The Fortunes of Ruby White
Author: Lia Weston
ISBN: 9780731814633
Format: Trade paperback
Price: $29.99
Pub Date: July 1, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Claire LaPlante
Tel: 02 9983 6634
E: Claire.laplante@simonandschuster.com.au
MEDIA RELEASE
LIA WESTON IS COMING TO SYDNEY MAY 19-22 AND IS AVAILABLE
FOR INTERVIEW
TO ORGANISE AN EXTRACT OR INTERVIEW CONTACT CLAIRE LAPLANTE 02 9983 6634.
ABOUT LIA WESTON
Lia is the freshest new voice in women’s fiction. Poised to be Australia’s own Helen Fielding or Lauren Weisberger,
Lia is set to release her first novel with Simon & Schuster in July. Her story is truly a publishing fairytale; she simply
sent in a manuscript called Ruby White where it landed in the slush pile and was pulled, praised, passed around, and
published. Lia Weston was born in Sydney in 1974 and then found herself growing up in Adelaide, to her surprise.
Surviving an adolescence spent at an all-girls’ religious school instilled a curiosity about the numerous parallels
between cults and organised religion, as well as a life-long hatred of berets. A move into publishing saw her marketing
non-fiction books by day and practising pagan rites by night. One high magic ritual too many finally saw her flee the
New Age scene. The result was her first novel, The Fortunes of Ruby White. Lia currently resides in Adelaide with her
husband, Pete, and their German Shepherd called Kif.
The Fortunes of Ruby White
Lia Weston
Meet Ruby White. She’s jobless, broke, and about to get pulled into the bizarre
‘new age’ world where The Devil Wears Prada becomes The Devil Wears Gauzy
Meditation Robes.
Ruby White has been pushed too far and quit her job as a secretary to the worst of the Knobbes at Knobbe & Sons.
With nothing else to fill her time, Ruby soon finds herself at a seminar for those who are Hyper-Audio-Aware, a condition she never
knew existed, run by the Jaasmyn Empire, a company she’s never heard of. To Ruby’s surprise, she is offered a job.
Providing everything from meditation CDs, candles and “specialised sleeping aides” (otherwise known as
pillows), to private classes with a psychic therapist (a parrot), the Empire offers solutions for every physical
and metaphysical problem ever conceived, and many that haven’t been.
Ruby swiftly gains a reputation within the Empire for possessing extraordinary abilities even though her
‘talents’ are in fact no more than guesswork and sarcasm. Attracting the attention of the charismatic head of
the Empire, Jaasmyn, Ruby ignores her misgivings about the Empire’s ethics and enjoys fitting in somewhere
for the first time in her life.
As Ruby disappears into the mire of mind, body and spirit, her friends and family try numerous ways to lure
her back but their efforts only push her more into the arms of the Jaasmyn Empire and its mysterious leader.
Fortunately Ruby’s friend at the Empire, DeDe, is onto Jaasmyn and orchestrates an unforgettable media
expose. Finally Ruby begins to resemble her old self but will Damien continue to hold a candle for her as a
bold ‘new age’ begins?
Filled with biting humour, sharp wit and a fresh voice in women’s fiction that is long overdue, The Fortunes of Ruby White takes
the reader on a hilarious adventure that comes back to the old question of figuring out who we are, and keeping the people we love
in the process.
For more information
contact Claire LaPlante
Tel: 02 9983 6634
Mob: 0413 059 077
E: claire.laplante@simonandschuster.com.au
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