My new novel, "Votes, Love and War"

Votes, Love and War (Ottawa, Baico, 2019, ISBN 978-1-77216-191-5, $32) is one of the very few works of fiction about the Manitoba women's suffrage movement and the First World War as experienced by women on the home front.  As well as being an entertaining story in which fictional characters mingle with real historical figures, Votes Love and War explores concerns as important now as they were in the first two decades of the 20th century: the status of newcomers to Canada, the meaning of equality, and the impact of war upon democracy.

When eighteen year old Charlotte leaves her rural Manitoba home in 1913 to find work in Winnipg, she dreams of meeting the Beynon sisters. Francis Marion Beynon and her elder sister, Lillian Beynon Thomas, were sisters, journalists, women's page editors and activists in the Manitoba women's suffrage movement.  Under their wings, Charlotte participates in the movement and meets some of the most progressive people in Winnipeg. Then, in the summer of 1914, Canada goes to war and over the next four years, many hopes and dreams are shattered.

The Beynon sisters were instrumental in winning the vote for Manitoba women in 1916 - the first women in Canada to have the franchise.  While historians have written about them, their work has not been publicized like that of Nellie McClung, their contemporary. Votes, Love and War shows their important contribution to Canadian women's equality.  Copies are available from Baico Publishing, info@baico.ca and myself, ruthlatta1@gmail.com.

Grace in Love: A Novel about Grace Woodsworth (Ottawa, Baico 2018, 978-1-77216-128-1, 2012 pages softcover, $25) is an historical novel about a young Canadian in search of a life's work and love to last a lifetime through. Aimed at grownups who know something about love, Grace in Love is set in Paris in the Roaring Twenties and Canada during the Great Depression.

When twenty-three year old Grace Woodsworth left Canada in the summer of 1928 to study at the Sorbonne, she imagined that her education would involved 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, Grace, at thirteen, helped her family during the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike. In
Grace in Love, Ruth Latta continues Grace's story, showing the concerns of young women in an era of changing moral codes.


FOR INFORMATION ABOUT MY OTHER BOOKS,
PLEASE CLICK ON 2017 AND 2011

Grace and the Secret Vault

In 1919, a general strike is called in Winnipeg, and thirteen year old Grace learns that her father is involved in it. In this crisis, she finds a way to help her family.

Grace and the Secret Vault (Ottawa, Baico, 2017, ISBN 978177216096,  $20) is available from info@baico.ca and from ruthlatta1@gmail.com

Welcome.

Contents

Books Available (A list)

Ruth's Autobiography

Information About Individual Books

The Canadian Youth Congress

Writing Services

Book Review Service

Ruth Latta at Fitzroy Park
September, 2014 

Books Available

Grace in Love: A Novel About Grace Woodsworth

Grace and the Secret Vault
Most of All
The Songcatcher and Me
The Old Love and the New Love
Winter Moon

Spelling Bee

An Amethyst Remembrance

They Tried: The Story of the Canadian Youth Congress

Grace MacInnis: A Woman to Remember (with Joy Trott)

Memories Stick

Illusions Die

The Secret of White Birch Road

Tea With Delilah
Life Music
A Wild Streak
The Memory of All That
Life Writing
Save the Last Dance for Me

Ruth's Biography

Born in Englehart, Ontario, Ruth's first venture into higher education was at North Bay Teachers' College. She has an Ontario Teachers' Certificate. She is a graduate of Queen's University, (B.A, 1970. M.A., History, 1973, Ruth "Olson.") She also completed a B.A. in English in 1993 from the University of Waterloo.

Ruth taught in Ontario elementary schools for five years. Later, as a history researcher/project manager, she indexed 19th century Kingston newspapers. Since 1985, she has taught interest courses in creative writing (including memoir writing) in Ottawa schools, community centres and libraries. Several of her former students have since been published.

Over the past thirty years, her short fiction, poems, reviews and articles have been published in a variety of literary and general interest publications. Her twelve books, (two on historical subjects, one biography, one on the craft of writing, three short story collections and five novels) have been published by Ottawa-area small presses.

For the past ten years Ruth has been writing a monthly "Book Report" column for the Ottawa edition of Forever Young magazine. Her book reviews also appear frequently in Canadian Materials, an online magazine published by the Faculty of Education of the University of Manitoba. She is a member of the Writers' Union of Canada.

Ruth lives in Ottawa with a microbiologist/painter/writer and a cat.

Contact Ruth at: ruthlatta1@gmail.com

This site was last updated on Jan 8, 2015.

Ruth's newest novel, Most of All, became available on Amazon Kindle on Jan. 3rd, 2015. For more information click here. 

Ninety year old Kathleen traveled the world in connection with her work. Jan, a writer helping her with her memoirs, finds her frustrating to work with, yet fascinating. Most of All is about old age, and also about an unlikely friendship.

The Songcatcher and Me

Ruth Latta's new novel for young adults is The

Songcatcher and Me

"It is 1957, and fourteen year old Sheila feels stalled, living with her tired grandmother and irritable uncle at their failing country store in the back of beyond. Then a songcatcher turns up and everything changes."

The book is available for $20 (+ shipping & handling) from Ruth (ruthlatta1@gmail.com) and from her publisher Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert Street, Suite 103, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6. (613)829-5141. baico@bellnet. www.baico.ca.

Books

The Old Love and the New Love

When Cleo's old lover, Leo Phelan, whom she hasn't seen in a decade, turns up on her doorstep, she is flustered, not flattered. Should she invite him to join her and her husband, Andy, for dinner?

Will Leo be the serpent in their Eden? Little does she know that Leo poses a different kind of threat. Gradually she realizes how tangled she is in the ties that bound them.
Baico Publishing Inc.
294 Albert Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6
(baico@bellnet.ca)
ISBN 978-1-926945-70-5
$18.95 Canadian

TOO SEE IMAGES OF BOOKS FROM THIS POINT CLICK ON THE BOXES OR VERTICAL BARS ON THE RIGHT.







Winter Moon
A collection of short stories. Ruth's imaginary characters seem like real human beings.Their dilemmas and solutions cast light upon our own journeys.
Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.
ISBN 978-1-926596-92-1
$18.95 Canadian.

Spelling Bee
A young teacher's drab world is transformed by a glamorous substitute who becomes her friend. Forty years later, Colleen wishes she could see Bibi again.
Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.
ISBN 978-1-926596-19-8
$22.95 Canadian.

Books

An Amethyst Remembrance
Susan aspires to solve the riddle of marriage and finish her education. Her husband becomes seriously ill. Their friend Margot cheers them up, but can they help with her challenges?
Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.
ISBN 978-1-897449-29-5
$18.95 Canadian.

They Tried: the Story of the Canadian Youth Congress
The CYC was an umbrella organization of youth groups which worked for peace & social change during the Great Depression. It was originated (in 1935), developed and administered by youth.
Published by Ruth Latta.
ISBN 0-9683382-9-1
$22.00 Canadian

Grace MacInnis: A Woman to Remember by Ruth Latta and Joy Trot
Published by Xlibris.
ISBN 0-7388-5585-5
$25.00 Canadian.

Books

Memories Stick The sister of Delia's friend, Audrey, is mugged and killed in what appears to be a random act of violence. Delia helps investigate, out of loyalty to the past and for her own peace of mind.
Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.
ISBN 1-897357-77-X
$18.95 Canadian.










Illusions Die
Rupert helps a friend search for his father in the northern woods. Delia is involved in a literary project involving a former actress. How could such endeavours bring them close to mysterious deaths?
Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.
ISBN 1-897072-77-5
$19.95 Canadian.










The Secret of White Birch Road
White Birch Road is a mystery for young readers about two teenage girls who seek the truth about a friend's murder.
Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.
Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.
ISBN 1-897072-22-8
$19.95 Canadian.

Books

Tea With Delilah

Tea With Delilah is an intriguing mystery

involving ordinary people who get

entangled in extraordinary circumstances.

Baico Publishing Inc., 294 Albert St.

Ottawa, Ontario, K1P 6E6.

ISBN 1-894494-87-3

$16.95 Canadian.

Life Music
Compiled and edited by Ruth Latta
A collection of short stories by seniors.
Published by Ruth Latta.
ISBN 0-9683382-0-8
$17.00 Canadian.

A Wild Streak
by Ruth Latta
A collection of short stories showing
men and women gaining insights about
life in a complicated world.
Published by General Store.
ISBN 0-896182-08-9
$14.95 Canadian.

Books

The Memory of All That
Compiled and edited by Ruth Latta
The stories of twenty-five young women
from varied backgrounds who were young
during World War II.
Published by General Store.
ISBN 0-919431-64-X
$18.95 Canadian.












Life Writing
by Ruth Latta
With examples and discussion of various
autobiographies, the author offers suggestions
as to how to write a life story.
Published by General Store.
ISBN 0-919431-03-8
$11.95 Canadian.

Save The Last Dance for Meby Ruth Latta
Back in the middle of the 20th century was the
world a simpler place or does it only seem so?
Published by Poetica Press, 3478 Paul Anka Dr.
Ottawa, On K1V 9K6, poetica-pressP@rogers.com.
ISBN 0-9686117-5-3
$20.00 Canadian, $13.00 U.S.

Canadian Youth Congress

THEY TRIED: THE STORY OF THE CANADIAN YOUTH CONGRESS

by Ruth Latta

The Canadian Youth Congress grew out of the Great Depression. Originated, developed and administered by young people, it began as a Toronto-based group in 1935 and grew into a national umbrella organization, including youth from all social classes and a variety of religious and ethnic groups.

Delegates from the affiliated groups met annually. After the initial organizing congress in Toronto in May 1935, five subsequent national congresses were held: in 1936 in Ottawa, in 1937 in Montreal, in 1938 in Toronto, in 1939 in Winnipeg and in 1940 in Montreal. The Canadian Youth Congress sent representatives to the first World Youth Congress in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1936, and to the second, at Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1938. It split in 1940 over the Nazi-Soviet Pact, but continued in reduced form until 1942. At its peak, it had a constituent membership of over 400,000 and its annual national conferences were attended by over 700 young people.

During its short life, the Canadian Youth Congress had a significant impact, both directly and indirectly. It proposed a Canada Youth Act which never became law but influenced Prime Minister King to establish a committee of the National Employment Commission to investigate youth problems, and a Dominion-Provincial Youth Training Program. In 1938, the CYC conducted a survey of unemployment conditions among the young, and the following year, sent a delegation to the federal Minister of Labour, asking for an expansion of the Youth Training Program and a greater expenditure on public works, to provide employment.

The CYC expanded the horizons of many young people. The coming together of young people from coast to coast could not help but break down barriers among religions and cultures. On a personal-development level, participation in the CYC and its affiliates was an education for many young people.

To write They Tried: The Story of the Canadian Youth Congress, Ruth Latta not only looked at the organization's archived material in the William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections in the Mills Memorial Library at McMaster University, but also interviewed older adults who had been involved in the CYC.

Among them was the late Kenneth Chown Woodsworth, former Secretary of the CYC. In a 1993 interview with Ruth Latta, discussing the CYC's legacy, he said, "Well, we didn't bring about world peace or a more humane economic system, but we tried."

The Canadian Youth Congress demonstrated that a youth constituency existed and paved the way for subsequent youth organizations. Its inclusiveness was remarkable then, and now as well. In a large, sparsely populated country, the Canadian Youth Congress helped young Canadians get to know each other and fostered the growth of a Canadian identity.

For your copy of

They Tried: The Story of the Canadian Youth Congress,ISBN 0-9683382-9-1

send $20 (cheque or money order) to

Ruth Latta

908 Dynes Road

Ottawa, ON,

K2C 0G8

ralatta@cyberus.ca

Writing Services

MANUSCRIPT DEVELOPMENT AND EDITING
 Sometimes, after completing a piece of writing, we feel the need to show it to an experienced writer for honest and positive feedback. Ruth Latta has helped budding writers to develop their ideas into essays, memoirs, stories and novels, and to fine-tune their manuscripts. As Writer-in-Residence with the City of Ottawa at the Heron Road Centre, from September 1999 to February 2000, she helped developing writers and had the pleasure of seeing several go on to publish their work and win prizes. She has also provided editorial assistance independently, charging reasonable and negotiable fees. She has assisted a number of aspiring writers with book length works, several of which have been published, and one of which won the Ottawa Carleton Book Award (in English) in 1998. For information about hiring Ruth to help you expand, develop or edit your manuscript, e-mail her at ralatta@cyberus.ca

Book Review Service

Need Your Book Reviewed?

Would you like me to review your book? You could put the review on your website or use it however you like in marketing your book.

These days, with so many books being published, and the number of magazines that print book reviews declining, it's hard to get a book reviewed. Yet it's good publicity to have a review to post or quote.

As the author of fourteen published books (as of 2011) and many articles and reviews, including reviews in Ottawa's Forever Young and the online magazine Canadian Materials, I have a lot of experience thinking about books and their various reasons for appealing to readers.

I'll read your book (or manuscript) and write you a review that expresses my honest, informed and considered opinion. I charge $1 per book or manuscript page; that is, for a 200 page book I would charge $200.

Contact Ruth at: ralatta@cyberus.ca

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LINKS 

Ruth Latta's Web Site: http://www.cyberus.ca/~rklatta/RuthLatta.html

Roger Latta's Art Blog: http://rogerlatta.blogspot.com/

Ivan Desabrais' novel, Phoenix Initiative: http://amzn.to/oHc0j6

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