December 14: Alabama Admission Day

Alabama Admission Day: Alabama was admitted to the USA on this day 1819. It became the 22nd state.

1. The word Alabama comes from the Creek Indian language, and means "tribal town".
2. The capital is Montgomery, which was the birthplace of the Confederate States of America. Montgomery also had the world's first electric trolley car system and the first open Heart surgery in the Western Hemisphere when Dr. Luther Leonidas Hill sutured a stab wound in a boy's heart.
3. Alabama has some odd sculptures and monuments, including: the World's Largest Office Chair, made of 10 tons of steel; a 13ft high monument to a hog; the largest catfish in the world, 28 feet long, which is also animated so it rolls its eyes and swishes its tail; a giant rooster made of car bumpers and a monument to the boll weevil. The latter is commemorated with its own monument because it played a significant role in encouraging Alabama farmers to diversify the crops they produced and to grow things other than just Cotton.
4. Magnolia Springs, Alabama is the only US postal route which is entirely on Water, all the year round.
5. Alabama celebrated Mardi Gras years before New Orleans did.
6. The rocket that first took people to the Moon was designed and built in Huntsville, Alabama, which is known as the rocket capital of the world.
7. Alabama is the only state which has all the natural resources to make Iron and steel.
8. Alabama is the only state to have an alcoholic beverage as its official drink: Conecuh Ridge Whiskey. Other state symbols include: Animal: Black Bear. Bird: Yellowhammer. Fish: Tarpon. Insect: Monarch butterfly. Mineral: hematite. Gemstone: star blue quartz. Nut: Pecan. Flower: Camellia. 
9. Famous people from Alabama include: Boxer Joe Louis, actors Tallulah Bankhead and Courtney Cox, singers Nathaniel Adams (Nat King) Cole and Lionel Richie. Helen Keller was born there too, which is why Alabama has the only circulating US coin with Braille lettering on it, produced to commemorate her.
10. Things it is illegal to do in Alabama include driving while blindfolded, making people laugh in church by wearing a false mustache, opening Umbrellas in the street (it could scare the Horses), buy live Chickens after dark, wash your hands or feet in a public fountain, put an ice cream cone in your back pocket or put Salt on a railway track. You can actually get the death penalty for that last one. You can, however, drive the wrong way down a one way street if you have a lantern attached to the front of your car.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. There's still time to get it as a stocking filler for the superhero-lover in your life! Only £5!

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

13th December: Sellotape

On this date in 1937 Sellotape was first marketed in Britain. Ten facts about that stuff you're going to be using to wrap your Christmas presents.

1. The name Sellotape was derived from cellophane, at that time a trademarked name, with the "C" changed to "S" so that the new name could be trademarked.
2. Sellotape was first made in Acton, West London by Colin Kinninmonth and George Gray.
3. Sellotape is a product name but as the leading brand in the UK, the name has become a generic word for sticky tape, and has an entry in the Oxford English dictionary.
4. Sticky tape was invented by Richard Drew, a banjo playing engineer. He came up with the idea of sticky tape as masking tape for painters in a car bodyshop.
5. The adhesive on sticky tape was invented by a surgeon called Horace Day in 1845.
6. The first tape dispenser with a built-in cutting edge was invented in 1932 by John A. Borden.
7. I've never tried this, but apparently if you unpeel a roll of Sellotape in the dark it generates flashes of Blue light in a chemical breakdown process called Triboluminescence.
8. Not only that, but scientists have found that unpeeling a roll of Sellotape also emits enough X Rays to scan a human finger.
9. In the run up to Christmas, people in Britain will buy 6 million rolls of Sellotape, which amounts to 55 times the length of the River Nile.
10. Taking selfies with one's face wrapped in Sellotape is a thing. This activity even has its own Facebook page.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. There's still time to get it as a stocking filler for the superhero lover in your life! Only £5!

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

12 December: Poinsettia Day

It's Poinsettia Day, celebrating a plant often associated with Christmas (for the reason why, see fact #7).

1. The Latin name for Poinsettia is Euphorbia pulcherrima, and it comes from a very large family - the spurge family, which has about 300 genera, 37 tribes, three subfamilies and 7,500 species. Relatives of the poinsettia include cassava, castor oil plant, Barbados nut and the Para rubber tree. There are over 100 cultivated varieties of poinsettia.
2. The plant is native to Mexico where the Aztecs used it for Red dye and as a medicine to reduce fever. They called it Cuetlaxochitl, meaning "flower that grows in residues."
3. It was introduced to the US in 1825 by Joel Roberts Poinsett, the first United States Minister to Mexico. The common name for the plant in English derives from his name. He died on 12 December 1851, which is why December 12 is National Poinsettia Day.
4. It is known by other names in other countries. In Mexico and Guatemala it's Flor de Noche Buena, meaning Christmas Eve Flower. In Spain it is known as Flor de Pascua or Pascua, meaning Easter flower. In Chile and Peru they call it Crown of the Andes. In Turkey, it is called Atatürk's flower because Atatürk, the founder of the Republic, liked them. In Egypt they call it Bent El Consul, "the consul's daughter", referring to Joel Roberts Poinsett.
5. The red parts are not flowers, but bracts, a kind of specialist leaf. The flowers, or cyathia, are the small yellow structures in the middle of each bunch of leaves.
6. The red parts aren't always red, either. they can be Yellow, cream, salmon, apricot or White. If you see a Blue one, that's been produced artificially using dye.
7. For the bracts to change colour, they need stretches of twelve hours in the dark for five days in a row, interspersed with stretches of bright sunlight. And when I say dark, I mean dark - even light from a TV set or passing cars can affect the colour change.
8. The plant's association with Christmas began with a Mexican legend about a poor girl who was too poor to bring a gift to the altar at Christmas. An angel told her to gather weeds from the side of the road to place on the altar. She did so, and the plants sprouted beautiful crimson leaves. In the 17th century, Franciscan friars in Mexico began using them for Christmas decorations. The leaf pattern is like a star, and so could symbolise the star of Bethlehem, while the red colour symbolises the blood of Christ.
9. Many people believe the plants are poisonous. They are mildly toxic. The sap can irritate some people's skin and eating the leaves can make you ill, but it wouldn't kill you. A child weighing 3.5 stone (50lb or 23kg) would have to eat 500 of the leaves before it did them any real harm.
10. Another myth is that poinsettias are indoor plants. They can be kept outside and can grow to a height of 4 metres (13ft), as long as they are protected from frost.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. There's still time to get it as a stocking filler for the superhero lover in your life! Only £5!

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

11 December: Indiana Admission Day

It's Indiana Admission Day. Indiana became the 19th state of the USA on this day in 1816.

1. Indiana means, "Land of the Indians", but there are, in fact, fewer than 8,000 Native Americans living there today.
2. It's known as the "Hoosier State" and nobody really knows why. The best guess is that it originated in a letter written by a Quaker called Sarah Harvey in 1835 in which she refers to the settlers in Indiana as 'Hooshers.'
3. 90% of the world's Popcorn is produced in Indiana.
4. It's also famous for its limestone. The state has one of the richest deposits of top-quality limestone found anywhere on earth. It's so good they built the Pentagon, Empire State Building and the Rockefeller Center out of it.
5. The capital city is Indianapolis. The state flower is the peony, the state bird is the cardinal, the state tree is the tulip tree, the state fish is the largemouth bass and the state gemstone is Salem Limestone. It doesn't have a state insect at time of writing, but the Say's firefly has been proposed.
6. Famous people from Indiana include the poet James Whitcomb Riley, actor James Dean, talk show host David Letterman, cartoonist Jim Davis and Michael Jackson. Abraham Lincoln lived there from age seven.
7. Indiana inventions include the rapid fire machine gun, petrol pump, and automatic headlight dipper.
8. Cars are a big thing in the state. From 1900 to 1920 more than 200 different makes of cars were produced there. The first long distance motor race was held in 1911 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The winner averaged 75 miles an hour and won $14,000. Today, Indiana is host to the 200 laps/500 mile Indianapolis 500 every Memorial Day weekend. Now, the average speed is over 167 miles an hour and the prize is more than $1.2 million.
9. During the US Civil War, Indiana was particularly crucial in helping slaves escape to freedom. The community of Newport (now Fountain City) was considered to be the "grand central station" of the famous Underground Railroad.
10. In Indiana it is illegal to: take a bath between October and March; take fishing tackle into a cemetery; overtake a Horse; catch fish with your bare hands; carry a cocktail from a bar to the table yourself (a waiter or waitress must do it); gossip; be sexually aroused in public if you are a man; threaten to cut off a child's ears if you are a barber; grow a mustache if you are addicted to Kissing people. Indiana law used to dictate that the value of Pi is 4 and that hotel bedsheets must measure exactly 99 x 81 inches. There is also a law which says that you do not have to pay for medical care for a dependent if you pray for them.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. There's still time to get it as a stocking filler for the superhero lover in your life! Only £5!

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

10th December: George McDonald

Born on this date in 1824: George MacDonald, Scottish fantasy author. Here are ten pearls of wisdom from his writing:

1. To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.
2. The principle part of faith is patience.
3. Afflictions are but the shadows of God's wings.
4. It is not the cares of today, but the cares of tomorrow, that weigh a man down.
5. To have what we want is riches; but to be able to do without is power.
6. Age is not all decay; it is the ripening, the swelling, of the fresh life within, that withers and bursts the husk.
7. As you grow ready for it, somewhere or other you will find what is needful for you in a book.
8. You doubt because you love truth.
9. It is the heart that is unsure of its God that is afraid to laugh.
10. The only way to come to know where you are is to begin to make yourself at home.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. There's still time to get it as a stocking filler for the superhero lover in your life! Only £5!

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

9th December: John Milton

On this date in 1608, John Milton was born. He is famous for the poems Paradise Lost and Paradise regained.

1. Milton's father, also called John, was disinherited by his father after becoming a protestant. John Sr. moved to London where he met and married Sarah Jeffrey. He worked as a scrivener from his house in Bread Street, where John Milton Jr. was born.
2. Milton's first known writings were two psalms which he wrote at the age of 15.
3. Milton attended St Paul's School in London and then Christ's College, Cambridge. Although he graduated fourth in his year and went on to get a Masters degree, his time at Cambridge didn't always go smoothly. In his first year, he didn't get on with his tutor and was sent home for a term. This may have been due to a row with his tutor or possibly to get away from the plague in Cambridge. When he returned he had a different tutor. He didn't get on too well with his fellow students, either, and said of them, 'they thought themselves gallant men, and I thought them fools'.
4. He went on a grand tour of France and Italy which lasted nearly a year. During the tour he rode from Calais to Paris to deliver a letter from diplomat Henry Wotton to ambassador John Scudamore. In Italy, he met the astronomer Galileo who was under house arrest at Arcetri at the time. Milton had intended to travel on to Greece, but returned home due to "sad tidings of civil war in England."
5. As a young man, he kept a kind of scrapbook called his commonplace book. It is in the British Library and shows his intellectual development.
6. Milton was a pamphleteer for the parliamentary cause during the English Civil War and later became a civil servant under Oliver Cromwell. This meant that upon the restoration, there was a price on his head and he had to go into hiding. He was pardoned eventually, but not before he'd spent some time in prison.
7. Milton married three times. His first wife, Mary Powell, was 16 and he was 35. Mary found it a strain at first, being married to a much older and very serious man, and went home to her family for almost three years, although her long stay away might have been because she was staying away from London and the plague. She escaped the plague but died in childbirth. Milton's second wife, Katherine Woodcock, also died in childbirth. The third, Elizabeth Mynshull, was also much younger than him. My sources didn't mention any offspring, so it looks as if she avoided the danger of death in childbirth by not having any kids. There is speculation that Elizabeth was more of a housekeeper and carer than a wife, but the marriage was apparently happy and lasted until Milton died.
8. When he wrote his most famous poems, Milton was totally blind. The cause is now thought to have been bilateral retinal detachment or glaucoma. He dictated his poems to various helpers.
9. In 1667, Milton sold the publication rights for Paradise Lost to publisher Samuel Simmons for £5, which would be over £7,400 in today's money. He got another £5 every time a print run sold out.
10. A modern day fan of Milton's work is Philip Pullman. The title of Pullman's most famous trilogy comes from a line in Paradise Lost, "His dark materials to create more worlds".

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. Perfect if you want to lose yourself in a book after Christmas lunch!

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

December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception

Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. Here are ten facts about this feast day.

1. According to the teaching of the Catholic Church, the Virgin Mary was as free from sin as her son, even though, unlike him, she was conceived in the usual manner. God acted on her soul when she was conceived, keeping her "immaculate". There is also dogma which says Mary's parents would not have taken any pleasure from the process of conception, for it couldn't have worked if they'd enjoyed it.
2. A feast of the conception of Mary was celebrated as early as the 5th century in Syria, and later spread to Europe via the Byzantine area of Southern Italy.
3. It was Pope Clement XI who instigated the feast formally as a day of Solemnity and a Holy Day of Obligation by means of a Papal Bull. Papal Bull Commissi Nobis Divinitus, dated 6 December 1708, to be exact.
4. Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches don't accept the Immaculate Conception as part of their doctrine, but some churches do celebrate the conception of Mary as a minor liturgical feast day.
5. Muslims may not celebrate an immaculate conception either, but they do revere Mary as an example of purity, piety and the virtue of motherhood.
6. When December 8 falls on Sunday the feast of the Immaculate Conception is celebrated on 9 December.
7. The day is a national holiday in many countries, especially those which, by Papal Decree, are under the patronage of the Immaculate Conception. These include Argentina, Brazil, Korea, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Philippines, Spain, and Uruguay.
8. Works of art depicting the Immaculate Conception usually show Mary as a young woman standing on a hill with a halo of stars around her head. She will be wearing robes of Blue and White, and may be surrounded by clouds, golden lights, cherubs, lilies or Roses.
9. Across the world, this day is celebrated with processions and fireworks as well as religious observances. In Manila, Philippines, the day is marked with a religious and military parade called the Grand Marian Procession, which ends at Manila Cathedral (which is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception). In Spain, children dress up in jewelled clothes and run through the streets holding a large figure of Mary as high as they can.
10. December 8 is also celebrated as Mother's Day in Panama in honour of this holiday.

What happens when superheroes get together for Christmas! My latest novel. Perfect if you want to lose yourself in a book after Christmas lunch!

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