Arugula. Okay, in the UK, we call it rocket, so maybe I’m cheating slightly, but I recently found out an interesting fact about this unassuming salad leaf. My current work-in-progress has a scene that includes rocket, and as someone observed, who would get turned on by salad? Good question. I didn’t have a good answer at the time, but days later, I did. It turns out that rocket is an aphrodisiac – which does start with A – and has been documented as such for almost two thousand years. I didn’t know that, either. All I can say is, I’ll never look at a plate of salad the same way…

I’m a member of a few online writers’ groups, and one of them currently has a discussion going on around the value of blogging for fiction authors. It’s an interesting read. You may have noticed that my posts are few and far between. There’s a reason for that – I’m a naturally quiet person. All you’d need to do is ask anyone at the day job. They also say the quiet ones are the worst, but we won’t go there! Anyway, I’ve been cogitating – from the Latin cogitare, to think – and maybe it’s time I peeked out at the big, wide world a little more often. Starting next…