1 November: National Pâté Day

Today is National Pâté Day. 10 things you might not know about Pâté:

1. Pâté is roughly translated from the French to mean something like a “paste” or coarse mixture.

2. It’s pronounced pah-TAY.

3. It’s been around since the middle ages when it evolved as a way to preserve meat and game, and to use all parts of an animal including liver and kidneys.

4. It’s a staple of French cuisine. 25% of French people eat pâté at least once per week and 68% of French people consume pâté at least once per month.

5. Pâté en croûte is pâté baked in a pastry crust. It’s baked with the insertion of "chimneys" on top: small tubes or funnels that allow steam to escape, thus keeping the pastry crust from turning damp or soggy.

6. Baked in a terrine (or other mould), it is known as pâté en terrine. The words pâté and terrine are sometimes used interchangeably.

7. Pâté is typically made from finely chopped or ground meat, animal fat, Salt, and seasoning, which might include herbs, spices and Wine.

8. Pâté de Pâques is made from ground meat, chopped pork, chicken or rabbit, and hard-boiled eggs, is traditionally eaten at Easter in the Poitou region.

9. Pâté is a rich source of vitamin A and the various B vitamins.

10. A potential concern with pâté is the high Sodium content. It has nearly a gram of sodium per 100 grams.

Character birthday

Servant, a member of the Freedom League who has the power of teleportation. His name derives from the fact he is a born again Christian, and believes his power is a gift from God and that he wants to use his power in the service of God. Read about him in The Power of Love.

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:

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31 October: 304

Today is the 304^th day of the year. Here are 10 facts about the number 304:

1. 304 is a trick-taking card game popular in Sri Lanka and the Indian subcontinent. The game is played by two teams of two using 7 through Ace of all suits so that there are 32 cards in play.

2. West Virginia's phone area code is 304.

3. London bus route 304 runs between Custom House Station and Manor Park/Gladding Road.

4. In urban slang, 304 means a promiscuous woman as if you type it into a calculator and turn it upside down it spells the word “hoe”.

5. 304 Olga is a large Main belt asteroid discovered by Johann Palisa on 14 February 1891 in Vienna.

6. 304 is a fictional class battlecruiser in the Stargate series.

7. The year 304 was a leap year starting on Saturday, known in the Roman Empire as the Year of the Consulship of Diocletian and Maximian. In this year, Sichuan earned its independence from China and Pope Marcellinus died at Rome after an 8-year reign.

8. The A304 road in England is the western part of the Fulham Road.

9. 304 is a British street clothing brand which specialises in “Bold, timeless street-ready active wear for men, women, and children. customised, quality pieces that express who you are.”

10. The Peugeot 304 is a small family car manufactured and marketed by the French manufacturer Peugeot from 1969 to 1980.

Character birthday

October, a member of the Calendar Mob. He is a shape changer who can turn into a goblin or a bat. His origins are unknown.

30 October: Elsie Name Day

Today is the Name day for people called Elsie. A female given name, sometimes used as a derivative of Elizabeth. 10 famous Elsies:

Coronation Street

1. Elsie Edith Bowerman: British lawyer, suffragette, political activist, and RMS Titanic survivor.

2. Elsie Wright: One of the two cousins who took photographs of the Cottingley Fairies.

3. Elsie Fisher: American actor known for Bo Burnham's comedy-drama film Eighth Grade.

4. Elsie Hughes: the housekeeper on the series Downton Abbey.

5. Elsie Sigel: granddaughter of General Franz Sigel, and the victim of a notorious murder at the age of 19 in New York City in 1909.

6. Elsie Cassels: Scottish born naturalist, the first woman to become Vice-President of a Canadian naturalist society. She was a recognised authority across Canada on migratory Birds.

7. Elsie Margaret Wagg: English philanthropist credited with creating the idea of opening gardens for charity, and co-founded the National Garden Scheme.

8. Elsie Tanner: fictional character from the British ITV soap opera Coronation Street, played by Pat Phoenix from the series' inception in 1960 to 1973, and again from 1976 until 1984. Incidentally, the first character to speak in the first episode was another Elsie, Elsie Lappin.

9. Elsie Griffin: English Opera singer, best known for her performances in the soprano roles of the Savoy Operas with the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.

10. Elsie MacGill: Canadian aeronautical engineer, first woman to earn an aeronautical engineering degree.

Character birthday

Obsidian, aka Jasper Kingston-Parker, arch villain and leader of The Sinister Squad. His father, Titus, disinherited him from the family fortune and business in favour of his younger brother, Lionel. Obsidian believes this was purely because he was manifesting genetic variant powers, but it was more likely because he was also manifesting criminal tendencies. Bitter about his father’s decision, he set out to eliminate Lionel and his descendants so that the fortune would revert to him as Titus’s only living descendant. However, he failed to kill Lionel’s daughter Fiona (Ivory) since the Freedom League rescued her and taught her to use her powers. He has an adopted daughter, Ebony, who he tried to endow with powers like Ivory’s, but was only partially successful.

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Available from:

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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.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

29 October: Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh died on this date in 1618. Here are some things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in Devon around 1554. The exact date isn’t known. His parents were Catherine Champermowne and Walter Raleigh.

2. He studied at Oxford University's Oriel College, but became a soldier while still in his teens.

3. He became a favourite of Queen Elizabeth I after serving during an uprising in Ireland. He was also tall and handsome, which may have helped. There is a story in which he lays his cloak over a puddle so the queen would not get her feet wet, and there are speculations the two of them might have had an affair.

4. He was sent to prison for getting married without asking the queen’s permission. While this could be seen as evidence of the queen being jealous, it was a requirement of courtiers at the time to get royal approval to wed. He and his wife, Elizabeth “Bess” Throckmorton, one of the queen’s ladies in waiting, were sent to the Tower of London in 1592, but were released so that Raleigh could recover booty from a captured Portuguese ship.

5. Several of his adventures were connected with a quest to find El Dorado, a mythical city of riches in the New World. Raleigh believed El Dorado was somewhere in Guiana (present-day Venezuela). He didn’t find it, but plundered the area anyway.

6. He might have got Elizabeth I into smoking. He is credited with introducing Tobacco to Europe, although historians say tobacco was present in Europe before his time.

7. He’s also credited with introducing Potatoes to Britain and Ireland, and presenting the queen with a potato as a gift. However, historians dispute this one as well, claiming he didn’t visit any places where potatoes were indigenous.

8. He wrote romantic poetry. His poems included “The Ocean’s Love to Cynthia” and "Nature, That Washed Her Hands in Milk." There’s speculation that “Cynthia” was a pseudonym for Queen Elizabeth I.

9. Raleigh may have been a favourite of Elizabeth I, but her successor, King James I, wasn’t a fan and accused him of plotting to overthrow him. The sentence for this should have been death, but the king commuted his sentence to imprisonment in the Tower of London, where he had comfortable accommodation and an extensive library. He spent his time there reading and writing until he was released in order to have another shot at finding El Dorado.

10. During the trip, Raleigh’s men attacked a Spanish colony, which violated of the terms of Raleigh’s release from prison. The Spanish ambassador prevailed upon King James to reinstate Raleigh’s death sentence. He was beheaded on October 29, 1618, at the Old Palace Yard in Westminster. His severed head was given to his wife Bess, who had it embalmed and kept it in a red bag until she died.

Character birthday

Molly Pozzi, a member of the Pozzi gangster family based in New York City. As a girl, she would follow her older brothers and cousins when they went off on Gang related business. This annoyed them at first, as her lack of experience made her a liability and they were resistant to a woman being part of the gang. However, she practised long and hard at shooting and combat skills. As time went on, she frequently got her brothers and cousins out of sticky situations and they realised they couldn't work without her.

28 October: 301

Today is the 301^st day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 301:

1. The objective in a standard game of darts is to reduce a fixed score, more often than not 301, to zero, with the final dart landing in either the bullseye or a double segment to win.

2. 301 Hospital is the central military medical institution of the People's Liberation Army and the largest comprehensive military hospital in China.

3. 301 Bavaria is an asteroid from the intermediate asteroid belt, discovered by Johann Palisa on 16 November 1890 in Vienna.

4. 301 Mission Street is the address of Millennium Tower in San Francisco. It is the tallest residential building and the 6th-tallest building overall in San Francisco.

5. The Peugeot 301 is a sub-compact sedan produced by the French car maker Peugeot since 2012.

6. 301 is the last album recorded by the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, released in 2012. It was released posthumously, as the pianist. Esbjörn Svensson, had died in June 2008.

7. HTTP 301 is the HTTP response status code for 301 Moved Permanently. It is used for permanent redirecting, meaning that links or records returning this response should be updated.

8. The year 301 was a common year starting on Wednesday, known at the time, as the Year of the Consulship of Postumius and Nepotianus. The republic of San Marino was established in this year.

9. 301 was the first area code for all of Maryland, from 1947, when the area code system was created.

10. London bus route 301 runs from Bexleyheath Clock Tower to Beresford Square / Woolwich Arsenal Station.

Character birthday

Captain Cricket. Captain Cricket's origins are unknown. He was thought to be an alien for a time, but more recent evidence has suggested he is a mutate. He has a PhD in genetics and his powers may have come from an experiment which went wrong. He has green skin and hair, likely a result of the same accident, which may also have sent him completely mad. Although human, he holds the belief that the future of Earth lies with insects, and humans with the ability to imitate or become insects. He is keen to bring this to being, and be the ultimate ruler of them all. His goal is to eliminate "normal" humans and breed super-large and powerful insects to do his bidding. So far, he has succeeded only in producing two super-sized crickets which are his "henchcrickets", which are with him at all times. When necessary, he can ride them.

Humans with powers (unless insect related) are seen as enemies to his cause and another goal is to rid the planet of them. He has gathered a number of genetic variants with insect related powers around him and has named his group "The Swarm".

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.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

27 October: The Spine

October is Spinal health month, so here are ten facts about your spine:

1. A newborn baby has 33 vertebrae, but as a person grows up, some of these fuse together so that adults essentially have 26.

2. Men have longer spines than women on average, with the average male spine being 70cm long and the female 60cm.

3. The spine has five sections: cervical, thoracic, lumbar, sacrum, and coccyx. Within those sections, each vertebra is unique.

4. You are taller in the morning than in the evening. This is because of the discs between your vertebrae. They absorb fluid at night when your body is horizontal, and shed it as you move about during the day.

5. What’s the difference between the spinal chord and the spinal column? The spinal column is the bones, and the spinal chord is the bundle of nerves travelling through the tunnel in the middle of those bones. Some of those nerves are called the cauda equina, Latin for horse’s tail, because that’s what they look like.

6. Your spine carries more than a million electrical nerve messages between your brain and your body every single day.

7. The top bone of your spine is called the atlas. It’s the one that supports your head, and is named after the god charged with holding up the Sky.

8. Humans have the same number of bones in their necks as a Giraffe: seven.

9. The spinal cord weighs around 35 grams.

10. 48% of all spinal chord injuries are caused by road traffic accidents.

Character birthday

Patti Bridges, American rock star. She once dated Harlequin and more recently, his long lost brother, George Moran.

26 October: Andrew Motion Quotes

Andrew Motion, poet laureate from 1999 to 2009, was born on this date in 1952. Here are some of the things he said about poetry, life and writing:

1. Poems are a hotline to our hearts, and we forget this emotional power at our peril.

2. Honour the miraculousness of the ordinary.

3. I write between 5.30am and 9.00. That way, I hope I carry over something from my dream time.

4. Well, it's a badge of honour for any self-respecting poet to be criticised by Auberon Waugh.

5. In a fragile environment, we need to be aware of ourselves as members of a uniquely powerful species living among other species who are quite as interesting as we are but vulnerable to us because we are cleverer in more destructive ways.

6. I'm also a great believer in the dream life; that while we're asleep, a deep subconscious connection is made about our profoundest fears, hopes, loves, losses, dreads and desires.

7. Pretty much the day I stopped being laureate, the poems that had been few and far between came back to me, like birds in the evening nesting in a tree.

8. I've always thought that the balance between the side of my mind that knows what it is doing and the side that really hasn't got a clue has to be carefully maintained because if you write too knowingly then you get chilly, and if you write too unknowingly you write bollocks that nobody else can understand.

9. Think with your senses as well as your brain.

10. Decide when in the day (or night) it best suits you to write, and organise your life accordingly.

Character birthday

Evelyn “Lyn” Lorimer, journalist and genetic variant sceptic. Having written much about genetic variant powers being fake or illusions, she had to come to terms with her son, Julian, and her sister, Rosemary Ellis (Shadow) were variants. She appears in Runs in the Family.

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 October: Punk music

Today is Punk for a Day Day, a day to celebrate punk music and culture. 10 facts about punk music:

1. The word “punk” predates the musical genre by quite some time. The word existed in Shakespeare’s time as a slang term for a prostitute. He uses the word in this context in The Merry Wives of Windsor and Measure for Measure. Later on the meaning changed and from the 18^th century came to mean “a young male hustler, a gangster, a hoodlum, or a ruffian.”

2. Punk has its roots in 1960s garage music, when young bands would create music outside of the mainstream, often quite literally in their garage.

3. The first known use of the phrase "punk rock" appeared in the Chicago Tribune on March 22, 1970, when Ed Sanders, co-founder of New York's anarcho-prankster band the Fugs described his first solo album as "punk rock – redneck sentimentality".

4. John Holmstrom, founding editor of Punk magazine, once said, "punk rock had to come along because the rock scene had become so tame that acts like Billy Joel and Simon and Garfunkel were being called rock and roll, when to me and other fans, rock and roll meant this wild and rebellious music."

5. Early punk bands shunned the high tech and corporate music industry. They developed a network of small venues, like pubs and independent record labels, Stiff Records being one example. The aim was to keep costs low and their music accessible.

6. Punk songs are typically short with a fast tempo. Bands would usually comprise a couple of guitarists, a drummer and a lead singer. Many would shout or snarl the lyrics, which were often angry and/or political. The economic and political climate in the UK in the mid 1970s meant a lot of young people were angry at the system and so punk’s time had come.

7. Most punk bands were from English speaking countries in the beginning. The first punk band which didn’t perform in English is generally accepted to be Stinky Toys, who were an all-female act from Paris, France.

8. Punk fashion was designed to be shocking and grungy. Johnny Rotten is said to be the first British punk to rip his shirt, and Sid Vicious is said to be the first to use Safety pins. A London boutique which had changed its name from “Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die” to “SEX” and the designer Vivienne Westwood pioneered punk fashion, although, ironically, most of the working class unemployed followers of the genre couldn’t actually afford to buy their stuff. The characteristic “Mohawk” hairstyle (created by using lots of Vaseline and Talcum powder) was actually a favourite of Jazz musicians in the 1950s rather than being pioneered by the punks.

9. Punk’s reputation was partly established when in 1976, The Sex Pistols appeared on the Today Show with Ted Grundy. They’d been brought in because Queen had dropped out at the last minute. Prompted by Grundy to “say something outrageous”, Steve Jones responded with “What a f***ing rotter”, which was pretty scandalous for the time. The press lambasted the band for their lack of manners and many record shops refused to stock their music.

10. The Sex Pistols’ God Save the Queen is a landmark punk rock song. Originally titled No Future, it was anti-monarchy and therefore banned from some UK radio stations for being disrespectful. This didn’t stop it from reaching No. 1 on the UK charts.

Character birthday

Warlord, an alien soldier, who reached a high rank, but resigned his commission when asked to oversee an evil regime. A career in any form of military or combat was now closed to him, and he could not imagine doing anything else; so he left his planet entirely and came to Earth, a planet notorious for being constantly at war. On arrival, he found most of the humans' wars to be evil or pointless, so joined Combat Team Beta.

His power of copying the abilities of others does damage to those individuals if done repeatedly over time, which is why he will never copy the powers of anyone on his own team.

24 November: The Kray Twins

Notorious 1960s London gangsters the Kray Twins were born on this date in 1933. 10 things you might not know about them:

1. Ronald and Reginald Kray were born in Haggerston, East London. Their parents were Charles David Kray and Violet Annie Lee. The brothers were identical Twins. Reggie was the oldest by ten minutes.

2. They had an older brother, Charlie, who was also a member of their criminal gang, known as “The Firm”.

3. When they were young, the boys enjoyed writing poetry. We know this because a childhood friend of theirs, Laurie O'Leary, has said he owns a number of the poems they wrote but never published.

4. The first time the twins’ names appeared in the newspapers was in 1950, when at 16, they got into a fight in Hackney.

5. They were among the last prisoners to be held at the Tower of London. This was in 1952, for failing to report for national service. Although they turned up at the depot of the Royal Fusiliers (which was in the Tower of London), they tried to leave before actually registering. When a soldier tried to stop them, Ronnie punched him in the face, and the twins went home, only to be arrested the next day and turned over to the army. They were imprisoned in the Tower of London before being transferred to Shepton Mallet military prison in Somerset.

6. Their grandfather, Jimmy Cannonball Lee, was a boxer and this inspired the twins to take up boxing. Reggie almost became a professional boxer, but his sporting career was ended because of his criminal activity.

7. Reggie had a signature punch which was guaranteed to break his opponent’s jaw, every time. He’d offer the other person a cigarette and as they opened their mouth to accept the cigarette, he’d hit them.

8. They owned a number of nightclubs and socialised with celebrities. They also ran protection rackets and had a security protection company called Krayleigh Enterprises. They carried on running this company from prison, and Frank Sinatra was said to be one of their customers.

9. In March 1969 they were sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for 30 years for the murders of George Cornell and Jack McVitie. This was the longest sentence the Old Bailey had ever doled out at the time. It was also the longest and most expensive trial to be held there. The jury deliberated for seven hours before returning with a unanimous guilty verdict.

10. They once barged onto a movie set because the producers hadn't asked their permission to film in the East End. The film was called Sparrows Can't Sing and starred Barbara Windsor. They showed up in several black cars, demanding, "Who gave you permission to shoot here? Nobody asked us." Despite having police permission, Reggie and Ronnie forced their "protection" onto the company. However, after this relations between the twins and the film company were actually quite friendly, with members of the gang getting cameo roles.

Character birthday

Water, an associate of Fyre and Hurricane. This character’s story is not yet written.