Why I wrote, self-publishing and what went wrong and right

Ruth HartleyBook Publishing, Self-Publishing2 Comments

Friends and readers – news about my next book! I am about to publish another novel. It’s been written and edited, read and re-edited and will soon be on its way to be typeset under the intriguing name of The Love and Wisdom Crimes. I wrote this book originally in 1996 from notes and poetry I had written as long […]

Never judge a book by its cover but please buy mine!

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Illustration, Imagination, Promotion, Reading, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues, Writing Process2 Comments

Book Cover design                   Dear Friends and dear Readers I have great need of your help. This year I will be publishing my new book The Love and Wisdom Crimes. Its a book that has been 53 years in the making and 20 years in the writing. Next year I will publish […]

Blood Red Moon Poem – The Lunar Eclipse 27th July, 2018

Ruth HartleyFamily, Poetry, Southern Africa, Zambia8 Comments

    LUNAR ECLIPSE JULY 27th, 2018 On a routine night the ordinary moon swims through a shoal of cloud. It slides upwards as blotches of water vapour in saturated air slip away eastwards. It’s a dead ball of dirt whose dust was kicked about by two astronauts in 1969. Held in place by Earth’s gravitational pull, it circles our […]

What is an identity? How do we identify ourselves?

Ruth HartleyCreativity, Family, Human rights, Identity, Photography, Poetry, Refugee2 Comments

How do we identify ourselves? What is identity? What criteria do any of us use to identify ourselves? Is it appearance? Tribe? Work? Status? Religion? Why do we need an identity? What do we use our identity for? To belong somewhere? To exclude another or many others? What identity do we think we have in someone else’s eyes? We are […]

The casual power of good storytelling in Zambia

Ruth HartleyPower, Zambia2 Comments

A Casualty of Power by Mukuka Chipanta A Casualty of Power is an excellent action story that I simply couldn’t put down. It is well told and well structured and so engaging that you have to read to the end. It’s published by Weaver Books, Zimbabwe and Gadsden Publishers, Zambia 2016, 206 pages, ISBN: 978-1-77922-297-8 The hero’s plight My heart […]