Four children alone in the Amazon Rain forest

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Children's Stories, Climate change, Dust and Rain, Journey, Zambia3 Comments

There was good news. Four children had survived a plane crash and 40 days wandering in the Amazon jungle.They were children who had knowledge and experience of nature but they were weak and hungry when they were found. This is a profound lesson for all humans. We are human animals. We are part of nature and our survival depends on […]

Reviews, more writing and the next books

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Dust and RainLeave a Comment

Writing a series: What happens after Chipo and Chibwe save their green valley? I started writing a story about the importance of trees for my grandson, Stephen Kupakwesu, in 1993 and that book evolved into Dust and Rain, but it hasn’t ended there. I planned a series of children’s books and experimented with various formats from one huge book to […]

Climate change poem

Ruth HartleyChildren's Stories, Creative Writing, Poetry4 Comments

Falling sky Who thought this could happen? Who thought that the sky would fall on our heads? It’s not what they said. We’ll be drowning they said. We’ll be swimming they said In sobbing seas with the flavour of tears. In oceans of wavelets lap-lapping our heads. Look what’s happened instead. Its not what they said. When the ice caps […]

Goodreads, dry gardens, and a visit from Trinity

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Children's Stories, Promotion, Writing Process, Zambia4 Comments

A delightful visitor – the best of my readers and reviewers I had an unexpected and delightful visit yesterday from Trinity. She arrived holding my book Dust and Rain. She is busy reading it and wanted to ask me some questions. Let me tell you that this is one of the best things that can happen to a writer. We […]

The magical world inside a storybook

Ruth Hartley Storytelling, Books by Ruth Hartley, Creativity, Dust and Rain, ImaginationLeave a Comment

Where do we go and what happens when we open a book and read a story? Is the story only the product of the printed words on the page or do we create a new personal magical world that goes beyond the print? Where do our thoughts and imagination come from? Such gifts aren’t given us by schools even if […]