2 July: Middle age

 As today is the Middle day of the year, here are 10 quotes about middle age.

1. Middle age is When a narrow waist and a broad mind begin to change places.

2. The really frightening thing about middle age is the knowledge that you’ll grow out of it. Doris Day

3. Middle age is when you stop criticizing the older generation and start criticising the younger one. Laurence J Peter

4. The years between fifty and seventy are the hardest. You are always being asked to do things, and yet you are not decrepit enough to turn them down. George Eliot

5. Middle age is Having a choice of two temptations and choosing the one that will get you home earlier.

6. The enemy of society is middle class and the enemy of life is middle age. Orson Welles

7. Boys will be boys, and so will a lot of middle-aged men. Kin Hubbard

8. Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle-aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles. Don Marquis

9. There is a thing called knowledge of the world, which people do not have until they are middle-aged. TH White

10. Setting a good example for your children takes all the fun out of middle age. William Feather

Character birthday

Jade Winchcombe: eldest daughter of Gary Winchcombe (Chain) and Amanda Somerset-Liquorish.

1 July: Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson was the first female pilot to fly alone from England to Australia. She was born on this date in 1903. 10 things you might not know about her:

1. She was born in Hull, the eldest of three sisters. Her grandfather was a mayor of Hull.

2. She studied economics at the University of Sheffield and then got a job working for a solicitor in London. Soon after that, she discovered flying as a hobby.

3. Her first two planes were both called Jason. Her father helped her fundraise to buy her first, a second-hand Gipsy Moth. She named it Jason after her father’s fish business trademark. Johnson next obtained a de Havilland DH.80 Puss Moth G-AAZV which she named Jason II.

4. She was 26 years old when she became the first woman to fly solo to Australia. On 26 May 1930, she completed the 11,000 mile round-trip from Croydon to Darwin in 19 days.

5. Although she didn’t break the time record on this trip, she went on to set many other records including becoming the first pilot to fly from London to Moscow in a day, she set a record time for Britain to Japan with her co-pilot Jack Humphreys and a solo record for the flight between London and Cape Town.

6. She was a pioneer on the ground as well as in the air. She was the first British-trained woman ground engineer — for a while, she was the only woman in the world to hold that job title.

7. Amy married Scottish Aviator, Jim Mollison, in 1932. The story goes that he proposed to her during a flight together, at which point they had known each other for just eight hours. They divorced in 1938.

8. In September 1934, Johnson (under her married name of Mollison) became the youngest President of the Women's Engineering Society.

9. She modelled clothes for the designer Elsa Schiaparelli and created a travelling bag sold under her own name.

10. She died in 1941 when her plane crashed in the Thames Estuary. She was 37 years old. At the time, she was flying an Airspeed Oxford for the ATA from Prestwick via RAF Squires Gate to RAF Kidlington near Oxford, and went off course in adverse weather conditions. Reportedly out of fuel, she bailed out as her aircraft crashed into the Thames Estuary near Herne Bay. Her body was never found. There are, of course, rumours of a cover up. It has been suggested that her plane was mistaken for an enemy aircraft and shot down when she failed to give the correct identification code; and that an attempt by a nearby vessel to rescue her ended in disaster and she was lost under the boat.

Character Birthday

Dale Castle, founding member of the Greenroom Society, a band of villains associated with show business.

Dale's early life was difficult. His natural form is ugly and deformed; his deeply religious parents hid him away for many years, believing their son's deformity was a punishment from God. They feared they would be banned from the church if the "punishment" was known about by anyone else. Confined to the basement, the young Dale amused himself by listening to and composing music. Despite his appearance, his singing voice was beautiful.

At puberty, his power began to manifest. He was able to change his shape to that of a handsome young man. His parents now wanted to show him off, passing him off as a nephew from out of state and encouraging him to sing in church.

Angered by their hypocrisy, he ran away to seek his fortune in show business. Hearing about a TV reality talent show, he set out to become a contestant. Although he didn't win the contest, it did give him a platform from which he built a highly successful career. He created the Greenroom Society to bring together genetic variants in showbusiness, first of all to ensure they weren't discriminated against, but later became a means to maximise their success and wealth. It is a secret society with membership by invitation only. Genetic variants who refused to join were generally killed so that the secrets would never be revealed.

30 June: Calcium

On 30 June 1808 Davy reported to the Royal Society that he had successfully isolated calcium. Here are 10 things you might not know about calcium:

1. It’s an alkaline metal which is reactive and soft enough to be cut with a sharp knife.

2. Its chemical symbol is Ca and its atomic number is 20. Its Melting point is 1115 K (842 °C, 1548 °F) and its Boiling point is 1757 K (1484 °C, 2703 °F).

3. It is the fifth most abundant element in Earth's crust, and the third most abundant metal, after Iron and Aluminium. It’s also abundant on the moon.

4. The name derives from Latin calx, or calcis, meaning "lime", a substance obtained from heating limestone. Which makes sense because the most common calcium compound on Earth is calcium carbonate, found in limestone and fossils. Although calcium wasn’t isolated until 1808, its compounds have been commonly used as building materials since ancient times. Egypt’s Pyramids were built using limestone blocks.

5. Calcium is the most abundant of the metallic elements in the human body. The average adult body contains about 1 kg or 2 lb of calcium, 99% of which is in the bones and teeth. In fact, calcium is essential for healthy bones and teeth and also plays a part in other bodily functions. It is vital to the health of the muscular, circulatory, and digestive systems.

6. Foods containing calcium include: Milk, Yogurt, and Cheese; canned sardines and salmon with bones; kale, Broccoli, and Chinese cabbage (bok choi); and grains, such as breads, pastas, and unfortified cereals. These contain relatively small amounts of calcium but as foods people eat a lot of are nevertheless an important source.

7. Vitamin D is necessary to help the body absorb calcium. According to recent studies, calcium in vegetables is more easily absorbed by the human body than calcium in milk.

8. Calcium loss occurs at a higher rate during the night, with women losing more as they sleep than men.

9. The major producers of calcium are China, Russia and the United States. Canada and France are also among the minor producers. Most of the world's extracted calcium is used by the United States.

10. The largest use of metallic calcium is in steel making, due to its strong chemical affinity for Oxygen and sulphur.

Character birthday

Lexie Worthington, American snowboarding champion and model. On a photo-shoot in Galorvia, where she was promoting her new brand of snowboarding gear, she met Hector Kostellov, and went on several dates with him before returning to the US, unaware of his status as a member of the Galorvian royal family. He followed her to America and they became an item. She now lives in Galorvia. She appears in Tale of Two Sisters.

A Tale of Two Sisters

During a battle with supervillains, a horrific accident leaves the Warner family with no option but to believe their youngest daughter, Jessica, is dead. It doesn't occur to them that the bad guys could, or would, save her.

Jessica wakes up with no memory of who she is or how she came to be on a space station with two bionic legs, a bionic arm and a bionic eye. She is told her family abandoned her and is sent back to Earth with a mission - to kill them. While Jessica wants to kill her family, along with the twin boys who once rejected her, she knows what the Alliance of Supervillains are asking her to do is a suicide mission. She decides to get her revenge in her own way.

As Jessica puts the first part of her revenge plan in motion, she finds herself with an agonising decision to make. Before she can decide, the Alliance come for her, determined to make her do their bidding. This time, it's the Alliance who leave her, crippled and at the mercy of the Warner family, who have no idea who the Alliance's Black Rose really is.

Jessica finds herself having to re-think her decisions in light of what she now learns about her family, the Alliance, the twins, and herself. It would appear the Alliance have left her with an unwanted and permanent reminder of her time with them. Or have they?

Jessica's older sister, Jill, knows her destiny is to be a doctor and specialise in bionics and genetic variant medicine. She is also hopelessly in love with Christopher, Crown Prince of Galorvia. Can their romance survive the lies Christopher told her when they were both at school, an unplanned pregnancy and Sophie, the wannabe princess who comes between them?

Available on Amazon

Paperback

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29 June: 180

Today is the 180^th day of the year. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 180:

1. 180 is the number of degrees in half a circle. It's also the number of degrees which represent a reversal of the direction of travel or U-turn or the rotation of a picture so that it is upside down. It also gives rise to the term 180 for a trick in extreme sports in which a rider rotates half a turn while airborne.

2. The Transport for London Bus route 180 runs between Crabtree Manorway North and Molesworth Street.

3. The Roman numeral for 180 is CLXXX. In in Binary it is 1011010.

4. In darts, 180 is the highest possible score possible with three darts, when all three darts land in the triple 20. It's also known as a "ton 80" and is usually announced by commentators in a particularly exuberant way.

5. The 180 rule in film making is to do with the positioning of the camera when filming a scene involving two characters or a character and an object. If you imagine a line or axis between the characters the 180 rule means keeping the camera on one side of that axis so that one character is always on the right. If the camera crosses the axis it's called jumping the line or crossing the line; breaking the 180-degree rule by shooting on all sides is known as shooting in the round.

6. The 180th meridian, also known as the antimeridian is 180° both east and west of the Prime Meridian (the one that passes through Greenwich). Together these two meridians form the divide between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Most of the antimeridian passes through the Pacific Ocean, but passes across land in Russia, Fiji and Antarctica. This meridian is used as the basis for the International Date Line.

7. The M180 is a 25.5 miles (41.0 km)long motorway in England which runs from junction 5 on the M18 motorway in Doncaster to Barnetby, close to Humberside Airport. At that point it becomes the A180 which continues to Cleethorpes. The A180 has the dubious honour of being the noisiest road in the United Kingdom, because parts of it have a ribbed concrete surface which can cause a sound level of 92 decibels inside a car driving along it. There are plans afoot to resurface it, however.

8. 180 Garumna is a main belt asteroid discovered by Henri Joseph Perrotin in 1878. Its name comes from the ancient Latin name for the Garonne River in France.

9. The Year 180 was a leap year starting on Friday known as the Year of the Consulship of Rusticus and Condianus. In this year Emperor Marcus Aurelius died at his camp in Vindobona and was succeeded by his 18 year old son son Commodus. Commodus created an official cult of the Zoroastrian god Mithra. Lake Taupo in New Zealand erupted, forming ash clouds as far as China and Europe; and the Greek physician Galen described the connection between paralysis and spinal cord injuries.

10. In numerology 180 is an inclusive energy which embraces all that is. It's also an independent number, preferring to be alone most of the time. The person affected by the number is likely to have concerns which focus on humanity as a whole rather than individual relationships. There's also good business sense.

Character birthday

Flare, a member of the G-Men with a light based power used to dazzle and disorientate. She can also fly. Use of her emerging power as a teen, witnessed by her mother, led to her mother being thought delusional and admitted to hospital. Ultra Grav, an old college friend, stepped in to prove his old friend was not mad and that such powers were possible. Later on, Flare left the G Men to join the Constellations when one of their light-based warriors was killed.

Running in the Family

An alien craft approaches Earth. The alien on board is a fugitive, fleeing from an arranged marriage to freedom on our world. She befriends James, a genetics student, and shares her knowledge about the future of the human race with him. 

A science experiment gone wrong gifts James with superhuman abilities; but they come at a price, leading him to mentor others like himself. He founds a group of amateur heroes called the Freedom League.

The Freedom League suffers a string of losses and tragedies; it seems doomed to failure; but one of its members, Peter Mayfield, has vowed to form a group of his own. He is determined to keep his vow, despite having lost Rosemary, the one person he wanted by his side to help him.

Lizzie Hopkins is a talented young athlete and dancer. Peter sees her in action and guesses her exceptional abilities are far more than they seem. He offers to train and mentor Lizzie - but her mother is violently opposed to his suggestion.

As soon as she is old enough, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands; she seeks out Peter and his group for herself. She soon makes a discovery which shakes her world at its very foundations. Her search for the truth will resolve many unanswered questions, but it will also stir up old heartbreaks dating back to the Freedom League's early days.

Available from:

Amazon Paperback;   Amazon Kindle

28 June: Paul Bunyan Day

Today is Paul Bunyan Day. 10 things you might not know about Paul Bunyan:

1. Who is Paul Bunyan, anyway? He’s a North American folk hero, a giant lumberjack.

2. It’s possible he originated in tall tales French Canadian lumberjacks would tell around their camp fires.

3. One theory is that the name Bunyan derived from the French-Canadian slang word "Bonyenne", which was used to express surprise, a bit like “Good grief!” in English.

4. Paul Bunyan’s best friend is a Blue ox called Babe. Babe is blue, it’s said, because of the Snow in one particularly harsh winter.

5. The first time Paul Bunyan appeared in print was in 1910, in the writings of James MacGillivray. A few years later in 1916, William Laughead decided to use Bunyan as part of an advertising campaign, and it was he who decided to make him a giant.

6. According to legend, when Bunyan was born, it took three Storks to carry him. As a baby, he broke every Window in the house when he clapped or laughed.

7. Another legend states that Bunyan created the Grand Canyon by dragging his axe behind him.

8. Yet another claims that that Minnesota's 10,000 lakes were created by Paul Bunyan's footprints filling with water as he explored the state.

9. Several stories relate how the giant found a wife, who is referred to simply as “Mrs Paul,” although she is given the name Sylvia in one tale. Paul Bunyan dug the beautiful giant lady out of an avalanche, according to legend, and she fell in love with him on the spot and married him the same day.

10. A statue of Paul Bunyan is mentioned several times in the novel It by Stephen King.

Character birthday

Marksman, a member of Combat Team Gamma. He is an alien, who travelled to Earth after his wife left him soon after their son was born. While this is normal on his world, Marksman was in love with her and travelled to Earth to forget her. His team mates are unaware of his alien origins since his pale colouring, while unusual, is not unknown on Earth. He tells people he is an ex army officer and has adopted 28 June as his birthday. His power works by his mentally predicting if an opponent is going to dodge and in which direction, with the result that he never misses a target. He is also an accomplished pilot.

27 June: Elephant Shrews

On this date in 2014, scientists identified a new species of elephant shrew. Here are 10 things you might not know about the elephant shrew:

1. Elephant shrews belong to the family Macroscelididae, derived from Greek, with ‘macro’ meaning long and ‘skelidos’ meaning legs. There are about 20 different species.

2. Despite the name, they are not shrews. Despite their appearance, they are not rodents. Their closest relatives are Moles and tenrecs; their family tree also includes anteaters and actual Elephants.

3. Other names for elephant shrews are jumping shrews and sengis (singular sengi). The latter is derived from the Bantu languages of Africa.

4. They are endemic to Africa and have been found thriving in both arid areas and tropical forests.

5. They can leap up to three feet in the air and run up to 18 miles per hour to escape predators.

6. They eat Ants, Termites, worms, Spiders, centipedes, and millipedes. They use their long, flexible snouts to hunt them. If there are no bugs available, they will eat leaves and seeds.

7. They reach sexual maturity at 45 days old, and females will give birth to several litters during the year. When the young are about five days old, their diet of milk will be supplemented by mashed up insects which their mother will carry home in her cheek pouches.

8. Elephant shrews are unusual for non-primate animals in that they have a menstrual cycle like a human female. Scientists in the 1940s studied elephant shrews to get insights into the human menstrual cycle.

9. Elephant shrews are diurnal, meaning they are awake during the day and sleep at night.

10. They live up to two years in the wild, but can reach four years of age in captivity.

Character birthday

Whiphand. She is an alien of uncertain origin, possibly a hybrid of two races. Dr Despicable discovered her working as a madam in a brothel in an off-world colony, where he was a regular customer. He was there when her establishment was raided by inter-galactic police and she was forced to go on the run. Despicable got her off the colony and brought her to Earth where she became a member of The Organisation. Her weapon of choice is a whip.

26 June: 177

Today is the 177^th day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 177:

1. In Roman numerals, 177 is written CLXXVII.

2. In Binary, it's written 10110001.

3. .177 is the smallest size of pellets used in airguns. This calibre is used for hunting small game such as Rabbits and Pigeons.

4. The London bus route 177 runs from Thamesmead Town Centre to Peckham Bus Station.

5. The year 177 was a common year starting on a Tuesday, known as the Year of the Consulship of Commodus and Plautius. In this year, Marcus Aurelius began persecuting Christians in Rome. Christians hid in the catacombs.

6. 177 Irma is a main belt asteroid discovered by Paul Henry and Prosper Henry on November 5, 1877. It's not known why the name Irma was chosen.

7. The Aston Martin One-77 is a two-door, two-seater flagship sports car built by British car manufacturer Aston Martin. It made its debut at the 2008 Paris Motor Show.

8. United Nations Security Council Resolution 177, adopted on October 15, 1962, recommended to the General Assembly that Uganda be admitted.

9. In England, the A177 road runs between Stockton and Durham.

10. In numerology, 177 resonates with family life. People affected by the number will be family focussed and aim for a harmonious home life. They are intuitive and wise, and analyse any information they receive rather than simply accepting it.

Character birthday

Melie Ward, wife of Innovian President Jack Ward. Generally perceived as a self-interested bimbo and not the most suitable First Lady.

Secrets and Skies

Jack Ward, President of Innovia, owes his life twice over to the enigmatic superhero, dubbed Power Blaster by the press. No-one knows who Power Blaster is or where he comes from - and he wants it to stay that way.

Scientist Desi Troyes has developed a nuclear bomb to counter the ever present threat of an asteroid hitting the planet. When Ward signs the order giving the go ahead for a nuclear test on the remote Bird Island, he has no inkling of Troyes' real agenda, and that he has signed the death warrants of millions of people.

Although the island should have been evacuated, there are people still there: some from the distant continent of Classica; protesters opposed to the bomb test; and Innovians who will not, or cannot, use their communication devices.

Power Blaster knows he must stop the bomb from hitting the island. He also knows it may be the last thing he ever does.

Meanwhile in Innovia, Ward and his staff gather to watch the broadcast of the test. Nobody, not even Troyes himself, has any idea what is about to happen.

Available from Amazon or Amazon Kindle

25 June: George Orwell

Born on this date in 1903 was the writer George Orwell, famous for 1984 and Animal Farm. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born Eric Arthur Blair to a "lower-upper-middle class" family in Motihari, Bihar, British India. He changed his name because he didn’t think Eric was a suitable name for a writer. Initially, he thought he would publish as E.A. Blair, but decided his family wouldn’t like the world knowing that he’d lived as a tramp for a while so he set to thinking of names he could use. George Orwell, after the River Orwell in East Anglia, was his preference, but he sent his publisher a list which included P.S. Burton, Kenneth Miles and H. Lewis Allways.

2. He took research for his books pretty seriously. For Down and Out in Paris and London, he spent time working as a dishwasher in Paris and a hop picker in Kent. He even got himself arrested on purpose in the hope he’d be sent to prison to get first hand experience of what that was like. Posing as a fish porter called Edward Burton, he got arrested for being “drunk and incapable.” It didn’t quite work, though, as he was released after 48 hours in custody. However, the experience wasn’t wasted. He used it to write an essay called Clink.

3. He worked as a police officer in Burma for a while, and during that time, got knuckle tattoos, a small blue spot on each knuckle.

4. He spoke several languages. His French teacher at school was Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World. As well as French, he studied Latin, Greek, Spanish, and Burmese.

5. He married twice. His first wife was Eileen O'Shaughnessy, and they had one child, a son who they adopted when he was three weeks old. Eileen died the following year and Orwell was keen to marry again, because he was lonely and wanted a mother for his son. He proposed to several women and eventually Sonia Brownell accepted. By this time, Orwell was very ill with tuberculosis, and unlikely to live very long. He and Sonia were married in his hospital room a few months before he died, leading some to suggest Sonia might have been a gold-digger.

6. Orwell liked to drink strong Tea and when he was living in Spain he had Fortnum and Mason’s tea sent over.

7. He fought in the Spanish Civil War. He first went to Spain after the fighting broke out in order to write articles about the war, but decided that actually joining joining the Republican militia to “fight fascism seemed the only conceivable thing to do.” He narrowly survived being shot in the neck by a sniper, and being charged with treason. However by the time the charge was made, he’d already gone back to England.

8. At one point he had to rescue his manuscript for Animal Farm from his bombed house. Luckily, he and his family were away when their house was destroyed, but Orwell had to go back to the ruined house during his lunch break and sift through the rubble to find the manuscript, which he piled into a wheelbarrow to take back to his office. While on the subject of Animal Farm, he actually owned a Goat named Muriel. There’s a goat in the book with the same name, one of the more likeable characters.

9. Orwell coined several words in common use today, including cold war, Big Brother, thought crime and thought police.

10. He died in January 1950 at the age of 46, when an artery burst in one of his lungs. His gravestone reads: "Here lies Eric Arthur Blair, born June 25th 1903, died January 21st 1950" with no mention of his more famous pen name.

Character birthday

Doreen Lovell, mother of James Lovell (Unicorn). Her hobby of breeding show cats sparked Unicorn’s interest in genetics.

Running in the Family

An alien craft approaches Earth. The alien on board is a fugitive, fleeing from an arranged marriage to freedom on our world. She befriends James, a genetics student, and shares her knowledge about the future of the human race with him. 

A science experiment gone wrong gifts James with superhuman abilities; but they come at a price, leading him to mentor others like himself. He founds a group of amateur heroes called the Freedom League.

The Freedom League suffers a string of losses and tragedies; it seems doomed to failure; but one of its members, Peter Mayfield, has vowed to form a group of his own. He is determined to keep his vow, despite having lost Rosemary, the one person he wanted by his side to help him.

Lizzie Hopkins is a talented young athlete and dancer. Peter sees her in action and guesses her exceptional abilities are far more than they seem. He offers to train and mentor Lizzie - but her mother is violently opposed to his suggestion.

As soon as she is old enough, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands; she seeks out Peter and his group for herself. She soon makes a discovery which shakes her world at its very foundations. Her search for the truth will resolve many unanswered questions, but it will also stir up old heartbreaks dating back to the Freedom League's early days.

Available from:

Amazon Paperback;   Amazon Kindle

24 June: Florence

Today is the feast day of John the Baptist, patron saint of Florence, Italy. 10 things you might not know about Florence:

1. Florence was founded in 59 BC by Julius Caesar as a settlement for veteran Roman soldiers. They knew it as Florentia, and the modern name of the city, Florence, or Firenze in Italian, derives from this. The origin of the name Florentia is uncertain. It might have been because the area was known for the Flowers which grew there, or it was founded during the festival of Floralia. Alternatively, it might be named after a soldier called Florio, who was killed there. There is a theory that Florentia is a name to convey good luck, "may you be florid"!

2. Today, Florence is the capital of Tuscany, and the eighth biggest city in Italy; but between 1865 and 1870, Florence was the capital city of all Italy.

3. Florence’s most iconic landmark is its cathedral, the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore (the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Flower). In Italian, it is Duomo di Firenze or Il Duomo. Construction began in 1296 and it took about 140 years to build. When it was built, the dome was the biggest in the world, but has since been overtaken by St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome and St. Paul’s in London, so it’s now in third place, but with 4 million bricks it remains the largest masonry dome ever built.

4. It was the first city in the world to have paved streets. The streets were first paved in 1339.

5. It’s said to be the birthplace of the Italian language as we know it. The Florentine dialect became the standard for the nation’s official language because there were so many famous writers living there.

6. The Piano and Opera were also invented here. Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano, then known as the pianoforte, in 1698 in the Florentine court of Cosimo III de’ Medici. Jacopo Peri’s 1598 opera Dafne was considered the first standard opera. Unfortunately, most of the music has been lost, although the libretto survives.

7. The river which runs through the city is called the Arno. Which helped bring commerce and wealth to the city, but has been known to flood and cause damage to the city and some of the works of art kept there. There are a number of bridges, most of them built after WWII, except Ponte Vecchio, the only bridge in Florence that wasn’t destroyed by the Nazis during the German siege of the city. Hitler considered this bridge to be too beautiful to destroy.

8. The fashion house Gucci was founded in Florence in 1921.

9. Florentine Bread has no Salt in it. This dates back to the 14^th century. Before that, Tuscan bread was renowned and salt was a major ingredient. However, in the 14^th century there was a war between Florence and Pisa. The Pisans were certain that Florence would surrender if their salt supply was cut off and they couldn’t make their famous bread. Florence simply carried on making the bread without salt and eventually won the war. Even when the war was over they must have decided the bread was just as good, if not better, without salt and it remains so to this day.

10. Famous people who have lived in Florence include: Dante Alighieri, Sandro Botticelli, Michelangelo Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Niccolò Machiavelli  and Amerigo Vespucci. Also Robert and Elizabeth Browning, and Florence Nightingale, who was born there and named for the city.

Character birthday

Barbara Storey, a college friend of Ultra Grav and Shadow. She married another college friend and their daughter, Clare, is a genetic variant and one of Ultra Grav’s team, the G Men. Barbara Appears in Running in the Family.

Running in the Family

An alien craft approaches Earth. The alien on board is a fugitive, fleeing from an arranged marriage to freedom on our world. She befriends James, a genetics student, and shares her knowledge about the future of the human race with him. 

A science experiment gone wrong gifts James with superhuman abilities; but they come at a price, leading him to mentor others like himself. He founds a group of amateur heroes called the Freedom League.

The Freedom League suffers a string of losses and tragedies; it seems doomed to failure; but one of its members, Peter Mayfield, has vowed to form a group of his own. He is determined to keep his vow, despite having lost Rosemary, the one person he wanted by his side to help him.

Lizzie Hopkins is a talented young athlete and dancer. Peter sees her in action and guesses her exceptional abilities are far more than they seem. He offers to train and mentor Lizzie - but her mother is violently opposed to his suggestion.

As soon as she is old enough, Lizzie takes matters into her own hands; she seeks out Peter and his group for herself. She soon makes a discovery which shakes her world at its very foundations. Her search for the truth will resolve many unanswered questions, but it will also stir up old heartbreaks dating back to the Freedom League's early days.

Available from:

Amazon Paperback;   Amazon Kindle

23 June: 174

Today is the 174^th day of the year. 10 things you might not know about the number 174:

1. London Bus route 174 runs from Dagenham Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence to Harold Hill, passing Dagenham Heathway Station, Rush Green, Queen's Hospital, Romford Station and Gallows Corner.

2. The year 174 was a common year starting on Friday known at the time as the Year of the Consulship of Gallus and Flaccus. In this year, Marcus Aurelius allowed his wife Empress Faustina the Younger to accompany him on his military campaigns and gave her the title Mater Castrorum ("Mother of the Camp"). There are rumours that she cheated on him with some of the soldiers but they're not substantiated, although it's also known that during the campaigns that year he was also writing a book, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, in Greek, so it's entirely possible she didn't get a lot of attention from him.

3. 174 Phaedra is a main belt Asteroid discovered by James Craig Watson on September 2, 1877, and named after Phaedra, the tragic lovelorn queen in Greek mythology.

4. So Long, 174th Street is a musical based on a book by Joseph Stein and lyrics and music by Stan Daniels.

5. 174 is the atomic number of a theoretical chemical element known as Unseptquadium.

6. The A174 is a major road in North Yorkshire, England. It runs between Thornaby-on-Tees to Whitby and is the coastal route between Teesside and Whitby.

7. The first DNA based genome to be sequenced was the Phi X 174 bacteriophage, done by Fred Sanger and his team in 1977. The phi X 174 bacteriophage is a single-stranded DNA virus that infects the Bacteria Escherichia coli.

8. Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 is a 1995 Canadian thriller directed by Jorge Montesi. It's based on a true story about an Air Canada flight which made an emergency landing on an abandoned airfield in Manitoba. The real life flight, however, was Flight 143.

9. There's also a Brazilian documentary about a Rio de Janiero bus hijacking called Bus 174.

10. The number 174 in numerology resonates with creative self-expression and self-reliance. People affected by the number will be creative and like to spend time and work in creative environments. They'll be sociable, tolerant, optimistic and pragmatic.

Character birthday

Pierce Appleby, a member of the cohort of schoolboys, including Sebastian Garrett, who were groomed by their teacher, Douglas Black, to become Viper agents. Pierce is gay, and in a relationship with Black’s son, Gavin. Read about him in Killing Me Softly.

Killing Me Softly

Sebastian Garrett is an assassin. It wasn’t his first choice of vocation, but nonetheless, he’s good at it, and can be relied upon to get the job done. He’s on top of his game.

Until he is contracted to kill Princess Helena of Galorvia. She is not just any princess. Sebastian doesn’t bargain on his intended victim being a super-heroine who gives as good as she gets. Only his own genetic variant power saves him from becoming the victim, instead of Helena. 

Fate has another surprise in store. Sebastian was not expecting to fall in love with her.

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