Dear Readers

Welcome to my cyberhome! Here you will find four main links above that will give you access to my autobiography - About, online fiction works - Fiction, online non-fiction works - Non-Fiction, and Visual Artistry - Visual Art. You can can follow my progress and be updated though the Follow Widget or by subscribing to my Feeds. There are also several links that head towards various external sites where I am present. Below this you will see short posts of my recent works, news and updates, and I have also listed in the sidebar selected sites/blogs I follow.

I hope altogether this will give you some idea about me and my written works, and a bit of reading leisure and pleasure.

Thank you for your sojourn,

Ivor W. Hartmann.

The Chrome Rain Series

I have been working on a story called Chrome Rain (amongst many other things:) and started releasing it in serial form at my Facebook Fan Page, so four episodes down and I reckoned it was time to share the series (well the link to the series) here as well. The fan page is open to all the web so you don't need to be a member of facebook to see the page, or read the story. I am releasing weekly episodes of Chrome Rain there and hope you all enjoy reading it as much as I do writing it.

Convention Of Those Wounded In Love From Paulo Coelho's blog

I was looking to have something (legal:) from Mr. Coelho up on my blog here in honour of the honour he has given me. And this is just perfect!

The Last Wave featured at Quasar Dragon

The Last Wave featured at QuasarDragon, (which is) Finding great free, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, other cool items, with occasional comments and reviews by your semi-humble webmaster (Dave Tackett).

Thanks Dave!

Paulo Coelho publishes Chrome Rain extract on his Blog

A short while back Mr. Paulo Coelho started a new section in his blog called Your Story in my Blog. He invited anyone to submit a story as long as it had a max 250 word count. At the time (and still) I was working on a new story called Chrome Rain. The debut scene of one of my main characters struck me as perhaps eligible (in word count and content). So I made a few tweaks and sent it in.

Today, I received a congratulatory email from Paula Braconnot, who works with Mr. Coelho on his blog and "...He really liked your story and therefore we shall be publishing it in his blog today." And so it has come to pass that an extract of Chrome Rain has been published at Mr. Coelho's Blog. (read it here: Your Story in my Blog : Chrome Rain by Ivor W. Hartmann) I am so very honoured that a writer I admire and respect as much as Mr. Coelho, has taken me into his virtual home and let me leave a presence. Thank You Mr. Coelho!

I just previous to this also started releasing a bit of Chrome Rain at my Facebook Fan page, so if you would like to read more, I'll see you there.

Mr. Goop well recieved

Well, so far Mr. Goop seems to have been well received in general, and even sparked some blog-ranging discussions:


A post by Lauri Kubuitsile (one of my fellow Baobab Prize winners) at Thoughts From Botswana about African Fiction and Mr. Goop. Thanks Lauri!

Zimbabwean Science Fiction

I am one of the people who shouts the most about the heavy burden African writers have had to carry. They are only expected to put pen to paper if the result is literary, political and serious. So African Sue Townsends had to move on and become accountants or garbage collectors. African Barbara Cartlands became doctors or house maids. Popular fiction just wasn't for Africa- they said. Writers here needed to address African conditions and to the international world Africans don't laugh... Full Post

A post by Emmanuel Sigauke at Wealth of Ideas, which starts where Lauri Kubuitsile left off (in a way) about African Genre Fiction. I say bring on the Horror Emmanuel :) and thanks for the mention.

What's My Slice of African Genre Fiction?

In July, 2008, I blogged about the importance of genre expansion in African Fiction, branching off into sci-fi/fantasy, romance, horror, and other neglected genres. Around the same time I discovered there were African writers doing this already,from the detective fiction guru Alexander McCall Smith of the now popularised The Number 1 Lady Detective series on HBO... Full Post

Also had my first Official press release as a writer from The Zimbabwean, which is a great article by Beaven Tapureta, despite the title, about The Baoabab Prize, Mr. Goop and I. Thanks Beaven!

The Zimbabwean

Like many other Zimbabwean writers living abroad, economically exiled despite the love of their home country, Ivor W. Hartmann made Zimbabwe proud when he won the prestigious, inaugural 2008 Baobab Prize. In his acceptance letter, writer Hartmann said, “It is with profound sense of great honour that I accept The Baobab Prize and my proud privilege as a Zimbabwean writer to have entered and participated in this much needed stimulus to African writing.”... Full Post

The Award winning Mr. Goop Published in African Writing #7

I am happy to announce that Mr. Goop, which won The Baobaob Prize in March 2009, has been published in the prestigious literary magazine, African Writing, issue seven. It is now available to read for the first time at the AW Magazine Online home... Full Story

The Last Wave by Ivor W. Hartmann

'My name is Hamadziripi, the last of Homo sapiens sapiens, the last of the modern human species, as once we called ourselves. Even as I speak the Delphi are coming, they have my trail, and it won’t be long now. But perhaps in between postponing the inevitable I can broadcast this record, of the final days of man. To you who hear these words no matter how or who, I congratulate you. You have succeeded thus far, where we failed. To you I give this message of warning. Recognise the whole survives because of each part. Life, and that’s all biological life as we humans knew it, for we never managed to physically reach further, than our planets single moon. Life has long term plans. To late did we learn... Full Story

Review of The Night Watch at SWI

“Love is happiness, but only when you believe it will last forever. Even though every time it turns out to be a lie, it’s only faith that gives love its strength and its joy.”-Sergei Lukyanenko.

Like a gust of fresh cold winter’s air on a midsummer’s day Russian author Sergei Vasilievich Lukyanenko steps up and revitalises a favourite fantasy world; presenting an eternal struggle between good and evil in a new and blinding light. With not a damn cape, count or coffin to be seen in a modern vivid urban Russia, replete with echoes of communism and the impact of free trade and the Mafia. Lukyanenko pulls no punches and drags you mercilessly into a world of gritty realism where there is a price to be paid for every thought, word and deed. With no fanfare or velvet build up, the unseen world of Twilight, inhabited by dark ones and light ones or known collectively as “others” is revealed. Full Review