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 […]

A bad Mother and an African village

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Creative Writing, Memoir, Short Stories2 Comments

Victims The media are currently running stories about victims of poor parenting. Everyone has had mothers and fathers and was parented somehow by somebody. We know ourselves through understanding our families and parents. Unquestionably there are children who are victims and who have suffered, but there are also those who survive enormous difficulties and who still manage to forgive and […]

All that Jazz

Ruth HartleyApartheid, Jazz, Memoir, Short Stories, Southern Africa, When We Were Wicked, ZimbabweLeave a Comment

Monday 26th July Marciac Jazz Festival At 10.30 am at La Chouette Qui Lit I will be signing my latest book When We Were Wicked.  Please come – I’d love to see you and I will have copies of all my other books with me as well. La Chouette Qui Lit is a lovely bookshop where you can also get […]

Writing and winning are wonderful!

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Festival, Truth Dare Command, Writing ProcessLeave a Comment

I am a prize-winner for the first time I am thrilled to be a runner-up in the Charroux Litfest competition for my short story Truth, Dare, Command. Thank you Charroux Litfest and thank you Charroux organisers – Kate Rose and Barbara Sage. I know you do an unpaid, time-consuming labour of love. The theme of the competition was Truth and […]