Today we are spotlighting amazing Action-Adventure author Ruby aka , author of "Assassin For Hire" on Wattpad's "Wanderlust" Reading List.

"The Hunted die, not the Hunter. Gavin Forrester is the hunter and she's the one he never wanted to hunt..."

Gavin Forrester is in the business of getting rid of people. Young, old, man, woman, doesn't matter as long as he gets his share when the job is completed.

Up until now, killing people was easy. He'd just line up his shot, pull the trigger and be done with it but he made a mistake on his latest job. He got attached to the target and for a guy like Gavin, that's fatal. With his boss breathing down his back and his own feelings on the line, will Gavin be able to follow through?

All it's supposed to take is a breath and a pull of the trigger but his finger is hovering a lot more than usual and he's not so sure this bullet will be worth it...

My favorite genre to read is Victorian and 19th century, like the Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. I also love character-driven stories. Some of my favorites lately have been by Sally Rooney and Taylor Jenkins Reid. I really love stories about artists and celebrities as well. I recently read Daisy Jones and the Six; it had such an interesting perspective and narrative style. In terms of writing, I enjoy realistic fiction and character-driven plots. I use writing as a form of escape, so I enjoy writing about larger-than-life situations like assassins or celebrities. I find myself writing a lot about musicians lately. In terms of age range, I tend to write for teens and young adults. I think when I began writing, I was a teen, so I wrote the kinds of stories I would want to read, and that desire has continued as I have continued to write.

I started writing this story when assassin stories were growing in popularity on Wattpad. I saw a lot of aesthetic boards about assassins and it was becoming an off-shoot of the "bad boy" genre, which I had always enjoyed reading at the time. This particular story, I believe, was inspired in part by a writing prompt I found on Pinterest or Instagram, and my extensive watching of crime shows (Dateline, Law and Order, Criminal Minds, etc.) One of the first things I came up with in terms of planning for this story was the line "The hunted die, not the hunter" and that was what I built the story around.

I would say my favorite thing about Gavin and Victoria is their complexity. This story was the second novel I had written, so I was still (and am still) learning about creating complex, interesting characters. In my first novel, the characters gained more complexity and nuance by the end of the story but Gavin and Victoria seemed to be complex from the start. I loved that Gavin was not all good but he also couldn't be written off as evil either. I loved that Victoria could surprise people and she had a developed backstory distinct from her storyline with Gavin. I also loved their relationship. It wasn't easy but it was hard-fought and it won in the end. These characters will always have a special place in my heart because I feel like they reflected my growth as a writer and have pushed me to continue growing.

Sometimes it is easy to pinpoint who inspired a particular character, but a lot of times my characters are tapestries of people I know, experiences I've had, things I have seen in books or movies. I think it's great that all those little pieces of who you are can show up in your characters and those characteristics and experiences can be put in a new light or give you some perspective on what you went through. These characters are not based on anyone in particular but I like to think that they have little pieces of people I know in their mannerisms and how they interact with other characters in the story.

I am a mixture of both! Usually, before I start writing the story, I make chapter outlines with lines I want to include and other pieces of inspiration. I have notes on my phone for when things strike my inspiration for a particular story. I spend months before I start planning a story just collecting little details or lines that I want to include. When I actually sit down to write, I start from my chapter outlines, and a lot of times I let the story carry me. Sometimes, the story aligns with my outline and sometimes I adjust the outline to fit a new, unexpected direction. I think there's some excitement in not knowing exactly where the story will go and in the possibility that anything could happen.

Writer's block is so frustrating but I have come to accept it as a natural part of the writing process. The honest truth is that some days you are more inspired to write than others, and it is okay to take a step back from the story. You need to give yourself the time and space to be inspired. Take a break from your story. Try writing random scenes that may not make it into the final plot. Read a book or watch that new movie you've had your eye on. Do some research or worldbuilding. You can't force your inspiration and I think that is something very important to realize as writers.

I think my favorite moment in the story is when Gavin has decided to own up to his mistakes and he went to go see Victoria. I liked that it showed a tenderness not only between himself and Victoria, but also between him and his friends, Slick and Blaze. I like showing different sides to my characters. That scene was also one of those scenes that played out perfectly in my head like something out of a movie. I was so excited writing it and it was so fun to translate things from my head onto the page in a way that resonates with readers.

I think my favorite character in this story is Gavin. I liked that he was a mixture of both good and bad. He is a man of conflicts, both internal and external, and I loved getting to explore how he would deal with these various conflicts in the midst of his high-pressure job. I also liked that you never knew what to expect from him. Anything could happen with him and that was very freeing as a writer. It's the complicated characters often that are the most fun to write.

I think Talon, Victoria's mom, and Carter were the hardest for me to write. I think for Talon and Victoria's mom, it was hard for me to step outside my own experiences and imagine a set of parents like them. They were so evil and callous and I wasn't sure how far I wanted to take them. Did I want to cross the line of no-redemption for Victoria's mom? Did she already cross that line by maintaining a relationship with Talon? I had the same dilemma with Carter because I didn't want him to come across as entirely evil. He was a character that I thought could be redeemed at some point and I had to navigate which lines were okay to cross and still be able to save him. For Talon, I think it was hard because he was the first villain I had written and I wanted him to be evil but complex. I wanted him to have a developed backstory and be a believable villain because there is nothing more boring than a villain existing for the sole reason of being a villain.

"Devil With a Shotgun" is the sequel to "Assassin for Hire" and so far it is the only expansion of the world I have planned. It is set after they escape New York and go to Barbados to lie low. It is more intense and gritty than Assassin for Hire and it delves deeper into Victoria and Gavin's relationship. Danger follows them to the island paradise and tensions rise. There is an epic final showdown and an epilogue that I didn't really see coming when I first started writing. It was the perfect ending though. It really echoed the growth I saw in each of the characters.

I believe this story took me a few months to write. I spent every weekend and every free moment working on it. I was really inspired and wrote it in almost a fervor. I stayed up until 1AM a lot of nights cause I just didn't notice the time while I was writing; it was like time didn't exist, I was in a whole other world. That is one of my favorite feelings when writing. The length of time it takes me to write a story usually depends on the specific story in question and how long I plan on it being. It could be a month, it could be a few months, or it could be a year or more. My current project, "Betrayal and Bassline," was started in 2020 and I still have a good bit to go. I like not working on a timeline. I like the freedom it gives me to really explore the characters and their world and how I want the story to go.

One of my favorite books I've read on Wattpad is Confessions about Colton by Olivia Harvard ( on Wattpad). I love a good mystery and this one had such an interesting concept with the confessions. It kept me on the edge of my seat the whole time and the ending was jaw-dropping.

I tend to get a lot of inspiration from reading, social media, and a lot from Pinterest. When I am thinking about a new story idea, I usually start a note on my phone and collect details and images over the span of weeks or months and then I begin the planning phase of my story. Pinterest is a big inspiration aesthetic-wise and creating vision boards for my characters and their world. It helps inspire me in writing scenes and figuring out my character's style, and it helps with writer's block. It gives me an escape when I'm having trouble moving the story forward. It gives me a little distance and helps me fall in love with the story and the aesthetic again.

In terms of goals, I want to continue to grow as a writer. One specific goal I have is that I want to write an interconnected epic with lots of different storylines that come together and reference each other throughout the work. I love literary worlds like that because it feels so realistic. You feel like you are living in the world. Another goal I have is that eventually, I would like to be published. It would be a dream come true to be able to hold something that I put so much blood, sweat and tears into my hands.

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Thank you so much for tuning in! I'm your host , and you have been reading Master Adventurers! Stay tuned for our next edition!