His movie scripts were rejected for 40 years. Now his Christmas film is about to air

We all nurture dreams that we want to see fulfilled but fear might be impossible to achieve. Countless people in the world envision becoming writers, actors, and dancers but only a few of them actually devote their lives to seeing these dreams through. Brian Ruberry is one such person who never gave up on his dream of becoming a scriptwriter even though it took him four decades to see his work on screen. The former public relations agent's "Single and Ready to Jingle" will premiere on Lifetime on December 11, reports The Washington Post.

The story revolves around a woman who plans a trip to a singles resort but finds herself in a Christmas-obsessed town in Alaska and falls in love with a man. The movie sounds promising and something you will love to watch curled up on a sofa, under a blanket with a hot cup of cocoa in your hand. However, it hasn't been an easy journey for Ruberry to reach this point. 

Ruberry, 66, is hitting his stride as a scriptwriter four decades after attempting to write movie screenplays for the first time. He explained, "If you want to be a writer, you have to realize you’re going to see a lot of rejection." He was turned down more than 100 times before his first television movie script was accepted in 2021. "All of that rejection just made me more determined to prove everyone wrong," he added.

He has also written the script for "The Attraction Test," a UPtv film. It aired in April and is about a college lecturer who fills out her own dating questionnaire. Another of his rom-com scripts, "Stepping into Love," was recently made into a film. A network for it has yet to be announced.

Despite his talents, Ruberry "had absolutely no interest in writing" initially and was an athlete. When he made the James Madison University football team as a linebacker, he had great aspirations that a successful collegiate career would one day bring him to the NFL. Then, during his first year with the team, he was sidelined by a shoulder injury. He said, "I couldn’t play football anymore, and I also wasn’t cutting it as a biology major. When we got to chemistry, the math was over my head. So I decided to become an English major." 

One of his teachers nominated his short tales for a university yearly academic prize which, Ruberry said, he won two years in a row. With that, he found his new passion and decided he "wanted to write television sitcoms." Ruberry received a master's degree in cinema from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles in 1981. However, he quickly discovered that breaking into Hollywood as a scriptwriter was a difficult struggle filled with repeated rejections. 

Although marriage, two kids and a divorce put his dream on the back burner for years, Ruberry decided to try selling a screenplay again in 2019. He said, "I'd read in a magazine that Hallmark and Lifetime make dozens of original television movies every year. I don't like the kind of writing with a kiss at the end. But I do like romantic comedies. So I wrote one of those after I watched a few Hallmark movies."

Ruberry stated that he got in touch with the screenwriter who had read the magazine story he'd read, and she agreed to check out the screenplay. 

Although that script is yet to be sold, UpTV—an uplifting cable channel—purchased Ruberry's script for "The Attraction Test" last year. Ruberry stated that once that one sold, he determined to continue writing scripts. Barbara Fisher, producer of "The Attraction Test," was impressed by his ideas and requested him to write a screenplay with the title "Single and Ready to Jingle." 

"Brian is a talented writer with good ideas, and he's easy to work with," she said. "Maybe that's something that comes when someone reaches a certain maturity."