My Grandson, Climate Change, Drought and that Children’s Book

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Publishing, Climate change, Dust and Rain, The Shaping of Water, When I Was Bad, When We Were Wicked4 Comments

On the Zambezi River In 1993, while sitting in a boat on the Zambezi River floodplain, far north of Mongu, watching the beautiful flights of hundreds of pelicans, I began to make notes and sketches for a book about climate change for my grandson, Stephen Kupakwesu Bush. It was called The Drought Witch. Stephen was 3 years old. It would […]

Kariba Dam, Climate Change, Hydro-Power, Agriculture and Water

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Climate change, Dust and Rain, The Shaping of Water, Zambia1 Comment

In fact, everything needed for life in Zambia, Zimbabwe and the SADC region There is a huge and important news story to be told about climate change that affects the whole of sub-Saharan Africa and therefore the world. I have discovered since posting this blog that the video I watched about the Zambezi River being so low on water that […]

The Literary Life and me

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Cartoons, Comic Strip, Creative Writing, Creativity, Dust and Rain, Graphic Novel, Reading, Writing ProcessLeave a Comment

Posy Simmonds Posy Simmonds is a brilliant artist, acute satirist and eye-watering cartoonist who, in Literary Life Revisited, exposes authors, publishers and the book trade. Her work is currently on display in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. She has the essential gift of making you laugh at yourself. Funny Feminist Cartoons I became addicted to Posy Simmonds’s Mrs Weber’s Diary […]

Saving my stories

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Art by Ruth Hartley, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Digital Publishing, Displacement, Dust and Rain, Exile, Feminism, Freedom Fighters, Promotion, Self-Publishing, The Colourless Child, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, When I Was Bad, When We Were Wicked, Zambia1 Comment

What are the risks to my stories Saving my stories required an agent, high-profile reviews, media links, book launches, hard work and lots of money. I had none of those and I had to save my stories myself. Publishers told me that if a book is not successfully marketed in the six months after publication, it will die. As a […]

The stories behind my stories

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Art by Ruth Hartley, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Children's Stories, Dust and Rain, Memoir, Poetry, Reading, Self-Publishing, Short Stories, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, When I Was Bad, When We Were WickedLeave a Comment

Right now, my stories are in danger of vanishing from the world. Does that matter? Ought I stop them from disappearing? Does anyone care, except me? This is how I often feel, as I know many authors do, after a long day of marketing discussions, or time spent following up with publishing and distribution contacts, rather than writing! My stories […]