Taking Back My Name

No more hiding. No more games.

Photo rights belong to author

I wrote on Medium (and on Substack) under the pen name Ruby Noir for quite a while. It’s time to stop. I’m published under my real name, so why would I want to hide from it?

There are things that I want to hide from. They’re all going to come out this year.

I’m kind of a walking disaster. I thrive in chaos because it’s what I know. I follow pain because it makes sense to me. I live in anger because it’s comfortable.

I’ve been through a lot. I’m going through more as I sit here typing this. I have chronic illnesses, my dog died this week, and I could tell you stories that will make you cringe, cry, or learn something new. It all depends on my mood.

I will be releasing some books under the name Dahlia R. Stirling. The reason for that pen name is that I’m a multi-genre author, and I want to have a separation between my darker genres and my less murdery ones.

Also, I am going to be publishing children’s books about animals, and a Capone writing children’s books just felt wrong somehow…

I’m an Indie author and started in anthologies with short stories alongside some amazingly talented and wonderful people. Soon I will be publishing my second solo novella which is number two in what I’m calling my Dark Trilogy. The first, a campy horror story with a twisted torture element, is already out. It’s called Survival of the Fittest. Number two will be a dark romance called Tied Together. Completing the trilogy is a psychological thriller called Bleeding Pages. They’re novellas, and they have nothing that connects them at all beyond being a showcase of the different things I like to write.

Though admittedly, the dark romance was an experiment that I haven’t decided whether or not I will repeat.

The first Dahlia R. Stirling book will be a dark, narrative postmodernist fiction novel. It’s called The Memoir of the Unwilling Prima. It’s a story I’ve needed to tell for a very long time, and I will finally close the cover on those chapters this year.

I have a very ambitious publishing year planned, and I hope you will follow me. I doubt I will use this profile as much more than a blog to update people on my books. But it was time to retire the name Ruby Noir and the pictures that came with her.

Welcome to the new age.

I’m not hiding anymore. Love me or leave me. But no more lies in purple prose.

I’m Courtney. Welcome to my writing world.