JULY 22, 2016, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A5
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Keizer author’s second novel out July 26
By DEREK WILEY
Of the Keizertimes
The Hidden Letters of Velta
B., written by Keizer author
Gina Ochsner, will be re-
leased Tuesday but the jour-
ney to writing her second
novel began 11 years ago
with a story in the Boston
Review.
Ochsner was reading Re-
generation by Latvian author
Pauls Toutonghi.
“His use of language, his
lyric register, how he was
describing what happened to
Latvians during World War II
and the occupations, was so
unique, so unlike other nar-
ratives we hear about World
War II, that I thought I have
to fi nd out more,” Ochsner
said. “I literally ran to my
car and got there [Jackson’s
Books] as fast as I could.”
Working the counter that
day was a Latvian woman,
Dace Berzins, and the two
started a friendship.
“She brought all of her
family books and albums
and shared with me some
really central and important
things about Latvian culture,
the songs, music, poetry, just
Latvian take on life and how
they look at things,” Ochsner
said. “That continued to fuel
that initial curiosity.”
Then Berzins told Och-
sner she must visit Latvia, and
in particular the capital city,
Riga, and the River Dauga-
va. Berzins asked Ochsner to
bring her back
some river mud.
“It was like
this test, how
truly interested
in Latvia are
you?” Ochsner
said. “That was
the fi rst test and
then there were
many other little
tests that Latvi-
ans had for me.
Are you really
serious
about
Latvian culture?
If you are, this is
what you need
to do or this is
what you need
to pursue, re-
search or fi nd
out more about.”
Between
2006-2010,
Ochsner went on fi ve differ-
ent trips to Latvia.
“I just wanted to learn
about the culture,” said Och-
sner, who didn’t know the
end result would be a novel.
Submitted
Gina Ochsner visited Lativa fi ve times for her latest book, The Hidden Letters of Velta B.
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“There’s always something
because I love to write.”
She started with a short
story, which was published
in the New Yorker and became
chapter one of The Hidden
Letters of Velta B.
But chapter one turned
into two, three and four. The
fi nal result was 12 chapters
over 299 pages.
“You’re never done,” Och-
sner said. “The publisher said
you have to stop. It was their
call. I would have kept going
and going. That was part of
the revision process, how to
get 257,000 words down to
100,000. There were a few
fun people that had to be
edited out but I always save
and they’ll be reincarnated
in something else. There’s a
Heaven for edited scraps.”
•
reconcile themselves with
diffi cult histories.”
The characters come from
the people Ochsner met on
her trips—Latvians, Russians,
Jews and Gypsies.
“I thought she [Gypsy]
was important because sev-
eral times in Latvia I was told
they have no Gypsies and
that’s while one was standing
right next to me with their
hand out selling something,”
Ochsner said. “It was an in-
teresting phenomena of ob-
vious denial and I wondered
what was behind it and it’s a
deep-seeded dislike for the
Roma in Latvia.”
Ochsner’s main character
is Maris, a boy with extraor-
dinary ears who, with the
help of his great grandmoth-
er’s letters, brings healing to
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Ochsner’s novel looks at
the complicated history of
Latvia. When she was touring
the west end of the country,
a college student pointed to
a place where all the Jews
in town had been drowned.
Ochsner had researched the
town and read nothing about
it.
“There are several differ-
ent sets of history for Latvia,
the ones that Latvia writes
and the ones that Soviets
wrote and a history that can
never be written because the
people who are involved in
some of these things are still
alive,” Ochsner said. “That’s
what I wanted to explore in
this book, a town that has
several sets of history that
collide and confl ict with one
another and how will people
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a town burned by the sins of
its past.
“It really is a story about
a community making the de-
cision to come together for
reconciliation and forgive-
ness and renewal,” she said.
“That really is the main mes-
sage. Love is always a hard
decision. It’s easy to hate and
that’s what those folks fi gure
out, in the end.”
While the book is fi nished,
Ochsner isn’t done with Lat-
via. She plans to revisit all the
towns and relocate all of the
people she interviewed.
“There is a very distinct,
unique and robust literary
tradition in Latvia and they’re
proud of that tradition and
they should be,” Ochsner
said. “It’s part of what kept
them culturally and linguisti-
cally alive during the soviet
occupation. It’s really quite
an amazing thing.”
Next, Ochsner plans to
travel to Bulgaria and Mol-
dova to visit with a group of
bear tamers.
“I love to travel,” she said.
“You always discover some-
thing that’s undiscoverable
and you just can’t get it from
reading something online or
from a book. You kind of just
have to see some things for
yourself.”
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WorshipDirectory
These Salem-Keizer houses of worship invite you to visit.
Call to list your church in our Worship Directory: (503) 390-1051
John Knox Presbyterian Church
JOIN US FOR
SUNDAY WORSHIP
452 Cummings Lane North 393-0404
8:30 am • 10 am • 11:30 am • 6 pm
PEOPLESCHURCH
4500 LANCASTER DR NE | SALEM
503.304.4000 • www.peopleschurch.com
Celebration
Services
Saturday Evening
1755 Lockhaven Dr. NE Keizer
503-390-3900
www.dayspringfellowship.com
Rev. Dr. John Neal, Pastor
Worship - 10:30 a.m.
Education Hour - 9:15 a.m.
Nursery Care Available
www.keizerjkpres.org
Jason Lee UMC
820 Jeff erson St. NE
Salem OR 97301
9:00 am
Dr. Jon F. Langenwalter, Pastor
The church with the purple doors
10:45 am
Worship at 9:30 am • Child Care Available
6:00 pm
Children’s Programs, Student and Adult Ministries
Father Gary L. Zerr, Pastor
Saturday Vigil Liturgy: 5:30 p.m.
Sundays: 8:15 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.
La Misa en Español: 12:30 p.m.
Sunday Morning
and
503-364-2844
Faith Lutheran Church
4505 River Rd N • 393-4507
Sunday Schedule:
9:00 a.m. Children’s Church
9:15 a.m. Adult Bible Study
9:30 a.m. Children’s Activities
Pastor
Virginia Eggert 10:30 a.m. Worship with Communion