I'm trying something new!

 After nearly thirty children's books with traditional publishers, I'm trying something new -- publishing myself!

When I learned that my Danish great-grandfather spent much of his life in an insane asylum in Wisconsin, my mind raced. How did this young man hoping for a new beginning in America end up "criminally insane?" What was he like when he stepped off the ship from Copenhagen and how did he get by the strict medical examiners on Ellis Island?

After visits to this Island of Tears and several years of research and writing, my story is finished. This young adult novel didn't turn out as I had originally planned -- fellow writers, I know you understand this! -- but it was birthed by those questions of how and why. Coupled with family lore that my great-grandmother worked in the Danish royal palace, well, here we are! The setting is 1912, in the Lower East Side tenements of New York City.

I hope you like this new adventure of mine, which is starting out as an e-book on Kindle: $.99 through December 31st then $4.99. Cover art and interior illustrations are by my son, Cody Rutty. I'll close here with its summary and link to Amazon:
The New Book is Stalked

              When Rikke Svendsen, a 15-year old Danish servant arrives at Ellis Island, she realizes that a fellow passenger on her voyage across the Attlantic--whose advances she had spurned--is stalking her. In the chaos of immigration and trying to flee him, she gets stranded in New York instead of being able to meet family in Racine Wisconsin. Relieved to have eluded the man, she finds work in the tenements as a seamstress for a film company and struggles to earn money for a train ticket north. Meanwhile, through letters and telegrams, she learns that mysterious accidents are befalling her loved ones in Racine with deadly results. As Rikke pieces together clues, frantic for her sweetheart Viggo, she seeks to unravel what or who is behind the terror.