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| Father, son share their 'Dream' |
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| By Jordan Bartel, Times Staff Writer |
Thursday, December 01, 2005 |
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Nick Ruth would read to his 10-year-old son David every night.
A bit bored with the repetition, Ruth would start putting his son into the stories he would tell.
David, naturally, yearned to hear more about himself in the stories, so Ruth sat down to write about 10 pages of a story for him.
That story grew to 200 pages and developed into his first book, "The Dark Dreamweaver," published last year by Ruth's wife Sheila's publishing company, Imaginator Press.
And the main character's name? David, of course.
"I wrote it for an audience of one," said Ruth, whose full-time job is as a computer programmer with the Social Security Administration. "Now, I'm suddenly sharing this world with a lot of young readers."
"The Dark Dreamweaver" is the fantasy-adventure tale of a boy named David, who dreams of being a wizard and finds himself traveling to Remin, the land of dreams.
There, aided by an imprisoned wizard who was banished into the form of a Monarch butterfly, he must do battle with the evil sorcerer Thane.
"My son was ecstatic and he begged me for a second one," Ruth said.
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And, so there was.
"The Breezes of Inspire," book two in what is now a series dubbed "The Remin Chronicles," was published this year.
"The Dark Dreamweaver" has been successful with young readers as well as the critics. It recently won an iParenting Media Award, in the company of winners from major companies, like Hasbro and Nickelodeon. It was also a finalist for the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award.
Not bad for the first children's book published by a small, independent Baltimore company and a first-time author.
Ruth said he is at work on the third book of the series. It appears on David's Christmas list, highlighted, circled and starred.
"Most of the excitement is just writing for my son and that he's so thrilled with it," Ruth said. "It's driven him to get involved with writing his own stories."
The inspiration for the book and its characters comes from multiple sources.
The Ruths, who live in the Catonsville area, raise Monarch butterflies every year (the Monarch is the symbol of Imaginator Press) and it was during a collection of butterfly eggs that Ruth got the idea for a wizard stuck as a butterfly.
His son's Legos have also been an unexpected source of ideas.
"He builds stuff all the time and a lot of what he creates ends up in the book," said Ruth. "Once he built a three-headed figure out of the Legos and that ended up as a character."
Ruth grew up in Parkville, majoring in biology at St. Mary's College. He eventually decided to take night classes to learn about computers, later landing a job with the SSA.
Though the "Remin" books are his first foray into writing, Ruth has been a lifelong reader. He said he likes fantasy books (he's a fan of the "Harry Potter" series), but lately reads more about American history, particularly biographies or anything related to the American Gold Rush or the Civil War.
"One of the things my son didn't want the books to have were sad and violent things," Ruth said. "No unfortunate events really occur and if they do they're resolved very quickly."
Ruth said he has been thrilled with the book's reception. Parents and adults have sent e-mails or letters praising his fiction writing.
He said he gets the most enjoyment from reading e-mails sent from children his son's age, simply stating that they love his books - books that started, as Ruth said, as just a cute little story for his son.
"He's every day continuing to pester me for book three, and then book four, book 10," Ruth said. "I think I'm going to take it one book at a time."
Reach staff writer Jordan Bartel at 410-857-7862 or bartelj@lcniofmd.com
Experience the 'Dream'
For more information on Nick Ruth and "The Remin Chronicles" series, go to www.imaginatorpress.com, where the books are also available for purchase.
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