How to make a book look good enough to read

Ruth HartleyBook Publishing, Bookbinding, Promotion, Reading, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues3 Comments

How to be your own publisher I don’t know what I’m doing! I’m learning on the job and wondering if what I do is make mistakes and then recover from them. The learning curve I’m riding gets steeper and deeper and the pressure to do it all at once keeps on mounting. Yesterday I was sent a cover design and […]

Writers, readers and the publishers picnic

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Reading, Writing Process5 Comments

A lovely day, a friendly gathering and a picnic It was a picnic about  different ways of publishing books that was held on a lovely hillside venue at a private home – many thanks to our hosts. It was well organised by Jane Sherwin of Cafe Matin and I was delighted to be one of those asked to take part. […]

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 […]

We are all made of stories, we make stories and we are stories

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Reading4 Comments

I want to give up storytelling I want to give up writing – my efforts are going nowhere – nobody reads my stories – it’s such hard work – I can never be good enough – I spend all my days doing it  – and I do it alone  – shut away in my study  – tapping away at a […]

Parisot Literary Festival – writers, readers, books, stories – a weekend of pleasure and good company

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Festival, Illustration, Reading, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, Visual Arts, Writing Process1 Comment

Good company and pleasure at Parisot 82 What better company can there be? A delightful French village called Parisot, the well-organised Parisot literary festival with good companions, excellent food and wine – and BOOKS!! John and I enjoyed ourselves so much that I failed to get photos of the people I met and so you’ll have to do mostly with […]