Ruth Burtnick was born in 1942. She obtained a B.A. in American Thought and Civilization from George Washington University and an M.A. in American Studies from the University of Maryland. She married Norman Glick, and they had two children, Elissa and Ethan.

Ruth and her friend began to write magazine articles. In this time, Ruths daughter was a preschooler wanted a dollhouse. A family friend built it and Ruth she began designing miniature furniture. They decided to sold a book on making dollhouse furniture. They wrote two books together, and Ruth a third book alone. With Nancy, she also wrote some cookbooks focusing on healthy eating. She is a highly regarded author of cookbooks focusing on healthy eating. She sometimes hires trained chefs to test the recipes that she creates, and makes sure that every recipe is tested at least three times before it appears in one of her cookbooks.

Ruth first fiction book was a collaborative effort with three friends Eileen Buckholtz, Louise Titchener, and Carolyn Males, the result was a romance novel Love is Elected, published in 1982 by Silhouette under the pseudonym Alyssa Howard. Her first alone book was Invasion of the Blue Lights, a young adults novel published in 1983. In the 1980s, she wrote under her married name young adults fiction with Eileen Buckholtz, with whom she also wrote romance novels under the pseudonyms: Amanda Lee, Samantha Chase and Rebecca York. With Louise Titchener, she wrote under the pseudonym: Alexis Hill, Alexis Hill Jordan, and Tess Marlowe. A late 1990s, her friend Eileen Buckholtz decided to stop writing under the pseudonym Rebecca York, and Ruth continued alone. She has continued to write novels of suspense and now also paranormal novels.

Ruth lives with her husband in Columbia, Maryland, their children have grown, and they are grandparents of two boys, Jesse and Leo. She collects rocks, and enjoys cooking, walking, reading, gardening, travel, and Mozart operas.