There was an old woman...

Why would she swallow that fly? It doesn't make sense. Surely she knew she had to then swallow the spider, which, everyone knows, wriggles and jiggles and tickles inside her. After that you have no choice; you have to down the bird, which, I know, sounds absurd, but it's the only way to be certain. This is down to the simple fact that birds catch spiders, no matter how much they wriggle and jiggle and tickle inside you. And the spider catches the fly. Why, oh why, did she not die? I was almost certain she would.

On this day...

For those who don’t follow me on twitter, today’s “On this day” was about Edward II, who was killed in 1327 on orders from his wife, Isabella. It is rumoured, yes rumoured and not confirmed, that he was killed by the insertion of a red hot poker into his *cough* special place. Which sounds rather painful.

But apart from his manner of death, Edward II is also remembered for being the first to have the title ‘The Prince of Wales’ and for being the first monarch to establish colleges at Oxford and Cambridge.

And on the subject of The Prince of Wales, this week Prince Charles (the current Prince of Wales) became the longest serving heir apparent in history, having been the heir to the British throne since 1952. And the Queen keeps on going.

Long live the Queen.

On this day:

Over on twitter I post an ‘On this day’ in history post every day (catch me @ JedCullan). I thought I would expand on today’s post.

On this day in 1945, the Enola Gay, a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber piloted by Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, dropped the first atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.

The bomber took off from North Field airbase on Tinian, accompanied by two other B-29s, and made the historic journey to Japan in a little over six hours.

Although Japanese early warning radar did detect the approaching bombers, no fighters were despatched to intercept them, and Hiroshima’s anti-aircraft guns, although on alert, were ordered not to fire.

At 08:15am local time, the bomb, known as ‘Little Boy’, was released from a height of 31,060 feet. 43 seconds later it detonated at a pre-determined height of 600 meters, causing instant devastation. It is estimated that 70,000 people were killed within one second of the blast, with the number of casualties doubling soon after.

Three days later, on the 9^th of August, a second bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

Super Short Stories

For those interested in writing fiction, a good way to start is by writing Super Short Stories. These are also known as Drabble Fiction or Flash Fiction.

They are basically short stories with only one hundred words. Although this may sound easy, trust me, getting them right is tricky. However, they do have the advantage of being short, both for the writer and the reader.

As an example, I have posted one of mine below. Since it was first published, the paying markets for Super Short Stories (particularly in the UK) has diminished. But, if you do some research, you'll find there are still a few markets out there. Don't be discouraged if you can't find any that are suitable, though. It may be worth a punt if you wrote half a dozen Drabble fiction and sent them to a magazine on the chance they like them and would make a special acquisition as a job lot for a one page special. Fortune favours the bold. You get nothing if you don't try. Good luck.

--

His hand reaches for the handle. The backdoor is unlocked. He smiles and enters the house, gently easing the door shut behind. He tiptoes through the kitchen and then the dining room and into the hallway.

He stops to listen.

She's in the lounge.

He opens the door, just a fraction; enough to slip through. He sees her. She's sitting in a chair. Her eyes are closed; her breathing gentle.

He's almost upon her. She still hasn't heard him. He reaches out his hands and then ... she grabs him.

"Ah, Mom," he laughs, "How'd you know I was here?"

Is the T-Rex a coward or the most terrifying predator to ever exist?

I seem to have dinosaurs on the brain at the moment. This is due in no small part to my love and fascination with them. Also, if you haven’t been following, I’m currently working on a novel which will feature these magnificent creatures.

It’s a lot of fun writing a novel with dinosaurs. But I do have a dilemma: Which dinosaurs to include?

I’ll be honest. The dinosaurs that make the cut are probably going to be my favourites. Most will be familiar to the reader, and at least a few will be terrifying. And you can’t get more terrifying than the Tyrannosaurus Rex, right?

Maybe not.

There’s a rumour going around that it’s not the greatest predator to walk the earth. Some scientists (You know, the ones that destroy childhood memories) are saying it’s not a predator at all. It is in fact a scavenger, very similar to the hyena. Its prey wasn’t other living dinosaurs (Hadrosaurs, Ceratopsians such as the Triceratops, and Sauropods like the Brontosaurus) which the T-Rex stalked, chased down and killed. Instead it fed on the left-over carcases that other predators had killed and left lying around.

What a load of ... err, rubbish. I was going to say rubbish.

Okay, let’s look at the facts.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex, otherwise known as the T-Rex, or Tyrant Lizard, is a very large dinosaur which lived in Jurassic Park. Err, hang on, that isn’t right; Jurassic Park is fiction.

Let’s try again. The T-Rex lived millions of years ago during the Jurassic Period, which is why Michael Crichton called the book Jurassic Park. Oh, crud. That isn’t right, either. The T-Rex actually lived during the Cretaceous period.

Hmm, now I'm wondering if any of those creatures featured in Jurassic Park were actually, you know, from the Jurassic period?

Anyway, getting back to the T-Rex. This is what you really need to know:

The Tyrannosaurus Rex had huge teeth and a massive jaw that could quite literally crush a car, if there had been any automobiles around back then. And despite some scientists thinking it was cowardly and timid, like the hyena, and a scavenger, not a predator, the T-Rex is a very fearsome monster of a dinosaur which was an apex predator, preying on other dinosaurs.

In short: It was one huge killing machine that scared the living daylights out of every other dinosaur around at the time. And scared the living daylights out of me when I was a kid. And still does, if I’m honest.

So, to put it bluntly, don’t let those nasty scientists and their made-up facts (they really can’t know for sure, they’re only guessing), tell you otherwise.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex was, and still is, the most terrifying predator to ever walk this planet.

Is the mighty Brontosaurus really dead?

When I was a kid, I loved dinosaurs. I couldn't get enough of them. I had books, little dinosaur toys and even a poster or two. My love of dinosaurs hasn't diminished. This is probably why I decided to write a novel with dinosaurs. Don’t get your hopes up just yet, though. The completion of the novel is some way off. I will, however, update this blog from time to time with news and stuff about my Work In Progress, or WIP, as it’s called.

There you go. For anyone not familiar with writing or publishing, you've just learned a new term. WIP. The Work in Progress. I may give you more terminology as they come up. How lucky do you feel right now?

Anyways, getting back to today’s post. The Brontosaurus. Yep, the Brontosaurus. One of my favourite dinosaurs when I was a little nipper. I had the little green Brontosaurus toy and would play with it often. It had a huge majestic neck and dumpy face, great thick legs and massive flat feet. It was one monster giant of a dinosaur. Not many came anywhere near the size of the mighty Brontosaurus, not even my other favourite, the T-Rex.

However, and this is going to upset a few people, the Brontosaurus never existed. Nope, it never was. The Brontosaurus was entirely made up. A hoax. A cruel hoax that shattered my world and has probably now shattered yours.

Are you in tears yet?

I can hear you shouting at the scream, “Please, let it not be true.”

But, yes, it is true. I’m still in shock.

The Brontosaurus was discovered by palaeontologist O.C. Marsh in the late 1870s. It still is one of the most complete dinosaur skeletons ever found. However, thirty years later, scientists determined the skeleton Marsh found was not of a new species, but from one he had all ready discovered, the Apatosaurus.

But, although scientists and palaeontologists knew of the mistake, or as some have said, hoax, it took a hundred years for the name Brontosaurus to be removed from the records of palaeontology.

But why the mix up? I hear you ask.

Well, it may have been a mistake on Marsh’s part or a deliberate attempt at deception. He dug up a skeleton of a massive dinosaur which wasn't complete. It lacked a skull. This didn't put Marsh off. He decided to place the skull of another dinosaur he happened to have lying around (actually it was over 4 miles away), which turned out to be a Camarasaurus, to complete the skeleton. Either he thought the skull fit, or he just wanted to get one over on another dinosaur hunter, Edward Drinker Cope, who he was in competition with at the time to discover as many knew dinosaur skeletons as they could. Who knows?

What we do know is that the Brontosaurus and Apatosaurus are the same creature. But does this mean the Brontosaurus never existed? Some would say yes (those pesky scientists). Since the name Apatosaurus came first, that is the name used for these dinosaurs in the scientific community (What is wrong with you people and your facts? Pfft, I say. Pfft, and Pfft again).

However, who says a dinosaur can’t have two names?

There can be the scientific name and the popular name. And I choose to remember the popular name, the name I grew up with and grew to love. The Brontosaurus is the Apatosaurus. But the Apatosaurus is also the Brontosaurus. Hence, therefore, the Brontosaurus did exist.

Long live the extinct Brontosaurus.