M: A to Z Blogging Challenge

For my 2016 A to Z Challenge, I’m sharing three facts for each letter. The genres I write and love to read are mostly science fiction and high or epic fantasy. In fantasy, there is often magic associated with crystals or metals. They also used herbs both for medicine and for magical spells. Each day I will post a short description of an herb or a mineral you might find in medieval or fantasy writings. For the record, most of the herbal remedies I’ve investigated are not recommended by the FDA. Many are actually poisonous and dangerous. As tribute to my second love, I will post a scientific fact that may deal with physics, biology or health science. And because another name for a writer is wordsmith, each day I’ll share a strange word that I would probably never use in my writing, but that amuse me in some way. So enjoy my trio of quick facts. And don’t forget to visit the IWSG site where we’ll share a writer’s resource for every day of the challenge.

Mome: Stupid, doltish person, a blockhead, a fool.

Madder is an herb used to make red dye for cloth.

Mohs Scale is a scientific scale to rank mineral hardness. It goes from the hardest of 10, diamond, to 1, talc, the softest. Human fingernails have a hardness of 2.5 and window glass is 6.5.

What ranking of hardness do you think a mome's head is? Have you heard of madder being used as a natural dye? Have you ever tested a diamond on glass?

"A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer." Bruce Lee