my review of "Sylvia Pankhurst" by Rachel Holmes

Here is my "Compulsive Reader" review of "Sylvia Pankhurst:Natural Born Rebel", by Rachel Holmes 

 http://www.compulsivereader.com/2021/04/08/a-review-of-sylvia-pankhurst-natural-born-rebel-by-rachel-holmes/

Sylvia Pankhurst is mentioned in my novel, "Votes, Love and War" (Ottawa, Baico, 2019, info@baico.ca)

ISBN 978-1-77216-191-5

Cover of "A Girl Should Be"

 This is the cover of my novel, A Girl Should Be, which will be published later in 2021.

The painting, "Sunrise" is by my husband, Roger Latta.

A Girl Should Be

 "Write what you like to read" is a time-honoured principle for novelists. I've always liked historical novels, with an elementary school favourite being "Rebels Ride at Night", about the 1837 Rebellion in Upper Canada.  More recently, I've enjoyed historical fiction by Paula Maclean, Paulette Jiles, Isabelle Allende, Sofia Segovia - to name just a few authors. I'm particularly interested in the history of the Left, in Canada and elsewhere.

Having studied history, (Ruth "Olson", M.A., Queen's University, 1973) I've decided to blend his my interest in the past and in fiction into novels of my own. I've written seven so far. Six  are in print, and available through libraries or from me, and a seventh, called "A Girl Should Be" is now at Baico Publishing (info@baico.ca) and may be in print in the fall of 2021. All of these novels are published by Baico Publishing of Ottawa, Canada

Before telling you about "A Girl Should Be", I'll say a few words about my first six historicals.

"The Secret of White Birch Road", 2005, is a girls' mystery set in the 1950s.   

"The Songcatcher and Me", 2013, involves folk song collecting in Ontario in the 1950s and has a co-protagonist loosely based on the Canadian folk song collector, Edith Fowke.

The two Grace books are about Grace Woodsworth, (1905-1991), later Grace MacInnis,  a democratic socialist, Canadian Parliamentarian and women's advocate. "Grace and the Secret Vault", 2017, is a young adult novel about Grace and her family in 1919 at the time of the Winnipeg General Strike.  "Grace in Love", 2018, is about Grace's  life and emotions in Paris and then in Ottawa, between 1928 and 1933.

"Votes, Love and War", 2019, takes readers back to Manitoba women's suffrage movement in the teens of the 20th century, and to the First World War, from the perspective of  Charlotte, a young Winnipeg housemaid who became a teacher. Real people mix with fictional characters in this novel, as in the Grace novels. In "Votes, Love and War" we meet two sisters, Lillian Beynon Thomas and Francis Marion Beynon, who in real life played crucial roles in Western Canada's women's suffrage movement.

In "A Girl Should Be", the novel I recently mailed to Ray Coderre of Baico Publishing, I've taken a minor character from "Votes, Love and War" (Charlotte's little sister, Annie) and set the novel in the late 1920s and early 1930s. 

The title, "A Girl Should Be", is from a quote from Coco Chanel: "A girl should be who and what she wants." It fits my novel, since Annie, my central character, is affected by the fierce debate and ever-changing attitudes of the day about what a woman's role should be.

 Also, there's a saying, "I'd rather be a human be-ing than a human doing." What Annie wants is to find herself and be that self - a challenge in the late 1920s and early years of the Great Depression.

"A Girl Should Be", won't be out until later in 2021. If you would like a copy of any of my other books, email Ray at Baico Publishing (info@baico.ca) and ask him for my telephone number and/or email address, and we'll talk arrangements.

My cat, Lily, likes my birthday balloon.

 

A Covid-19 Tale

 A COVID-19 TALE

This joke was sent to me by a friend. I don't know the original author.

Please be careful, because people are going crazy from being locked down at home. I was just talking about this with the microwave and the toaster while drinking my coffee, and we all agreed that things are getting bad.

I didn't mention any of this  to the washing machine because she puts a different spin on everything. Certainly I didn't share it with the fridge, because he's been acting cold. The iron tried to straighten me out. She said the situation isn't all that pressing and that all the wrinkles will soon get ironed out.

The vacuum, however, was very unsympathetic and told me to suck it up. But the fan was very optimistic and gave me hope that it will soon blow over.

The toilet looked a bit flushed but didn't say anything when I asked its opinion, but the front door said I was becoming unhinged, and the doorknob told me to get a grip.

You can guess what the curtains told me. They told me to "pull myself together."

Link to my review of "The Lying Life of Adults" in "Compulsive Reader"

http://www.compulsivereader.com/2021/02/08/a-review-of-the-lying-life-of-adults-by-elena-ferrante/

Above is the link.

Reading and writing my way through a shut-down

 Reading and writing have been important to me during the shut-down. Both allow one to escape thoughts of the pandemic for  a little while.

Writing?  I'm revising a stand-alone sequel to my 2019 novel, Votes, Love and War (Ottawa, Baico, info@baico.ca) The new novel takes place in the late 1920s and early 1930s and centres on Annie, the younger sister of Charlotte, who was the protagonist of V,L and W.  Annie is the quintessential flapper girl, to the extent that one could be a flapper in rural and small town Manitoba. With the 1929 stock market crash and the start of the Great Depression, life becomes more serious.

My favourite genre is historical novels, and I've come upon some great ones during these months at home. Thank goodness the Ottawa Public Library is providing at-the-door pick-ups and drop-offs. 

Here are some novels I recommend to those who like to travel back in time and learn a little about the past while being entertained.

Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea,  follows some compelling characters who are involved with the anti-fascist side in the Spanish Civil War, and then cross the ocean to settle in Chile, where they are caught up in the 1976 U.S.-supported coup of the military, which overthrew the liberal/leftwing government of Salvador Allende (Isabel's cousin.)

Sofia Segovia, the Mexican author who wrote The Murmur of Bees, has a new novel coming out in the spring.. Tears of Amber, her new novel, which I obtained as a review copy from Compulsive Reader, is inspired by a true story. Segovia traces the lives of two rural children growing up in rural East Prussia during the Nazi period, and their struggle to survive. Their flight from the invading Soviet forces in 1945 is gripping and gruesome.  

The novel focuses on the impact of war upon women and children.  East Prussia is no longer an entity on the map. After the First World War it became part of Poland, but when Hitler invaded Poland in 1939 this area, which was disputed for centuries, went under German control again.  After World War II it was divided up among Poland, Lithuania and the U.S.S.R. Segovia's writing is poetic and evocative, and her research extensive.

I love Italian author Elena Ferrante's novels that comprise the Neopolitan Quartet. Her new novel, The Lying Lives of Adults, a coming-of-age story, is set in late 20th century Naples. Unlike the novels in the Quartet, which are about two girls who take two different routes in an effort to escape their impoverished  beginnings, the central character in The Lying Lives comes from a middle-class professional family.  Her interest in tracing her working class roots on one side of her family is educative in many ways.

Another recent novel, Writers and Lovers by American author Lily King, struck a chord with me because the central character is an aspiring writer. Her writing makes her life meaningful in a tough world.  She puts up belittling, nay-saying reactions to her vocation, the sort of crap that gets slung at all writers. All of this is presented in a humorous way. Since reading this novel I have requested several more of her books.