23 January: National Handwriting Day

Today is National handwriting day. 10 facts about handwriting:

1. Why is there a national handwriting day, anyway? It started in 1970 and was created by the Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association for advertising purposes. More recently, it has become a day to celebrate the vintage art of handwriting.
2. Andy why today? 23 January was the birthday of John Hancock, the first person to sign the US declaration of independence, which, like many other historic documents, including the Magna Carta, was originally written by hand.
3. The world’s first handwriting system was Cuneiform, the Sumerian writing system that emerged from Mesopotamia 5000 years ago. It consisted of writing etched into small clay tablets, tiny and hard to read.
4. Charlemange promoted standardised script as early as the 9^th century, in fact, he decreed that everyone in the Holy Roman Empire should use the same system. Called Carolingian minuscule, this uniform script dominated writing in France, Germany, Northern Italy, and England until the 11th century. Charlemagne himself, however, was illiterate.
5. In fact, most historic writing is hard to read. In Medieval times, after the Romans had gone, writing evolved differently in different regions, so there were basically accents in writing as well as speech. All books were written in Latin, but the letters were so different that many scribes couldn’t read writing from other regions. Needless to say, historians wanting to study old handwritten documents have to study the form of writing of their chosen period or region for years, and they still can’t decipher most of it.
6. Cursive writing is writing in which the letters are joined together in a flowing manner. It evolved to make writing faster and was first seen in the 1600s. The term derives from Middle French cursif from Medieval Latin cursivus, which literally means running.
7. Everyone’s handwriting is different, as unique as a fingerprint. Identical twins will have different writing styles to one another. This means it can easily be proved who wrote a letter or a document.
8. Some believe that a person’s personality can be determined by studying their handwriting. This is called graphology. While many dismiss it as pseudoscience with no evidence to support it, that doesn’t stop something like 3,000 businesses in the UK from using graphology as part of their selection process. In the USA, this is illegal.
9. It’s often claimed, even so, that good, legible handwriting is a sign of balance, organisation and good memory and is therefore to be encouraged. If your handwriting is awful, however, don’t be discouraged. Some say this is a sign of intelligence, and that you think faster than you can write, and you’re an independent thinker.
10. The inability to produce clear and coherent handwriting is known as dysgraphia.

Character birthday

Ebony: As a teenage street kid, she tried to steal Obsidian’s wallet. Obsidian, impressed by her skills and courage, took her under his wing. He was experimenting at the time with techniques to replicate genetic variant powers in un-powered people, and used this experimental technique on Ebony, who did gain powers, although not as strongly as Obsidian had hoped. Nevertheless, he still adopted her and trained her up to become a member of his team of super-villains, the Sinister Squad. Ebony appears in Eternal Flame.

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future. 

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

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