In this category (Books and Posts from Denis Ledoux), I share excerpts from books—published and unpublished—I have written over the many years I have immersed myself in memoir writing.
There continues, after all these years, to be something about the genre that I find creative and satisfying—whether I am writing my own books or ghostwriting for others. (I have several dozens of these co-authored tomes on my shelves by now! It goes to show that, if you show up every day for 30 years to write, before you know it, you have a long list of titles!)
The books and posts from Denis Ledoux
The many stories in this category fall into several subsections and are drawn from the following books:
- Here to Stay [an unpublished history of my seventeenth-century Canadian ancestors],
- We Were Not Spoiled [co-written with my mother whose story it is]. The book covers the early life (to age 30) of a representative Franco-Mainer in the middle of the last century. People have said, “You have written the story of my mother!”
- In Another Century [my as-yet unpublished account of seminary high-school experience]. My education and life during these years in the seminary resemble the nineteenth century more than they did the twentieth century in which I was living,
- Marie Bilodeau [these are family stories that are composed from my memory of my grandmother and from some research], and
- My Eye Fell Into the Soup [drawn from both a journal of Martha Blowen, my dear companion in life and in work, before she succumbed to cancer and from my concurrent journals].
In conclusion
I hope you enjoy these stories under the title of Books and Posts from Denis Ledoux. They are dear to me, and I hope they will prove interesting to you also.
A Firm Writing Resolution: You Will Not Regret Formulating One for 2026
Resolutions can be tricky—just an exercise in fooling yourself! But they can also be a dynamic trigger. In this post, I will share a writing resolution that paid off big for me. If you have not decided on New Year’s resolutions for your writing, it is a good time to choose priorities for the […]
Our Christmas Réveillon—A Franco Custom
At Christmas, it was a Franco custom to have an all-night party—a réveillon—after the midnight mass. The following excerpt is from my French Boy / A 1950s Franco-American Childhood. ___ For our first Christmas in our new home, my parents hosted a Christmas réveillon for both sides of the family. We children grew excited witnessing […]
How an Idea Becomes a Book
This is how an idea becomes a book. ___ Every month (at 1 PM/ET, 12 CT, 11 MT, 10 PT), you can participate in a live memoir-writing workshop on ZOOM. Usually, it occurs on the third Thursday of the month, but in November, I will be traveling to give a book talk on the third […]
Book recommendation: “Here to Stay”
[This review of my latest book was posted on Substack on October 20, 2025, by Jean Edouard Pouliot. Thank you profusely, Jean, for your support in publishing Book recommendation: “Here to Stay”.] [Jean’s text] I wanted to mention a wonderful new book by my friend, Denis Ledoux, who has been writing for years about the […]
The Making of Here to Stay
Until October 31, 2025, Here to Stay / Lives in 17th Century Canada is available with no S/H. Get your copy today. In 1995, I became intrigued with tracing my ancestry to the first of the Canadian colonists who bore my patronym. Who were these of my people who came to North America four and […]
Many disparities between women in early Canada and in New England
[Jeanne Mance, founder of the first hospital in Montréal (the Hôtel-Dieu) and a key figure among the women in early Canada.] We want to believe that European settlement of North America was identical, but it wasn’t. The French and the English colonies established different patterns. The women in early Canada had a more public presence. […]
Telling the Past as It Probably Was!
My latest book is Here to Stay / Lives in 17th-Century Canada. In this post, I want to make clear that people then lived with different paradigms. It’s the only way I can explain things. Telling the past of New France was not easy. As I was writing Here to Stay, a story of my […]
Have You ever Written an Advance Review?
Write an Advance Review of Here to Stay/Lives in 17th Century Canada. Thanks for stopping by! I need you help. Here to Stay/Lives in 17th Century Canada is about to launch into the world. Your advance review of Here to Stay will be an important element of its success. What is an advance review of […]
Filles du Roi / Daughters of the King: Marthe Quittel Comes for a Husband
Among the eight filles du roi aboard the Marie-Thérèse who were coming to find husbands was a woman from Normandy, Marthe Quittel, a Protestant from Rouen. (more…)