17 February: Ash Wednesday

In 2021, today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Here are 10 things you might not know about Ash Wednesday:

1. It's not on the same date every year because it is linked to the date of Easter. It can occur as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March.
2. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the congregation as a sign of mourning and repentance. Not just any old ashes, either – the ashes used are from the burning of last year's Palm Sunday palms.
3. It's the start of Lent, which is a period of 40 days of self-sacrifice, which is observed in numerous ways from abstaining from food completely until sunset, abstaining from meat for the duration or simply giving up a guilty pleasure until Easter, such as smoking, Chocolate or television.
4. However, if you count the days between now and Easter on a calendar, it's actually 46 days, not 40. That's because, traditionally, people didn't fast on Sundays.
5. Ash Wednesday isn't mentioned in the Bible. In fact, it wasn't a thing at all until about the 11th century. The only potential link is the connection made in the Bible between ashes and grief, repentance or fasting, which isn't tied to a specific date or ceremony. That is the reason not all Christian denominations celebrate it. The Eastern Orthodox Church, Mormons, Evangelicals, and Pentecostal Christians all give it a miss.
6. For those who want to observe it, but can't fit in attending a church service on a weekday, "Ashes to Go" has become a thing, especially in the USA, and in Sunderland in the UK. For people who can't get to church, the church will come to them – ministers will go out into the city centres, in public places like railway stations, even at Traffic Lights so you can get ashed up while waiting for a green light. In fact, since the application of ashes isn't a holy sacrament, it doesn't even have to be done by a member of the clergy, so people can take a bag of ashes home and apply them to the foreheads of people who weren't able to get to church.
7. In Victorian times, theatres refrained from putting on costumed shows on Ash Wednesday, although entertainment in which people didn't dress up was allowed.
8. In Iceland, Ash Wednesday is a bit like Halloween. Children dress up in costumes and go about singing songs in exchange for sweets. Another custom there is for kids to carry small bags of ashes which they surreptitiously pin on to people's backs.
9. In Ireland, Ash Wednesday is also National No Smoking Day, which ties in nicely with giving up the fags for Lent. In the UK, the first National No Smoking Day in 1984 was held on Ash Wednesday, too, but it has since been fixed as the second Wednesday in March.
10. In St Paul's Cathedral in London, Ash Wednesday sees the annual Cakes and Ale Sermon. This started when Alderman John Norton left money to the Stationers Company for the purpose of refreshments of cake and ale on Ash Wednesday. After the cake and ale is all gone, members of the company parade in livery to the cathedral where the Company Chaplain gives the Cakes and Ale Sermon in the crypt.

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.

His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.

A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?

Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?

Available on Amazon:

Paperback

E-Book

14 May: May

Today, 10 Facts about the month of May.

1. The name of this month comes from the Greek goddess Maia, one of the Pleiades or Seven Sisters. She is the goddess of spring and the mother of Hermes.
2. The London district of Mayfair was named after a fair which used to take place there every May.
3. Native American tribes named the full moons of each month after things they observed in nature at that time of year. The May full moon's names included When Women Weed Corn, Blossom Moon, Season When The Leaves Are Green, When The Ponies Shed Their Shaggy Hair, Moon When The Horses Get Fat, Mulberry Moon, Geese Go North, and Frogs Return.
4. In Cornwall, people believed that if you placed a piece of tin near an anthill during the full Moon in May, it would turn to Silver; while young women would go out and ask the moon to send them dreams of their future husbands.
5. Birthstones for people born in May are emerald, malachite, amber and carnelian.
6. In weather lore, a cold and windy May means a good harvest.
7. A common proverb is “Cast not a clout till May be out”. This is basically a warning not to shed winter clothes to early in the year. Some interpret it as not going out without a coat until the Hawthorn (also known as may) had blossomed but others say it's best to wait until the first of June before thinking of leaving your coat at home. It's also held to be unlucky to wash blankets in May, lest you “wash a dear one away”. Nor is it a good idea to go swimming – “he who bathes in May will soon be laid in clay.”
8. According to superstition, May is not a good month to get married. Although the goddess Maia represented spring and fertility, she wasn't associated with fidelity. The superstition may also have come from the fact that the Romans celebrated the festival of the unhappy dead in May or the fact that the Catholic church dedicated the month to the Virgin Mary, the patron saint of chastity. Some believed that horrendous bad luck or even a death would occur within a year of a May marriage.
9. Children born in May would be sickly, according to superstition, and kittens born in May would not be good at catching Rats and Mice.
10. Awareness observances for the month of May include cycling, hearing and speech, lung health and clean air, correct posture, fibromyalgia, foot health, car maintenance, Huntingdon's disease, Lyme disease, asthma, arthritis, Asparagus, books and reading, Eggs, hepatitis, high blood pressure, fitness and sports, salad, salsa, senior citizens and touring theatres.

NEW!

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

2 April: April

Ten things you didn't know about the month of April.

1. It's uncertain where the name of the month comes from. It's generally thought to come from the Latin verb meaning “to open” because it's when the buds of trees and flowers open. However, the Romans had a tendency to name months after gods, and April was sacred to the goddess Venus. Hence an alternative theory that it was named for her Greek equivalent, Aphrodite.
2. In Roman times April was the second month of the year with January and February being added later. It had 29 days – its 30^th day was added as part of Julius Caesar's calendar reform.
3. The Finnish word for April translates as “slash and burn moon” because it was the month when clearing of farmland took place. A poetic name for the month in Japan is “Hare Month”.
4. The Native American names for the Moon of April include Moon of the Big Leaves, Ice Breaking in the River, Moon When the Geese Lay Eggs and Red Grass Appearing.
5. The birthstone for people born in April is the diamond.
6. The birth flowers for this month are Daisy and sweet pea.
7. It's one of the best months in which to get married, according to folklore. “Marry in April when you can – joy for maiden and for man.”
8. April is famous for its showers, although various folk sayings remind us: “Sweet April showers do spring May flowers”.
9. In weather lore, a cold April predicts a good harvest: “A cold April the barn will fill”.
10. Month long observances in April include Actors appreciation, Animal cruelty prevention, Child abuse prevention, Fresh Florida tomatoes, Guitars, Jazz appreciation, Anxiety, Autism awareness, Grilled Cheese Sandwiches, Therapeutic value of humour, marbles, poetry, self-publishing, welding, woodworking, Thai heritage and eye safety in sports.

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. 

2 March: Facts about March

Ten things you might not know about the month of March.

1. March was the first month of the Roman calendar and was named after Mars, the Roman god of war.
2. Birthstones for people born in March are aquamarine and bloodstone, which both symbolise courage.
3. The birth flower for people born in March is the Daffodil.
4. Native American tribes named the moons of months after things they observed in nature at the time of year. Native American names for the moon of March include Buffalo Dropping their Calves, Eyes are Sore From Bright Snow Moon, Strawberry Moon, Little Frog Moon and Moon When the Leaves Break Forth.
5. The expression, "mad as a March Hare" comes from the fact that March is the rutting season for these animals.
6. In weather lore, March is said to come in like a Lion and go out like a lamb - meaning that the weather is rough at the beginning of the month and calmer towards the end. Farmers liked the March winds as they'd dry out the fields ready for planting. A wet March foretells a poor harvest.
7. Couples who marry in March may never settle in one place. "Married when March winds shrill and roar, your home will be on a distant shore", says one folk saying. Another is "If you wed when March winds blow, joy and sorrow both you'll know."
8. Observances and awareness campaigns which happen in March include Cataracts, caffeine, colorectal cancer, ethics, foot health, frozen food, hamburgers and pickles, listening, music in schools, chronic fatigue syndrome, eye donors, flour, frozen food, haemophilia, kidneys, Peanuts, poetry, potholes, Umbrellas and women's history.
9. In the Bulgarian language, March is the only month with a feminine name.
10. It is said to be unlucky to start a journey or begin important work during the last quarter of the Moon in March.

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. 

21 April: Easter Eggs

It's Easter Sunday, and that means Easter eggs! Here are ten facts to enjoy while you tuck in.

1. Eggs connected with spring festivals pre-date Christianity. Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans would give Eggs in the spring as a symbol of new life and fertility.
2. Early Christians adopted the practice because eggs could be seen as a symbol of the Resurrection and the transformation of death into life. They would stain their eggs Red to represent the Blood of Christ. There is a legend which says that Mary Magdalene brought cooked eggs to share with the other women at the tomb of Jesus, and when she saw Him risen, the eggs turned red. A hollow egg could represent an empty tomb.
3. Eggs may also have become associated with Easter because it was forbidden to eat them during Lent. After the pancake feast of Shrove Tuesday to use up all the eggs, the hens wouldn't know it was Lent and would carry on laying. An egg feast at the end of Lent was a tradition in many parts of Europe. Eggs would have to be hard boiled to preserve them until it was okay to eat them again.
4. The first Chocolate Easter eggs were produced in 1873 by Fry's.
5. The ‘Crocodile’ pattern you see on chocolate eggs originated in Germany and was originally designed to cover up any minor imperfections in the chocolate.
6. In the UK, 80 million Easter eggs make up 10% of the country's annual spending on chocolate. Each child receives 8.8 Easter eggs per year which doubles their calorie intake during Easter week.
7. Decoration of Easter eggs dates back to medieval times when eggs would be boiled with Onions to dye them a golden colour. Different dyes and different colours became popular as time went on. Egg designs became quite intricate, especially in Ukraine where they even have a special word for decorating Easter eggs - Pysanka, from the Ukranian word for "to write" or "to inscribe". Beeswax is used to create the traditional designs.
8. Royalty would take the idea of decorated eggs to a new level since money was no object. In 1290, Edward I spent the then princely sum of eighteen pennies for four hundred and fifty eggs to be covered in gold-leaf for Easter gifts. Even more expensive and elaborate were the Easter eggs given by Russian Tsar Alexander III to his wife, Empress Marie. He started a custom in 1885 by ordering an Easter gift from Peter Carl Faberge. The gold and white enamel egg opened to reveal a smaller gold egg, which also opened to display a golden chicken and a jewelled replica of the Imperial Crown. They were so impressed that they ordered one every year, and later, Alexander's son continued the tradition. Faberge Eggs can sell for as much as £9 million.
9. Games involving Easter eggs are popular around the world. The Easter egg hunt is just one of many traditions which also include rolling eggs down a hill, attempting to dance around eggs left on the floor without damaging any, or throwing them. Medieval priests would throw an egg to a choirboy and the choir would pass the egg amongst themselves. Whoever was holding it when the clock struck noon was deemed the winner. "Egg tapping", "egg dumping", or "egg jarping" was a tradition in the north of England where players would each have a boiled egg and would hit another player's egg with it, until there was just one intact egg left.
10. Easter egg is also a term used in media, in particular computer software, to mean a hidden joke or message secreted away in the programme, which can be accessed by undocumented actions. The name came about because users might go looking for them, as in an Easter egg hunt. The first one appeared in 1979 in the Atari video game Adventure. At the time, Atari did not include programmers' names in the game credits, fearing that their best employees night be stolen by competitors. A programmer called Warren Robinett disagreed with the policy and secretly inserted the message "Created by Warren Robinett" which would appear if a player moved their avatar over a "Gray Dot" during a certain part of the game. Eventually, a player ratted on him and told Atari about the message, but Robinett had left the company by then anyway. At first, Atari wanted to re-proramme the game and re-release it, until they realised how much such an exercise would cost. Director of Software Development Steve Wright suggested not only leaving it in, but creating more, describing them as Easter eggs, for consumers to find.

New!

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two

              

19th April: Hot Cross Buns

It's Good Friday, the traditional day for eating hot cross buns, a spiced bread bun with currants and raisins, with a cross on top. Here are some facts about hot cross buns that you might not know.

1. They're said to have originated in 1361, when a monk named Father Thomas Rodcliffe made small spiced cakes with a cross on top to give to the poor people who visited his monastery in St. Albans on Good Friday.
2. The first written reference to them is in The Poor Robin’s Almanac in the early 18th century. "Good Friday come this month, the old woman runs. With one or two a penny hot cross buns." In those days, street sellers began reciting the well known rhyme - ‘Hot cross buns! Hot cross buns! One a penny two a penny, hot cross buns. If you have no daughters, give them to your sons. One a penny two a penny, hot cross buns.’
3. While hot cross buns seem to be loaded with Christian symbolism - not only the cross, but Bread as in communion and spices, which were used to represent Christ's body in the tomb, buns with crosses on were around long before Christianity was a thing. The ancient Greeks and Romans ate buns marked with a cross. To the Romans, the cross represented the horns of a sacred ox.
4. In Britain in pagan times people would eat buns with a cross on in Spring to honour the goddess Eastore (the word Easter is derived from her name). To them, the cross represented the four phases of the Moon. Surprisingly, in the early days of Christianity hot cross buns were actually viewed as pagan and were banned by the church.
5. While they are traditionally eaten on Good Friday, they're available in supermarkets all year round, and National Hot Cross Buns Day is actually on September 11.
6. That said, Good Friday is still the peak hot cross bun eating day. Marks and Spencer reckon that they sell enough of them during Easter weekend that if you placed them all end to end, they'd reach from Sheffield to Nazareth or stacked on top of each other would be 14 times as high as Mount Everest. For those who prefer actual numbers, that's about 30 million hot cross buns.
7. In Elizabethan times, it was only legal to sell hot cross buns on Good Friday, at Christmas, and at funerals. They were deemed too special to be sold at other times. Anyone caught selling them at other times had their stocks seized and distributed to the poor.
8. There are a number of superstitions attached to hot cross buns. If you share one with another person and say “Half for you and half for me. Between us two shall goodwill be” you will be friends with that person for the entire year. Hanging one in your kitchen will protect your home against fire and ensure any bread you make rises properly. You must, however, hang a new bun every year. Sailors would carry them on board ship to prevent shipwrecks, and some people believed they had supernatural healing properties. Giving a piece to a sick person was said to help them recover. Another old belief is that you should kiss the bun before eating it.
9. The traditional method for making the cross on top of the bun is to use shortcrust Pastry; however, more recent recipes recommend a paste made from flour and water.
10. No doubt there will be the usual outcry in the tabloids that some council or other has banned hot cross buns in case they offend non-Christians, which probably won't even be true. However, non-Christians who don't want to eat them could try a variation called a "not cross bun" which has a smiley face on top instead of a cross, but is otherwise exactly the same.

New!

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two

              

18th May: May

What do poets and writers make of this month? Read on and find out.

1. Horticulturally, the month of May is opening night, Homecoming, and Graduation Day all rolled into one. Tam Mossman
2. May is a pious fraud of the almanac; A ghastly parody of real Spring. James Russell Lowell
3. It was one of those beautiful, lengthening days, when May was pressing back with both hands the shades of the morning and the evening. Amelia E. Barr
4. The world's favourite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May. Edwin Way Teale
5. Among the changing months, May stands confest The sweetest, and in fairest colours dressed. James Thomson
6. When April steps aside for May, Like diamonds all the rain-drops glisten; Fresh violets open every day: To some new bird each hour we listen. Lucy Larcom
7. Sweet May hath come to love us, Flowers, trees, their blossoms don; And through the blue heavens above us The very clouds move on. Heinrich Heine
8. I thought that spring must last forevermore For I was young and loved, and it was May. Vera Brittain
9. Queer things happen in the garden in May. Little faces forgotten appear, and plants thought to be dead suddenly wave a green hand to confound you. W. E. Johns
10. When fishes leap in silver Stream; And forest bees are humming near, And cowslips in boys’ hats appear; We then may say that May is come. John Clare

More details about my books. Follow this link if you like Superheroes, Psychics and/or quirky short stories. 

I've listed the themes each novel touches on here for easy reference.

Like my author page on Facebook for news on new books and blog posts.

Follow me on Twitter and Pinterest

Check out my Writing blog

8th April: April

Here is what the great writers make of the month of April:

1. Oh to be in England, Now that April's there, And whoever wakes in England, Sees, some morning, unaware, That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf, Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf, While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough, In England - now! Robert Browning
2. April, April, Laugh thy girlish laughter; Then, the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears. William Watson
3. April can’t make up her mind. First she laughs and then she cries, Now she’s sulky, now she’s kind, One moment weeping, next blue skies. Anon
4. Winter's done, and April's in the skies, Earth, look up with laughter in your eyes! Charles G. D. Roberts
5. April comes like an idiot, babbling and strewing flowers. Edna St. Vincent Millay
6. April hath put a spirit of youth in everything. William Shakespeare
7. April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks, Go. Christopher Morley
8. The sun was warm but the wind was chill. You know how it is with an April day. Robert Frost
9. April, the angel of the months, the young love of the year. Vita Sackville-West
10. A gush of bird song, a patter of dew; A cloud and a rainbow's warning; Suddenly sunshine and perfect blue; An April day in the morning! Harriet Prescott Spofford

More details about my books. Follow this link if you like Superheroes, Psychics and/or quirky short stories. 

I've listed the themes each novel touches on here for easy reference.

Like my author page on Facebook for news on new books and blog posts.

Follow me on Twitter and Pinterest

Check out my Writing blog