Posts

The Art World of my novel-in-progress, "Forty Mermaids."

  My new novel, Forty Mermaids , to be published in 2026, is about a fictional Montreal artist’s development as a painter during the first half of the 20th century. My central character, Merle, faces obstacles to her work. Like many “women artists,” she struggles to carve out time from homemaking to pursue her painting. Her work is misinterpreted by art critics. Friends advise her to concentrate on domestic life. Like many innovators, she runs into conventional notions about what art is. As well, the Great Depression of the 1930s was not a good time for those in the arts.          While the administration of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt  provided opportunities and funding for American artists through the Works Progress Administration, Canada had no such program. During World War II, however, the Canadian  government funded artists to work on pictures about the  war effort.           I have always li...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Uses and Abuses of History

 This oldie but goodie is my review of The Uses and Abuses of History, b y Margaret (MacMillan Viking, 2008), which appeared in Briarpatch in 2009. I thought about it recently while researching the historical background for my new novel-to-be, Forty Mermaids , and thought I would share the review with you. The Uses and Abuses of History,b y Margaret (MacMillan Viking, 2008),  in   Briarpatch, May June  2009, reviewed by Ruth Latta What does “history” mean to you? A list of names and dates? Great deeds of long ago? “History,” says historian Margaret MacMillan, is something we all do.” Formerly at the University of Toronto, now at Oxford, Professor MacMillan is well-known for her Governor General’s Award-winning book, Paris 1919 , and, more recently, for Nixon in China . These thoroughly researched, academically respected books are entertaining reads. Similarly reader-friendly is her latest book, The Uses and Abuses of History. MacMillan finds it natural that we...
Post a Comment
Read more

So Bad it was Good!

 SO BAD IT WAS GOOD! Researching for an historical novel can be frustrating. People edit their diaries. Historians and biographers settle on an approach and omit other interesting areas of their subject’s life.  They are also territorial, unwilling to share their insights and impressions with a mere novelist.  After all, novelists apply their imaginations to what they are writing, while historians and biographers are like the detective Joe Friday in Dragnet;  “They just want the facts, Ma’am.” Not long ago I got hold of a transcribed interview from some fifty years ago that was unhelpful and disappointing in some ways, but informative and hilarious in others.  A researcher was interviewing a married couple who were part of a progressive, political, arty circle in the 1930s and ‘40s.  The researcher was particularly interested in the wife’s career, but the husband joined in halfway through, because he’d been part of the same scene as she had. She was in her ...
Post a Comment
Read more

"Fun Times in English Class" by Valerie Limmer

 A couple of years ago, a neighbour introduces us to Valerie and Peter Limmer, who are missionaries in Japan with MissionGo Canada, and send out a bi-monthly newsletter, “Land of the Risen Son.”  In Issue 92, June 2025, Valerie wrote an article, “Fun Times in English Class” which I like very much. She has given me permission to publish an excerpt from it: We’ve been having some exciting conversations in English class! It all started last month when one of our older students, a grandmother whom I’ll call ‘Zephyr,’came up to me. “Is Trump a Christian?” She peered into my face anxiously. Hmm. It might be best to give her more information and let her draw her own conclusions “Christians are people who love and follow Jesus.  In time, we naturally become more like him. Jesus is someone who is loving.  During His time on earth, HE stood up for the helpless and oppressed. He got angry at people who took advantage of foreigners; He pointed to a poor widow as having more gene...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review of new book by Grace Blakeley

   Here is my review of Vulture Capitalism:  https:// compulsivereader.com/2025/08/ 08/a-review-of-review-of- vulture-capitalism-by-grace- blakeley/
Post a Comment
Read more

Nana, Itchy and the Chalice - my short story

 I wrote this story for a flash fiction magazine awhile back, but it wasn't chosen.  Since it's short, why not publish it here?                                    Nana,  Itchy, and the Chalice © Ruth Latta, 2024      Nancy Jo, known in her family as “Nana,” walks downtown for the mail. In the post office lobby, she unlocks her mail box and takes out her bills, and occasionally an actual letter from someone in her extended family. Whether it’s Summer’s graduation in St. John’s, or Tristan’s potty learning in Vancouver, she loves to hear about it. Getting the mail is a social event in Hope Falls, and a half hour passes before Nana gets away from the post office. Neighbours want to share their news and hear hers. The socializing spills onto the sidewalk, too. A deacon wants to discuss the church roof.  The women’s group president wants her to bake f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Historical fiction featuring real people

 At https://awriterofhistory.com I read an informative article (2024/02/29) called "Historical fiction featuring real people - a debate." A while ago an Ottawa writers' organization had an interview on Zoom with Kingston author Helen Humphreys, about her new novel centering on Henry David Thoreau. I tuned in and found her tips fascinating.  I write historical fiction in which real people appear as minor characters, and my novels, "Grace and the Secret Vault," and "Grace in Love," centre on the late Grace Woodsworth MacInnis,  an NDP Member of Parliament in the 1960s and '70s who championed the poor and women, two categories that often overlap.  In those novels, I called Grace by her real name. In my novel, "A Striking Woman," the main character is so very loosely based on the late Madeleine Parent that I gave her character a new name, "Jacqueline Laflamme." Ms. Humphreys was great but one of the writers' organization members...
Post a Comment
Read more