Featured Artist Friday: Alicia G. Ruggieri

Happy Friday to you, dear Reader! I hope you have had a lovely week. I think I may finally be over this awful cold! Hooray!Have I told you about the group I found on facebook? It's "Clean Indie Reads" and their mission in life is to find and promote wholesome, family-friendly, independent authors! Anyway, today I would like to introduce you to fellow CIR author Alicia G. Ruggieri.Alicia is the author of The Mystery of the Missing Cufflinks, a middle-grade, Christian historical fiction novel.An eleven-year-old in Regency England, Jemima can hardly contain her excitement when she learns that Cousin Aimée is coming for an extended visit. However, Aimée turns out to be a different sort of girl than Jemima expected. Disdainful and rude but oh-so-accomplished, Aimée certainly doesn’t want Jemima to be her friend… and Jemima doesn’t want to spend any more time with Aimée than she must! To make things worse, when household items start to go missing, including Reverend Sudbury’s heirloom cufflinks, Aimée accuses the Sudburies’ faithful servant Robert of theft. Secret searches, overheard conversations, and night adventures lead to a solution to this mystery story in which Jemima learns that Jesus can give her the power to love her enemies and to do good to those who have done evil. 

• When and why did you start writing?

I don’t really think that there was ever a time when I decided to start writing… From a very young age – five or six – I loved storytelling. However, when I published my first novel last year, I realized that writing really is a calling that God has placed upon my life and that I should pursue it with gusto.

• Why did you choose to write in this genre?

I wrote The Mystery of the Missing Cufflinks to provide more high-quality, wholesome yet exciting literature for girls ages 8-12. The response to it has been so enthusiastic that I’m surely going to write more in this series, collectively called The Regency Adventures of Jemima Sudbury.

• Is anyone else in your family musical/artistic/writers? Describe your family members’ artistic interests and abilities.

My mother’s family is full of musical talent – lots and lots of lovely tenors, sopranos, piano-playing, and harmonizing going on! Both of my sisters are gifted singers. One of them also authors a devotional blog (www.readytobeoffered.com) and writes poetry, while the other one does beautiful freehand painting. So, yes, God has blessed us in this area!

• Which authors do you admire? Why?

I love, love, love George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis, in particular their fantasy works. Reading both of them causes the heart to grow in courage. 

• What inspires you to write?

I love to write about mercy given and received, of brokenness and grace. I write to entertain, but I hope and pray that my work also exhorts the reader to live a nobler life.

• What is the best part about writing?

Writing “The End!” No, seriously, probably that moment when (because I don’t follow strict outlines) I realize how the whole story is going to pan out, and where all the connections are between the characters and themes. 

• Describe your ideal place to write.

In the corner of my bedroom with the sunlight streaming in the window, cup of coffee near at hand.

• How do ideas come to you?

Usually, a character comes first. Often, I’ll think of a character because I’m reading about a historical event and I’m wondering how an individual would have acted/thought/felt at that point in time.

• Who has been the biggest influence on your writing? Why?

Most certainly, my mother. She always encouraged reading in my life, and I believe that I wouldn’t have been a writer if she had not done that. I can recall countless trips to the public library, hauling home armloads of books every few weeks!

• Where did you get the idea for your book?

My eldest sister was searching for more books for my voraciously-reading 10-year-old niece, whom she homeschools. We fell to talking about why there was so little really wholesome middle-grade literature – books without boy-crazy girls, vulgarity, or pettiness, but which were more challenging reads as well. Jemima Sudbury: The Mystery of the Missing Cufflinks arose from that conversation.

• Can you pick a favorite character from your book or series? Why is that character your favorite?

I just love Jemima! She is spunky but not rebellious; truthful but not obnoxious; and just the sort of girl I would love to have as a friend if I was her age!

• Are you working on anything new, and would you be willing to tell us about it?

Yes! I have the next book in The Regency Adventures of Jemima Sudbury coming out in the spring. I’m also working on my next historical fiction novel for young adults/adults, which should release in late winter. Annnd… I have a children’s picture book arriving on the book scene sometime in mid-winter (release date to-be-determined). So, lots of exciting things ahead!

On a lighter note (you may answer as many or as few of these as you wish):

1. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?

Chocolate peanut butter cup, with cookies-and-cream coming in a close second!

2. Favorite season? Why?

I love autumn… It’s a season of remembering, of nostalgia, of mystery, of endings and beginnings.

3. Favorite hot beverage?

Why is this even a question?! The answer is, of course, coffee! But if none is available, I’ll take peppermint tea.

6. The best pizza you’ve ever had was from….?

Twins Pizza in North Providence, RI – It’s a local pizza place that’s been around for decades. Their pizza is to-die-for good.

7. Tell us something strange, odd, weird, or random about yourself.

Most people don’t know that I did competitive Irish stepdancing for years… and no, I’m not even 1% Irish! Haha!

9. Storms: awesome or terrifying?

Awesome.

10. What is your favorite movie?

Yikes, I have so many! But three favorites are: The Lord of the Rings trilogy, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, and Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea.

Well, thank you so much for joining us for Featured Artist Fridays, Alicia! I think your books sound like a lot of fun!

If you would like to learn more about Alicia, you can visit her at her website or at her amazon author page.