Ruth’s Blog
You can search for a particular topic or subject using the search tool above.
How do we measure ‘success’?
I spent decades of my professional life working with schools and education systems on how they find out how well they're doing: what information to gather, how to do so, and how to use the information so that it improves their 'performance' rather than just measures...
The importance of ‘Chapter 1’
My temporary living space is looking pretty well organised now (check previous posts to see what this is all about). And my head is getting round the new situation too: instead of fretting about the necessary confinement I'm using the time to tackle something that's...
Dealing with the unexpected
Things can certainly change pretty fast, especially when you fall down the stairs. At around 1.45am on August 15th I was bouncing backwards down the steep staircase in my house. By the time I'd stopped moving and was lying in a heap at the bottom I'd torn my right...
Showing off in the ‘summer’
On Saturday August 26th, all being well, I'll be in one of the big tents at this agricultural show in the gorgeous show field behind Broughton village. With any luck it'll be dry and sunny and plenty of people will be there, some of whom will make their way to the...
The benefits of enforced slow motion
In the middle of Monday night, half asleep and in my own home after several nights away, I mistook my route to the bathroom and fell backwards down a flight of fourteen steep stairs. I recall the sensation of falling, pain, and the struggle first to kneel, and then to...
How important is ‘the horse’s mouth’
'The horse's mouth'...where did that phrase come from? And how did it come to mean 'authentic first-hand information'? However that happened, I'm learning yet again just how powerful such information is when writing a story set in the recent past. The...
Beware of publishing rip-offs
A year or so ago I ran a self-publishing workshop at a northern book festival, explaining the various choices and challenges we authors encounter when trying to get our books first into print and then into readers' hands. One of the the twenty or so people there told...
Do sex and money make the world go round?
Sex and money are powerful human motivators. Almost all the great stories involve one or the other, or both. What can I learn from this? My new book is taking shape, in chapter outlines not a first draft as yet, and it's at this stage that I begin to look at the...
Next blog post…check in tomorrow
Been away for a week walking in the Mendip hills in Somerset, but home again now in my beloved west Cumbria and planning a new blog post for tomorrow. Good to be back. Check in soon to see what I'm thinking about.
Join my Newsletter
Keep in touch with all the news about my latest projects, launches and book signing events.