goodreads and Amazon.

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Cover Photo on Unsplash