Rima Rudner

BIOGRAPHY

RIMA RUDNER

Published Author, Writer, and Ghostwriter

Rima wasn’t born a happy baby. Her parents used to call her “Reamer the Screamer.” As she got older, all she wanted was to be in a happy family like some of her friends, but her family was all negative, pessimistic, and made her feel sad, ugly, unwanted, and unworthy of anything good. In the hot, muggy summers of Chicago she used to lay outside on the grass, study the stars, ponder the Universe, getting eaten up by mosquitos. In the winters she would read Sylvia Plath and think about killing herself. One day, when she was thirteen and her family moved to the west side of Los Angeles, her father, a radiologist, learned he had cancer of the larynx. Who was going to take care of us now? she thought. Her mother had mental issues and had become pretty useless after she had shock treatments for depression in the 1940’s. Her older sister hated her because when she was born it took the attention away from her. Rima had her Aha! moment. She had to take care of herself! It was the day she decided she was going to be happy and that she had to make it happen for herself! From that point on, Rima made finding true happiness her life’s work in many ways, and she shares some of her rollercoaster life with her readers and what she has learned about finding true happiness for themselves as they age in this upside-down world.

Rima has been through the wringer, from light wash and spin through heavy duty and super spin. From her first marriage at nineteen years old to a sadistic, sociopathic, narcistic masochist for twelve years, to an exciting life of dating good looking and wealthy men as a young divorcee, discos, trendy restaurants, and private clubs in Beverly Hills. She worked at a Hollywood Production Company, the went back to UCLA design school to become a successful interior designer, got remarried to a businessman, and wrote her successful book, “The Complete Guide to Decorating Your Home, How to Become Your Own Interior Designer” (Rima Kamen). Life was good, expensive ski trips, restaurants, cars, houses, until the stock market and real estate bust of 2008. Happiness turned into misery and desperation.

Rima, in her quest to become a happy person, had failed to recognize that happiness was only fleeting as long as things were going really well. She realized that there was a whole lot more to true happiness, the kind of happiness that is still with you no matter what happens to you or to others you love when things go bad, especially as you age. She realized that hope was no good unless you dressed it in purpose, resilience, and action. Afterall, she had weathered bladder cancer, viral spinal meningitis, and a near-death ski accident and had survived.

She wrote her second successful book, Choose to Be Happy, A Guide to Total Happiness, which sold 10,000 copies right away and foreign rights in over thirty countries. Then she started to sell every designer bag and item she had on eBay, her down-and-out friends gave her their designer items to sell, and soon her buyers were asking her to sell their designer items for them. It was the accidental business that grew into eight online stores and supported her and her husband for twelve years in expensive Los Angeles—until it didn’t. The strength of the dollar started going way up and Rima’s sales, which were 75% international, started going down. The financial and emotional stress triggered a stroke. She and her second husband were forced to move to Las Vegas to cut their living costs, but what happened next couldn’t have been foreseen.

She had another stroke and illness after illness, her husband was too old to make money anymore, so she used her writing talent, sense of humor, wit, and her unique theory about how to find true happiness to write her third and latest book, Aging-itis, How to Find Happiness Despite It All. She’s got credentials, looks, personality, and charisma. She’s lived it all and wants to share her wisdom and humor with her readers.

Rima was born in New York, raised in Chicago, and moved to the Westside of Los Angeles when she was thirteen years old. She is currently living in Summerlin, a suburb of Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband of forty years. She loves writing and does it skillfully with passion and precision. Professional, experienced, and well-read, she can write on a broad spectrum of subjects. She prides herself on well-documented research and fact checking. Rima has been writing professionally since 1987 and has written, co-written, and ghostwritten many nonfiction books, memoirs, autobiographies, screenplays, sitcoms, standup comedy routines, children’s books, and magazine articles as well as business plans. She writes in an easy-to-read, casual style that most anyone can understand and enjoy. Both of Rima’s published books, Choose to Be Happy: The Guide to Total Happiness and The Complete Guide to Decorating Your Home, sold the first run of 10,000 copies within three months as well as foreign rights in a plethora of countries.

2022-2023: Rima wrote her newest book, Aging-itis, How to Find Happiness Despite It All.

2020-2022: The pandemic. Started ghostwriting again.

2009-2020: After the crash of 2008, Rima started Authentic Designer Stuff an online designer resale store that grew to eight online stores in different countries.

2008: Rima authored Choose to Be Happy: A Guide to Total Happiness (Choose Inc. Publishing, 2008), which sold out the first 10,000 copies immediately and sold foreign rights in most every country. (Please Google Rima Rudner.)

1987: Rima authored The Complete Guide to Decorating Your Home” as Rima Kamen (Betterway Publications, 1989) as well as many articles for “Better Homes and Gardens” (Meredith Corporation).

1977 to 2008: Rima attended the UCLA Interior Design Program and then became a successful interior designer (1979-2008) and co-owner of Kamen and Krasnow, a custom furniture rental company (1984 to 2008).

1974-1976: Rima was the controller of a movie production company.