Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea Red Ruby Heart in a Cold Blue Sea

by Morgan Callan Rogers, Unknown Author

308 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2012

About the author

For marketing purposes, one of my publicists asked me to think about why I stand out. That's a hard question to answer during fractured times filled with bombastic narcissists shouting LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME! It's almost better to NOT stand out. So maybe the question is, what is anti-special about me? You're only cool when you don't worry about being cool. It's a Catch-22.

I've had my moments. I rode a three-speed bicycle across England during a very rainy summer. When I read Wild by Cheryl Strayed, I related to her excitement (high) versus preparedness ratio (low). I was an actress for twenty years, appearing in everything from Skin or Our Teeth by Thornton Wilder to Under Milkwood by Dylan Thomas. I have an awesome voice, discovered when I was about forty. I've held a number of jobs, from service-type positions to professional stints as a journalist and editor. I've traveled back and forth across country a number of times between South Dakota and Maine. Anything you want to ask about Routes 80/90? I have the answer.

I've spent a lot of time in my head, living in worlds parallel to this one. So, what DOES makes me special? My imagination, which I almost forsook for health insurance and mortgage payments. These things are both necessary, but neither is fodder for the soul. My imagination rescued me by speaking loud and clear to me on an ordinary afternoon several years ago. The small but intense voice in my head whispered, "Excuse me. I have something to say. You can use this gift and live as you were meant to live, or you can merely exist in a place where you've never quite fit." So, I began to honor those characters in my head. I listened to what they had to say and I brought them into being.

What makes me special? I was given the gift of creating worlds, and I am honoring the privilege of doing that. I am a lucky woman.