50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in August 2013 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in August 2013 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is a small sample of the entries for August in  The Date-A-Base Book 2013. There are more than 290 anniversaries for this month in the book.

The Date-A-Base Book 2013 covers the whole of 2013 from January to December and features more than 4,000 anniversaries.

The 2014 edition is also available.

200 years ago (11 Aug 1813)
Death of Henry James Pye, British Poet Laureate (1790-1813)

175 years ago (1 Aug 1838)
Slavery was abolished in most of the British Empire

150 years ago (1 Aug 1863)
Birth of Gaston Doumergue, President of France (1924-31)

150 years ago (3 Aug 1863)
Saratoga Race Course opened in Saratoga Springs, New York, USA. It is the oldest organised sporting venue in the USA

150 years ago (11 Aug 1863)
Cambodia became a French protectorate

125 years ago (13 Aug 1888)
Birth of John Logie Baird, Scottish engineer who invented the first practical television system

125 years ago (15/16 Aug 1888)
Birth of T. E. Lawrence, (‘Lawrence of Arabia’), British Army officer, military strategist, archaeologist and writer, best known for his activities in the Middle East during WWI and for his autobiographical account ‘The Seven Pillars of Wisdom’

125 years ago (16 Aug 1888)
Death of John Pemberton, American pharmacist, inventor of Coca-Cola

125 years ago (21 Aug 1888)
American inventor William Seward Burroughs was granted a patent for the first adding machine

125 years ago (31 Aug 1888)
The mutilated body of Jack the Ripper’s first victim, Mary Ann (‘Polly’) Nichols, was found in Whitechapel, east London

100 years ago (7 Aug 1913)
Death of Samuel Cody, American aviation pioneer; killed while test-flying a prototype aircraft over southern England when it broke up in the air

100 years ago (13 Aug 1913)
British chemist and metallurgist Harry Brearley produced the first stainless steel

100 years ago (13 Aug 1913)
Birth of Fred Davis, British world snooker and billiards champion

100 years ago (16 Aug 1913)
Birth of Menachem Begin, Prime Minister of Israel (1977-83), joint winner of the 1978 Nobel Peace Prize

100 years ago (28 Aug 1913)
The Peace Palace opened in The Hague, the Netherlands. It is home to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the International Court of Justice, and other organisations

100 years ago (31 Aug 1913)
The Dutch football club PSV Eindhoven was founded

90 years ago (2 Aug 1923)
Death of Warren G. Harding, 29th President of the United States; succeeded the following day by Calvin Coolidge

90 years ago (20 Aug 1923)
The USA’s first rigid airship, the ‘USS Shenandoah’, was launched at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey

75 years ago (18 Aug 1938)
The Thousand Islands Bridge was officially opened; it spans the St. Lawrence River, connecting New York State, USA with Ontario, Canada

75 years ago (30 Aug 1938)
Death of Max Factor, Sr., pioneering Polish-born American make-up artist and businessman who founded the Max Factor cosmetics company

65 years ago (15 Aug 1948)
The Republic of Korea (South Korea) was formally established

65 years ago (16 Aug 1948)
Death of Babe Ruth, America’s most-celebrated baseball player

65 years ago (23 Aug 1948)
The World Council of Churches was founded

60 years ago (12 Aug 1953)
The Soviet Union tested its first thermonuclear bomb ‘Joe 4’ in Kazakhstan

50 years ago (8 Aug 1963)
The Great Train Robbery, Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, England. £2.6 million was stolen in one of the UK’s most infamous robberies; the bulk of the money was never recovered

50 years ago (22 Aug 1963)
Death of William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, British industrialist and philanthropist; founded Morris Motors Ltd, the first British car manufacturer to adopt the mass production techniques developed by Ford

50 years ago (28 Aug 1963)
Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., USA during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom – a civil rights rally attended by approximately 200,000 supporters

50 years ago (30 Aug 1963)
The hotline between the President of the USA and the leader of the Soviet Union went into operation, allowing them to communicate easily during a crisis. (It was first used in 1967 during the Egypt–Israel War)

40 years ago (6 Aug 1973)
Death of Fulgencio Batista, President/dictator of Cuba (1933-44, 1952-59)

40 years ago (11 Aug 1973)
Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc invented the genre of music now known as hip-hop at a back-to-school party in The Bronx, New York City, USA

40 years ago (14 Aug 1973)
The USA ended its bombing of Cambodia

30 years ago (3 Aug 1983)
Death of Carolyn Jones, American film and television actress, best known for playing Morticia in the TV series ‘The Addams Family’

30 years ago (5 Aug 1983)
22 members of the IRA were jailed for a total of more than 4,000 years in one of Northern Ireland’s biggest ‘supergrass’ mass trials

30 years ago (17 Aug 1983)
Death of Ira Gershwin, award-winning American lyricist, best known for the Broadway shows and memorable songs he wrote with his brother, the composer George Gershwin. He also worked with other composers

30 years ago (18 Aug 1983)
Hurricane Alicia hit the coast of Texas, USA, killing 22 people and causing more than $1 billion worth of damage

30 years ago (21 Aug 1983)
Death of Benigno Aquino, Jr., Philippines opposition leader, husband of Corazon Aquino who later became President. (Assassinated)

30 years ago (30 Aug 1983)
Guion S. Bluford, Jr. became the first African American in space, as a crew member on the U.S. space shuttle Challenger

25 years ago (2 Aug 1988)
Death of Raymond Carver, major American short story writer and poet. There was great controversy after his death regarding the drastic changes his editor had made to many of his works

25 years ago (11 Aug 1988)
The terrorist organisation al-Qaeda was founded by Osama bin Laden

25 years ago (14 Aug 1988)
Death of Enzo Ferrari, Italian racing driver, car manufacturer and designer; founder of the Ferrari sports car company and the Ferrari Grand Prix motor racing team

25 years ago (20 Aug 1988)
The Iran-Iraq War ended after nearly 8 years

20 years ago (3 Aug 1993)
Apple Computer launched the Newton MessagePad personal digital assistant (PDA) in the USA. It was not a commercial success due to its short battery life and highly criticised handwriting recognition

15 years ago (31 Aug 1998)
North Korea allegedly launched its first satellite ‘Kwangmyongsong’ and declared that it had been successfully placed in orbit. (Officials outside North Korea have never detected this satellite in orbit, and the launch is considered to have failed)

10 years ago (1 Aug 2003)
The Hutton Inquiry began in the UK to investigate the death of Dr David Kelly, a UN weapons inspector in Iraq. (At the end of the inquiry in January 2004, the BBC’s chairman and director-general both resigned)

10 years ago (2 Aug 2003)
Death of Don Estelle, British actor and singer, best known for his role as Lofty in the TV sitcom ‘It Ain’t Half Hot Mum’

10 years ago (10 Aug 2003)
The highest temperature ever recorded in the UK: 38.5^oC (101.3^oF) in Faversham, Kent

10 years ago (10 Aug 2003)
Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko became the first person to get married in space. He was aboard the International Space Station and married Ekaterina Dmitrieva via a teleconference from Texas, USA

10 years ago (16 Aug 2003)
Death of Idi Amin, President/dictator of Uganda (1971-79), noted for the brutality of his regime

10 years ago (22 Aug 2003)
Libya paid $2.7 billion compensation to the families of the 270 victims of the Lockerbie airliner bombing in 1988. ($10 million per victim)

10 years ago (30 Aug 2003)
Death of Charles Bronson, award-winning American film and television actor, best known for his tough-guy roles (‘The Magnificent Seven’, ‘The Great Escape’, ‘The Dirty Dozen’, ‘Death Wish’, and others)

– – – – – – –

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Click here for full details

What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for February

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If…?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

What if…

1. you used a pen name to hide your identity, but someone revealed who you really were?

2. someone had switched the price labels?

3. your employer thought you had become too much of a liability?

4. you were only allowed to employ people who were related to you?

5. the government didn’t know you existed?

6. you found a library book that had been due back twenty years ago?

7. you could only speak in euphemisms?

8. you were banned from appearing on television?

9. you were asked to retract your statement?

10. a serving prisoner had to do jury service due to an administrative error?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!

Entire ideas collection now available on Kindle

We are pleased and delighted to announce that our entire collection of writing ideas (all 35 volumes – 5,000+ ideas in total) is now available on Kindle. (Yes, we’ve been busy little bees!)

If you haven’t got a Kindle e-reader device you can download the free Kindle app and view them on any Windows or Apple computer, iPad, iPod Touch, iPhone and most other smartphones and tablets. You’ll find more information about this on Amazon’s website.

You can see our full range of books by clicking on either of these links for Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

The full list is:

Characters, Description & Setting, Dialogue, Plot, Structure, Theme

Fiction, Novels, Plays, Screenplays, Short Stories, Storylines

Comedy, Crime, Fantasy, Historical, Horror, Mystery & Suspense, Romance, Science Fiction, Thrillers

Editing, Getting Ideas, Getting Published, Overcoming Rejection, Self-publishing & Book Marketing, Writer’s Block, Writing

Magazine Articles, Non-fiction Books, Poetry, Teens/Young Adult, Travel Writing, Writing for Children

Erotica

If you prefer the PDF versions (which are also printable) you can get them from the ideas4writers website – and we’ve reduced the prices of some of them so they’re in line with Amazon’s pricing structure. Characters and Fiction (previously £12.99 each) are now just £7.99. Magazine Articles is reduced from £10.99 to £6.99. And Short Stories is down from £7.99 to £6.99. (Or whatever the equivalent is in your own currency.)

You can also buy the PDF versions in money-saving compilation editions, or join ideas4writers as a full lifetime member for just £49.95 and we’ll give you the whole lot.

[We’ll be back next Tuesday with February’s “What If…” ideas for you!]

50 Newsworthy Anniversaries in July 2013 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in July 2013 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is a small sample of the entries for July in  The Date-A-Base Book 2013. There are more than 340 anniversaries for this month in the book.

The Date-A-Base Book 2013 covers the whole of 2013 from January to December and gives details of more than 4,000 anniversaries.

The 2014 edition is also available.

350 years ago (8 Jul 1663)
Rhode Island was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II of England

250 years ago (17 Jul 1763)
Birth of John Jacob Astor, German-born American businessman; founded the American Fur Company and then invested the money in New York City real estate, which became the basis of the Astor family’s fortune. He was the first American multi-millionaire and the wealthiest person in the USA when he died in 1848

175 years ago (4 Jul 1838)
Iowa Territory was established

150 years ago (1-3 Jul 1863)
American Civil War – the Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania; regarded as the turning point of the war; it was also the battle with the most casualties; Union victory

150 years ago (26 Jul 1863)
Death of Sam Houston, American soldier, lawyer and politician, Governor of Tennessee (1827-29), President of the Republic of Texas (1836-38, 1841-44), Governor of Texas (1859-61)

150 years ago (30 Jul 1863)
Birth of Henry Ford, American industrialist, car manufacturer and inventor, founder of the Ford Motor Company. He revolutionised factory production by introducing assembly lines, and brought motorised transport to the masses

100 years ago (10 Jul 1913)
The highest temperature ever recorded in the USA: 134°F (56.7°C) in Death Valley, California

100 years ago (14 Jul 1913)
Birth of Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States

100 years ago (15 Jul 1913)
Birth of Hammond Innes, British novelist, known for his adventure stories

100 years ago (23 Jul 1913)
Birth of Michael Foot, British politician, leader of the Labour Party (1980-83)

100 years ago (30 Jul 1913 (or 18th?)
The Second Balkan War ended with an armistice agreement in Bucharest. (Peace treaties were signed in Bucharest and Istanbul in Aug and Sept)

80 years ago (6 Jul 1933)
The first Major League Baseball All-Star Game was played, at Comiskey Park, Chicago, Illinois, USA

80 years ago (8 Jul 1933)
Great Depression: The Public Works Administration (PWA) began operating in the USA. Its purpose was to build large-scale public projects including dams, bridges, schools, hospitals and warships, thus providing employment and stimulating the economy

80 years ago (14 Jul 1933)
Nazi Germany passed the Law for the Prevention of Genetically Diseased Offspring, also known as the Sterilisation Law

80 years ago (22 Jul 1933)
American aviator Wiley Post completed the first solo flight around the world

75 years ago (3 Jul 1938)
The world speed record for steam locomotives was broken by the ‘Mallard’ on the East Coast Main Line in England. (The record of 124.5 mph (200.4 km/h) still stands)

75 years ago (4 Jul 1938)
Death of Suzanne Lenglen, French tennis player, 6 times winner of Wimbledon, the first female tennis celebrity

75 years ago (10 Jul 1938)
American businessman, film producer and aviator Howard Hughes completed a 91-hour flight around the world, breaking the previous record by over 4 hours

75 years ago (14 Jul 1938)
Birth of Jerry Rubin, American political/social activist, writer and health food entrepreneur. (Died 1994)

75 years ago (20 Jul 1938)
Birth of Natalie Wood, American film actress (‘Rebel Without a Cause’, ‘West Side Story’, ‘Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice’, and others). (Died 1981)

75 years ago (24 Jul 1938)
The first successful ascent of the north face of the Eiger was made by a German-Austrian group

75 years ago (27 Jul 1938)
All Jewish street names in Germany were renamed

70 years ago (1 Jul 1943)
Tokyo City and Tokyo Prefecture in Japan were merged to form Tokyo (officially called Tokyo Metropolis)

70 years ago (25 Jul 1943)
Italian dictator Benito Mussolini was forced out of office

65 years ago (1 Jul 1948)
New York International Airport (also known as Idlewild Airport) was officially opened. (Renamed John F. Kennedy International Airport in 1963)

65 years ago (5 Jul 1948)
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) began operating

65 years ago (15 Jul 1948)
The British branch of Alcoholics Anonymous was founded in London

60 years ago (26 Jul 1953)
The Cuban Revolution began when Fidel Castro led an armed attack on the Moncada military barracks in Santiago de Cuba. (Ended January 1959 when dictator Fulgencio Batista was finally ousted)

60 years ago (27 Jul 1953)
The Korean War ended

50 years ago (1 Jul 1963)
ZIP codes were introduced in the USA

50 years ago (1 Jul 1963)
The British government revealed that intelligence officer Kim Philby was a long-term Soviet spy, and was the ‘third man’ in the Cambridge spy ring. On 30th July the Soviet Union announced that they had granted him political asylum and Soviet citizenship

50 years ago (19 Jul 1963)
NASA test pilot Joe Walker became the first civilian in space when he flew an experimental X-15 rocket-powered plane to a record height of 66 miles (106 km). (In a subsequent flight in August he became the first person, civilian or otherwise, to fly into space on two separate occasions)

40 years ago (2 Jul 1973)
Death of Betty Grable, popular American film actress, dancer, singer and WWII pin-up whose image frequently adorned bomber planes

40 years ago (10 Jul 1973)
The Bahamas gained independence from the UK, having been a British Crown Colony since 1718

40 years ago (10 Jul 1973)
John Paul Getty III, the 16-year-old grandson of the American oil tycoon J. Paul Getty, was kidnapped in Rome, Italy. (In November the kidnappers cut off one of his ears and sent it to a newspaper. He was released in December after a ransom was paid)

40 years ago (20 Jul 1973)
Death of Bruce Lee, American-born film actor, known for his martial arts movies including ‘Enter the Dragon’ and ‘Fist of Fury’

40 years ago (21 Jul 1973)
The Lillehammer affair, Norway: Israeli Mossad agents killed a Moroccan waiter after mistaking him for the leader of the militant Black September organisation, which kidnapped and killed Israeli participants at the 1972 Olympics in Munich

30 years ago (21 Jul 1983)
The world’s lowest temperature was recorded, at Vostok Station, Antarctica: -89.2°C (-128.6°F)

30 years ago (26 Jul 1983)
In a highly publicised test case, British mother Victoria Gillick lost her bid to prevent doctors from prescribing contraceptives to under-16s without their parents’ consent

25 years ago (6 Jul 1988)
An explosion and fire on the North Sea oil rig ‘Piper Alpha’ killed 167 people. It was the world’s worst offshore oil disaster

25 years ago (6 Jul 1988)
Camelford water pollution incident, Cornwall, England. A relief driver accidentally poured 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate into the wrong tank at a water treatment works. The tank held treated water that was being piped to local homes. Residents reported short-term and long-term health issues, and some deaths are being investigated

25 years ago (7 Jul 1988)
Death of Jimmy Edwards, British radio and television comedy actor and scriptwriter; known for his trademark handlebar moustache

25 years ago (18 Jul 1988)
Death of Nico, influential German model, singer and actress, known for her association with The Velvet Underground and Andy Warhol

25 years ago (28 Jul 1988)
Paddy Ashdown was elected as the first leader of the Social and Liberal Democrat Party (now the Liberal Democrats) in the UK

15 years ago (31 Jul 1998)
The British Government announced a total ban on its use of land mines

10 years ago (4 Jul 2003)
Death of Barry White, Grammy Award-winning American r&b / soul / funk / disco singer, songwriter and record producer, known for his distinctive bass voice and romantic songs including ‘Can’t Get Enough of Your Love, Babe’ and ‘You’re the First, the Last, My Everything’

10 years ago (17 Jul 2003)
Death of Dr. David Kelly, British scientist and biological weapons expert, United Nations weapons inspector. (Committed suicide after it was revealed he had an unauthorised discussion with a BBC journalist regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; his death was investigated by the Hutton Enquiry)

10 years ago (22 Jul 2003)
U.S. forces killed former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s sons Uday and Qusay during an intense 4-hour gun battle in Mosul, Iraq

10 years ago (27 Jul 2003)
Death of Bob Hope, multi-award-winning British-born American comedian, comic actor, entertainer and humanitarian; a huge success on the stage, radio, television and in films; also highly regarded for his work entertaining American troops overseas

10 years ago (30 Jul 2003)
Death of Sam Phillips, American record producer who founded Sun Records and discovered Elvis Presley

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013 and 2014  (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive writing software, and more
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

The Date-A-Base Book 2014 now available

We are pleased to announce that The Date-A-Base Book 2014 is now on sale on our website: www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2014

This edition gives details of more than 2,650 newsworthy anniversaries in 2014 that you can write about (and make money from). It includes events, discoveries, inventions, plus significant births and death from the UK, USA and worldwide.

We would like to give you the entire chapter for January 2014 (227 entries) free of charge – click here to download it. If you like what you see, The Date-A-Base Book 2014 covers the entire year, January to December 2014.

(ideas4writers lifetime members: this book is available for you to download from the members’ home page at www.ideas4writers.co.uk – it is included in your membership – you don’t need to pay. You will need to log in. If you aren’t a lifetime member yet, find out more about it here.)

If you don’t need to work a whole year ahead, you might prefer The Date-A-Base 2013. It’s available from www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2013. Again, we have a free chapter for you to download – all the entries for January 2013 – click here to download it.

 

 

If you’d prefer to see a whole book before making a decision, The Date-A-Base Book 2012 is completely free – download your copy here. (Please feel free to share it with your friends and colleagues!)

What If . . . ? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for January

Happy New Year!

We have some really exciting things to tell you about – but you’ll have to wait until next week’s blog. And look out for The Date-A-Base Book 2014 which will be released within the next 24 hours!

Meanwhile, here’s this month’s selection of “What If . . . ?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

What if . . .

1. your patience was tested to the limit?

2. your friend was homophobic?

3. you fell in love with someone who was dead?

4. you decided to get someone fired?

5. you invented a new magic trick?

6. you developed a new sense?

7. you forgot someone’s birthday?

8. you didn’t have all the necessary paperwork?

9. you impersonated someone?

10. things could only get better?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!

50 Historic Anniversaries in June 2013 for you to write about (and make money from!)

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries in June 2013 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time for research and writing.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

This list is a small sample of the entries for June in  The Date-A-Base Book 2013. There are more than 350 anniversaries for this month in the book.

The Date-A-Base Book 2013 covers the whole of 2013 from January to December, and gives details of more than 4,000 anniversaries.

The 2014 edition will be available from the end of December.

400 years ago (29 Jun 1613)
The original Globe Theatre in London, built and owned by Shakespeare’s company of players, was destroyed by fire. (Rebuilt June 1614)

250 years ago (23 Jun 1763)
Birth of Joséphine de Beauharnais, first wife of Napoleon, first Empress of France

175 years ago (28 Jun 1838)
Coronation of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom

150 years ago (7 Jun 1863)
Death of Franz Gruber, Austrian teacher, organist and composer; best known for composing the Christmas carol ‘Silent Night’

150 years ago (9 Jun 1863)
American Civil War – the Battle of Brandy Station, Virginia, also known as the Battle of Fleetwood Hill; the largest cavalry battle of the war

150 years ago (11 Jun – 26 Jul 1863)
American Civil War – Morgan’s Raid. The Confederate cavalry, led by John Hunt Morgan, carried out a 46-day raid through Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and West Virginia, but were continually thwarted; Union victory

150 years ago (20 Jun 1863)
West Virginia became the 35th state of the USA

150 years ago (20 Jun 1863)
The National Bank of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania became the first U.S. bank to receive a national charter. (Note: it was not the first national bank to open for business; the First National Bank of Davenport, Iowa opened on 29th June 1863)

125 years ago (3 Jun 1888)
Ernest Thayer’s famous baseball poem ‘Casey at the Bat’ was first published, in ‘The San Francisco Examiner’

100 years ago (1 Jun 1913)
Birth of Bill Deedes, Baron Deedes, British politician, journalist and newspaper editor (The Daily Telegraph); the only person to have edited a national newspaper and held a seat in the British Cabinet

100 years ago (2 Jun 1913)
Birth of Barbara Pym, British novelist

100 years ago (2 Jun 1913)
Death of Alfred Austin, British poet and journalist, Poet Laureate (1896-1913)

100 years ago (4 Jun 1913)
British suffragette Emily Davison stepped onto the race track during the Epsom Derby and was knocked to the ground by the King’s horse, Anmer. She died from her injuries on 8th June

100 years ago (7 Jun 1913)
American mountaineer Walter Harper became the first person to reach the summit of Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America. He was a member of a party led by Hudson Stuck and Harry Karstens

100 years ago (9 Jun 1913)
Birth of Patrick Steptoe, British obstetrician and gynaecologist; a pioneer of fertility treatment, developed human in vitro fertilization (IVF) which led to the world’s first test-tube baby

100 years ago (11 Jun 1913)
Birth of Vince Lombardi, American football coach. The Super Bowl trophy (the Vince Lombardi Trophy) is named in his honour

100 years ago (19 Jun 1913)
South Africa passed the Natives Land Act (also known as the Black Land Act), establishing reserves for blacks and forbidding the transfer of land between races. This was the first piece of major legislation in the establishment of segregation, and was a key part of Apartheid

100 years ago (23 Jun 1913)
Birth of William P. Rogers, U.S. Secretary of State (1969-73)

100 years ago (25 Jun 1913)
Birth of Cyril Fletcher, British comedian, known for his Odd Odes

100 years ago (26 Jun 1913)
Birth of Sir Maurice Wilkes, British computer science pioneer; helped build the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), and invented microprogramming

80 years ago (5 Jun 1933)
Great Depression: the USA went off the gold standard

80 years ago (6 Jun 1933)
The first drive-in movie theatre opened, in Camden, New Jersey, USA

75 years ago (1 Jun 1938)
The first issue of ‘Action Comics’ was published in the USA, and featured the first appearance of Superman. (Note: this issue actually went on sale in April 1938; the cover date is ‘June 1938’)

75 years ago (25 Jun 1938)
Douglas Hyde became the first President of Ireland

75 years ago (25 Jun 1938)
The minimum wage law went into effect in the USA. Employees were guaranteed wages of at least 25 cents per hour

65 years ago (24 Jun 1948)
The Soviet Union began a blockade of Berlin, cutting off all routes between West Germany and West Berlin. The Allies launched a massive airlift to take in supplies

60 years ago (2 Jun 1953)
Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Abbey, London

60 years ago (18 Jun 1953)
Egypt became a republic and the monarchy was abolished. General Muhammad Naguib became the first president

60 years ago (19 Jun 1953)
Death of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, American spies, convicted of passing atomic bomb secrets to the Soviet Union; the first U.S. civilians to be sentenced to death for espionage, and the only married couple to be executed together in the USA

50 years ago (3 Jun 1963)
Death of Pope John XXIII. (Beatified September 2000) Succeeded by Pope Paul VI on 21st

50 years ago (5 Jun 1963)
British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, resigned after it was revealed he had lied to the House of Commons about his affair with Christine Keeler

50 years ago (7 Jun 1963)
The Rolling Stones released their first single, a cover version of Chuck Berry’s song ‘Come On’

50 years ago (8 Jun 1963)
The American Heart Association launched its first campaign against smoking tobacco – the first U.S. agency to campaign against smoking

50 years ago (12 Jun 1963)
The film ‘Cleopatra’ was released in the USA. (UK: 31st July.) It starred Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison

50 years ago (16 Jun 1963)
Soviet cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space and the first civilian in space

50 years ago (26 Jun 1963)
U.S. President John F. Kennedy visited West Berlin, West Germany, and made his famous declaration ‘Ich bin ein Berliner’ (I am a Berliner) to demonstrate the USA’s support

40 years ago (19 Jun 1973)
Richard O’Brien’s comedy-horror musical ‘The Rocky Horror Show’ opened in London

30 years ago (13 Jun 1983)
Pioneer 10 became the first spacecraft to leave the solar system

30 years ago (18 Jun 1983)
Sally Ride became the first American woman in space as she began a six-day mission on the space shuttle Challenger

25 years ago (1 Jun 1988)
U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty at the Moscow superpower summit

25 years ago (8 Jun 1988)
Death of Russell Harty, British television presenter and chat show host

25 years ago (10 Jun 1988)
Death of Louis L’Amour, award-winning American novelist, best known for his many Westerns

25 years ago (25 Jun 1988)
Death of Mildred Gillars, (‘Axis Sally’), American broadcaster who spread Nazi propaganda to U.S. troops stationed in Europe during WWII. She was convicted of treason in 1949

20 years ago (23 Jun 1993)
Lorena Bobbitt of Virginia, USA cut off her husband John’s penis with a kitchen knife after he sexually assaulted her. She then drove off and threw the severed penis out of her car window. (It was successfully reattached)

20 years ago (25 Jun 1993)
Kim Campbell became Canada’s first woman Prime Minister

15 years ago (1 Jun 1998)
The European Central Bank was established in Frankfurt, Germany

10 years ago (10 Jun 2003)
NASA launched the ‘Spirit’ robotic rover, the first of two rovers in the Mars Exploration Rover mission. (Its twin ‘Opportunity’ was launched in July. Both rovers far outlasted their planned mission durations and provided substantial scientific data. Spirit ceased operating in 2010)

10 years ago (12 Jun 2003)
Death of Gregory Peck, Academy Award-winning American stage and film actor (‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, ‘Days of Glory’, ‘The Keys of the Kingdom’, ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’ and many others)

10 years ago (23 Jun 2003)
The online virtual world ‘Second Life’ was launched by Linden Labs

10 years ago (29 Jun 2003)
Death of Katharine Hepburn, Academy Award-winning American film, stage and television actress (‘The Philadelphia Story’, ‘The African Queen’, ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, ‘On Golden Pond’ and more)

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2013 and 2014  (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive writing software, and more
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

Bath Short Story Award

Here’s a new short story competition you might be interested in:

The Bath Short Story Award – a new international short story competition.

First prize £500.
Entry fee: £5 per story.
Maximum length: 2,200 words.
Theme: any.
Age limit: over 18.
Closing date: 30th March 2013.
Full details at: www.bathshortstoryaward.co.uk

Don’t forget our book How to Win Short Story Competitions!

What If…? 10 Creative Writing Prompts for December

Here’s this month’s selection of “What If . . . ?” creative writing prompts to inspire you – let’s see what you can do with these!

What if . . .

1. you weren’t happy that you had won?

2. something that had been extremely valuable was now practically worthless?

3. you were never satisfied?

4. several people could be married to the same person at the same time?

5. you had much more to offer, but they didn’t want it?

6. they liked you a little too much?

7. you couldn’t even give it away?

8. you were cursed by a witch?

9. you were too good at your job?

10. you were much wealthier than people thought you were?

– – – – – – –

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers for just £49.95 (or the equivalent in your local currency) and you’ll receive The Date-A-Base Books for 2012, 2013, 2014 (plus all future editions) as well as The Fastest Way to Write Your Book, The Fastest Way to Get Ideas, our complete 5,000+ collection of writing ideas, unlimited use of our forums and exclusive online writing software (writing engines), and more
(total value: over £150!)
Click here for full details

ideas4writers: inspiring you since 2002!

Guest post: Geoff Nelder on the story behind ARIA

You may remember that I collaborated with Geoff Nelder to write How to Win Short Story Competitions, which was published as an ebook (PDF and Kindle) earlier this year. In this guest blog post, Geoff tells us the story behind another of his projects, ARIA (a science fiction trilogy), from initial conception and research right through to publication and marketing. So, over to you, Geoff.

ARIA
Behind the story
by its author, Geoff Nelder

Conception and birth

Most people ride a bicycle up a hill to get over the top or to experience the adrenaline rush and buzz of reaching the summit, anticipating the easy downhill rush to come. A cyclist who is also a writer might have a more esoteric reason: the change in blood-oxygen to the brain sometimes generates ideas. You can blame the long hill from Llangollen up to Horseshoe Pass (North Wales) for the dreadful, and yet intriguing, concept of infectious amnesia.

At the top of the pass is the Ponderosa Café. I asked for an Earl Grey tea, a toasted teacake and writing paper. By the time my pencil became blunt the amnesia was not only infectious, no one was immune, and it was retrograde.

I’d decided on the infected losing a year’s worth of memory each week backwards from the present. Not quite Alzheimer’s Syndrome, which can be random loss, although short term memory disruption is common. Someone with my brand of infectious amnesia would lose four years of memory per month – devastating for children – consider an eight-year-old girl. She would be struggling with writing after a month, can’t read after five weeks, find intelligible speech break up after six weeks, and forget everything after two months. She’d not know her family, or what foods to eat. She would have to survive on instinct, which brings me to an interesting issue. Can we live on instinct alone? Probably not. You might think other animals do, but they use memory to learn from parents on such matters as food and danger. You will know that life is more complicated than that. Pure retrograde amnesia doesn’t happen in non-fiction life; like so many things it is all approximate. Memory loss is usually patchy, however, many amnesiac patients who are bilingual find themselves talking in their first-learned language even if they’d not used it since childhood.

In many cases, amnesiacs can use information learned during the day but forget it while asleep.

Medical checks

I’ve checked with medical journals, and I talked to a couple of professors of neuroscience: there’s no medical condition in which amnesia can spread from one person to another. There is no such thing as infectious amnesia. Thank goodness! Imagine the ramifications if it existed. People will forget how to do their new job skills, where they live, who they married. Within months, industry, including energy, food and water will grind to a halt. No medicines will be made. How long would diabetics last? All these medical aspects needed research and it took six months before I knew enough to start the writing. I knew I’d reached that stage when I began forgetting more than I was learning.

It’s been done before?

Although it is not necessary for stories to have an original premise, it would be a blast if I could use infectious amnesia (IA) as a Unique Selling Point. To do that I had to find out if IA had been used in a published story, TV or big screen film. I searched a science fiction database, pestered some experienced SF writers and asked SF nerds with eidetic memories. Between them all they came up with an episode of Star Trek in which mass amnesia was used, but it wasn’t infectious. Memento is a SF film based on a short story by Czech writer, Radec John (1986) in which the protagonist has anteretrograde amnesia, but gleans clues, which he has to write down when he awakes. This tactic is used by many amnesiacs and is used in ARIA.

Plot variations

Once the notion of infectious amnesia was settled as a unique concept worthy of a story, how should that story be told? It seemed to me there were only two possibilities:

1) a disease originating on Earth

2) a disease originating from Space

The first could result from a human error, or deliberate evil ploy. Think of gene manipulation, stem cell experiments, or chemical warfare.

The second could result from a type of Carrington Event, where a solar flare creates problems not only for electronic gadgets, but with a potential to mutate organics on Earth, possibly leading to new viruses, changes in DNA, etc.

As a SF fan I wanted something stranger. I like aliens that are very unhuman in the way they think, behave, communicate and reveal themselves. In some ways it doesn’t matter what aliens look like. When you see deep sea creatures, or look closely at ants, slugs and spiders you just can’t make up stranger animals.

It appealed to me to have aliens plant a case containing Alien Retrograde Infectious Amnesia (ARIA) on the International Space Station (ISS) then sneak away without anyone seeing them. In the whole of volume one of ARIA the reader doesn’t meet an alien. Like the characters in the book, you are left wondering why the aliens planted the case. Was it to wipe out Mankind in order to populate Earth themselves, an attempt to help humans that went wrong, or a reason so alien we’ll never understand it?

My choice of plot with the case on the ISS and its opening on Earth has worried me. Have I missed a better plot? Neil Marr at BeWrite Books told me not to worry. After all, ARIA is just one story and I could write many others using infectious amnesia. It helped, but shouldn’t the first outing of the concept be the best one?

I am mindful but not constrained by Anthony Burgess’s credo that ‘in an art novel… the human beings are more important than the action and in (popular novels) it is the other way around.’ (Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English since 1939 compiled by Anthony Burgess, pub 1984). In ARIA I’d say the action is secondary to the main characters through whom the action occurs, but I realise it is the concept of infectious amnesia that will be remembered more. In particular, I hope readers will ponder over the deeper issues raised, such as what is so important to Mankind, and individuals, that real effort must be made to preserve them.

Worries over plagiarism

In the 1980s I wrote a novel in which a palaeontologist found amber containing Jurassic-age seeds. He was able to grow the seeds, which with a mutation, grew a kind of bindweed that couldn’t be killed. I sent the novel to a publisher, who after many months wrote me a nice rejection letter. It had passed a couple of editorial stages and their in-house readers were impressed. When Jurassic Park was published in 1990 and I discovered its author was one of their readers I became suspicious. Story ideas cannot be copyrighted, and Jurassic Park used animals. If Michael Crichton (RIP) had read my novel, I should be honoured that he’d taken the germ of my idea and developed it into a more far-reaching story. However, it worried me that if I sent ARIA to publishers and agents the concept would be plagiarised. I even mentioned my concerns to one publisher, who expressed outrage at me!

Besides agents and publishers, ARIA did the rounds at the BSFA (British Science Fiction Association) critique groups – you just have to trust people!

Experts

I needed technical advice on various plot scenes. A pilot helped by reading through a chapter in which the new Boeing Dreamliner was flown with the crew and passengers suffering ARIA. An Italian speaker, Bec Zugor (a fellow ideas4writers member), helped me with colloquiums spoken by Dr. Antonio Menzies. Friends on an online scrabble site helped with inside information on Winnipeg and Americanisms. I became my own expert geographer on the ‘hidden’ valley of Anafon in North Wales, making many hiking and camping trips there. A historian friend came with me to explore its ‘Roman Road’ and relics. I used the Anafon valley for half the book as an isolated refuge by the uninfected.

I needed to know the material used in the struts of the space station. I didn’t want them to be magnetic. There are many lightweight materials such as titanium but to be sure I emailed a NASA engineer, Leroy Chaio, whose email I’d found by trawling their website pages. He replied that the struts were aluminium and very thin, which was worrying because micrometeorites would go right through them. It was of extra concern because HE WAS ON BOARD at the time! I don’t know of any other novelist who had help with his writing from orbit.

Agents and Publishers

I’d sent ARIA to the three main British agents specializing in science fiction. They all liked the unique premise but one summed up the others by saying he ‘liked the novel but didn’t love it enough’. I found this phrase echoing down through the mainstream publishers too. Sadly, what they really meant was that they won’t take on an unknown author unless they were certain of a runaway success. Luckily, I knew of LL-Publications from writing reviews of their authors. I liked the way LL took on unknown writers who had an unusual project. For example Pit-Stop by Ben Larken, in which a group of patrons in a roadside café realise they are all dead and in limbo, waiting for the reaper to take them away: they plan their escape… Superb mix of philosophy, tension, humour and compelling writing.

LL-Publications sent me a contract then sent the novel to a professional proof-reader in America. She sent me her worked document with MS Word review comments and after a little to-ing and fro-ing we agreed on the final document in March 2012. ARIA: Left Luggage was published on August 1st 2012.

Art

LL-Publications have their own in-house artist but I liked the art of Andy Bigwood, who was breaking into the book cover art business. I met him at a couple of SF conventions, where he’d won awards, and we discussed ARIA. He came up with the idea of the case reflecting in the visor of an astronaut.

 

 

 

Marketing

Aspiring authors often despair when agents and publishers request that along with their query letter, synopsis and sample chapters, a marketing plan is submitted. Long gone are the days when all that was necessary was to write a damn fine novel. For example ARIA is aimed at adults who enjoy medical dramas, survival adventures, and science fiction (there are a few naughty bits, and some upsetting scenes that might scare children). I maintain a website, a blog, and indulge in social media networking such as Facebook and Twitter. I’m prepared to do readings, signings and attend SF conventions in the UK.

The publishers will match your marketing plan to what they want. For example, do they see a niche in their market for your book, or have they just signed up a series exactly like it?

I’ve done interviews and have others lined up as part of this promo-marketing plan in action, and arranged for a video trailer to be made, which you can view at http://youtu.be/oh0AAXIe8VU

Is it finished?

ARIA: Left Luggage can be read as a stand-alone, but the whole story is a trilogy. Volume two has been written, critiqued and proofread and is to be released in March 2013. Volume three is nearly complete.

Endorsements

Mike Resnick, Robert J. Sawyer, Jon C. Grimwood, Brad Lineweaver and Charles Stross says ARIA is a fascinating idea, and makes us think of what is the most important things we need to remember in our lives.

Purchase ARIA: Left luggage as an e-book or print from the usual online links or direct from the publisher at www.ll-publications.com/leftluggage.html