Ruth Laney’s work has appeared in national magazines including Family Circle, Sports Illustrated for Kids, and Travel & Leisure. She is a stringer for People magazine and the Reuters news agency. A member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors, she has covered major sports competitions in the U.S., Europe, and Asia (including several Olympics), for magazines, wire services, and newspapers. She wrote and coproduced the television documentary Ernest J. Gaines: Louisiana Stories, which won an award from the National Association for State and Local History and was shown at the New Orleans and Orinda (California) film festivals. She is currently completing a book, Cherie Quarters: The Place and the People, about the place where Gaines grew up, which is the setting for his fiction. She writes the Country Roads column Antiquarians, about people who are in love with the past. She looks for subjects consumed by a passion for history and a desire to inhabit the mysterious realm of the long-ago. She lives in Baton Rouge, where she collects Louisiana books and art, textiles, watermelon tchotchkes, and cobalt-blue glass. Reach her at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .