People are usually more friendly and helpful here. Sounds a bit like you've been told off for not having formatted your original post correctly.
You should have called yourself DwarfBarbie and said you were the new girl. You would have received a lot more of a response. If you don't believe me see General Forum.
Anyway...
Welcome to Enworld!
In my humble opinion it's not the easiest making a fun and interesting bow ranger, they are by definition one of the simplest characters to run: Stay out of range, use Twin Strike and don't think about it. I guess one that can hang in melee range is slightly more challenging, but although you have pumped your HPs with Auspicious Birth you only have 7 HSurges. If you're deliberately taking risks to provoke OAs even though your defenses are super high vs OAs, you will get hit more often simply because you will be in the front line.
This can work nicely if you have 1 or 2 defenders in the group and the OAs you provoke trigger their marks, making it even more difficult to hit you and provoking the defender's attacks/damage on whoever is taking a swing at you.
I think how I would play your character tactically would be to skirt around the fringes of melee attacking isolated targets and moving in on marked enemies to provoke OAs when appropriate. But I wouldn't want to be caught in the middle of things too much. The powers you have allow you to get out of the middle of things easily so that shouldn't be too hard. Which makes Prime Shot less attractive. You are going to benefit more from Running Attack by remaining highly mobile skirting around the fringe of melee and moving in when it is advantageous and not to risky to do so.
Here's a quick look at the build, very similar to your own:
level 4
Halfling, Ranger
Fighting Style: Hunter Fighting Style
Ranger: Running Attack
Background: Auspicious Birth (Auspicious Birth Benefit)
FINAL ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 13, Dex 21, Int 10, Wis 15, Cha 8.
STARTING ABILITY SCORES
Str 10, Con 11, Dex 18, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8.
AC: 21 Fort: 15 Reflex: 19 Will: 15
HP: 48 Surges: 7 Surge Value: 12
TRAINED SKILLS
Nature +9, Acrobatics +13, Endurance +7, Stealth +11, Perception +9
UNTRAINED SKILLS
Arcana +2, Bluff +1, Diplomacy +1, Dungeoneering +4, Heal +4, History +2, Insight +4, Intimidate +1, Religion +2, Streetwise +1, Thievery +8, Athletics +1
FEATS
Level 1: Halfling Short Bow Hunter
Level 2: Bow Expertise (This is the one I'd go for at lvl 2, +1 Attack and +1 dmg vs isolated targets which will happen fairly often, especially if you have a wizard or a sorceror in the group, monsters will spread out if the are being bombarded)
Level 4: Weapon Focus (Bow) (Yep, boring I know, but despite other comments on pg 1, for Twin Strike to become truly noteworthy, especially with only a shortbow, brutal or not, you have to build your static damage at every chance; You will want to aquire Bracers of Archery asap)
POWERS
Ranger at-will 1: Twin Strike
Ranger at-will 1: Fading Strike
Ranger encounter 1: Two-Fanged Strike
Ranger daily 1: Skirmishing Stance (This combines with Running Attack very well)
Ranger utility 2: Invigorating Stride (Get the hell out of here Shift power that lets you use Second Wind at the same time, meaning you can move without provoking OAs,use your Second Wind and still attack! Pretty cool!)
Ranger encounter 3: Disruptive Strike (Out of turn interrupt attack to either defend yourself or an ally)
As for Magic items, you can pick up a Point Blank Short Bow (lvl 3 Item) if you are starting at level 2 or 3. It gives you +2 vs OAs and 1/encounter allows you to make a ranged attack that doesn't provoke OAs. Right up your alley I think.
Anyway, good luck! You can't go too far wrong no matter what you do! 4e is good like that!
