The story of my stories — writing and publishing

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Creativity, Identity, Memoir, Poetry, Politics, Reading, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues, Writing Process, Zambia10 Comments

The storyteller’s story It is time to tell of my own journey as a writer from the young poet in 1961 to the writer of today. It’s a story of both writing and publishing. I am in the process of publishing three more books right now. They are a novel, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, a memoir, When I was […]

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 […]

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 […]

Flying backwards to yesterday and arriving in tomorrow’s world

Ruth HartleyBooks by Ruth Hartley, Creativity, Family, The Shaping of Water, Visual Arts, ZambiaLeave a Comment

Flying backwards to yesterday     Was I flying backwards into a nostalgic and unreal fantasy about a past life? Even now Zambia feels like home to me, the place closest to my heart where I feel most deeply rooted. I lived in Zambia for 22 years and my dream had always been to have a plot of land, build […]

The Shaping of Water

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Colonialism, Displacement, Freedom Fighters, Southern Africa, The Shaping of Water, Zambia4 Comments

The Shaping of Water Such a lovely thing happened to me today. My first novel The Shaping of Water has appeared on the Facebook Page and Website of Gadsden Publishers in Lusaka Zambia. This is the right place for my book to be – Zambia is the home of this novel. You can see the video about the book here […]