8 August: R

Today is R Day, according to a spoof list of daily celebrations by the Immortal Society. 10 things you never knew about the letter R.

1. The letter r is the eighth most common letter in English and the fourth-most common consonant, after t, n, and s.

2. A small capital R in a circle is the registered trademark symbol.

3. In Morse Code it’s ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄ and in the NATO phonetic alphabet it’s Romeo.

4. In mathematics, a lower case r is the symbol representing the radius of a circle.

5. It is believed to have derived from a symbol of a head in ancient alphabets.

6. R is sometimes referred to as the littera canīna 'canine letter', or the dog's letter. This comes from the pronunciation of the letter where it can be trilled to sound like a Dog growling.

7. In the James Bond film The World Is Not Enough, John Cleese played a character named R.

8. The three Rs is a phrase coined in the 19^th century in education to denote the most basic things kids learn: reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s based on phonetics rather than spelling, although arithmetic may have been more commonly referred to at the time as “reckoning”.

9. An R rating of the Motion Picture Association film rating system denotes media, such as movies, that are intended for a restricted audience.

10. R was the production code for the 1965 Doctor Who serial The Chase.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

13 June: F

According to “The Immortal Society”, today is F day. 10 things you might not know about the letter F.

1. F is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and the eleventh least frequently used letter in the English language (after G, Y, P, B, V, K, J, X, Q, and Z), with a frequency of about 2.23% in words.

2. The letter F evolved from the Semitic letter waw, which in turn is thought to have evolved from an Egyptian hieroglyph depicting a hook, club or mace.

3. In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, F corresponds to the number 15 in decimal.

4. F is the chemical symbol for Fluorine.

5. On the vehicle registration plates of the European Union, F represents France.

6. "F" Is for Fugitive is the sixth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet mystery" series, published in 1989.

7. In education, an F grade denotes failure.

8. There are a couple of rude words beginning with F, sometimes referred to in polite company as “The F word”. The F Word is also British cooking show featuring celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay.

9. In the video game Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare the F key is pressed when a character dies, and has become an internet meme for paying respects.

10. A bold italic letter f is used in musical notation as a dynamic indicator for "loud or strong". It stands for the Italian word forte.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

3 May: J

The first Saturday of May is designated J Day by marijuana users who organise marches worldwide on this day. 10 things you might not know about the letter J.

1. Firstly, the reason why a day of cannabis activism is known as J day: because J is a slang term for a joint.

2. It’s the 10^th letter of the Latin alphabet and the fourth least used in the English language after Z, Q and X. That said it’s more common when it comes to personal names. Hence all of the main roles in the comedy show Absolutely Fabulous are played by actresses with names beginning with J: Jennifer, Joanna, June, Julia and Jane.

3. However, if your name begins with J you can’t do that thing where you spell out your name with element symbols as J doesn’t appear in the Periodic Table. Not in English, anyway. In German, the word for Iodine is Jod, and in German texts J is sometimes used as the symbol for Iodine.

4. In international licence plate codes, J stands for Japan.

5. Agent J is a character in the Men in Black films portrayed by Will Smith.

6. J is the narrator of Jerome K Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat.

7. The tenth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet mystery" series, published in 1993 is "J" Is for Judgment.

8. In the Metric system, J is the symbol for the joule, the SI derived unit for energy.

9. J has been used as a nickname for various music artists including a member of the K-Pop group STAYC, a solo Korean singer, a Japanese rock musician and American White Zombie guitarist Jay Yuenger. JJJ has been used to refer to Australian radio station Triple J; J. Jonah Jameson, a Marvel comics character; Jaren Jackson Jr., an American basketball player; and Jingjinji, a metropolitan region of China. It was also the production code for the 1971 Doctor Who serial The Dæmons.

10. In Morse code it’s .--- and in the NATO Phonetic alphabet, J is represented by Juliet.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

23 December: The letter G

Today is G Day, according to the Immortal Society. 10 facts about the letter G.

1. G is the seventh letter of the Latin alphabet. It is the tenth least frequently used letter in the English language.

2. It derives from the third letter of the Greek alphabet, Gamma. A third century scholar named Spurius Carvilius Ruga is credited with adding the letter to the Roman alphabet.

3. The sound of G in words like gate or gallop is called the voiced velar. It can also represent a similar sound to the letter j, as in giraffe or ginger; or a softer sound (beige). Combined with h, it can sound like f (laugh, cough) or be silent (through).

4. The UK postal code G denotes the city of Glasgow and the international license plate code for Gabon.

5. In mathematics it is an SI prefix denoting 1,000,000,000. In physics it’s used to represent gravity, for example, g-force, the acceleration of a body relative to free fall.

6. G-men is slang for federal law enforcement agents, short for "Government Men", which has in turn been applied to a 1935 Hollywood crime film, a comic written by Chris Giarrusso, a monthly Japanese magazine for gay men, a nickname for the New York Giants, Junior G-Men, an American boys club in the 1930s and 1940s and a group of superheroes in the Ultraheroes universe.

7. G was the production code for the 1964 Doctor Who serial The Sensorites.

8. G is a common content rating for media entertainment, such as films, television shows and computer games, generally denoting "General Audience" or "General Patronage" meaning that access is not age restricted.

9. Musical note G is the fifth note on the scale and represented by “so”.

10. The g factor is a construct developed in psychometric investigations of cognitive abilities and human intelligence.

A Very Variant Christmas

Last year, Jade and Gloria were embroiled in a bitter conflict to win back their throne and their ancestral home. This year, Queen Jade and Princess Gloria want to host the biggest and best Christmas party ever in their palace. They invite all their friends to come and bring guests. Not even the birth of Jade's heir just before Christmas will stop them.

The guest list includes most of Britain's complement of super-powered crime-fighters, their families and friends. What could possibly go wrong?

Gatecrashers, unexpected arrivals, exploding Christmas crackers and a kidnapping, for starters.

Far away in space, the Constellations, a cosmic peacekeeping force, have suffered a tragic loss. They need to recruit a new member to replace their dead colleague. The two top candidates are both at Jade and Gloria's party. The arrival of the recruitment delegation on Christmas Eve is a surprise for everyone; but their visit means one guest now faces a life-changing decision.

Meanwhile, an alliance of the enemies of various guests at the party has infiltrated the palace; they hide in the dungeon, plotting how best to get rid of the crime-fighters and the royal family once and for all. Problem is, they all have their own agendas and differences of opinion on how to achieve their aims.

Not to mention that this year, the ghosts who walk the corridors of the palace on Christmas Eve will be as surprised by the living as the living are by them.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

12 April: I

Today is "I" Day according to the Immortal Society. 10 things you might not know about the letter I.

1. I, or i, is the ninth letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet.

2. It developed from the Phoenician hieroglyph for an arm, which in turn was adapted by the Greeks into their letter iota.

3. I is the fifth most commonly used letter in the English Language.

4. The dot over a lower case i is called a tittle.

5. It acquired the dot for the same reason the upper case I which is the first person pronoun became capitalised. It was so it wouldn’t get lost or misinterpreted in handwritten manuscripts before the age of printing. The capitalised "I" was first used in about 1250 in the northern and midland dialects of England, according to the Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, but didn't become established in the south of England until the 1700s.

6. I is the symbol for the chemical element Iodine.

7. The Roman numeral I represents the number 1.

8. "I" is a song by American rapper Kendrick Lamar featuring Ronald Isley of The Isley Brothers. It was released on September 23, 2014. There is also a Norwegian heavy metal band called I.

9. "I" Is for Innocent is the ninth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet mystery" series, published in 1992.

10. There is a British Newspaper called The i paper, which was known until December 2024 simply as “i”. It is aimed at commuters who want to get an overview of the news on their way to work.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

1 March: C

In Australia, this date in 1975 was C Day. On this day, Australia moved to colour television. 10 facts about the letter C:

1. C evolved from the same letter as G, the Semitic letter gimel. This in turn may have derived from an Egyptian hieroglyph for a staff sling, or possibly a Camel, although Barry B. Powell, a specialist in the history of writing, doesn’t think so. He says: "It is hard to imagine how gimel = "camel" can be derived from the picture of a camel (it may show his hump, or his head and neck!)".

2. C is the twelfth most frequently used letter in the English Language with a frequency of about 2.8% in words.

3. It’s the chemical symbol for carbon, a chemical element with the atomic number 6. It belongs to group 14 of the periodic table and makes up about 0.025 percent of Earth's crust.

4. In the hexadecimal (base 16) numbering system, C corresponds to the number 12 in decimal (base 10). In the Roman numeral system, C represents 100.

5. C is a general-purpose computer programming language. It was created in the 1970s by Dennis Ritchie and is widely used and influential.

6. The musical note C is commonly pitched around 261.63 Hz.

7. "C" Is for Corpse is the third novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet mystery" series, published in 1986.

8. It is used to represent various units of measurement, including °C – degrees Celsius; Carat, the measurement of purity of precious stones and metals; Coulomb, a unit for electric charge defined as the electric charge delivered by a 1 ampere current in 1 second; Cup, a common measurement in American recipes.

9. The speed of light in vacuum is commonly denoted as c. It’s a universal physical constant: 299,792,458 metres per second.

10. In the NATO Phonetic Alphabet, C is “Charlie,” and in Morse Code it is ▄▄▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄.

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

23 October: T Day

According to the Immortal Society, today it T Day. 10 things you might not know about the letter T:

1. It is derived from the Semitic letter Taw which was was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets.

2. T is the 20^th letter of the Latin alphabet and the second most used letter in the English language. As the most common is E, it is the most frequently used consonant.

3. T is the symbol for Tesla, the SI unit of magnetic field; the unit prefix for “tera” or one trillion; the symbol for tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen and in logic it stands for “True”.

4. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, T is represented by “Tango” and in Morse Code by a single dash.

5. T- is often used as a prefix for an object shaped like the capital letter T. Examples include T-shirt, T-bone steak, T-joint, T-junction and T-square.

6. Mr. T is an American actor born Laurence Tureaud. He is known for his roles as B. A. Baracus in the 1980s television series The A-Team and as boxer Clubber Lang in the 1982 film Rocky III.

7. Ice-T is an American rapper and actor, born Tracy Lauren Marrow.

8. "T" Is for Trespass, is the twentieth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet mystery" series, published in 2007.

9. The Ford Model T is a car produced by the Ford Motor Company from October 1, 1908, to May 26, 1927. It is generally regarded as the first mass-affordable car.

10. T cells are one of the important types of white Blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

23 August: J

According to the Immortal Society, today is J Day. 10 things you might not know about the letter J:

1. The letter J started life as a flourish on the last “i” in a Roman numeral, also known as a swash. For example, XXIIJ or xxiij instead of XXIII or xxiii for the Roman numeral twenty-three.

2. It was the last letter to be added to the alphabet. Originally, 'I' and 'J' were different shapes for the same letter. J was first distinguished as having a different sound by Gian Giorgio Trissino (1478–1550). The first books in English to make a distinction were the King James Bible in 1629 and an English grammar book published in 1633.

3. It’s pronounced differently in Romance and Germanic languages. Romance languages tend to pronounce it “dg” as in “edge” while in Germanic languages it’s pronounced “y”.

4. In the Italian language, J only ever appears in proper nouns, Latin words or words borrowed from other languages.

5. In English, J is the fourth least frequently used letter after Z, Q and X. That said, J is more common in personal names.

6. J is the only letter which doesn’t appear on the Periodic Table.

7. Neither does it appear in any numbers in the English language. Neither, incidentally, do K or Z.

8. In the Metric system, J is the symbol for the joule, the SI derived unit for energy.

9. The narrator of Jerome K. Jerome's novel Three Men in a Boat is known simply as “J”.

10. "J" Is for Judgment is the tenth novel in Sue Grafton's "Alphabet mystery" series, published in 1993.

Character birthday

Margarita Harravitch, a nursery maid for the Galorvian royal family who helped the twin princesses, Jade and Gloria, escape when the palace was attacked by rebels.

From A Jack To A King

A royal palace is burning. The King and Queen are dead. The only hopes for an ancient dynasty flee to England for their lives.

A boy runs from his mother and the people he believes want to mutilate him, and vanishes, seemingly forever.

Gary Winchcombe, the experimental "super-cop" pursues a notorious gang of bank robbers, and starts to discover that his friends and neighbours have secrets he never could have imagined.

Tod Reynard wants to turn his life around. When he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Jade, he knows she might just be the one to help him change his life for the better. He cannot possibly know just how much.

When Jade's twin sister Gloria is kidnapped, old rivalries must be put aside and new associations formed in order to save Gloria's life and restore the rightful order of things.

Available from: Amazon, Amazon Kindle

9 February: K

This week is Circle K International week. Circle K International is an international organisation which promotes service, leadership, and fellowship. Here are 10 facts about the letter K, the 11^th letter in the alphabet:

1. The letter K comes from the Greek letter kappa, which was taken from the Semitic kaph, the symbol for an open hand, which in turn came from the Egyptian word for a hand, which began with a “K” sound.
2. In early Latin writing, the letters K, C, and Q were all used to represent the sound but eventually Greek words were standardised with kappa being translated as C. Hence C is more commonly used in English and romance languages.
3. In the International System of Units (SI), the SI prefix for one thousand is k, for kilo (which is, incidentally, the word used to represent K in the NATO phonetic alphabet). Hence K is often used to represent thousands, eg. 30k for thirty thousand.
4. It’s also the symbol for the kelvin, used to measure thermodynamic temperature.
5. K is the chemical symbol for element Potassium (from its Latin name kalium).
6. Vitamin K is a group of vitamins needed for blood coagulation.
7. If a drug user mentions K, they are probably referring to Ketamine.
8. There have been a few songs named K. Artists who have recorded songs with this name are Cul de Sac, The Tutts, Bump of Chicken and Cigarettes After Sex.
9. K in Morse Code is -.- and the maritime signal flag is Yellow and Blue (picture the flag of Ukraine rotated by 90 degrees to the right).
10. In the CMYK colour model, K represents Black ink.

Character Birthday

The Milky Bar Kid, aka Neil Birch. He is one of the Star Cruisers. Hawk Wind, the leader, initially recruited Neil’s older brother, Gordon, and Neil insisted on tagging along. While Gordon was athletic and practical, Neil was more of a nerd, interested in maths, computers and physics. Hawk saw him as a liability, but a short lived one, as he was deemed unlikely to survive for long in the rigours of outer space and a Star Cruiser lifestyle. Neil surprised them all, however, as not only did he survive, but he thrived. While he never became as athletic as his brother, his skills did improve, and he proved invaluable to the group for his intelligence and ability to solve problems.

4 September: The Letter B

On this date in 2006, Beyonce’s album B Day was released in the UK. Facts about the letter B, the second letter of the alphabet:

1. It first appeared in the runic alphabet as beorc ⟨ᛒ⟩, meaning "Birch".
2. It is the seventh least frequently used letter in the English language (after V, K, J, X, Q, and Z).
3. In English, it is sometimes silent. Words in which B is silent include lamb, bomb, debt, doubt and subtle. In the case of the latter three, the b is there because it appears in the Latin words they are derived from (debitum, dubito, subtilis).
4. B is the symbol for the element boron, a brittle, dark, lustrous metalloid with the atomic number 5.
5. B vitamins are a class of water-soluble vitamins which play a vital part in cell metabolism and synthesis of red blood cells. Though these vitamins share similar names (B1, B2, B3, etc.), they are chemically distinct compounds. B1 is thiamine, B2 is riboflavin, and B3 is niacin, for example. Dietary supplements containing all eight are referred to as a vitamin B complex.
6. In England, the B postcode area covers Birmingham, plus northeast Worcestershire, north and west Warwickshire, and part of southeast Staffordshire.
7. As the second letter, B often denotes something which falls slightly short of the top grade (A) or something held in reserve in case the original plan fails: Plan B, a contingency plan, or the B Team.
8. Vinyl single records had two sides. The chart hit was usually referred to as the A side, and the B side would have another, usually less well-known track.
9. In Morse Code B is -... and in the NATO phonetic alphabet B is Bravo.
10. In computer science, B is the symbol for byte, a unit of information storage. In engineering, B is the symbol for bel, a unit of level.

My Books:

If you like stories about:

• Superheroes
• Psychic detectives
• Romance
• Alternative dimensions
• Time travel 
• Secrets
• Friendship
• Family relationships
• Ghosts
• Adventure
• Crime

If you want to read about superheroes who aren't the usual Marvel/DC staples, who don't all live in the USA.

If you like quirky tales.

If you like to support independent self published authors.

Check out my books page.

23 June: Q Day

Q-Day was 23 June 1945, the day of the dress rehearsal of the first atom bomb test. Nowadays it is sometimes used informally to mean "Quality Day", or the first day of the calendar quarter. 10 things you might not know about the letter Q:

1. It’s the ^17th letter in the English alphabet, and the second least frequently used, after Z.
2. The earliest forms of the letter may have been a symbol representing a knot, a threaded Needle, or a monkey with its tail hanging down.
3. It was common up until the 19^th century for some capital Qs to have longer tails. This is thought to have originated in Latin texts, where Q is much more likely to be the first letter of a word. They still used shorter tailed Qs, however, for shorter words. The long tailed Q fell out of use with the advent of digital fonts. One person who would have been glad to see the back of them was the American typographer D.B. Ukdike, who claimed that printers would use them simply to “outdo each other”.
4. The letter Q is usually followed by a letter U in the English language, but there are exceptions – according to Wikipedia, 4,422 of them to be exact. They are often obscure words which have been assimilated into the English language from other tongues such as Arabic, Chinese or French. For example, qigong (Chinese exercise system), qi (the Chinese word for the life force), qat (a shrub with narcotic properties) and cinq (the number five in a pack of cards.
5. The Estonian, Icelandic, Irish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Scottish Gaelic, Slovenian, Turkish, Welsh and Cornish alphabets do not include the letter Q.
6. Q is the symbol for the Guatemalan quetzal, the currency of Guatemala.
7. In Medieval times, Q was sometimes included in the Roman numeral system and was used to represent 90, 500 or 500,000.
8. In the NATO phonetic alphabet, “Quebec” is Q. In Morse Code - –.- represents Q.
9. In Star Trek, Q is not only a character (played by John de Lancie) but the name of the race he belongs to, who all refer to each other as Q. They are the only race which can access the Q Continuum. Gene Roddenberry chose the letter Q for this character/race in honour of a friend, Janet Quarton.
10. Q is also a character in the James Bond novels and films. Q in this case stands for “Quartermaster” and is therefore a job title. In military usage a quartermaster is a senior officer who co-ordinates the distribution of supplies. In the James Bond universe, he’s the one who issues Bond with gadgets.

MY LATEST BOOK!

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.

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-book

5 March: O Day

Today is "O" Day, according to the Immortal Society. Here are ten things you might not know about the letter O.

1. The letter O derives from the Phoenician letter eyn. Eyn means "eye", and the letter in their alphabet was a drawing of a human eye, which may itself have derived from the Egyptian hieroglyph.
2. In most alphabets the symbol representing the "o" sound are similar, perhaps because it's the shape a person's mouth makes when speaking the sound.
3. O is the fourth most commonly used letter in the English alphabet.
4. It can be used, usually capitalised, to signify something or someone which is being addressed. This is called the vocative case. An example is O Captain! My Captain!
5. O is the chemical symbol for Oxygen.
6. O is a common Blood group. People with group O blood do not have the antigens that people with A, B or AB blood have. Their blood is compatible with any other group - they can donate to anyone and are therefore universal donors. Therefore if someone requires an urgent blood transfusion and there isn't time to establish what their blood group is, O negative blood is used. Hence it is the group that is usually in short supply. People with group O blood cannot receive blood from any of the other groups. O in the case of blood groups comes from the German word ohne, meaning "without".
7. O is sometimes used to classify stars. An O type star is blue-white and very bright. They are also quite rare.
8. The Story of O is an erotic novel by Anne Desclos, originally published in French.
9. In the context of Irish surnames, such as O'Sullivan, the prefix O means "grandson of" or "descendant of".
10. The O Brook is a small river on Dartmoor, England, a tributary of the River Dart. The name may have evolved from Oak Brook, even though Oak trees aren't common in the area. There is a rock formation called the Dragon's Den on its banks, which has given rise to a legend that a Dragon lives around the brook.

My Books 

(for more details and buying options Click Here)

The Ultraheroes series

Several new groups of superheroes, mostly British, living and working (mostly) in British cities like London and Birmingham. People discovering they have, and learning to live with, superpowers. Each book is complete in itself although there is some overlap of characters.

The Raiders series

A tale of two dimensions, and worm hole travel between the two. People displaced in both time and space, learning to get along and work together to find a way home while getting used to the superpowers wormhole travel gave them. A trilogy.

Golden Thread

A superhero tale with a difference. Five heroes from another dimension keep returning - whenever they return, they have a job to do and are a well-meshed team in order to do it. Until one time, something goes wrong...

Tabitha Drake series

A different kind of power - the ability to talk to dead people. Tabitha has it, and murder victims seek her out to make sure justice is done. Tabitha has this and a disastrous love life to cope with.

Short story collections

Some feature characters from the above novels, others don't. They're not all about superheroes. Some are creepy, romantic, funny.