On being acknowledged

Recently I received a lot of positive reaction from several sources on my novel, Grace in Love.  It’s a delight to have one’s accomplishments acknowledged, something that doesn’t happen all that often in adult life. Sometimes in life we are fortunate in being part of a circle “where everybody knows your name and everybody’s glad you came,” to quote the theme song from Cheers. If you are part of one, cherish it.

As a teacher, both of children and of adults, I tried to remember to praise people for what they did well. In writing classes especially I pointed out excellent aspects of participants’ stories and poems so that the authors would know what worked well, and repeat it in other projects.

Writers come to realize over the years that their work will be criticized and grow a thick skin. Instead of depending on others’ praise, we learn  to congratulate ourselves when we’ve brought all our skill and talent into play and executed something well.

Why do some people - our colleagues, our friends, some relatives - deny us acknowledgement and recognition for our successes. Well, when I was growing up, it was bad to be “struck on oneself”. Too much recognition might spoil a child, the thinking went; children might imagine that they could do no wrong and that the world would always applaud them. At some point the child would have a rude awakening, so it was best to teach him or her some humility. That kind of parental thinking seems to have faded away in favour of raising children to have high self-esteem. Those who were deprived of acknowledgement as children may not like praising others'  achievements because they long to be the chosen one.

Some people are stingy with praise because it feels to them like admitting that they themselves are lacking. Others, and we’ve all met them, have to put others down to feel good about themselves. Beware of them. Run far and run fast!  That sort of thing doesn't make a better world.

Sometimes we look for praise in areas that others take for granted. It's certainly all right to ask for praise,  because too often drudgery on behalf of others is taken for granted and it's good to point out the contribution you make. That can be carried to extremes, though. I remember many years ago an adult who drew my attention to the kitchen sink and accusing me of never noticing when it had been cleaned. I  should have said, "Oh, it's lovely! So shiny!" Instead, I remarked that sink-cleaning was part of housekeeping and that I'd never expected a medal for doing it.

Others may not praise your successes because your area of endeavour is utterly foreign to them; they don’t understand why it’s important and think you’re fiddling away your time. Instead of talking to them about my interests and achievements I just don't bother, but don't bother to make time to hear about theirs either.  At the same time, I try to be interested in and aware of a lot of things in life. I have no interest in hockey, for instance, but on my grandniece’s tenth birthday, I went to an arena for the first time in half a century to watch her play, and after the game I congratulated her on playing well. I still have zero interest in hockey but I want her to grow up healthy, to show initiative and to enjoy games, so I said, “You were great!” and meant it.

Grace in Love at the Book Chat

On Monday December 10th my novel, Grace in Love (Ottawa, Baico, 2918) was the book under discussion by the book chat group at the Emerald Plaza Branch of the Ottawa Public Library.  It's an honour to have one's book chosen, and I was happy to see that everyone present was interested in this novel about Grace Woodsworth MacInnis. The participants asked insightful questions and made perceptive comments. With fourteen present, the library may soon have to find us a bigger room to meet in.  The whole experience was a great Christmas present.

One of the participants emailed me the following:

Hi Ruth,
What a delightful session this afternoon! I really appreciated how you conducted the meeting. I enjoyed learning the background of your interest in Grace and seeing actual pictures of her and others in the family.  The novel was a fun way to learn history of Europe and Canada in the late 20s / early 30s. The book and your presentation certainly stimulated lots of interesting discussion.

 I look forward to your next novel!
Virginia 

The Way We Were

On December 4th, 2018, Roger and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary. This poem by Anne Bradstreet expresses my feelings.

To My Dear and Loving Husband

Anne Bradstreet, 1612 - 1672

If ever two were one, then surely we.
If ever man were loved by wife, then thee;
If ever wife was happy in a man,
Compare with me ye women if you can.
I prize thy love more than whole mines of gold,
Or all the riches that the East doth hold.
My love is such that rivers cannot quench,
Nor ought but love from thee give recompense.
Thy love is such I can no way repay; 
The heavens reward thee manifold, I pray.
Then while we live, in love let’s so persever,
That when we live no more we may live ever.

My review of Clock Dance

http://www.compulsivereader.com/2018/10/17/a-review-of-review-of-clock-dance-by-anne-tyler/

My review of Anne Tyler's new novel, Clock Dance, appears in the current issue of the online magazine, Compulsive Reader.

OPL Short Story Contest winners' picture

Eight co-winners of the 2018 Ottawa Public Library 50 Plus Short Story Contests read their entries at the Good
 Companions Centre on Tuesday September 25, 2018

I'm in the front row, first one on the viewers' left.

For the names of the other winners, please visit the Ottawa Public Library website.

My review of "Love and Ruin"

My review of Paula McLain's new novel, Love and Ruin, is in the current issue of Compulsive Reader  http://www.compulsivereader.com/2018/09/13/a-review-of-love-and-ruin-by-paula-mclain/

My book reviews in Canadian Materials magazine

Visit the online magazine Canadian Materials Vol. 25, No. 1, September 7, 2018, to read my reviews of two historical novels for young readers.  One is The Princess Dolls by Ellen Schwartz.  The other is The Rare Gift by G. Rosemary Ludlow.

Interview about Grace in Love

INTERVIEW WITH RUTH LATTA ABOUT "GRACE IN LOVE"

RKL:  Last year you published Grace and the Secret Vault, a young adult novel. Is your new novel, Grace in Love, a sequel?

Ruth: Both novels centre on Grace Woodsworth MacInnis, a real-life Canadian woman who lived from 1905-1991.  As a federal Member of Parliament (NDP) in the late '60s and early '70s, she was a strong advocate on women's issues, and also spoke out on economic equality and civil liberties.

Both of my novels about her can stand alone; it isn't necessary to read them in sequence to understand them. But each novel appeals to a different age group. Grace and the Secret Vault is for readers ten to fifteen. It is about the impact of the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike on Grace and her family.

Grace in Love is for a more mature audience. It takes place between 1928 and 1932, when Grace was in her mid-twenties, thinking about love and career as most people in that age group are doing.  The earlier novel is about Grace's budding political awareness and her family relationships. Grace in Love is about her search for true love and a meaningful career.

RKL: Where does Grace in Love take place?

Ruth: In Paris, France, and then in Canada: in Winnipeg and Ottawa.  It opens in the fall of 1928 when Grace is starting a course in French Civilization, offered to foreign students by the University of Paris. She is a graduate of Ottawa Teachers' College and the University of Manitoba, and anticipates a future teaching French. As one might imagine, her year in France is an education in many ways. In the fall of 1929 she returns to Winnipeg with a broken heart to take a teaching position, but it doesn't work out. Then her father, J.S. Woodsworth (a father of democratic socialism in Canada) asked her to come to Ottawa to be his unpaid Parliamentary interne.  There, she gets a sense of purpose, and also finds "the one."

RKL: Why Grace MacInnis, and why a novel?

Ruth: I am convinced that Grace wanted her life written about, because she gave many interviews (including a very long one with Peter Stursberg which is a great historical resource) and because she left her papers, including letters and diaries, to archives.

While she was in Parliament I was a student in Kingston, and interested in women's rights. When I saw her speaking on the news about issues concerning women I was impressed. Here was this sedate-looking, grandmotherly woman voicing progressive views that coincided with mine. I never met her, though, because I was up to my ears in work and domestic matters at that time, and then she retired to British Columbia.

Her difficulties with relationships in an era of changing rules, and her  career dilemmas struck a chord with me, and many readers will relate to her experiences.

Why a novel? Because a co-author and I had already published a biography, Grace MacInnis: A Woman to Remember, in 2000. Also, you can better convey the essence of a personality in a novel. I admire Paula McLain's historical novels, The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin, which are the product of extensive archival research, enabling the author to get inside the characters' hearts and minds and bring them alive.

RKL: What is your next project?

Ruth:  An historical novel about two sister journalists during the period 1913-1921. Francis Marion Beynon and Lillian Beynon Thomas edited the women's pages of two major Winnipeg newspapers. They were active in the suffrage movement. Without them, Manitoba would not have been the first province in Canada to enfranchise women. Then along came World War I, with devastating effects at home as well as abroad.

RKL: Why historical novels?

Ruth: I write them because I enjoy reading them, and also to answer the question: "What are you going to do with a Master's degree in History?"

My review of "White Houses" in Compulsive Reader

http://www.compulsivereader.com/2018/07/15/a-review-of-white-houses-by-amy-bloom/


This is the link to my review of Amy Bloom's novel, White Houses.

Grace in Love is the December 2018 Emerald Plaza book chat selection

I am pleased that my novel, Grace and the Secret Vault, will be the book under discussion at 2 p.m. on Monday December 10, 2018 at the Emerald Plaza Branch of the Ottawa Public Library. I look forward to hearing people's impressions and answering their questions.

Reminiscences for Rosie is one of the eight co-winners in the OPL short story contest

Dear Ruth,

I am writing to let you know that you are one of the winners of our 50+ Short Story Contest this year. Congratulations!

We will be holding an “Afternoon of Storytelling” event to celebrate the winners this fall on Tuesday, September 25 at 1:00 p.m. at the Good Companions Centre, 670 Albert St. We would be delighted if you would come to read your story “Reminiscences for Rosie ” aloud and to meet the other writers. Refreshments will be served during the event, and prizes will be awarded at the end. You are welcome to bring your family members and friends.

Please let me know as soon as is convenient for you whether you plan to attend, as well as the number of people you would likely be bringing with you.

Congratulations again!

Best regards,

Romaine Honey

Romaine Honey

Librarian, Program Development / Bibliothécaire, Élaboration des programmes

Ottawa Public Library / Bibliothèque publique d’Ottawa

613-580-2424, ext/poste 32151

'

"I loved 'Grace in Love'

A friend  with a background in history wrote to me recently:

 I loved Grace in Love.   It is so vivid and well written.  The thing I liked best was your portrayal of the conflicts a “modern” young woman of the 1920s faced when it came to her doubts and fears about sexuality.  What to say to men she became involved with? What to do about birth control?  How to judge a man she loved:  Willem, for example, whom I did not like. The book is also so valuable as a portrayal of the Canadian left.  I love what you make of Agnes MacPhail, for example. Thanks so much for sending me a copy.

*******

Grace in Love, and my earlier novel, Grace and the Secret Vault, are available at Singing Pebble Books, as well as from myself and the publisher (info@baico.ca)

"Grace in Love" at St. Mark's sale

 Roger and I were at the annual St. Mark's Church art and craft sale on April 7th, where I sold some books, including Grace in Love.

Peggy Lynn Kelly reviews "Grace in Love"

Grace in Love: A Novel about Grace Woodsworth

by Ruth Latta

Baico Publishing

2018, ISBN 978-1-77216-128-1, paperback 312 pages. 

Based on the life of Canadian politician Grace Woodsworth MacInnis, Grace in Love is the story of a young woman’s search for love, commitment, and fulfilling work. This book is both historical fiction and a novel of ideas. It’s also the story of a budding politician and a political party. Along the road to love and commitment, Grace Woodsworth discovered her vocation: a political life in the party founded by her father, J.S. Woodsworth: the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF), now known as the New Democratic Party (NDP).

The book opens with Grace’s arrival in Paris, France, on a scholarship to study French at the Sorbonne. In a series of flashbacks to Grace Woodsworth’s life growing up in Winnipeg, Vancouver, and Ottawa during the roaring twenties and the great depression of the 1930s, Ruth Latta illustrates Grace’s development into a confident, diplomatic, and modern young woman who understands people, communities, and politics. Having co-authored, with Joy Trott, the biography Grace MacInnis: A Woman to Remember, Ruth Latta is an expert on her subject. In Grace in Love, she holds a magnifying glass to a crucial portion of Grace Woodsworth MacInnis’s long life. Because Grace in Love is a novel, not a biography, some fictional characters mingle with the real ones.

The first half of Grace in Love is set in France, where the reader follows Grace’s travels and adventures, including sexual harassment on a train journey from Brussels to Paris. During her student days in Paris, Grace became fluent in French by immersing herself in the language and culture of France. She went to historical locations with friends and with two of her siblings who visited her in Paris at different times, Charles at Christmas and Belva during the summer. Together, they toured cathedrals (Notre Dame and Chartres), the Eiffel Tower, Versailles, Luxembourg Gardens, and famous Parisian neighbourhoods, such as Montmartre and Auteil.

At the Sorbonne, Grace made friends with both Parisians and other foreign students. After classes, Grace and her friends met in cafés to discuss socialism, religion, and love. During one of these gab sessions, Grace met Willem Van Aarden (not his real name), a South African graduate looking for an academic position. As Grace and Willem dated, going to the theatre, the opera, vaudeville performances, museums, and movies, she fell in love. Willem’s desire for an open relationship forced Grace to define her values and her goals regarding love and family. “You’re moving too fast for me,” she told him one night at the movies.

When Grace returned to Canada after graduating from the Sorbonne the following year, she left Willem behind and began teaching high-school French in Winnipeg. She was dismayed to discover that her students were indifferent to learning French. A subsequent stint teaching primary school convinced Grace that teaching wasn’t her vocation. She fell into a depression and was diagnosed with “battle fatigue.” Her family’s support and acceptance brought Grace through this dark period. Grace’s mother suggested that she write about her problems and the resulting “Apologia” expressed Grace’s fear and despair over her lost vocation.

Grace soon realized that working on her father’s election campaign was much more her cup of tea. J.S. Woodsworth’s 1930 campaign for re-election to the federal seat representing Winnipeg North Centre was successful, and Grace moved to Ottawa as her father’s parliamentary assistant. Her duties included helping rookie members of the Ginger Group write punchy speeches for the House of Commons. One of those MPs was Angus MacInnis. What began as a job quickly evolved into a romance with a much older man, and Grace and Angus reserved every evening for long walks together along the Rideau Canal. Grace in Love comes full circle with the couple travelling to Europe after their marriage, where they spend time with Grace’s Parisian friends.

In Grace in Love, the heroine’s character is realistically drawn through vivid examples of her activities and ideas. Her dedication to studying French, her love and respect for her family, her determination to communicate clearly with her fiancé, regardless of the subject, combine to form a picture in the reader’s eye of a strong, capable, smart, loving, and hard-working young woman.

Events come alive in Grace in Love because of Ruth Latta’s excellent research and the story’s high level of realism. The Estevan miners’ strike, the suppression of Communism, birth control, non-traditional families, and equal pay for women are some of the socio-political issues impacting the lives of these characters. 

Grace in Love: A Novel about Grace Woodsworth is a fascinating read about an important Canadian. It’s ideal for readers who enjoy history and politics.

Grace in Love is available from Baico Publishing (www.baico.ca).

Peggy Lynn Kelly is a retired English Professor completing a scholarly work with Carole Gerson on Canadian women writers in print and broadcasting, 1914-1960.

Review of Grace in Love, by Emily Jane Orford

Review of Grace in Love

by Emily-Jane Orford

What is it that defines a person’s life? Is it the wonderful, amazing (or the opposite) deeds they perform as adults that make them memorable in the history of human-kind? Or does the true nature of a person present itself from the very moment that person enters this world?

Grace Woodsworth MacInnis (1905-1991) was a well-respected Parliamentarian, a Canadian with passion for the working class, a person who cared for others, especially women and their difficult plights in life. She was a gifted speaker, a compassionate soul, an advocate for equality of rights and liberties.

Before Grace made her name in Canadian politics, she was a girl. We read about her younger years in Ruth Latta’s “Grace and the Secret Vault” (Baico, 2017). Now the author takes the reader on another journey through this amazing woman’s formative years in her latest book, “Grace in Love” (Baico, 2018). While the author allows the reader to follow Grace’s studies in Paris and her journeys around Europe, the reader also learns about a young woman just learning about love. In Paris, as one would expect, she believes she’s discovered true love, only to come to a realization that this love is a passing fancy from the partner’s perspective. The young woman, now educated in French and ready to return to a career in teaching like her mother, saves herself before she falls victim to this love’s alluring temptations. And, ultimately, she learns that, although she may have lost a friend in her almost lover, she has many other friends, new and old, whom she loves and a family she also loves and cares for. There are, after all, many kinds of love.

Returning to Winnipeg and teaching, Grace finally unburdens her sorrows to her mother, who bluntly, but also compassionately, assesses the situation, telling Grace that, “men are like streetcars. There’ll be another one along in twenty minutes.” And, for Grace, there was another one. But it did take a little longer than twenty minutes.

In Winnipeg, Grace discovers that she doesn’t possess the passion for teaching that her mother had. Her father invites Grace to join him in Ottawa as an office assistant and she accepts, even though she doesn’t yet know how to type. Thrown into the world of politics, not so unfamiliar since she grew up with a very open-minded, socialist father, Grace attaches herself to another like-minded thinker and the two connect and bond, as love grows. Grace had found her life’s partner and her passion for helping others in a way not so different from her father’s, in government.

Ruth Latta is a storyteller, intent and dedicated to presenting Canadian history, especially the history of Canadian women, in a creative and enjoyable manner. A person’s life is a story and the author has captured the beauty of the person she is writing about in a storytelling manner. Ruth has done considerable research on Grace Woodsworth MacInnis, particularly studying the woman’s extensive archive of correspondence. Grace, like Ruth, was passionate about expressing herself vividly with the written word.

This is a powerful, insightful and intuitive exploration of one woman’s life, before the woman became the power in Canadian politics that made her memorable. A valuable addition to Canadian literature and Canadian history.

I Have Copies of "Grace in Love"!

Grace in Love: A Novel About Grace Woodsworth is now available from me at ruthlatta1@gmail.com or from Baico Publishing, at info@baico.ca

The ISBN is 98-1-77216-128-1 and the price is $25

More about my new novel, "Grace in Love"

When twenty-three year old Grace Woodsworth left Canada in the summer of 1928 to study for a year at the University of Paris (the Sorbonne), she imagined that her education there would involve studying the French language and culture. To her surprise, that year was the beginning of her education in love.

In Grace and the Secret Vault (Ottawa, Baico, 2017, 978-1-77216-092-5, $20) Grace, at thirteen, helped her family during the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike.  In Grace in Love, I continue Grace's story, showing the concerns of young women in an era of changing moral codes.  Grace and the Secret Vault is for young adult readers ten and up. Grace in Love is intended for a slightly older audience - for readers in their late teens and early twenties, and older.

In writing both books I employed the research skills I learned as a history student at Queen's University (M.A, 1970, Ruth "Olson") and used some of  the earlier research I had done about Grace for Grace MacInnis, A Woman to Remember (Xlibris, 2000) co-authored by myself and Joy Trott.

Grace in Love will be published in 2018 and is available, as is  Grace and the Secret Vault, from myself or from baico@bellnet.ca

My review of "This Far Isn't Far Enough"

A review of This Far Isn’t Far Enough by Lynn Sloan

Sloan’s characters are from various walks of life: an art dealer, a sculptor, a soldier, a convenience store clerk, a female prize fighter and several disillusioned mothers. Bullying, dishonest superiors, exploitative friends, devoted friends, women who love too much, and the darker side of parent-child relationships are examined in this collection Read more: http://www.compulsivereader.com/2018/01/04/a-review-of-this-far-isnt-far-enough-by-lynn-sloan/