Ruffin Hits the Book-Signing Circuit

This month author Paul Ruffin is signing his two newest books at Barnes and Noble and Hastings bookstores in Huntsville, Conroe, The Woodlands, Houston and San Antonio.

In addition to teaching and writing, Ruffin directs the Texas Review Press at Sam Houston State University.

"Castle in the Gloom," Ruffin's newest novel, was published in 2004, while "Here's to Noah, Bless His Ark," is his most recent creation- a collection of columns which is the result of many years of accumulated wisdom, fun and humor.

"I have published two novels, two short stories and five books of poetry. I just had all these column pieces and essays I never put together in book form. I had hundreds of those. I've been writing a column for 15 years, so I just put together a collection. It's a mixture. Mostly humorous pieces, some nostalgia," said Ruffin.

A private press in Houston published the book. "The editor had been after me for years to give her a manuscript, and she liked it," said Ruffin.

"['Noah' was] one of the pieces I wrote when I found myself in sort of a slack spell. When I can't find anything new or funny, I get a 'Weekly World News.'   I got a copy and I was flipping through it and there's this shot of a Mars Rover, and there's an ark.

"And the theory is that Noah and his family once lived on Mars and there came a great flood and when the water receded, the surface of the planet was so badly ravaged that Noah and the family decided they couldn't make a go of it on the Red Planet, and they see this blue ball and decide to go there. So, quite extraordinarily for the times, they built a space ship and came to Earth, where they started over. And I just loved that."

Ruffin attended church as a boy, listening to two-hour sermons. "I would get bored and rewrite the bible stories, and I always loved the Noah story. What bothered me was, what about all the other people? How come just Noah and his family got to go? And I wrote scenes like from the Titanic, where people are swimming around trying to get on, and Noah is beating them back. And stories about the animals fighting on the ark. Rewriting Bible stories was where I first learned to write fiction."

"Castle in the Gloom" is the result of a character's irresistible pull on his own creator.

"It's a novel based on a short story called 'The Beast Within.' The book was 'The Man Who Would Be God.' For some reason, every woman who ever talked to me about that book, her favorite story was always 'The Beast Within.'

"It's a story of this couple from Shreveport going to Houston. I got to wondering, 'Why do they like this story so much?' I got really re-interested in those characters and I started writing. I just really fell crazy in love with those characters and I couldn't let them go."

The couple get a flat tire during their road trip and end up near Lufkin, held hostage and locked in a storeroom by a crazy old woman.

"They find a case of Old Crow- those little half pints- and get outrageously drunk and start playing games. They rummage around and find the old woman's wedding stuff and they find this garter. I just really had a great time writing about that. It re-cements their relationship. It's one of those happy ending books."

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SHSU Media Contact: Kelly Jakubowski
Nov. 7, 2005
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