7 March

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 7 March:

1. On this date in an unspecified year, a man in Bonn, Germany, Karl Welker, battered his wife to death when she announced she was leaving him. The twist in the tale is that he'd recently been voted Husband of the Year, and the murder weapon was his winner’s trophy.
2. On this date in 1971, women in Switzerland achieved the right to vote and hold federal office.
3. The first Jazz record was released in the USA this date in 1917. It was The Dixie Jazz Band One Step by Nick LaRocca's Original Dixieland Jazz Band.
4. In 1976, a likeness of Elton John was put on display at London's Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. He was the first rock figure to be given the honour since The Beatles in 1964.
5. In 1897, Dr. John Kellogg served the world's first Corn flakes to his patients at a mental hospital in Battle Creek, MI. However, Dr Kellogg's reason for serving them wasn't a tasty breakfast. He was so anti-sex that he never even did it with his wife, and all their children were adopted. He advocated a bland diet so as not to encourage sexual passions. He gave his patients cornflakes because he thought he'd found a great food for preventing masturbation.
6. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell received Patent No. 174,465 for the telephone.
7. In 1530, Henry VIII's request for a divorce was turned down by the Pope. Henry then declared himself the supreme head of England's church and granted himself a divorce. From his wife and from Rome.
8. Prejudice against women drivers has been around for a while. On this date in 1908, Cincinnati Mayor Mark Breith stood before the city council and declared "women are not physically fit to operate automobiles".
9. Thomas Hardy met his future wife Emma Lavinia Gifford at the rectory in St Juliot, North Cornwall on this date in 1870. He'd gone there to conduct some church restoration work. After her death in 1912, Hardy turned his desk calendar to this date and left it there until he died in 1928. The calendar is now part of a permanent exhibition of Hardy material in the Dorset County Museum, Dorchester, and still shows the same date.
10. In 2018, the oldest known message in a bottle was found in Australia. It was confirmed to be almost 132 years old.

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle