Happy Friday! Today I am featuring historical romance writer, Ruth Trippy. I love that Trippy set her novel, Butte Montana, in the real life 1890s boom town. This is a book that promises to capture the place and time well. I love that the author includes historic photographs of the town — it helps to make the story come alive in a reader’s imagination.
Here’s the first line:
Maximilian made himself comfortable in the velvet cushioned armchair.
ROMANCE IN FLAMBOYANT BUTTE, MONTANA
Maximilian Strang lost his wife in the horrendous Kenyon-Connell warehouse explosion and now seeks to numb his sorrow in the comforts of the elegant, but notorious Dumas Hotel. Giselle, one of its most beautiful and alluring “ladies of the night,” has him contemplating marriage.
As owner of a Butte copper mine, Max learns of the tragic death of a young employee, and to stifle his finer feelings, tries to deaden them in the questionable entertainment in the Theatre Comique. Hidden behind a screen in its upstairs balcony, he witnesses a fresh new act: a ballerina, Anna, who artfully expresses life and loveliness. Though she cannot see him, at the end of her dance, she instinctively reaches her arms in his direction, drawing him warmly toward herself.
Lively and paradoxical, Butte is a city that provides work in its copper mines for some 50 nationalities and is called “the richest hill on earth.” With plenty of money to throw around, its inhabitants have no lack of choice between virtue and wantonness. In this city with so many carnal delights, how will Maximilian choose to live his life?
Ruth Trippy was born in western Michigan to a Dutch family with values similar to the Victorian era she loves. She left home to teach high school language arts in Florida, focusing on American and British literature, and also pursued her interest in apologetics. In addition, she worked as Public Service Director for a radio station in Ft. Lauderdale.
Her writing originated from experiences in her marriage. Her husband was a tough, adventurous Louis L’Amour type individual and needing encouragement in the relationship, she found it in the pages of a 19th century romance novel. Identifying with the characters helped her focus on the roses rather than the thorns in her marriage and inspired her to pick up her pen to help others. Romance fiction, she believes, can bring both encouragement and, just as importantly, be a metaphor for the love between Christ and His bride the church.
Ruth and her husband live near Atlanta and have two grown children.
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