The 11th Hour of the 11th Day
Weston Lakes Book Club hosts talk by area author
By Noreen Stavinoha
At a recent meeting of the Weston Lakes Book Club in Fulshear, Brenda Ritter talked to the group about her recently published novel, The 11th Hour of the 11th Day, about her grandfather’s participation in that war, and its affect on his family.
“This is a family story that my mother always told,” Ritter explains. “I felt it was really interesting and something that needed to be told.”
She then shared two of her Christmas family essays. One was a poignant account of her childhood memories of time spent with her grandfather, helping him roll cigarettes and reading to him when he was ill. The other was about the first Christmas he celebrated with his family after he returned home from the fighting. The latter became part of the book. It was in writing those stories that she learned she could move people to tears—a sure sign she was doing it right.
Born in Ontario, Canada, Ritter says she remembers very little information about WWI being taught in school, even though November 11 (the date of WWI Armistice) was always important to her family and most Canadians. It wasn’t until she was working on her book that she realized a substantial number of Canadians fought in that war, because they were part of the British Commonwealth. Canada, Australia, and other countries in the Commonwealth weren’t given a choice when it came to sending soldiers into the conflict, and her grandfather was one of them.
Her grandfather is quoted as saying, “Well, we are sending half a million Canadians over there. I’ll probably get there and they’ll send me right back home.” That was wrong, of course, and Ritter has her own childhood memories of just how wrong that statement was. She recalls the prosthesis he wore where his lower leg used to be, and the crutch that helped him walk.
Ritter is a professional journalist, so she carefully researched WWI history—particularly the battles involving the Canadian soldiers. While doing that research, she obtained her grandfather’s military and medical records detailing where he went, what he was doing and his doctors’ reports. That package enabled her to be totally accurate in her description of his participation in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, and the injuries he suffered.
Ritter shared that the published manuscript was actually the third version of the story. At first, she thought it would be her Grandmother Annie’s story because she died. When she got to the part about the war, she realized that played a much larger part in her grandparent’s lives, so she changed the approach to make it Alfred’s story, titled It’s Time to Say Goodbye.”
When she submitted the manuscript to a Canadian publisher, he told her, “You have written a WWI story, and you have to put the war at the top.”
The war was in the middle of the book, so she had to think about a major revision.
“Then I had an inspiration,” says Ritter. “There were all these stories in the news about people who were having near-death experiences, and I decided I could do that and have Alfred telling the story, so that’s what I did.”
The approach obviously worked.
Ritter is the recipient of many honors and awards including the U.S. Congressional Achievement Award; Outstanding Journalism Awards from the Texas and Houston and Harris County Mental Health Associations; Outstanding Investigative Reporting from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and 30 Writing Awards from the Texas School Public Relations Association.
By Noreen Stavinoha
At a recent meeting of the Weston Lakes Book Club in Fulshear, Brenda Ritter talked to the group about her recently published novel, The 11th Hour of the 11th Day, about her grandfather’s participation in that war, and its affect on his family.
“This is a family story that my mother always told,” Ritter explains. “I felt it was really interesting and something that needed to be told.”
She then shared two of her Christmas family essays. One was a poignant account of her childhood memories of time spent with her grandfather, helping him roll cigarettes and reading to him when he was ill. The other was about the first Christmas he celebrated with his family after he returned home from the fighting. The latter became part of the book. It was in writing those stories that she learned she could move people to tears—a sure sign she was doing it right.
Born in Ontario, Canada, Ritter says she remembers very little information about WWI being taught in school, even though November 11 (the date of WWI Armistice) was always important to her family and most Canadians. It wasn’t until she was working on her book that she realized a substantial number of Canadians fought in that war, because they were part of the British Commonwealth. Canada, Australia, and other countries in the Commonwealth weren’t given a choice when it came to sending soldiers into the conflict, and her grandfather was one of them.
Her grandfather is quoted as saying, “Well, we are sending half a million Canadians over there. I’ll probably get there and they’ll send me right back home.” That was wrong, of course, and Ritter has her own childhood memories of just how wrong that statement was. She recalls the prosthesis he wore where his lower leg used to be, and the crutch that helped him walk.
Ritter is a professional journalist, so she carefully researched WWI history—particularly the battles involving the Canadian soldiers. While doing that research, she obtained her grandfather’s military and medical records detailing where he went, what he was doing and his doctors’ reports. That package enabled her to be totally accurate in her description of his participation in some of the bloodiest battles of the war, and the injuries he suffered.
Ritter shared that the published manuscript was actually the third version of the story. At first, she thought it would be her Grandmother Annie’s story because she died. When she got to the part about the war, she realized that played a much larger part in her grandparent’s lives, so she changed the approach to make it Alfred’s story, titled It’s Time to Say Goodbye.”
When she submitted the manuscript to a Canadian publisher, he told her, “You have written a WWI story, and you have to put the war at the top.”
The war was in the middle of the book, so she had to think about a major revision.
“Then I had an inspiration,” says Ritter. “There were all these stories in the news about people who were having near-death experiences, and I decided I could do that and have Alfred telling the story, so that’s what I did.”
The approach obviously worked.
Ritter is the recipient of many honors and awards including the U.S. Congressional Achievement Award; Outstanding Journalism Awards from the Texas and Houston and Harris County Mental Health Associations; Outstanding Investigative Reporting from the Texas Intercollegiate Press Association and 30 Writing Awards from the Texas School Public Relations Association.
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