What I do all day when I’m writing

Ruth HartleyArt Process, Children's Stories, Feminism, Imagination, Mpapa Gallery, Poetry, Reading, Self-Publishing, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues, Visual Arts, Writing Process, ZambiaLeave a Comment

Some problems faced by writers What are writers’ problems and what about yours? What do you all do when you’re writing? Please – do comment and tell me how you do things. If you’re a reader then you’re exactly what I need. Writers love readers. Readers, however, are often curious about the habits of writers. As both a writer and […]

The Story of a Storyteller in Zambia

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Book Launch, Book Publishing, Books by Ruth Hartley, Creativity, Graphic Novel, Identity, Imagination, Promotion, Reading, Southern Africa, The Love and Wisdom Crimes, The Shaping of Water, The Spiral-Bound Notebooks, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues, Writing Process, Zambia2 Comments

Zambia is the home of my heart. A country I love and that I returned to for a while this year. I was honoured that Dr. Fay Gadsden of Gadsden Publishers, Lusaka generously arranged a book launch for me at the Alliance Francaise – France is my other home so that felt appropriate. Daniel Sikazwe, journalist, Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation […]

Stories about wars that stop us remembering to forget

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Migration, Politics, Power, Race, Racism, Southern Africa, The Shaping of Water, The Tin Heart Gold Mine, The White and Black Blues, Truth, Visual Arts, War, Writing Process7 Comments

Black Cowboys in the Wild West and African-American soldiers in WW2 There are facts we don’t know and facts we choose not to know because they don’t suit us. There are facts that are hidden from us by politicians and power-hungry people and there are facts which are distorted by the media, by myth-makers, advertisers and film makers. When it […]

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 […]