March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday and given how influential he has been in pretty much everyone's life, I decided to share 13 facts about him and his books. (source one, source two, source three.)

1. Geisel's first book And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street was rejected 27 times.
2. He based the Grinch character on himself to try to rediscover something about Christmas that he felt he had obviously lost.
3. He wrote and illustrated 44 books in his lifetime.
4. He purchased an old observation tower in La Jolla, CA where he'd write.
5. He coined the term “nerd.” The word first appeared in print in 1950 in Seuss’ book “If I Ran the Zoo.”
6. His final book was “Oh, The Places You’ll Go,” published in 1990, before he passed away. The book sells several hundred thousand copies each year in large part because it is a perennially popular graduation gift.
7. He used just 50 words to write “Green Eggs and Ham” on a $50 bet with his editor, Bennett Cerf.
8. Cerf never paid up.
9. His books have been translated into 17 languages and have sold more than 650 million copies in 95 countries, according to The Washington Post.
10. He worked on “Design for Death,” a documentary that won the Oscar in 1947.
11. He thought the beginning readers Dick and Jane” were hopelessly boring. He wrote “The Cat in the Hat” with the intention of providing a more interesting alternative.
12. In 2013, a new book by Dr. Seuss was found by his wife and secretary. It was published in 2015.
13. When he wrote and illustrated a book, he used the name “Dr. Seuss.” When he only wrote it but did not illustrate it, he used Theo LeSieg. LeSieg is Geisel (his real last name) backward.
    

I hope you enjoyed these facts about Dr. Seuss. Did you have a favorite book by him? I recall having a few, and every Christmas we sat down as a family to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. If you liked this post and want to get early access to it and exclusive flash fiction, join me over at Patreon.

The history of the Ouija board is interesting. It started as an innocent toy. Now, people use it seriously, trying to contact spirits. There are tons of tales of hauntings from people using the board. Are they true? I have no clue, but I love to read about them and get a nice shiver down my spine.

Here are 13 facts that may make you rethink playing with an Ouija Board.

1. The first ever Ouija board was invented by a toy shop in 1891: According to various sources, it was a Pittsburgh toy and novelty shop called Danziger's & Company.
2. During World War I, Ouija boards could be found in almost every household in the U.S. (Kind of makes you wonder. Were people trying to contact soldiers who died in battle?)
3. In 1922, Ouija board sales outsold Monopoly: Three million Ouija boards were sold in the year 1920. Over the next two years, they jumped over the sales of Monopoly.
4. Ouija board got its patent without proper paperwork: Elijah Bond carried an Ouija board to the patent office and asked it to spell out the name of the officer. Which it did and the officer was so spooked he approved the patent without finishing the paperwork.
5. The Ouija board named itself when asked for it: They had no idea what to call it and decided to ask the board and that's what it spelled.
6. The word Ouija means "good luck": Apparently the word is Egyptian.
7. Emily Grant Hutchings said that the book "Jap Herron" was dictated by Mark Twain's ghost through an Ouija board.
8. People who take fatal decisions based on the boards are often related in one way or another: A mother-daughter duo played with an Ouija board after taking a lot of hallucinogenic pills and later burned their own house. Investigators found out they were related to a person who attempted to kill his dog after playing the same game.
9. The most demonic spirit in an Ouija world is called Zozo. Crazy fact here: I followed a Youtuber for a while who got an Ouija board. She got rid of it after the name Zozo was spelled out.
10. Bill Wilson, the co-founder of Alcoholic Anonymous wrote the famous 12-step recovery program using an Ouija board: Bill had a spook room in his house and he used to contact spirits in order to seek their guidance for his own research. He was also found to be on LSD sooo.....
11. Six intelligence officers with top-secret security clearances were arrested for messing with supernatural forces through Ouija board: The officials claimed the souls predicted the Gulf War and an earthquake in 1990. Later, they went AWOL on orders from the board. They were found and arrested for their misbehavior.
12. The 1973 film The exorcist abruptly stopped the Ouija obsession with a mass fear of spirit infestation.
13. The scientific concept on which Ouija boards are based is called Ideomotor Effect: The ideomotor phenomenon is a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. (source)

So, anyone want to play? Have you played with an Ouija board? Had an unexplained experience with one? Or is it all in our heads and done with unconscious movements that tell us what we want to hear? (If you liked this post, you can get early access to it and exclusive flash fiction over on my Patreon.)

If you live in a northern part of the world like me, you're shivering your way through winter. January can be a dreary month with chilling temps. Here are thirteen facts to warm the cockles of your heart and help pass the time during those cold winter nights.

1. Harry Potter's mom, Lily, was born on January 30th 1960.
2. January 2nd is Introvert Day (aka my holiday).
3. People born in January have a strong motivation to succeed, gain power, and earn respect. They also tend to get jealous quickly.
4. In hoary Celtic tradition, January 5th was the end of the 12 days winter solstice celebration.
5. During Anglo-Saxon times, wolves were extremely active in January and led to it being called "wolf-month".
6. January 25th is Chinese New Year and is the year of the Rat.
7. The week of January 19th-25th is National Handwriting Analysis Week.
8. January's full moon is called the Full Wolf Moon. It will reach peak fullness at 2:21 PM EST on January 10th. Click here to ready why it's called the Full Wolf Moon.
9. On January 5th, the Earth will be at perihelion, the point in Earth's orbit where it is closest to the sun—only 91,398,199 miles away!.
10. On average, it is the coldest month in most of the northern hemisphere and the warmest in most of the southern hemisphere.
11. January is National Braille Literacy Month.
12. January 3rd is J.R.R. Tolkien Day.
13. And lastly, January was named for the Roman god, Janus. He is depicted with two faces, one looking into the past, and the other into the future. Very apt for the beginning of the year.

I hope you enjoyed these thirteen facts. Which one was your favorite? Anyone want to analysis their handwriting? Did the sun look closer January 5th?

I'm having fun with these posts, so I thought I'd make them a monthly feature. Since it's December and I'm sharing some facts about the Winter Solstice.

1. The date of the winter solstice varies from year to year, and can fall anywhere between December 20 and December 23
2. The solstice occurs at a specific time: when the instant the North Pole is aimed furthest away from the sun on the 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth's axis
3. Barrow, Alaska, will not have a sunrise at all (and hasn't since mid-November; its next sunrise will be on January 22)
4. The modern Druidic celebration Alban Arthan reveres the death of the Old Sun and birth of the New Sun
5. Pierre and Marie Curie discovered radium on the day of the Winter Solstic
6. Stonehencge is aligned to the sunset on Winter Solstice
7. December 21, 2012 corresponded to the date 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar used by the ancient Mayans, marking the end of a 5126-year cycle. Some people believed that meant the end of the world.
8. The term solstice comes from the Latin word solstitium, meaning 'the Sun stands still
9. Holidays celebrated around the Winter Solstice throughout the years are: Christmas, Feast of Juul, Saturnalia, and Chaomos
10. In Druidic traditions, the Winter Solstice is thought of as a time of death and rebirth when Nature’s powers and our own souls are renewed
11. A Yule—or Juul—log was brought in and burned on the hearth in honor of the Scandinavian god, Thor
12. The time it takes for the Sun to “move” from the vernal equinox to the Winter Solstice is 89.9 days
13. The Southern Hemisphere also celebrates a winter solstice, but it is around June 21st

I hope these facts warmed you up to cold winter days (at least if you're in the Northern Hemisphere. Those in the Southern are enjoying summer right now.) Have you been enjoying my 13 facts posts? Any suggestions for topics to cover?

Since Christmas is coming up, I'd like to wish everyone a Happy Holiday and Merry Christmas. I'll be taking the rest of the year off from blogging. I hope you all had a great 2019 and 2020 is even better. Thanks so much for visiting my blog, reading my posts, and commenting. I really value you all. I'd be very lonely given I'm a homebody with chronic illnesses and a messed up back. You give me someone to talk to and that means the world to me. Thanks so much. 💜

Since it's November and that means NaNoWriMo is going on, I thought I'd search out thirteen facts about writing that relate to November for you to enjoy while letting your muse have a breather before you dive back into your NaNo novel.

1. November 1st is National Author's Day
2. NaNoWriMo was founded by Chris Baty in July of 1999
3. NaNoWritMo began not because Baty and his friends "wanted to write novels for the same dumb reasons twenty-somethings start bands"
4. Jonathan Swift, author of Gulliver's Travels was born on November 30 in 1667
5. On November 14th 1889, New York World reporter, Nellie Bly, set sail fro mNew York to put to test Jules Verne's 1873 novel, Around the World in Eighty Day. She completed the trip in 72 days, six hours, 11 minutes, and 14 seconds.
6. November is also National Blog Posting Month
7. November 24th 1859 Charles Darwin published his book Origin of the Species
8. November 29th 1641 England's first newspaper is published.
9. C.S. Lewis was born on November 29th 1898
10. Mouisa May Alcott was also born on November 29th but in 1832
11. Water for Elephants, Fangirl, and WOOL all began as rough drafts during NaNoWriMo
12. In 2018 2,791,454,312 words were written for NaNoWriMo
13. I was born on November 18th 1981 🙃

I hope you enjoyed my list of facts. It was a bit tricky coming up with enough variety and not just do birthdays or facts about NaNo.