About Ruth

My name is Ruth Livingstone and I am a fiction and non-fiction writer, a blogger and a long-distance walker.

On this site I talk about my books, my latest writing, and sometimes point to useful resources for other writers.

If you are looking for my popular coastal walking blog then walk this way: Ruth’s Coastal Walk. And, because reading is one of life’s greatest pleasures, I have a separate blog, Ruthless Readings, where I post (infrequently) about books I’ve read and what I’ve learnt from them.

Career ruth-2014-300x400

I started my writing life – and this blog – in November 2010, for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It was a great way to:

  • motivate myself
  • establish a discipline of writing regularly
  • connect with readers, other writers and bloggers.

Previously I’d worked for over 20 years as an NHS GP, as an educational presenter, and later as a clinical adviser for the Department of Health. During my medical career I’ve written factual content for various newsletters, websites, magazines, and trade journals.

Fiction is my primary interest, and so, to improve my craft, I enrolled in a part-time BA degree course in Creative Writing at Birkbeck, University of London, from where I graduated in 2015.

Publications

I’ve had a number of pieces published in various formats (see my books and publications) and independently published a book about long-distance coastal walking, Walking the English Coast (2016). I’ve also published a couple of booklets: one collection of short stories, The Shed (2016), and a factual account of a rainy day walk, Soggy Socks (2015).

Once upon a time, back in 2012, I was chosen as an Olympic Storyteller. In addition I’ve written a number of guest blogs about walking the English Coast.

Interests

I was born in Kenya, spent my teenage years in the Bahamas, and now live in England, in the beautiful town of Stamford, South Lincolnshire, with my husband and a huge collection of books.

I love: my family, good sci-fi, bouncy dogs, single malt whisky, and long walks in the English countryside.

I hate: soppy romances, patronising people, and poodles. Oh, and I have a strong aversion to author bios written in the third person.

10 thoughts on “About Ruth”

  2. Hi Ruth, I just found your blog via Julie Stock’s blog. I love your coastal walking blog too… you haven’t been to my birthplace yet though, North Yorkshire! Good to hear you are at Birkbek, I did a two-year Creative Writing course there a few years ago before the MA launched. I made some great contacts, how are you getting on? SD
    http://www.sandradanby.com/

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    1. Hi Sandra, nice to meet you. And you have a couple of lovely blogs too. And, what a coincidence, we usually spend our summer holidays in Andalucía, with friends who live near Ronda. So I know that area very well.

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  4. Hello Ruth,

    I am a freelance journalist and regular contributor to Stamford Living.

    I am writing an article on local bloggers for the June edition of SL and I was hoping I might be able to interview you.

    The article will be about 2-3 different bloggers and the main aim will be to provide an interesting intro. to blogging.

    It would be great if we could meet this week or next week for a chat.

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  5. Ruth, I came across your name on the short story thread on the Nanowrimo forums. I’ve been doing Nano for 6 or 7 years now; last year, I joined forces with someone I met on Nano, and we created Smoking Pen Press. We are publishing a series of short story anthologies (the series is called Read on the Run), and we issue a new call for submissions 3-4 times a year. There is no submission fee, and we do pay for selected stories. We’d love to have you submit if you have anything appropriate for any of our calls. Please feel free to contact us, or sign up for our newsletter to get news of our current Call.

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