Something That Inspired My New Milligan Creek Novel

You never know where--or when--inspiraction will strike. In this case it happened late one night when I was listening to a podcast, which I often do in the middle of the night due to my ongoing battle with insomnia. (I have no problem falling asleep, but from about 3:00 a.m. on, staying asleep is a challenge. Podcasts help pass the time and also lull me back to sleep--eventually.) One night a podcast had a historical minute inserted as a commercial, and it was about a guy named Windwagon Smith who supposedly invented a wind-powered Conestoga wagon back in the mid-1850s. Seeing as this new novel involves a big Hollywood production coming to film a movie near the town of Milligan Creek, which is located on the Canadian prairies, I thought a film about Windwagon Smith would be a natural fit.

While doing some research today on Smith, I discovered that Walt Disney released their own version of the story back in 1961. You can watch it below. It's pretty terrible, but I'm definitely going to riff on some of these ideas in the book.