Context for Kwong

It was a great experience, writing a biography of Larry Kwong, the star hockey player who was known as the "China Clipper" back in the day. (Click here for a link to my website's Biographies page and scroll down a little to read all about King Kwong.) Since then, I've been keeping up on the news about him. He's in his nineties, and there's still news about him, or connected to him.

Chad Soon, who made a film about Larry Kwong, is my major source for these news stories. He posted on Facebook this wonderful vintage photo of Kwong's father, Ng Shu Kwong. (When he ran a store in Vernon BC, Mr Ng put his given name Kwong on the sign. Many of his children later came to use Kwong as their family name.)

Chad Soon brought the photo to the attention of Larry Kwong's daughter, writing on Facebook:

Hi Kristina, Last weekend your grandfather was in the Vernon Winter Carnival parade! This poster was part of the museum's float which won Best Overall. The photo will now be displayed at City Hall. Also, your family will be included in a new museum exhibit called "Gold Mountain Dream," a joint project with the Royal BC Museum, from Oct. 16-Feb. 28.

Context is everything in biographical studies! It's terrific to see Larry Kwong's father celebrated as a "Prominent Businessman" from the history of the city of Vernon. And now I've got another reason to visit the Royal BC Museum in the fall, to see the exhibit.

Trudeau biography released from Five Rivers

Today my newest book has been released from Five Rivers Publishing. It is a biography of Canada's fifteenth prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau. There's always something new to bring to a study of the life of such an active person. I'm particularly proud of pulling together so many moments in his life as an enthusiastic canoeist!

This book is my third from this expanding press based in Ontario, and either my thirty-first or thirty-third overall .. time to check and update my C.V.

Yippie ki yay, a history book

Ever hear much about the Spanish-American War? Most of the little that's taught about it these days focuses on Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders. But there's a helluva lot more going on in that story than one battle on Kettle Hill. Even that battle got that name only because nobody wants to brag about fighting on "Washtub Hill." The other option for naming the battle was "I thought this was San Juan hill -- damn this lousy map" which didn't really work either.
I was assigned a book to revise for a series on The United States at War, from Enslow Publishing. This assignment was a revision of an existing book by Robert Somerlott, so I wasn't starting from scratch. I was able to bring to the book some particularly interesting material about the Black Troopers, who were an important part of the American troops. The American army was not integrated in 1900, but there were regiments for men of colour, who were known as the Black Troopers. Two regiments of infantry and two of cavalry served during the Spanish-American War, as well as several men in the American navy, which was integrated.

The war was part of what brought Teddy Roosevelt to the American presidency, and there are many connections between him and the Black Troopers. From the mustering in Florida, the landing in Cuba, and the battles on Kettle Hill and San Juan Hill, Roosevelt and his hastily created regiment of Rough Riders were out-performed time and again by the Black Troopers, who even shared their own rations with the unprepared new regiment. And in years to come, when Roosevelt was president, there was an incident that really takes more time to tell than I can today. I'll post about it in the future.
For now, ask your library to order in a copy of The Spanish-American War from Enslow.

Smashwords Sale of My Books at Five Rivers

Another great ebook sale for this summer! Five Rivers Publishing has just announced a half-price sale of all their ebook titles on Smashwords, for the month of July. Time to load up on summer reading.
The ebooks on sale include my novel Tower in the Crooked Wood, which makes excellent summer reading as a novel short enough to read while you can still remember the beginning. Or if you're into print copies, it's a book slim enough to fit into your lunch bag or beach bag.

For those who are more sports oriented, my bio of hockey hero Larry Kwong will score. King Kwong is also available in print copies that fit neatly into a sports bag for moments when you're sitting around waiting for the game to start or your ride to get there.

Trudeau Biography Announced!

Good news came today! My biography of Pierre Trudeau is scheduled for release from Five Rivers Publishing. They've got a great cover for it, one that fits well into their series Prime Ministers of Canada.

What can you say about a prime minister for whom suspending civil liberties with the War Measures Act wasn’t even his most controversial decision? At least, it wasn't to those folk who are still stuttering mad about his National Energy Program or White Paper on Indian Affairs, forty years later and counting. This book was fascinating to write! I hope that canoeists and outdoor enthusiasts will like the focus on Trudeau's wilderness interests.

Click here for a link to their listing. The book will be available December 1st,  2016, but orders can be taken now.

Books on Noteworthy Lives

The page here on my blog labelled "Biographies" has four of my books profiled. The most recent one is from Five Rivers Publishing -- King Kwong, a biography of Canadian hockey player Larry Kwong. If you're a hockey fan, you'll find plenty of hockey history in this book to catch your interest!
Also included on the Biographies page are two books for a series from Greenwood Publishing. All of the titles in this series are telling about the lives of celebrities and famous people. The two I've written are on Lady Gaga and Lance Armstrong. One book on each of 'em, I mean. I don't think there's even a rumour linking these two famous people, and it would be hard to write TWO books about a rumour.
The fourth book is for a series from Rosen Publishing, and it profiles author Will Hobbs. If you're looking for YA fiction, this is a name to find in your bookstore or public library. His heroes are virtuous, and in his adventures there is plenty of excitement with very little violence.
It's interesting to be writing biographies. Recently I finished one on Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and I'm working on another about Charles Tupper, both for a series on Canadian Prime Ministers. It's not only famous lives that are noteworthy, though. When I teach writing workshops there are so many people working on a story or a book about the lives of their parents, or grandparents, or other relatives or themselves. Ordinary lives are worth living, and they're certainly worth reading about.

King Kwong reviewed in Vancouver Sun

Good news! My biography of Larry Kwong, King Kwong, was reviewed in the Vancouver Sun today by Stephen Hume! As he says in his August 5 column:

B.C. writer and self-described lifelong hockey fan Paula Johanson reminds us of the ephemeral nature of sports history in King Kwong, her marvellous little biography of the whirlwind on skates who blew out of the dusty interior 75 years ago.

Hume gives a little context for Larry Kwong's sports career, and adds:

...Just as many Canadian kids before and since, Larry discovered the pleasures of playing shinny with a frozen horse apple. One of the most charming hockey photos of the many Johanson unearthed for her book is one of Larry, his sister Betty and a couple of neighbour kids playing shinny outside the Vernon family store.
Like many another hockey kid, he wheedled skates out of his mom with a promise that when he was a real hockey player, he’d buy her a house.

It's important to note that most of the photos which Stephen Hume calls charming were "unearthed" by Chad Soon, many of which came from the private photo albums of Larry Kwong. That particular charming hockey photo was contributed by Larry Kwong's grown daughter from her own family album.

Hume goes on to say:

On March 13, 1948, he was called up by the Rangers for a game against Montreal Canadiens. They only played him for one shift — less than a minute — but the China Clipper had ended the era of whites-only hockey in the NHL.
Johanson’s book with Five Rivers Publishing is aimed at young adults but I doubt there’s a hockey fan who will be put off any more than Larry Kwong was by his nickname as he dashed up the ice to score the winning goal for the Smoke Eaters in that long-forgotten B.C. Championship of 1946.

You can read Stephen Hume's entire column here at this link.There's a bio note and a listing of some of his books on a page of Harbour Publishing's website.

King Kwong

My thirtieth book is now available in in print and as an e-book from Five Rivers Publishing. It's a very Canadian story -- the biography of a Canadian hockey player who was an international star in several leagues. The cover art shows a photo of Larry Kwong when he was playing for a team in Nanaimo, BC.

King Kwong: Larry Kwong, the China Clipper who broke the NHL colour barrier
Five Rivers Publishing 2015
ISBN: 9781927400753 $11.99

eISBN: 9781927400760 $4.99

Available as a paperback and an e-book
Includes: black & white photographs, Timeline, References.
 -click here for a link to the publisher's website, where this book can be ordered-

or, click here for a link to Kobo, with a $5 credit for new customers
or, a link to Amazon

Chad Soon, Director of the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives and Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame, says of the biography:

Author Paula Johanson brings justice to Kwong’s extraordinary life.  All the elements of classic fiction are here, and yet this is riveting history. We follow the ultimate long shot as he chases the 'impossible'…and triggers a shift in his society.