7th April: Billie Holiday

Today is Billie Holiday's birthday. Here are 10 things she said:

1. I'm always making a comeback but nobody ever tells me where I've been.
2. Somebody once said we never know what is enough until we know what's more than enough.
3. If you copy, it means you're working without any real feeling. No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music.
4. Singing songs like The Man I Love or Porgy is no more work than sitting down and eating Chinese roast duck, and I love roast duck.
5. If I don't have friends, then I ain't got nothing.
6. They think they can make fuel from horse manure - now, I don't know if your car will be able to get 30 miles to the gallon, but it's sure gonna put a stop to siphoning.
7. Mom and Pop were just a couple of kids when they got married. He was eighteen, she was sixteen and I was three.
8. I never hurt nobody but myself and that's nobody's business but my own.
9. Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose.
10. You've got to have something to eat, and a little love in your life before you can hold still for any damn body's sermon on how to behave.

6th April: North Pole Day

North Pole Day Commemorates the day in 1909 that Robert Peary and Matthew Henson became the first to reach the North Pole. 10 things you might not know about the North Pole.

1. There is some controversy over whether Peary, Henson and their team ever did reach the North Pole given that they weren't expert navigators and some of the speeds they claimed to reach seemed impossible to many people. Peary's records have been checked and re-checked, and several replica journeys have been made, and no-one seemed to agree. Even if they didn't get there, we can still celebrate North Pole Day today because on April 6 1969, Wally Herbert, Allan Gill, Roy Koerner and Kenneth Hedges of the British Trans-Arctic Expedition became the first men to reach the North Pole on foot (albeit with the aid of Dog teams and airdrops).
2. The first people who claimed to fly over the pole were naval officer Richard E. Byrd and pilot Floyd Bennett in a Fokker tri-motor aircraft on 9 May 1926. This was verified by the National Geographic Society at the time, but in recent years there has been as much controversy over this as over Peary's expedition. Now the first flight over the North Pole is generally accepted as being made by Roald Amundsen and his US sponsor Lincoln Ellsworth with the airship Norge.
3. The North Pole is located in the middle of the Arctic Ocean and is covered with sea ice, around 2 to 3 m (6 ft 7 in to 9 ft 10 in) thick, which shifts continually, so building any kind of permanent marker or station is virtually impossible. In May 1937 the world's first North Pole ice station, North Pole-1, was established by Soviet scientists by air 20 kilometres (13 mi) from the North Pole. By February 1938 it had drifted 2850km. The Russians build a base, Barneo, as near as possible to the Pole each year. This base accommodates scientists but is also used by adventure holiday companies who organise trips to the Pole either overland or by Helicopter and parachute jumps.
4. The sea depth at the North Pole was measured at 4,261 m (13,980 ft) by the Russian Mir submersible in 2007. In the same year a Russian scientific expedition Arktika 2007 made the first ever manned descent to the ocean floor at the North Pole, and left a Russian flag on the sea bed.
5. The nearest land to the Pole is Kaffeklubben Island, off the northern coast of Greenland about 700 km (430 mi) away.
6. At the time of writing, no country actually owns the North Pole. Both Canada and Denmark have put in claims, but for now it is administered by the International Seabed Authority, an intergovernmental body based in Kingston, Jamaica, established to organise and control all mineral-related activities in the international seabed areas beyond the limits of national jurisdiction. Canada has gone so far as to assign the North Pole a postcode - H0H 0H0, a reference to the tradition that Santa Claus lives there.
7. At the North Pole, the Sun only rises and sets once a year. There is a two week twilight before sunrise and after sunset. When the sun is visible in the polar sky, it appears to move in a horizontal circle above the horizon. So what time is it at the North Pole? Whatever time you like. Since there is no permanent human habitation there, so it hasn't been assigned a time zone. The scientists and tourists who go there use whichever time zone is most convenient, which would tend to be either Greenwich Mean Time or the time of the country they came from.
8. Do any animals live there? According to tradition, Polar Bears do, although in general they rarely go there because there would be very little for them to eat. That said, polar bear tracks have been seen in the area and one was spotted a mile from the pole in 2006. Ringed seals and Arctic foxes have been seen less than 40 miles away. Birds seen at or very near the Pole include the snow bunting, northern fulmar and black-legged kittiwake, although one cannot be sure whether the birds actually live there or whether they were following the ships and expeditions. There are very few fish, but video footage made by the Russians on their 2007 expedition to the bottom of the sea shows Shrimps and amphipods.
9. In 1985, Sir Edmund Hillary (the first man to stand on the summit of Mount Everest) and Neil Armstrong (the first man to stand on the moon) landed at the North Pole in a small twin-engined ski plane. Hillary thus became the first man to stand at both poles and on the summit of Everest.
10. The North Pole is substantially warmer than the South Pole because it lies at sea level in the middle of an ocean (which acts as a reservoir of heat), rather than at altitude in a continental land mass.

My Christmas Novella!

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 Createspace, Amazon and Amazon Kindle

5th April: Lava lamp day

It's Lava lamp day - 10 things you didn't know about lava lamps:

1. The lava lamp was invented by British accountant Edward Craven Walker. He got the idea from watching a home made Egg timer in a pub.
2. Walker's other claim to fame was that he set up one of the largest nudist camps in the UK and that he tried to ban fat people from going there.
3. The original name for the lava lamp was the “Astro Globe.” and has also been called the “Lava Lite.”
4. Walker's U.S. Patent 3,387,396 for "Display Device" was filed in 1965 and issued in 1968.
5. The composition of the contents of a lava lamp is a closely guarded secret, although the wax part is thought to be a blend of paraffin and perchloroethylene (dry cleaning fluid or brake part cleaner), and The liquid part is a mixture of distilled Water, pure Salt, antifreeze (ethylene glycol) and a colouring agent.
6. They can't use ordinary wax and water, because wax has a density lower than water at any temperature and the wax would just float on top. Pretty boring.
7. The bulb underneath is normally 25 to 40 watts. A lava lamp will take around 45-60 minutes to "warm up" and for the freely rising blobs to form.
8. They can be dangerous if you don't follow the instructions. In 2004 it was reported that a man had tried to heat one on a kitchen stove - whether it was to get it working faster or just to see what would happen, we don't know. Allegedly, the lamp exploded and a shard of glass pierced his heart and killed him.
9. The largest Lava Lamp in the world is 4 feet tall and holds 10 gallons of “lava”. The most expensive Lava Lamp was sold for $15,000.
10. It is apparently very easy to make a lava lamp at home using a jar with a lid, water, salt, vegetable oil, food colouring and a torch. Or, if you can't be bothered, you can head over to the app store and download a lava lamp app for your phone.

4th April: Senegal Independence Day

Today in 1960, Senegal signed an independence agreement with France.

1. Dakar is the capital and largest city.
2. Senegal is home to the tallest statue in Africa, The African Renaissance Monument, which is 49m tall and situated just outside Dakar. It is made from bronze and depicts a family group. It was built in 2010 and dedicated on the 50th anniversary of Independence in 2010.
3. A famous and colourful sight in Senegal is Lake Retba, a saline lake which is coloured Pink. The pink colour is caused by a type of algae, and is particularly striking during the dry season (November to June). The lake is surrounded by magenta coloured samphire bushes and terra-cotta sand dunes.
4. The first president was Léopold Sédar Senghor. He was a poet and philosopher, and it was he who wrote the Senegalese national anthem. He was a strong believer in African unity.
5. French is the official language, but most people speak other dialects, the most common being Wolof.
6. The Senegalese national sport is wrestling, but Football is also very popular. Papiss Cissé, the footballer who holds the record for the most goals scored in the German football league by an African – 22 goals during the 2010-11 season, is from Senegal.
7. The national football team is known as the Lions of Teranga. Teranga is the Wolof word for hospitality, something which is a very important part of Senegalese culture. Senegalese people will greet each other each time they meet, even if it's several times a day. Asking about the health of another person and their family is expected before they get around to talking about anything else.
8. The country is named after the Sénégal River. One theory as to how the river, and the country got their name is that it derives from the Wolof phrase sunu gaal, which means "our canoe", and was the result of a misunderstanding between the Portuguese explorers and local fishermen. The fishermen were talking about the boats while the explorers thought they were talking about the country. "We're all in the same canoe" is a popular phrase used by politicians appealing for national solidarity. Historians today believe in the less romantic theory that the place was named for the Berber Zenaga people, who lived on the northern side of the river.
9. The national dish is chep-bu-jen, the Wolof word for Rice with fish.
10. The national flag has bands of Green, Yellow, and red, with a green five-pointed star in the centre of the yellow band. The colour green represents the forest and hope. Yellow stands for the savanna, and red for the blood spilled in the fight for liberty. The coat of arms includes a gold lion and the state seal has the coat of arms on one side and a baobab tree on the other, with the national motto: "One people, one aim, one faith." The baobab tree was the traditional meeting place for discussions and political rallies.

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Where you can use the "Look Inside" function and read the first few pages for free!)

Glastonbury Swan

Every few weeks, there is a mysterious death in Glastonbury. They seem completely unrelated - an apparent suicide, a hit and run, a drug overdose, a magic act which goes horribly wrong - but is that what the killer wants people to think?

The police are certainly convinced - but one of the victims is communicating to medium Tabitha Drake that the deaths are linked.

Who is killing all these people and why? 

This is what Tabitha has to figure out - before it is too late to save someone very dear to her.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

I have plenty more stories to tell, but I don't know yet which will win the race to the end of the pipeline. If you'd like to know:

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3rd April: Pony Express inaugurated

On this date in 1860 the Pony Express was inaugurated.

The Pony Express was a mail service delivering messages, newspapers, mail, and small packages from St. Joseph, Missouri, across the Great Plains, over the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada to Sacramento, California, by horseback, by means of a series of relay stations. It reduced the time for messages to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to about 10 days, which many people had said was not possible.

1. The Pony Express was founded by three men, William Russell, Alexander Majors, and William Waddell. They were already in the freighting business.
2. It's alleged that, when advertising for young men to become Pony Express riders, the ad read, "Wanted: Young, skinny, wiry fellows not over eighteen. Must be expert riders, willing to risk death daily. Orphans preferred." There is some dispute as to whether this ad ever actually appeared, but it is true that it was a dangerous job, and that the riders were small, light teenage boys - weighing no more than 125 pounds (57 kg) - for the same reason that jockeys tend to be small, light men.
3. Pony Express riders were required to sign a statement swearing never to drink alcohol, use profane language or fight with their colleagues. Each rider was given a special edition Bible.
4. No-one is entirely sure who the first rider was on the inaugural westbound trip. It was either Johnson William Richardson or Johnny Fry. The first eastbound trip is better documented. James Randall picked up the mail from San Francisco Alta telegraph office. He and his horse took a steamboat to Sacramento where the Pony Express rider William (Sam) Hamilton picked up the mail and rode with is as far as Sportsman Hall Station where Warren Upson took over.
5. There were about 157 Pony Express stations along the route. They were about 10 miles apart, as that was the distance a Horse could gallop before becoming tired. The riders would change horses at the stations before carrying on.
6. The most important consideration for the rider was the safety of the mail pouch, called a "mochila" (from the Spanish for pouch or backpack). If it came to it, the employers said, the horse and rider should perish rather than the mochila. As well as the mail, which was put in padlocked pockets, the mochila would contain a water sack, a Bible, a horn for alerting the relay station master to prepare the next horse, and a revolver. The mochila would weigh around 40 pounds. In time, the equipment the riders carried was cut back to the bare minimum to minimise the weight - so aside from the mail, only water and the gun were carried. Special lightweight saddles were also used.
7. It could be hard and dangerous work. Each rider rode about 75 miles (121 km) per day, and would ride day and night, spending up to 20 hours on horseback in times of emergency. There was always a risk of being ambushed by Indians - notably the Paiute tribe, who made special targets of the riders. The stations were as much at risk as the riders. On one occasion, a Paiute raiding party attacked a Pony Express station on the Carson River, killed five men and burned the station. Despite all this, only once did the mail not get through. Even so, the mail was eventually recovered and delivered two years late.
8. The riders were well paid for their trouble. Their salary was $100 per month, at a time when most unskilled jobs paid less than a dollar a day.
9. It has proved impossible to compile a list of all the young men who took on this task. The most famous of them was one William Cody (Buffalo Bill). Another notable rider was Billy Tate, aged 14. He was killed in a Paiute ambush but not before killing seven of the ambushers himself. The Paiute must have thought him a worthy opponent, as Tate's body, although full of arrows, was not scalped - a sign of respect for an enemy.
10. The Pony Express only operated for 18 months. It came to an end with the start of the Civil War and also the invention of the telegraph. During its time in operation, the Pony Express delivered approximately 35,000 letters.

2nd April: Hans Christian Anderson

Hans Christian Anderson was born in the town of Odense, Denmark, on 2 April 1805. 10 things you didn't know about Hans Christian Anderson.

1. He hated school. He was dyslexic and never able to spell properly; the schoolmasters believed that abusing the pupils strengthened their character, and the young Anderson was discouraged from writing. Hardly surprising then, that he considered his school days "the darkest and most bitter" of his life.
2. However, his dyslexia may have contributed to his success, because it meant his writing style was more like the spoken word. His publishers corrected the spelling mistakes but didn't mess with the style.
3. Before becoming a writer, Anderson trained as a weaver, and as a tailor. When he was 14, he had an excellent singing voice, and went to Copenhagen to find work as an actor. He was accepted into the Royal Danish Theatre, but when his voice changed his budding career in showbiz came to an abrupt end. A colleague at the theatre said that he considered Andersen a poet. Taking the suggestion seriously, Andersen began to focus on writing.
4. One of the first fairy tales he wrote was called The Tallow Candle and was written while he was still at school. It was about a candle who didn't feel appreciated. The story was given to one of his benefactors where it was lost among the family papers until it was re-discovered in 2012.
5. His first published story was The Ghost at Palnatoke's Grave, in 1822.
6. Although famous now for his fairy tales, during his early life his biggest successes were travelogues. The King of Denmark gave him a small grant for travelling and Anderson's travel journals were published to wide acclaim. He visited Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal.
7. The highlight of his trip to England was meeting Charles Dickens at a party. Anderson wrote of this,"We had come to the veranda, I was so happy to see and speak to England's now living writer, whom I love the most." The two writers got on well at first and Anderson returned to England ten years later to visit Dickens. However, it all turned sour, possibly because Anderson stayed for five weeks and had to be asked to leave, after which Dickens stopped writing to Anderson. Anderson never quite figured out why.
8. Unrequited love was a feature of Anderson's life. He often fell for unattainable women. One of them was the singer Jenny Lind, the "Swedish Nightingale". He wrote a story about her, The Nightingale, which is how she got the nickname. Anderson proposed marriage to her but she saw him as a brother. As a young man, he was in love with a girl called Riborg Voigt, and he was wearing a pouch containing a letter from her when he died.
9. Shortly before his death, he consulted a composer about the music for his funeral, saying: "Most of the people who will walk after me will be children, so make the beat keep time with little steps."
10. Andersen's birthday, 2 April, is celebrated as International Children's Book Day.

April 1st: Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow, the psychologist who devised the hierarchy of human needs, was born on this date in 1908. 10 things he said:

1. If you only have a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
2. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.
3. What is necessary to change a person is to change his awareness of himself.
4. If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life.
5. A musician must make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is to be ultimately at peace with himself.
6. The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.
7. Dispassionate objectivity is itself a passion, for the real and for the truth.
8. We fear to know the fearsome and unsavoury aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.
9. I was awfully curious to find out why I didn't go insane.
10. We may define therapy as a search for value.