22 May: Harvey Milk Day

Today is Harvey Milk Day. In 1978, Harvey Milk was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors — making him the first openly gay elected official in the state of California. Milk was assassinated in November 1978. Here are 10 quotes from him:

1. Unless you have dialogue, unless you open the walls of dialogue, you can never reach to change people’s opinion.

2. To sit on the front steps — whether it’s a veranda in a small town or a concrete stoop in a big city — and to talk to our neighbourhoods is infinitely more important than to huddle on the living-room lounger and watch a make-believe world in not-quite living colour.

3. If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door.

4. Hope will never be silent.

5. Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all of the darkness.

6. I know that you cannot live on hope alone, but without it, life is not worth living.

7. Rights are won only by those who make their voices heard.

8. Politics is theater. It doesn’t matter if you win. You make a statement. You say, I’m here, pay attention to me.

9. Go after her because that’s what you should do if you love someone.

10. We must understand that the quality of life is more important than the standard of living.

Character birthday

Nadir, aka Nadia Ogilvy. A weak, weedy child, Nadia was often bullied by her classmates. At home, she was somewhat spoiled by her rich parents. She grew up respecting no-one save her older brother, Tristram. She looked up to him and as a teen, would do anything he asked. Hence when he wanted to test out a potion he'd developed which he hoped would give him special powers, he asked Nadia to drink it to see if it worked.

The potion worked and Nadia became a super-athlete. She joined forces with her brother to kill their grandfather, who had left them a fortune in his will.

Nadir still believes her brother wanted to do her a favour by giving her the potion – she doesn't realise he used her as a guinea pig.

21 May: 141

Today is the 141^st day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 141:

1. London Bus route 141 runs between Palmers Green and London Bridge bus station. A bus operating on route 141 was involved in an accident near Monument station in February 2010. Eleven people including the driver were injured when the bus crashed into a set of railings and narrowly avoided falling down the steps into the station.

2. 141 is the dialling prefix for withholding one's Caller ID in the United Kingdom.

3. It’s the atomic number of unquadunium, a theoretical chemical element.

4. 141 Lumen is a carbonaceous Asteroid, approximately 130 kilometers in diameter. It was discovered on January 13, 1875, by Paul and Prosper Henry, but Paul is the brother who was given the credit for this discovery. It is named for Lumen: Récits de l'infini, a book by the astronomer Camille Flammarion.

5. K-141 Kursk was a Russian nuclear cruise missile Submarine, which sank in the Barents Sea on 12 August 2000.

6. Psalm 141 is attributed to David, and is a plea to God for protection from the psalmist's enemies, and also from temptation to sin. It begins: “Lord, I cry unto thee: make haste unto me; give ear unto my voice, when I cry unto thee.”

7. Shakespeare's Sonnet 141 has the theme of discrepancy between the poet's physical senses and wits on the one hand and his heart on the other. The "five wits" that are mentioned are common sense, imagination, fantasy, instinct, and memory. The sonnet begins: “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, For they in thee a thousand errors note; But ’tis my heart that loves what they despise, Who, in despite of view, is pleas’d to dote”.

8. Route 141 is a 7-mile route on the National Cycle Network, connecting Wylam and the upper reaches of the Tyne.

9. The Roman numeral for 141 is CXLI and in binary it’s 10001101.

10. In numerology this number has an energy of independence but also a sense of community. The person influenced by it tends to present as an outstanding member of the community who is determined to benefit it. Although it can go off by itself now and again, exploring new vistas or ways of doing things, it never shrugs off its sense of responsibility.

Character birthday

Flux, aka Sarah Pryor, a genetic variant probability alterer. Her father was abusive and largely absent; her mother died of cancer when she and her younger sister Alyson were still children. Sarah promised her mother on her deathbed that she would always take care of Alyson. This resulted, on one occasion, in her losing her job for taking time out to rescue her sister and missing an important meeting. Later that same day a trip to the local pub to drown their sorrows led to an altercation between Alyson and a former boyfriend who was there with another woman. Both sisters used their powers during the fight and were spotted by an employee of Llew Powell, who was at the time on the lookout for people with powers to join his Combat Team Alpha. He called upon the sisters a day later to offer them places.

20 May: James Stewart

James Stewart, the American actor was born on this date in 1908. Here are 10 things you might not know about him:

1. James Maitland Stewart was born on May 20, 1908, in Indiana, Pennsylvania. He was of Scottish and Scottish-Irish ancestry. His father ran a hardware store, and fully expected his only son to return home and take over the store after university.

2. He attended Princeton University and studied architecture. However, when he graduated, America was in the midst of the Great Depression, so architects weren’t so much in demand. Instead, Stewart decided to follow his interest in acting, joining a theatre group in Falmouth, Massachusetts. This led to roles on Broadway and a contract with MGM.

3. His film debut was in 1935, as a cub reporter in The Murder Man.

4. His mother was a pianist, so Stewart was interested in music from an early age. Once, a customer at the family hardware store was unable to pay his bill, and offered an old Accordion in lieu of payment. Stewart learned to play the instrument, and would have it with him on movie sets so he could play it during down time.

5. He could write poetry as well as act. A book of his poems was published in 1989. His best known poem is probably “Beau,” about his late dog. Stewart read this verse to Johnny Carson during a Tonight Show appearance in 1981.

6. He also had a keen interest in aviation. In 1935, he got his private pilot license and often flew home to Pennsylvania to visit his parents. He got his commercial license in 1938.

7. When America entered WWII, he was keen to serve his country and was the first major American movie star to enlist. However, the military turned him down at first because he was too thin. So he went home and ate as much as he could, then asked to be weighed again. This time, he got in. As he was already a pilot, he joined the Air Force in the hope that he could fly missions. Although he did get some flight training, the authorities seemed to want him more as the star of recruitment videos. He did eventually get sent to England, where he participated in more than 20 combat missions over Germany. He earned the Distinguished Flying Cross with two Oak Leaf clusters, and some other awards, making him the most decorated actor in the war.

8. After the war he went home and resumed his acting career. The first film he made after the war was It's a Wonderful Life. Later on, he would strongly object to the film being colourised, believing the director had never intended it to be colourful. He described the colourised version as “a bath of Easter egg dye.” He particularly objected to colouring the costumes of a character named Violet in costumes of that colour. It was, he wrote, “the kind of obvious visual pun that Frank Capra never would have considered.”

9. He won one Oscar, for The Philadelphia Story in 1940. However, he didn’t really think he deserved it, and thought his close friend Henry Fonda should have won it for The Grapes of Wrath. Stewart’s father suggested he bring the award home so it could be displayed in the hardware store. Stewart did so, and the Oscar remained there for 25 years.

10. He didn’t marry until he was over 40, although he had relationships with many famous names including Ginger Rogers, Norma Shearer, Marlene Dietrich and Olivia de Havilland. He was dubbed the "Great American Bachelor". He eventually married Gloria Hatrick McLean, who he first met at a Christmas party where he got drunk. She wasn’t impressed and the marriage might never have happened had the pair not both been invited to a dinner party at Gary Cooper’s house, where Stewart succeeded in changing her mind. They remained married until she died.

Character Birthday

Superwil, aka Wilson Warner, a genetic variant who grew up in the Republic of Ireland. He discovered in his early teens that he had superpowers, including flight and the ability to generate energy bolts. He has a danger sense which alerts him to problems and can also detect emotions emitting from other beings. He has X-Ray vision and a healing power. He was an extraordinarily gifted student of medicine and achieved his first degree in medicine by the time he was 18. He had decided he wanted to go into general practice with a particular interest in genetic variant medicine. He went to university in England to start his GP training and there met Judith Brent, aka Electric Blue, also a prodigy, who was a post grad in electrical engineering despite being only 18. The pair joined the Freedom League and began dating, but the relationship ended when Judith believed he was cheating on her with another member of the team and left to join the G-Men. They met again after a number of years and rekindled their relationship and subsequently married. By this time, Superwil had achieved his ambition and was running a general practice which was a cover for a superhero hospital where injured heroes could be healed. He and Judith had five children and a documentary was made about the family, called The Warners: Superhero Family. He appears in a number of my novels although his story is mostly told in Eternal Flame.

Eternal Flame

The Freedom League's numbers have dwindled to three - but leader Unicorn knows his team isn't finished yet. The turning point comes with Russell, a boy with bright red hair and a genetic variant ability to start fires. He's the first of an influx of new members who will take the League into the future. 

Judith and Wil are child prodigies - Judith in physics and electronics, and Wil in medicine. They have another thing in common - they are both genetic variants. And another thing - they both have fiery red hair. They are drawn to one another as their destinies intertwine, but the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly!

Richard is not a variant. He's an Olympic athlete who has picked up useful knowledge from his unusual friends to add to his own natural abilities. A chance encounter with a dying alien throws him into a Freedom League mission in which his skills are put to the ultimate test, along with theirs.

The Freedom League's arch-enemy, the super-villain Obsidian, wants his family fortune all to himself. One person stands in his way - his niece, Fiona. Fiona, devastated by a family tragedy and her failure to get in to her first choice university, is miserable and has few friends. When she realises her brother's death was no accident, and his killer is also after her, she fears it may be too late to gather allies around her and learn how to use her own genetic variant powers.

Available from Amazon and Amazon Kindle

19 May: Postcards

On this date in 1898 the US Post Office authorised the use of postcards. 10 things you might not know about postcards:

1. The study and collecting of postcards is called deltiology. This comes from the Greek words deltion, small writing tablet, and logy, the study of.

2. Early postcards didn’t have pictures. There were strict rules dictating that the address went on one side and the message on the other. It wasn’t until 1902 that postcards had divided backs, where the address is written on the right and message on the left, leaving space for a picture on the other side.

3. The earliest known picture postcard was a hand-painted design on card created by the writer Theodore Hook. Hook posted the card, with a penny black stamp, to himself in 1840 from Fulham in London. It’s thought it was a practical joke on the postal service, as the image is a caricature of post office workers. In 2002 the postcard sold for a record £31,750.

4. The thing with a postcard is that, without an envelope, anyone can read the message. Hence in Victorian times, couples devised a code so they could express their feelings, based on the angle at which the stamp was stuck on. By angling the stamp in different directions, writers could send hidden messages like ‘Have you forgotten me?’ or ‘I love you’.

5. Postcards were vital forms of communication during the first world war. The postal service was very efficient back then. A postcard could leave Britain one day and just two days later be handed to a soldier fighting in France. Messages home boosted morale as the recipients would know their loved one was safe, so sending postcards home was encouraged, although the messages were often censored so that enemy spies who might come across them wouldn’t know the location of the sender. Communication was deemed important enough that all countries agreed that prisoners of war held abroad could send mail home free of charge.

6. The saucy seaside postcard was created by a company owned by one James Bamforth. Originally a portrait photographer, Bamforth diversified into picture postcards in 1902. At first, they were scenic photographs, but the company spotted a gap in the market. They became famous for saucy and innuendo driven postcard designs, which used caricatures to make the rather naughty themes more acceptable to the public. Seaside censorship boards were set up to pass judgement on which designs could be printed and sold. Bamforth and Company would send their initial concept sketches to the Blackpool Censorship Board. If the committee considered them appropriate they could be sold at seaside resorts around the country. One wonders how many cartoons passed by the Blackpool Censorship Board would get past today’s politically correct cancel culture proponents!

7. Another company called Raphael Tuck & Sons produced sets of postcards with serial numbers. This encouraged collectors to buy a whole set.

8. In the UK in the 1950s and 60s there was a trend of picture postcards with rather boring subject matter like shopping centres, airports and motorways. Enough that British photographer Martin Parr could collect enough to publish a book of them, called Boring Postcards. (https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/product/boring-postcards/)

9. In 1871 around 75 million postcards were sent in Britain and volumes increased over 800 million a year by the end of King Edward VII’s reign in 1910. Not so much today, thanks to the Post Office ending the cheaper rate for a postcard that used to exist, so they cost as much to send as a letter; and also because of the digital age. Sending postcards home during a holiday was part of the travel experience, but now it’s largely been replaced by putting our own photos up on Facebook or Instagram, and short messages can go in an email.

10. World Postcard Day is celebrated on 30 July.

Character Birthday

Ozymandias “Oz” Hardy, psychopathic Viper assassin. He was part of a school coterie of future agents groomed by agent Douglas Black. The group also included Sebastian Garrett. Even this band of future assassins and spies found Oz’s behaviour distasteful. He appears in Killing Me Softly.

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

18 May: 138

Today is the 138^th day of the year. 10 things you might not know about the number 138:

1. "We Are 138" is a 1978 song by the American punk rock band Misfits.

2. 138 is the atomic number of untrioctium, a theoretical chemical element.

3. The A138 is a road in England which runs around Chelmsford.

4. Sonnet 138 is one of the most famous of William Shakespeare's sonnets. It’s about the nature of truth and flattery in romantic relationships. It begins: “When my love swears that she is made of truth, I do believe her, though I know she lies.”

5. In the year 138 AD, The Roman emperor Hadrian died and was succeeded by Antoninus Pius. Also, Construction began on the Theatre of Philadelphia.

6. In London, the 138 Bus runs between Bromley North Station and Chestnut Avenue.

7. The 138th psalm of the Book of Psalms begins, in the King James Version: "I will praise thee with my whole heart".

8. Third Avenue–138th Street, is the Bronx station on the IRT Pelham Line of the New York City Subway.

9. The Roman numeral for 138 is CXXXVIII, and in binary it’s 10001010.

10. In numerology the energy of 138 resonates with creative expression. Those influenced by the number are independent but also comfortable in social situations, especially when there is a creative or artistic purpose to it. They are optimistic, tolerant and self reliant. They may also be inspiring, and enjoy promoting the work of other artists.

Character birthday

Hamilton Lonsdale, one of the “Big Six” richest people in the UK, owner of a successful hotel chain. He is the owner of Combat Team Beta.

17 May: Nettles

This week is Be Nice to Nettles week. Ten facts about nettles:

1. The scientific name for the nettle is Urtica dioica. Urtica is derived from a Latin word meaning 'sting'. Dioica is derived from Greek, meaning 'of two houses' and relates to there being separate male and female nettle plants.

2. They are a great plant for encouraging Butterflies. The Red Admiral and Painted Lady are two of the species which love them.

3. The sting comes from tiny hairs on the underside of the leaf, which are laced with formic acid. They are there to protect the plant from being eaten by herbivores. When a person brushes against one, some of those hairs sink into the skin, causing the sting. It’s often said that rubbing a dock leaf on a nettle sting relieves it. Conveniently, dock plants tend to grow near nettles. Sceptics say this is pure coincidence as both plants favour similar growing conditions. They’d also say there’s no scientific evidence that there are any chemicals in dock leaves which help, but rather it’s a mixture of being distracted from the pain by the process of finding a dock leaf and rubbing it on, and the placebo effect.

4. The phrase “grasp the nettle” comes from the idea that if the nettle is grasped firmly, the hairs are crushed and the sting is minimised.

5. You can eat them. When cooked, the sting is lost and they’re actually very nutritious containing lots of magnesium, Iron and calcium. They can be made into tea, wine, ale and soup, and taste a little like Spinach.

6. There’s even a world nettle eating championship which is held in Dorset. Competitors have to eat as many raw nettles as they can in a fixed time. The competition dates back to 1986, when two neighbouring farmers attempted to settle a dispute about who had the worst infestation of nettles. One of them said, "I'll eat any nettle of yours that's longer than mine."

7. They can also be used to make fabric. Presumably the sting is neutralised during the fabric making process, too! Nettle cloth was common in Scotland. The Scottish poet Thomas Campbell wrote about sleeping in nettle sheets and eating off a nettle table cloth. The German army used nettle fabric to make army uniforms during World War I. In World War II, children used to collect nettles, because they could be used to make a dark green dye for camouflage.

8. Nettles are among those plants which quickly bounce back and repopulate an area after a disaster such as a fire. They like fertile soil, and often grow on the sites of abandoned buildings.

9. They have numerous medicinal uses, such as the treatment of gout. The nettle's sting is a 'counterirritant', which means it can actually decrease an existing pain. Roman soldiers allegedly used this effect to adapt to the colder, harsher climate of Britain, by rubbing nettles on their arms and legs to ward off the cold.

10. In Ecuador, being flogged with stinging nettles while being doused in cold water was a punishment for serious crimes.

Character birthday

Painted Man, a member of the Freedom League. He is a genetic variant, covered in tattoos, many of which can come to life, leave his body and join in a fight. He joined the team after breaking up with his wife. He has two children that he never sees, and is older than most of the other team members. Despite his alarming appearance, he tends to be a calming influence on the younger heroes and a source of insight and advice. He appears in The Power of Love.

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

Available from Amazon:

Paperback

Kindle

16 May: Famous Brendans

Today is St Brendan's day. Brendan is an Irish masculine given name meaning prince or king. Here are 10 famous Brendans.

1. Brendan of Clonfert: early Irish saint and one of the Twelve Apostles of Ireland. He is also referred to as Brendan the Navigator, Brendan the Voyager, Brendan the Anchorite, Brendan the Bold. He is mainly known for his legendary voyage to find to find the “Isle of the Blessed” which is sometimes referred to as “Saint Brendan’s Island”.

2. Saint Brendan of Birr: Monk and later an abbot in the 6th century. He is known as "St Brendan the Elder" to distinguish him from his contemporary and friend St Brendan the Navigator.

3. Brendan Behan: Irish poet, short story writer, novelist, playwright, named by Irish Central as one of the greatest Irish writers of all time.

4. Brendan Coyle: British-Irish actor who played Mr Bates, the valet, in Downton Abbey.

5. Brendan Fraser: Canadian-American actor who starred in The Mummy series of films.

6. Brendan: the main male character of Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire.

7. Sir Brendan Foster: British long-distance runner, athletics commentator and road race organiser, who founded the Great North Run.

8. Brendan Gleeson: Irish actor and film director, best known for playing Alastor Moody in the Harry Potter films.

9. Brendan Murray: Irish singer and former member of the Irish boy band HomeTown. He represented Ireland in the Eurovision song contest 2017 with the song Dying to Try but failed to qualify for the final. He competed in The X Factor (UK) in 2018, finishing fifth.

10. Brendan Brady: fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Emmett J. Scanlan.

Character birthday

Billy the Kid, aka William Vendetta, a member of the notorious Vendetta gangster family in New York. He appears to be a fresh faced, innocent kid into skateboarding, baseball and computer gaming. However, He was groomed by his brothers from an early age to become an active member of the Alliance. Although still at school, he is already part of the gang, taking advantage of his innocent looks to take people in. None of his schoolmates or teachers have any idea that he swaps his baseball bat for a revolver when he gets out of school.