Ruth Hartley's Blog: Storyteller, page 5

Reviews, more writing and the next books

Chipo meets a strange and sad woman.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 several short ones. They exist and all need some work, but I’ve decided to follow Trinity’s good advice (see my second-last blog post) about writing a series of Chipo and Chibwe books.

The sequel I am working on now tells how Chipo and Chibwe are sent to a Museum by the Spirits of their Ancestors on a quest to find and bring back the ritual mask essential for the Green Valley Rain Ceremony.

Here are some drawings from the second book to whet your appetite.

Climate change poem

Falling skyA Pakistani man tries to evacuate his home which has been inundated by flood waters
Photo: Pakistan Red Crescent

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 gained freedom

they flew up to the skies,

they dissolved into clouds,

then they rained on our heads.

That’s not what they said.

2013

Goodreads, dry gardens, and a visit from Trinity

A delightful visitor

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 need our readers and we depend on them to say what they think about our stories. If they enjoy them we hope that they will tell other people about them. If they don’t like them we need to know so that we can write a better story next time.

Trinity’s sensible parents have asked that I don’t use a photo of her but she is talking to me in this picture and I hope you can see I’m listening.

Fear, anger and the attempted murder of Salman Rushdie

Salman Rushdie

In Zambia Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses was a lump hidden under a towel in my bedside cupboard. It wasn’t a very effective hiding place. I knew that. I was afraid and angry every time I opened the cupboard door. I was afraid one of my house staff would see it and report me to the police, but I wasn’t going to destroy that book. I was angry because I was afraid. I was angry that President Kenneth Kaunda had banned it. Banning books is something that is done by totalitarian regimes that operate as police states to suppress opinion and thought. I know. I had lived in South Africa in the sixties in a constant state of anger and fear. KK knew better than to ban books, but, like all leaders, he had to kowtow to some other dreadful leader who provided oil to his country.

Chongololos, Millipedes and my book Dust and Rain

“Disgusting chongololos!” Auntie Stella said crossly. “Naughty children!”Chongololo

We loved our chongololos – the Chewa name for millipedes. As children, we played with them in the rainy season. I quote from Wikipedia that “Millipedes are a group of arthropods that are characterised by having two pairs of jointed legs on most body segments; they are known scientifically as the class Diplopoda, the name derived from this feature.” Chongololos curled up in tight spirals when we picked them up. They were harmless creatures occasionally staining our fingers a yucky yellow in an attempt to make us leave them alone. My cousin Robert tucked his Chongololo pets into his shorts pockets and then forgot about them until, to the fury of his mother, they made a horrible mess when they were squeezed through our old-fashioned washing machine mangle. Those were the days that started my interest in nature and that made me write Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley

Wonderful Chongololos and my children

I went to Zambia in 1972. My return to Africa where I was born made me happy and gave me the pleasure of showing my children their first chongololos. They were no longer to be collected and crushed by mistake as Robert and I had done but seen as an introduction to the wonders of insects, arthropods, arachnids and animals and as creatures to be understood and respected along with antlions, flying ants, crickets, beetles, moths and butterflies.Life in Zambia gave us our love of nature and the environment. Because chongololos are harmless, prolific and loved by children, they became an ideal symbol for an education club about wildlife conservation and the environment,

Photo by Rabson Kambwali of a children’s ceremony about trees and their traditional uses

Women writing Africa

Last night I took part in the online book launch of Tina Beattie’s novel Between Two Rivers, a book I did enjoy reading. Among the panellists were Chiedza Musengezi, Kay Powell and Godess Bvukutwa. I knew some of the participants but I wish I had known everyone as the discussion was interesting and relevant not only to African women writers but to writers from every diaspora.

Tina Beattie’s book Between Two Rivers and Kay Powell’s book Then a Wind BlewThe discussion raised a conflict central to myself and my writing.

Who am I? What am I? Where do I belong? If I’m not African am I British? If I have a French passport but I’m not a native French speaker am I truly French? Will I always be a migrant and exile? Once I was a refugee and a criminal – am I still in what I write because of my heritage and my skin? My mother’s family went to South Africa 200 years ago as poor migrants. My father’s family planned a comfortable life as settlers and farmers in Rhodesia 100 years ago and failed because of the Great Depression. I was happy in the cosmopolitan metropole of London for 6 years. My heart will always belong to Zambia and my 22 years there during the liberation wars. I do, however, love my French rural life even while climate change and drought burn up my potager.

I’ve got something MORE to Say!

Reading my poem at the launch. Click on the image to see the video.

It was Sunday 26th June. The weather was miserable but the day was both interesting and enjoyable. John and I went to the launch of the second Women’s Voices anthology in the delightful village of Ponsan Soubiran in the Gers. The anthology’s theme is Transition and its title is I’ve got something MORE to Say! It is available on Amazon and well worth reading. I am proud to have a story and two poems as well as some drawings in the book. Along with many of the other contributors I read my poem from the book.

Sally Palmer talks about ‘I’ve got something MORE to say!’Sally Palmer’s courage and hard work

It’s a brave idea to invite women to contribute stories and poems and not to reject any of them instead offering editorial help and advice. Sally worked with Anne Dickens and Mollie Brotherton and has produced an attractive book filled with fascinating stories, poems and drawings with a cover designed by Kiki Wood. I know how tough a project that is because I did something similar with artists in Zambia for many years. There isn’t a direct equivalence between the writers in Women’s Voices and the artists with whom I worked except for the respect it makes me feel for Sally and her team working as volunteers to create a new initiative that does benefit other people.

Launch of the second Women’s Voices book

Poster for the Women’s Voices book launchTransitions expressed in Women’s Voices

The launch of the second Women’s Voices book I’ve got something MORE to say will take place on Sunday 26th June in the Salle de Fete at Ponsan-Soubiran a small village in the South West of France.

I’ll be there to join all the women who have contributed their stories, poems and drawings to the book. There will be music and performances as well as some readings from the book. There will also be art on display, wine and cakes and books for sale.

We can picnic by the riverside before the event if we wish. It will be a very pleasant day with the opportunity to meet other writers, poets and artists and talk about what we do and why we do it. Among us will be published writers, self-published writers and aspiring writers and artists. I do believe that writers’ and artists’ workshops are important ways of encouraging self-expression through writing and art. All humans are creative thinkers and these activities are essential for our mental and physical well-being.

The magical world inside a storybook

Dust and Raim: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley. – My books have arrived.

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 good teaching can enhance them.

What is a story and where do they come from?

My story – Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley – has just been published but I’ve written many other stories. Did they come out of my present physical experiences or originate in my childhood history? Are they just dreamed up? Did I invent them or discover them? What happens to you when you read them? Will your reading of my story be different to the way another reader might see them or the way I planned them? I’d love to know what you think.

Dust and Rain needs your help please

Mokoro paddles Chipo and Chibwe down the Great River so they learn how the environment is interconnectedOur world needs love

What we need now is love . . . just love . . . for all the world and for the people in it.

I’ve just been walking around my garden thinking of the best way to ask all of you — friends, readers, climate change activists, educators, mothers, fathers, children and adults — for your help.

Dust And Rain is about loveDust and Rain – a book that needs your help to promote climate change awareness

My new book – Dust and Rain: Chipo and Chibwe save the Green Valley wants to find many more readers who can spread the message of love, so I need your help.

First of all, it’s a great story and a good read. The book is set in Africa, in Zambia, but it’s a universal story that children (and adults) everywhere will enjoy – and it does make you see things in new ways! See these reviews.

Second, it’s an important book about climate change and the environment (and it would make a great film!). When I first dreamed up Dust and Rain for my five-year-old grandson, Stephen Kupakwesu, I thought of saving trees and charcoal burners and the changing weather patterns created by damming the Zambezi River with Kariba Dam. Now the issue of climate change is even more urgent.

Let me explain how you can help me – please!  Somehow, get hold of my book, read it, share it and promote it for the sake of its important message.

I have given away as many books as I can but still need more readers. If you like, you can buy it immediately via the Books page on this site.