Ruth Frances Long

Ruth Frances Long, also known as R.F. Long and Jessica Thorne, (20 April 1971) is an Irish author who writes in the fantasy and romance genres. Her novel, The Stone's Heart by Jessica Thorne, was nominated for the Romantic Novelists' Association Fantasy Romantic Novel award. The latest series is The Feral Gods as Ruth Frances Long, which begins with The Book of Gold from Hodderscape. This novel was on the 2024 Locus Recommended reading list. The sequel, The Lore of Silver, was released in 2025. The conclusion, The God of Bronze, comes out on November 20, 2026.

Biography Ruth Long is a Dublin-born writer of fantasy novels, novellas and short stories, both for adults and young adults. She completed a M.A. in English Literature and also studied History of Religions and Celtic Civilisation. Long has always been interested in fantasy, romance and ancient mysteries. Along with writing, she is a librarian working initially in the County Dublin library system. Long is now head librarian for a private specialized library of rare and unusual books. She currently lives in Wicklow.

Long originally wrote novels and novellas as R.F. Long. The Scroll Thief, Soul Fire, The Wolf's Sister, The Wolf's Mate & The Wolf's Destiny were republished in 2019.

Her first novel as Ruth Frances Long was The Treachery of Beautiful Things in 2012, a 10th anniversary edition was released in 2022. She then released The Dubh Linn trilogy beginning with A Crack in Everything, which was published each year beginning in 2014.

Long signed with digital publisher Bookouture for the publication of fantasy novels, beginning with The Queen's Wing series written under the pen name Jessica Thorne. The Stone's Heart was nominated for the Romantic Novelists' Association Romantic Fantasy novel of the year.

In October 2025, she was a guest on Off the Shelf as part of the Bournemouth Writers Festival.

In January 2026, Second Sky published her stand-alone novel Wildewood, which reviewer Sharon Rimmelzwaan described as "A gothic fantasy romance with a dash of the supernatural".

Awards and honors In 2015, on the publication of her second novel for Young Adults A Crack in Everything, Long won the Spirit of Dedication Award for 'Best Creator of Children's Science Fiction and Fantasy' from the European Science Fiction Society (ESFS), announced at the 37th Annual European Science Fiction Convention (Eurocon 2015) in St. Petersburg, Russia.