6 January: The Bosporus

Today in Turkey there’s an Epiphany ceremony held on the shores of the Bosporus to bless its waters. 10 facts about the Bosporus:

1. The Bosporus is a strait that connects the Black Sea to the Sea of Marmara. It forms one of the continental boundaries between Asia and Europe. The city of Istanbul sits on its banks.

2. It’s 31 km (19 miles) long and 110 m (360 ft) deep at its deepest point.

3. The name comes from Greek mythology, specifically the story of Io. She was turned into a cow and condemned to wander the Earth until she crossed the Bosporus, where she met the Titan Prometheus, who told her she would be restored to human form by Zeus and become the ancestor of the greatest of all heroes, Heracles. It translates as “cow passage”, sometimes translated as “ox ford”. Incidentally, the name is sometimes spelt Bosphorus in English, although the ancient Greek name doesn’t justify adding the h.

4. It is 700 m (2,300 ft) making it narrowest strait in the world to be used for international navigation.

5. There are three bridges across the Bosporus: 15th July Martyrs Bridge completed in 1973, the Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge (1988) and the Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge, completed in 2016. There’s also a railway tunnel underneath it as well as numerous ferries which cross daily. The possibility of building a tunnel beneath it was even being discussed in the time of the Ottoman Empire, according to historial records.

6. The strait is of great strategic importance, particularly for defending Istanbul, and so over the years emperors and sultans built castles and fortifications along its length, including the castle of Anadoluhisarı, constructed on the Asian shore by Bayezid I in 1390–91, and Rumelihisarı, built directly across the strait by Mehmed II in 1452.

7. In modern times, rich people build their mansions on the shore. Mansions built directly on the waterside are known as “yah”. The oldest surviving yah was built by grand vizier Amcazade Köprülü Hüseyin Pasha in 1699 on the Asian shore. The most expensive yah is Erbilgin Yalısı which Forbes magazine listed as the fifth most expensive house in the world, worth $100 million.

8. It’s a very busy waterway with an estimated 48,000 ships passing through every year (or 132 every day). Traffic in the strait increased after the signing of the Montreux Convention in 1936, which gives the right of free passage to merchant vessels, while the transit of warships is subject to restrictions. However, in 2002 there were restrictions placed on oil tankers – tankers more than 200m long were no longer allowed to pass through at night.

9. It’s also very important for the fishing industry. The currents (the waters in the upper layer of the Bosphorus flow from the Black Sea to the Marmara, the currents in the lower layer flow in the opposite direction) and temperature of the water are such that fish are attracted to it, and use it to migrate between the two seas, so the fish available to be caught vary according to the season.

10. There is an annual Swimming race and yacht festivals which take place here.

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/

8 December: The River Tiber

In ancient Rome, a festival called the Tiberinalia was held on this date. It was to commemorate the River Tiber in Rome. 10 things you might not know about the river Tiber.

1. The river may have got its name from a legendary king who drowned in it. Before the incident, the river was known as the River Albula, but when this king, Tiberinus, met his end there, it became known as the Tiber. An alternative theory is that it was named after the town of Tivoli, which was known as “Tibur” in ancient times.

2. The river is 406 km (252 miles) long, making it the third longest river in Italy.

3. The source of the Tiber is two springs 10 m (33 ft) away from each other in a forest of beech trees on Mount Fumaiolo. The springs are known as Le Vene. At this spot, Benito Mussolini had an antique marble Roman column built in the 1930s, with an eagle on top and the inscription “Qui nasce il fiume sacro ai destini di roma” (Here is born the river / sacred to the destinies of Rome).

4. The Tiber was critically important to Roman trade and commerce as long ago as the fifth century BC, when ships could reach as far as 100 km (60 mi) upriver. An important port and military base was established at Ostia. However, over the years, silting made the river less and less navigable despite the best efforts of various emperors, so the port moved to Fiumicino.

5. The Tiber is famous for being the river which flows through Rome, which was founded on its eastern banks. According to legend, Rome's founders, the twin brothers Romulus and Remus, were abandoned on the river and rescued from it by the she-wolf, Lupa.

6. There are 26 Bridges crossing the river in Rome. These include the Milvian Bridge, founded in the 1^st century as part of the ancient Roman Road, Via Flaminia; and Ponte Sisto, a pedestrian bridge which was built in medieval times and dedicated to Pope Sixtus IV.

7. Also in Rome, there is one island, Isola Tiberina (Tiber Island), located on the southern bend of the river. The island is boat-shaped, approximately 270 metres (890 feet) long and 67 metres (220 feet) wide. It was once the site of ancient temple of Asclepius, and later a hospital, so it has become associated with medicine and healing.

8. Italians sometimes call the Tiber “flavus”, which means “White” in Latin. This nickname arose because of the yellow-whitish colour of the water.

9. Because the river is identified with Rome, the terms "swimming the Tiber" or "crossing the Tiber" have come to be a shorthand term for converting to Roman Catholicism. There’s an equivalent expression for converting to Protestantism, especially the Church of England: "swimming the Thames" or "crossing the Thames".

10. The river is prone to flooding. It was not unknown for the Campus Martius area to be covered by 2 metres of water. In 1876, the city authorities built high stone fences on both banks of the Tiber, so this doesn’t happen so often.

Christmas is coming! 

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

15 February: The River Danube

This date in 1867 Johann Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz was played for the first time at a concert in Vienna. 10 things you might not know about The River Danube.

1. It is 1,770 miles/2,850 km long, making it the second longest river in Europe after the Volga, and the longest river in the European Union.
2. It flows through ten countries: Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine. Four capital cities are on its banks: Bratislava, Budapest, Belgrade and Vienna, which is the most populous city on the Danube.
3. The river begins as two small streams which join together to become the Danube in Donaueschingen, Germany. A stone statue stands at the spot where they join to symbolise the start of the Danube.
4. The Danube connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Black Sea, making it one of Europe’s most important shipping routes, capable of accommodating large shipping vessels.
5. Just before the Danube pours into the Black Sea, it splits into three branches, the Chilia, Sulina, and Sfântu Gheorghe.
6. The Danube has 133 Bridges crossing it.
7. Along its course, the Danube is a source of drinking Water for about 20 million people. The river gathers waters from more than 300 tributaries, which between them have more than 700 dams.
8. The river’s name derives from 'danu' or 'don', which are names of Celtic gods. It has had several names through ancient history. The ancient Greeks called it the Istros, meaning 'strong, swift'; the Thraco-Phrygian name was Matoas, meaning ‘bringer of luck’; the Romans called it Danubius, Danuvius, Ister or Hister.
9. There are several sunken ships underneath its waters. In 1944, the Germans scuttled hundreds of ships in the Danube to avoid capture by the Soviet Union. You can see them when the water level is low.
10. The Danube figures prominently in the Bulgarian National Anthem, although the country which has the biggest portion of the river running through it is Romania (29%).

Character birthday

Exo-Force, power armour wearer who is a member of Combat Team Gamma. Born in Jamaica, Joel Campbell came to England to university on a scholarship from Hyperion Engineering. After university he worked for Hyperion on a machine for drilling holes under the sea for oil rigs. As a sideline, he invented a suit of power armour which was watertight, airtight and could withstand the pressure of the deep ocean. He mentioned his project to his supervisor, who persuaded him to adapt it for use in the Combat Team Programme.

9 April: The Mississippi River

On this date in 1682 the mouth of the Mississippi was discovered by René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle and Henri de Tonti. Here are 10 things you might not know about the Mississippi river.

1. Native Americans gave the river its name. They called it “Misi-ziibi,” meaning ‘Great River’ or ‘gathering of water'.
2. The river is 2,320 miles (3,730 km) long, which makes it the second longest river in North America (the Missouri is longer). To put that into context, a single drop of water takes 90 days to travel the length of it.
3. It flows from Lake Itasca in Minnesota to the Gulf of Mexico. It passes ten US states: Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota, defining some of their borders.
4. At its widest point, it's 11 miles wide.
5. 360 species of fish, 326 species of birds, 145 species of amphibians and 50 species of mammals live in and around the river.
6. That includes at least 60 different species of mussels. In the 19^th century, there was a rush on mussels which some historians compare to the California gold rush. People wanted them, not only for food but for their Pearls and shells. Buttons made from mussel shells was a big thing with 60 factories along the river's banks making mussel shell buttons.
7. The song, Ol' Man River is about the Mississippi.
8. Martin Strel, a Slovenian swimmer famous for swimming the length of entire rivers spent over 68 days swimming the Mississippi in 2002.
9. Major cities located along the Mississippi River include Minneapolis, Minnesota; St. Louis, Missouri; Memphis, Tennessee; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and New Orleans, Louisiana. There are 41 ports and harbours on the Mississippi, and over 170 bridges cross it.
10. The Treaty of Paris in 1783, which ended the Revolutionary War and recognised American independence, marked the Mississippi River as the western border of the new nation. To this day, it's still seen as the dividing line between the east and west of the USA.

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. 

19 March: The Nile

Sir Richard Francis Burton, explorer, who searched for the source of the Nile, was born on this date in 1821. Here are 10 facts about the Nile.

1. The River Nile is 6,653km/4258 miles long. Whether it's the longest river in the world is disputed. Brazil claims that the Amazon is.
2. The Nile passes through eleven countries: Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, South Sudan, Sudan and Egypt, before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea.
3. Where it begins is less obvious. It has two major tributaries - the White Nile and the Blue Nile. The White Nile begins at Lake Victoria, but there are many other rivers feeding into it, so it can't be said to be the true source of the Nile. Lake Victoria's longest feeder river is the Kagera, but that too has tributaries and experts can't agree which is the longest, and therefore whether the source of the Nile is in Burundi or Rwanda. The Blue Nile begins at Lake Tana in Ethiopia - experts do seem to agree on that one. The two Niles meet near Khartoum, the capital of Sudan.
4. How the river got its name is uncertain. The Ancients Egyptians referred to it using words which simply meant "the river", or "valley" or "Black" (referring to the mud). The English name could derive from Nilus, a Greek river god, the Sanskrit word for an indigo dye or a sacred lily.
5. Since there isn't much rain in Egypt, the Nile was the major source of Water for the Ancient Egyptians. The annual flooding of the river between June and September was very important to them, too. The flood happened because many miles away the Snow would melt in the mountains in Ethiopia in the spring and early summer, and there would be heavy rain further upstream creating lots of extra water which would flood the deserts in Egypt. It wasn't only the water that was important. The river also carried silt and mud from Ethiopia, which would be left behind by the flood and created rich, fertile soil for crops.
6. There isn't an annual flood now, because it is regulated by the Aswan Dam, and modern day farmers have proper irrigation systems rather than needing to rely on a flood which could sometimes be too large and flood nearby villages as well. There's still a celebration called Wafaa El-Nil every August to celebrate the Nile flooding but it's mainly for the tourists these days. All the same, "May you always drink from the Nile" is a common Egyptian blessing used to this day.
7. There's an ongoing political dispute between the countries the river passes through about who has the rights to the water resources. Countries further upstream resent Egypt getting most of the benefit and want to build dams to harness some of the power. The Nile Basin Initiative has been set up to promote a peaceful solution to the disputes.
8. The Ancient Egyptians believed the flooding was caused by the tears of the goddess Isis as she grieved for her dead husband Osiris. The god most associated with the river, however, was Hapi, an androgynous deity depicted with a pot belly, pendulous breasts and a beard.
9. Richard Burton was just one of many who went looking for the source of the Nile in the 19th century. Burton was accompanied by another explorer called John Hanning Speke. They couldn't agree on where the actual source of the Nile was, however, and fell out, very publicly, over that as well as some other disputes on things like the funding of the expedition. They were to hold a debate on the Source of the Nile at the British Association for the Advancement of Science but Speke died the day before it in an apparent hunting accident.
10. The Nile isn't just important to people - there's a lot of wildlife living around it, too - Hippos, Rhinos and Nile crocodiles, not to mention many species of fish, birds and reptiles.

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. 

January 26: Discovery of the Amazon River

On this date in 1500 the Amazon River was first discovered by Europeans. Here are 10 things you didn't know about the online bookstore's namesake.

1. The Amazon River in South America is the largest river by discharge of water in the world with a discharge of 209,000 m³/s or 7,831,000 cubic feet. This is more than the total discharge of the next 7 largest rivers added together.
2. During the wet season, the Amazon River can reach over 190 kilometres (120 miles) in width.
3. It is between 6,259 and 6,992 kilometres (3,889 and 4,345 mi) long. Measuring rivers isn't straightforward and different geographers have come up with different figures over the years. Whether it is the longest river in the world is a matter for debate. It has generally been accepted that the Nile is longer. The Nile, however, is reported to be anywhere from 5,499 to 6,690 kilometres (3,417 to 4,157 mi), so there's not much in it.
4. 20% of the fresh water that enters the seas anywhere in the world comes from the Amazon. There's so much of it that it dilutes the salinity of the sea and changes the colour of the sea for 1,000,000 square miles.
5. The source of the Amazon River is Lago Villafro in the Andes Mountains, Peru.
6. On its way to the Atlantic Ocean, the Amazon passes through Colombia, Peru, and Brazil. The largest city it passes is Manaus.
7. Most of the river runs through rainforests, so there are no bridges over it.
8. The Amazon is home to a huge amount of wildlife. There are over 3,000 species of fish, including the piranha, and more being discovered all the time. Anacondas live in the shallows, and you could also find Manatees, Dolphins, electric eels, Otters and Turtles.
9. Vicente Yanez Pinzon was the first European to sail into the river in 1500. The first European to travel the length of the Amazon River was Francisco de Orellana in 1542.
10. It has over 1,100 tributaries, 17 of which are over 1,500 kilometres long. 

I write fiction, too!

These are my books. Find out about them on my Books Page.

7th January: The River Thames

On this date in 1928 fourteen people were drowned in London and thousands made homeless when the Thames Embankment and part of the Chelsea Embankment collapsed. It was the last major flood to affect central London. Here are some facts about the river Thames.

1. The Thames is 346 km (215 miles) long and is the longest river which is entirely in England. It's the second longest in the UK - the Severn is longer.
2. There are several places which claim to be the source - including Thames Head in Gloucestershire and Seven Springs, Gloucestershire. Ordnance Survey says it is at Trewsbury Mead.
3. The river was called Tamesas by the Celts, and Tamesis by the Romans. The name is thought to mean "dark". Similar words meaning "dark" occur in several languages including Irish, Welsh, Russian and even Sanskrit. The bit of the river which flows through Oxford is historically called the Isis, and there were cartographers in the Victorian era who thought the entire river should be called that, at least up to the point where it is joined by its tributary the Thame and becomes the "Thame-isis". In ancient times, the part of the river in what is now London also had a different name - Plowonida, meaning "flowing river". It was the part which was too wide to ford. The name was give to a settlement on the banks, which the Romans Latinised as Londinium - so London was quite possibly named after its river.
4. The river has over 80 islands, 200 bridges, 44 locks, six ferry crossings, more than 20 tunnels and a cable car crossing. There are more than 37 rowing clubs along its length. It meanders through several counties: Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Surrey, Essex, Kent and Greater London. It is policed by five different police forces, and there are four lifeboat stations.
5. Looking at the river as it flows through London, one would be forgiven for thinking no-one in their right mind would drink the Water - however, two thirds of London's drinking water comes from the Thames (purified first, thankfully). It is said that a drop of rain falling into the Thames at its source in the Cotswolds will be drunk by at least eight people before it flows into the Thames Estuary.
6. Before 1865, most of the city's waste was dumped into the river. In 1858, the stench from all the sewage in the river was so bad that Parliament had to be suspended. It was “The Great Stink” that convinced parliament that London needed a sewer system.
7. From Teddington down to the sea the river is tidal with a tidal range of 7 metres (23 ft).
8. Roughly one dead body a week is fished out of the river by police - mostly suicides. In 1795, Mary Wollstonecraft (feminist and mother of Mary Shelley), threw herself off of Putney Bridge after her lover left her for an actress. She was pulled out of the river by a boatman. She wasn't dead, however, just unconscious and lived to tell the tale.
9. The Luftwaffe used the Thames to navigate to London – as soon as they saw the distinctive u-bend they knew that they were at the docks. While many people drained their ponds and pools there was not much they could do about the river!
10. In 2006 Lewis Pugh became the first person to swim the full length of the Thames from outside Kemble to Southend-on-Sea to raise awareness of global warming. It took him 21 days, although he had to run the first bit as a drought had stopped the river from flowing near to the source. Since then, in 2011 comedian David Walliams swam the 140 miles (230 km) from Lechlade to Westminster Bridge and raised over £1 million for charity.

I write fiction, too!

If you're doing one of those reading challenges, I could be your self-published author, your female author, or your out of your comfort zone book. There are books published in the last year, most set in the UK and one with a place name in the title.

Find out here about my novels and short stories.

20th June: Loch Ness Day

Today is Loch Ness Day - so 10 facts about the Loch and its monster.

1. The vital statistics of Loch Ness: 36.2 km (22.5 mi) at its longest point; 2.7 km (1.7 mi) at its widest point; Surface area: 56 km2 (21.8 sq mi); 226.96 m (744.6 ft) deep at its deepest point; contains 7.5 km3 (1.8 cu mi) of water.
2. By surface area it is the second largest loch in Scotland (Loch Lomond being the first) and the second deepest (after Loch Morar). In terms of volume, though, it beats them all hands down: in fact, it contains more fresh water than all the lakes in England and Wales put together.
3. It has an island - Cherry Island, at the south western end. It is a man made island, or crannog, possibly constructed in the Iron Age. There used to be a second island, Dog Island, but when the Caledonian Canal was built, the water level of the loch was raised and the island submerged.
4. The earliest report of a sighting of the monster was in the 7th century, in an account of the life of St Columba. The Saint was visiting the area when he came across a funeral service near the River Ness. The people told him that the dead man had been killed by a "water beast" while swimming in the river. Columba then did something which surprised them. He told one of his followers, Luigne moccu Min, to swim across the river. When the monster came after him, Columba made the sign of the Cross and commanded: "Go no further. Do not touch the man. Go back at once." The monster stopped in its tracks, as if it had been "pulled back with ropes" and fled in terror. Presumably this miracle resulted in a few conversions among the pagan Picts.
5. Nessie's most active year seems to have been 1933, when there was a rush of sightings, beginning on 2 May when Loch Ness's water bailiff Alex Campbell first used the term "monster" to describe it. On 22 July, a London tourist, George Spicer, and his wife saw a large, narrow-necked creature cross the road in front of their car, carrying "an animal" in its mouth. In August, a student vet called Arthur Grant, who was riding his motorcycle near the loch, almost hit a creature with a long neck, which, on seeing Grant, turned tail and disappeared into the loch. In November, Hugh Gray was walking home from church when he saw a large creature rise up out of the loch. He took photographs, but only one showed any evidence of the monster. The most famous picture of Nessie, was taken by Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London gynaecologist, in April 1934.
6. You can see Nessie on Apple Maps, according to Andrew Dixon who saw something that could be the monster while browsing.
7. Naturalist Sir Peter Scott may have been a believer. After seeing a bunch of photographs taken by Robert H. Rines in the 70s, Scott announced that the scientific name of the monster would be Nessiteras rhombopteryx (Greek for "The Ness monster with diamond-shaped fin"), so that Nessie could be added to the British register of officially protected wildlife. But then again, it was soon pointed out by Nicholas Fairbairn that the name was an anagram for "Monster hoax by Sir Peter S".
8. Some legends associate the Loch Ness Monster with the mythical creatures, kelpies. These creatures lived in the loch, but could come out onto dry land and turn themselves into horses. Unwary travellers who fancied a ride into town would get on the "horse" which would then gallop into the loch, taking the hapless rider with them. Dumb tourists, apparently, were rather yummy. This is how come the monster is sometimes referred to as a "water horse".
9. People who believe in the monster reckon it is a plesiosaur, which managed to survive in the loch despite going extinct everywhere else. Non-believers have claimed it is an Otter, a Seal, a diving bird, a toy submarine, a boat, a floating log, or even an Elephant raising its trunk out of the water.
10. Brenda Sherratt was the first person to swim along the length of Loch Ness in Scotland. It took her 31 hours and 27 minutes in July 1966, and the monster presumably wasn't very hungry that day.