Author Pugh, Urban Drama & Suspense Author
Ronnie Pugh likes “realness” in his stories. The reality of life seeps onto the pages of his books
Ronnie Pugh goes by the author’s pen name, Pugh, and publishes his books under his publishing label, Turtlepu Books Presents. This is pretty common these days, for independent authors to morph into publishers; after all, they are their publishing companies. Their ability to create their books from scratch to finish may become easier over time with every produced book. However, the process will always remain difficult for Author Ronnie Pugh, because he has the challenge of producing his books from behind prison walls, with limited funds and resources. Ronnie Pugh is an incarcerated author at a maximum security prison and his reasons for being there are off the table for discussion, but it is not for reasons that one might assume.
Pugh is a Truth Author, who gets a lot of his ideas directly from the things he’s experienced and incorporates those truths into a relatable story. He says the characters in his books are often directed by his active thoughts, “…things I feel I should have said or done at various times in my life. I draw ideas from my history and my present life. Even a news headline may play an essential role in the life of my characters.” He doesn’t create his stories using an outline, he says, “I latch onto an idea and let it flow from there. I don't like to cage my thoughts so I don't outline them.”
When asked about writing challenges, he says it is difficult to “…keep my mind from wandering in a million different directions.” Sounds like his character, Mini, in his book, Mini Distractionz.
Mini Distractionz’s main character, Runny Clem aka Mini Size, an ex-felon who desires to get his life together, but he’s led off track by a lot of “mini” distractions. “He has good intention, but goes about the wrong way to obtain them.”
Pugh’s titles, Mini Distractionz, his latest book, Major Repercussions, which is the follow-up to Mini Distractionz, and 39 Lashes of Karma are all available on Amazon, Kindle, as well as Createspace online bookstore.
Pugh was born in Chicago (Chi-town) IL, 47 years ago and was raised there until his family relocated to Miami, FL in his teen years. Ronnie is an avid reader who has turned his passion for books into writing. He says he hopes his books will
“…eventually become classic best sellers.”
Pugh’s writing influence comes from the legendary urban fiction novelist, Donald Goines, who wrote stories “…that captured the inner workings of the inner city and the mindset of individuals (with urban) struggles.” Sidney Sheldon is another writer who Pugh admires. Stating that “…all of his books are written in the style of movies.” Of all the books this author and avid reader have read, he says that Alex Haley’s book, Roots, is his favorite. “It is the first book that I read. It was just as good as the movie, if not better.”
Pugh is currently penning his 4th book titled, World Inside of a Wicked World. Although his other books are naturally suspenseful, this tale will fall directly under the genre of suspense, but he will stay true to his first genre, urban drama because it “…is the aspects of realities.” The stories and characters in the urban novels are no different from everyday people, Pugh says. He continues, “…and although it is fiction, it is alive in the real world to many who experiences it. People will face themselves or see someone they know in the characters.”
For some, it would require a lot of research to create a character like Pugh’s main lead, Mini, because his story is so real and comes straight from the urban streets. For Ronnie, he is the living research and all he had to do was dig deep within his “mental bank” to extract all the resources he needed to create Mini. But his challenges go far beyond creating a character, his obstacles lie within the confines of his situation, the prison walls.
As you would imagine, it is not easy for Ronnie to turn his thoughts into a printed work of fiction. It starts with pen and paper, rapidly writing as fast as he can to keep up with the inspirations fed to him by his characters. Once completed, every word is not legible and requires a lot of reworking. He has to neatly rewrite the story with the task of having to figure out what it is he wrote that later looks like scribble.
Then he transfer the written words to Google Docs, but that’s only the beginning. Afterwards, he has to go through several channels to be able to get his work edited, formatted, a book cover, uploaded, and get the word out. All that is very difficult when money is limited and having to rely on others. The waiting process requires a lot of patience, time he humbly uses to start working on his next book.
Ronnie says he likes to write after exercising in the mornings, “…because the majority of my story lines and characters come to me while I'm exercising.” He offers the same stress relief advice to others, because exercising, he says, also helps free the mind from writer’s block.
Pugh's style of writing is quite different from others; he starts from the end of the story and works his way to the beginning. He says he's able to understand the story better that way.
Ronnie states that writing is his escape from his situation, “It mentally removes me from here (prison).” And he’s driven by his favorite motivational phrase, a hook from a song he wrote and recorded in 2004, “Time don't stop. So the struggle must continue” ~ Ronnie Pugh, The Struggle.
With all of his challenges, it is understandable that Pugh would draw from that phrase and he says to aspiring writers, “…to not get discouraged...keep writing no matter what. In due time, you will be recognized. Don’t let limited funds keep you from your dreams. Don't let rejections from big publishing houses and literary agents be dream killers. Indie authors are some of the best and most talented authors on the planet."
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