J - James Naismith, Father of B-Ball

This story is fairly well-known in Canada, but for the benefit of my American and European readers, I'll quickly throw this one out there. (That's a sports reference)

Basketball, the most American of sports (after what you call "football" and baseball), was actually invented by a Canadian.

Quick, how many Canadian players can you name in the NBA today?

James Naismith was born in small-town Ontario in 1861. Never much of a student, he was very outdoorsy and excelled at athletic games, especially at something called "duck on a rock." Apparently kids in Ontario in the mid-1800s (much like kids everywhere at all times) were really friggin' bored, and played a game where you chucked rocks at other rocks. While most would consider this a waste of time, Naismith parlayed the skills and strategy of "duck on a rock" into what would one-day become a sport for which Kobe Bryant is paid $25 million a year to play.

Naismith studied Physical Education at the University of McGill in Montreal, and for a pretty nerdy-looking guy was quite an athlete, representing McGill in Canadian "football," lacrosse, rugby, soccer (actual football) and gymnastics. After graduation and teaching at McGill for awhile he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts to teach at the YMCA International Training School, where he was greeted by a "rowdy" class who grew bored and disruptive after being forced to play sports indoors during the winter months.

Naismith's response to this? Make'em play duck on a rock. Except with soccer balls and a peach basket.

Watch:

(Note: Canadian Heritage Minutes are awesome and I'll probably try to sneak a few into future posts. However, most of my topics are actually too obscure for these government-funded videos)

So there you have it, the humble beginnings of a sport that now boasts teams worth billions of dollars. And it was all thanks to a Canadian PhysEd teacher with a bitchin' mustache.

My one big question: Why did a Canadian, trying to find a sport for people to play in the winter, decide to make up a new sport? Especially since the first organized ice hockey games in history were played at McGill right around the time when Naismith was a student there? Do they not have sticks and ice in Massachusetts?

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My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

I - The Independent Republic of Manitoba(h)

In keeping with our history of the Western Canadian provinces, let's move on to the Prairies' red-headed stepchild, Manitoba.

Remember this sad little square province from yesterday's post?

Manitoba officially became a province in 1870, although little is rarely mentioned of its hilariously-failed attempt at declaring itself an independent nation a few years earlier in 1867, the same year that Canada was officially recognized as a country by Great Britain.

It all started with Thomas Spence, a Scottish lawyer born in 1832 who came to Canada in 1862 to help British engineers build forts in Quebec. Why they needed a lawyer is not mentioned in the history books; perhaps workplace injuries and lawsuits were common on the frontier. In 1867 he moved to the village of Portage la Prairie in Manitoba and opened a general store.

The village was actually part of land owned by the Hudson's Bay Company, and had no official government, laws or taxation. Spence saw dollar signs all over the opportunity and wrote to Queen Victoria asking for the area's recognition as an independent state. When no response was received (surprise, surprise), Spence for some reason took that as a "Yes" and the Independent Republic of New Caledonia was born.

Those are not the eyes of a man who should be running a country, but they are definitely the eyes of a man who writes crazy-ass letters to the Queen.

Photo credit: Manitoba Historical Society

Quickly changing its name to the Republic of Manitobah after a local lake, the new nation had ill-defined borders and a population of roughly four hundred. Spence and his council set out to collect taxes from the Hudson's Bay traders, but needless to say, that didn't go over well. A local shoemaker named MacPherson was arrested by the new "government" for libel when he publicly (and probably accurately) argued that the tax money was going to liquor for Spence and his council.

In the Spring of 1868, the Colonial Office in London sent Spence a letter politely informing him that his country did not exist and he did not have the power to raise taxes or arrest people. Man, I would have loved to be a part of the team that wrote that letter. I wonder how many times they had to scratch out the word "dumbass?" With public support turning against Spence in the MacPherson "trial," the dreams of a new and Independent Manitobah quickly collapsed before the end of 1868.

In a fun follow-up, Thomas Spence was briefly arrested by another crazy Canadian rebel and idealist, Louis Riel, in 1870 before ultimately serving on Riel's provisional government team when Manitoba officially became a province of Canada. I don't know what's better: that Riel chose his representatives from among criminal dissidents, or that Spence just really wanted to be in Manitoba's government in any way possible.

I guess if you can't beat'em, join'em.

And to be fair, Louis Riel was waaaaay crazier than Spence.

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My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

H - Sir Frederick Haultain and the Province of Buffalo

Today's post may not be as exciting as some of my previous this month, or even that interesting for those not super-into Canadian history, but I'm just weirded out by the fact that we nearly had a province named "Buffalo."

It just sounds odd.

So, back at the turn of the 20th century, Canada was very much still taking shape, and most of it was still just called "the North West Territories."

Look at how cute Manitoba is down there all by itself.

Frederick Haultain was a lawyer and Canadian Politician back when Canada was still young. Though he was born in England his family moved Canada when he was just 3 years old and was raised and educated in Ontario and Quebec. He was eventually voted into the legislative assembly of the Northwest Territories in 1887, and held that position unopposed until they basically handed him the title of Premier in 1897. (Who else would want to premier of the NWT, anyway?)

Just look at this smug sonofabitch.

Actually, technically Haultain was Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Legislative Assembly of the North West Territories. Haultain was the one who went around calling himself Premier, because the leaders of the other provinces got to be Premiers, and he had a bit of an obsession about being the head of a province, as we will see momentarily.

To be fair to Haultain, "Premier" was probably a hell of lot easier to put on a business card than Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Legislative Assembly.

Haultain made a big push to have a large section of the Territories carved out and declared a province proper. It was a valid goal - the population and resources were there to allow it its own say in Federal Parliament. Haultain wanted a province called "Buffalo" - which sounds weird no matter how many times I type it, since all the other provinces are named after Indigenous words or European countries/aristocracy.

Dumb name or not, Haultain succeeded in his endeavor, however as is always the case in politics, there was a catch: Haultain was a Conservative and did not get along well with Prime Minister Wilfred Laurier and the ruling federal Liberal party of the day. Laurier did not want a large, Conservative western province to threaten the influence of Ontario and Quebec (the two largest and politically most powerful provinces to this day), and so he maneuvered to split the new Province in two: Alberta and Saskatchewan, in 1905.

Okay, that looks better. We're almost there now. Manitoba still looks silly, though.

In the end we got two new provinces, flags and Premiers, Laurier got his wish to splinter the western Conservative base, and Canada moved closer to becoming the country we recognize today. Haultain ran for Premier in Saskatchewan in 1905 and lost to the Liberal Party (which is either karma or irony, I'm not sure which). Don't feel bad for Haultain though; when the Conservatives won the federal election in 1912, Prime Minister Robert Borden appointed Haultain as Chief Justice of Saskatchewan, a position he held until retirement in 1938. He was also knighted in 1916, so he did alright for himself.

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My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

G - Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir, Mother of the first European born in North America

For hundreds of years, it was generally accepted that Christopher Columbus "discovered" the Americas. This is of course blatantly false, since there were MILLIONS of people here before Columbus stumbled along and set into motion what was to become the near-genocide of an entire race of humans.

Can we even claim that Columbus was the first EUROPEAN to arrive in America? Nope. Not by a long shot. The first confirmed visit (and permanent settlement) in the Americas took place about FIVE HUNDRED YEARS before our bumbling Italian explorer was even born.

(There are many fascinating and believable theories that Europeans visited the Americas long before that as well, but I'll stick to the oldest that has been scientifically proven).

In the 1960s, archaeological exploration at the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland uncovered Norse artifacts, suggesting that the vikings had visited the island sometime around 1000AD. Further investigation uncovered additional items and the ruins of at least 8 buildings - sod and wood huts that were used as dwellings and workshops, including an iron smithy. Carbon dating places the artifacts at somewhere between 990 and 1050 AD.

Rebuilt viking settlement, L'Anse aux Meadows, Newfoundland.

Photo credit: Fella.com

So not only did the vikings visit North America, but they actually set up shop here. Because the land around the settlement (now called "L'Anse aux Meadows," an anglicism of the French "L'anse aux méduses" or "Jellyfish Cove") was at the time covered in heavy forest, it would have served as excellent boat-building and repair material. Experts now believe that the site was the exploration base for the Norse people as they traveled west across the Western continent, a land they called "Vinland." In 2012, evidence of additional Norse outposts were discovered on several Canadian Arctic islands, indicating indeed that the viking presence may have been extensive. Further investigation is ongoing.

This random bit of rusty metal is a piece of a Norse spinning wheel. Along with needles and scissors that were found nearby, this is pretty conclusive proof that vikings not only visited Newfoundland but settled, at least long enough to bring their spinning wheels with them. Archaeologists wet themselves over this tiny lump of rust.

Photo credit: Daze End

But who is the titular Gudrid Thorbjarnardóttir from today's post? Besides being my best way to shoe-horn in a "G," she was a viking who was married to Thorstein Erickson, the younger brother of Lief Erickson. Like many norsewomen of her time, she traveled and adventured with the norsemen, drinking and sailing and raiding all across the Northern Seas, including across the Atlantic to the fabled Vinland. After Thorstein's death, Gudrid was supposedly visited by his spirit who told her she would remarry and give birth to a child in the new world. Sure enough, she married a wealthy merchant named Thorfinn Karlsefni, and gave birth to a son, Snorri Thorinnsson in Vinland, the first European born in the Western Hemisphere. Forget Cortez, Ponce de Leon or Jamestown, the first white people to settle in the Americas was a badass woman with an axe in one hand and a baby in the other.

No seriously, here is an actual statue of Gudrid and Snorri from Glaumbær, Iceland.

Photo credit: Wikipedia.

Again, I can't stress enough that there were literally MILLIONS of people already over here, who by some accounts actually fought the vikings and drove them away, but it's still a pretty cool story.

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My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

F - May Agnes Fleming

May Agnes Fleming, born May Agnes Early in 1840, is remembered as "one of the first Canadians to pursue a highly successful career as a writer of popular fiction." Later this month I'll talk about another writer who may have made a bigger, short-term impact (think EL James' Fifty Shades level of hype), but no one could touch Fleming in consistency.

For over twenty years, beginning with her first book Erminie; or The gypsy's vow: a tale of love and vengeance in 1863, Fleming was top of the best sellers lists across North America (continuing well past her death). At her peak she was earning some $10,000 a year, which in today's currency would be around $275,000. Any of my writer friends reading this just had a small heart attack. And this was before movie- and foreign-rights were a thing! Her success stemmed from the very business-savy move of demanding exclusive rights to all of her works, something fairly unusual at the time. I have another story later this month about an unscrupulous publisher who made obscene money ripping off authors who did not have their proper rights in order.

Fleming's success was so great that her publishers started using her name on other books written by other people, and renaming and re-releasing her books to trick people into buying them again. Because of these confusing tactics, we're not sure exactly how many books Fleming actually wrote. Scholars believe it was about 40, but we're only certain of 21. Books with titles like The Heiress of Castle Cliff, The Baronet's Bride, A Woman's Vengeance and A Wronged Wife gives you an idea of her genre. She's remembered as a "dime store romance novelist" but judging by the titles I thought she split her time equally between "aristocratic romance" and "feminine revenge fantasies."

I couldn't have been more wrong.

Dig a little deeper and you will discover that Fleming was actually a "supernatural romance" novelist, with tales featuring magic gypsies, people returning from the dead and all manner of fantasy that wouldn't seem out of place in JR Ward or Kelly Armstrong.

I mean, her stuff probably wasn't quite so steamy back in the 1860s, but just imagine whatever passed for scandalous back then. A little extra ankle or whatever.

Here's a brief intro of one of her books:

In a stormy night, a baby son is born to the baronet of Kingsland. In the very same night, a uncanny astrologer announces a very bad fate for the newborn. He is sent by Zenith, a gypsy from Spain, who was abandoned by the baronet many years ago, leaving her with an illegitimate child. She has sworn revenge... 

I will admit, I haven't actually read any of her books, but by all accounts they are incredibly trashy (by the standards of any century) yet immensely readable and fun in a guilty-pleasure sort of way. Kinda like any good pulp/paranormal romance novel. Gotta give the woman credit for knowing her market.

Fleming sadly passed away in 1880 at the young age of 39 from Bright's disease. Bright's disease is a catch-all term used historically for any number of kidney ailments (often from diabetes). Today it would likely be easily treatable. One would have to imagine that had she lived today, Fleming would be tearing up the Amazon Kindle best-sellers list well into her senior years. I like to think so anyway.

I love that this is from the "Cheap Edition" series. Stay classy, Victorian era.

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My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

E - Jumbo the Elephant

You've probably heard of Jumbo the Elephant, a legendary African Bush Elephant, born in Sudan in 1861 who ended up in PT Barnun's circus in 1882 after stays in French and British Zoos. Jumbo was the headliner of Barnun's circus for only a few short years, but was so famous that our modern word "jumbo" - meaning really big - actually comes from him.

But do you know how Jumbo died?

There are a few conflicting stories as to exactly what happened, but here are the facts: Jumbo died after being hit by a train in the Canadian town of St. Thomas, Ontario on September 15, 1885. The elephants were being led back to their enclosures after a show when the tragedy stuck. The precise details of the tragedy are open to interpretation.

The most colourful and dramatic version of the story, supposedly by Barnun himself, is that another, smaller elephant named Tom Thumb was on the track and Jumbo threw himself in front of the train to save it, derailing the train in the process.

Newspaper reports of the day neglect to mention the derailing, but did mention that a second elephant suffered a broken leg. Another story claims that Jumbo had actually tripped on the rails and impaled himself on his tusk, killing him instantly. The train then arrived unexpectedly and ran over the body.

The most heartbreaking version of the tale says that Jumbo was seriously injured by the train, and that his long-time trainer could do nothing but sit with him and comfort him while he died.

Jumbo statue located in St. Thomas, Ontario.

Whatever the case, Jumbo's legacy lives on. A life-sized statue of Jumbo was erected in St. Thomas in 1985 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of his death. His skeleton was donated to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. His taxidermied hide was put on display at PT Barnum Hall in Tufts University in Massachusetts. The hide was later destroyed by fire but a few pieces of it still remain on display, and Jumbo remains the school's mascot.

My A-to-Z Blogging Challenge theme for 2017 is Weird Canadian Facts and History. To see more blog posts, click here.

Things Are Looking Up (#IWSG April 2017)

(This is my monthly Insecure Writer's Support Group post. For those looking for the April A-to-Z Challenge post, click here)

NOTE: For some reason comments are not working on this post, and I can't figure out why. They work on the other post I made today. I had the same issue last month with IWSG, but then the comments magically started working again in the middle of the day.
If you reply to my comment that seems to work, otherwise I make no promises. :-(

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I had a good month!

A few bits of news:

1) I officially sold my first story!

Yes, I've self-published books and stories before, but this is the first time someone actually chose my work to be good enough to sell, which is a nice feeling. It will be appearing in Strangely Funny IV, an anthology of paranormal humour edited by Sarah E. Glenn and published by Mystery and Horror, LLC that will be released in late May or June of this year. They've published some really cool stuff in the past so I'm excited to be a part of it. Check out the awesome covers on some of their past editions:

2) The Revised and Expanded edition of Ten Thousand Days is done!

I've hinted at this for awhile, but I've been working on a major overhaul and update to my first book, Ten Thousand Days. This will probably warrant it's own post down the line, but I've mentioned before that I was never fully happy with the original version of 10K Days. I rushed it to print and I've learned a lot about writing in the last two years, so I really wanted to make sure it was the best possible book it could be. The original story was about 40,000 words, but the updated version is over 70,000. The characters are much better fleshed out, the plot has a proper arc (the original didn't really have a third act) and the setting is better realized.

If anyone bought the original version and would like to check out the new one, Amazon should update your file when you sync your device. If for some reason you can't get the new version, hit me up and I will gladly send you a new one file.

If you haven't read it before, now's the time to do so: It's on sale right now for just 99 cents as a special re-release price. It will go back up to $2.99 in a couple of weeks.

3) I'm participating in the 2017 A-to-Z Blogging Challenge!

In case you missed it at the top, I'm taking part in the "post a day" challenge for the A-to-Z blog hop. My theme this year is "Weird Canadian Facts and History," which is appropriate since this year is Canada's 150th birthday. Today's letter is "D," so your lesson is on "D'Arcy McGee, Irish Rebel and One of Canada's Founding Fathers." Check it out, it's about a guy who hated Britain so much he helped found a brand new country.

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April IWSG Question:

Have you taken advantage of the annual A to Z Challenge in terms of marketing, networking, publicity for your book? What were the results?

Wow, this topic is highly appropriate.

Short answer: Yes.

I took part in the A-to-Z challenge in 2015, and released Ten Thousand Days just a few days after it ended. I did not take part in the 2016 challenge, the year I released my second book, Hell Comes to Hogtown.

The result? I sold the same number of copies of 10K Days in the first month that I did the entire last year for Hogtown, despite Hogtown being (in my opinion) a much better book (at least until the Revised Edition of Ten Thousand Days came out).

Now, I know much of that can be attributed to some people being excited and supportive simply because it was my first book, but I wouldn't have even known those people if I hadn't taken part in A to Z. Blogging and commenting every day created a momentum and introduced me to lots of new writers and bloggers. It was marketing and networking without the dirtiness of calling it marketing and networking.

I am 99% certain that my very first sale was to Kristin Cleage (who has a really great and fascinating blog about her family's history and genealogy over at Finding Eliza), someone who I would never have met if it weren't for the A-to-Z Blog Hop. I know a few of the others were thanks to them as well.

So yes, A-to-Z was very valuable to me in the past, though unfortunately I don't have a new book to roll-out this time around. But maybe I'll still make a few new friends who will be excited then the next book comes out.

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The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day. Writers post their thoughts on their blogs, talking about their doubts and the fears they have conquered. It's a chance for writers to commiserate and offer a word of encouragement to each other. Check out the group here.