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Note: LJ is not doing the forwarding comments by email thing, and hasn't been since yesterday morning. I'm not deliberately ignoring anyone. :-( ETA: Yes, now that I've realised that there is a distinct shortage of emails and taken a look, it's the gmail filter at fault. I will need to trawl through and "not spam" mark them all. I'm still not deliberately ignoring anyone... (And another edit to add that I've found a couple of stray spam-binned comments from the weekend. But it doesn't go back any further than that, as far as I can see.)

Update on yesterday's posts:

Smut: a total of 3100 words yesterday. Smut has not yet happened, but the POV character has finally realised that it is going to. Or that it would were he not currently both seasick and concussed. If he's a good boy and I'm a good writer he will have had sex by the time I've finished this week's word quota. A couple of hundred words so far today.

Slimy little bastards: Not only did the garden centre have a fresh supply of "Yellow Pear" tomato plants, they had cocoa shell mulch. It's the first time I've seen it here, and I am much relieved to see it. Cocoa shell is one of the few things I've found that is reasonably effective against snails and slugs. It's like deterring any other burglar -- it works on the principle of encouraging them to look for easier pickings. If it's something they're determined to get, they'll get it, but it keeps them off most things. Or at least it keeps British snails off most things; I have no idea yet how effective it will be on the local slimy monsters.

What I do know is that grey squirrels, at least the British invaders, like cocoa shell. They like it very much indeed. They *frolic* in it. Since there is already a squirrel issue with little furry bastards preferring to bury nuts in nice soft potting compost rather than nasty hard dry clay soil, this could prove interesting.

Also bought three salad leaf basil plants and a Siam Queen Thai basil. These are to slimies what sweets are to children, and there is a copper-taped pot waiting for them. Since basil counts as "good enough to cross copper tape for", the pot will then be going on top of the barbecue or indoors at night until the plants are bigger. I also failed to resist temptation, and bought yet another tomato plant in spite of already having enough to fill all stock of tomato-capable pots. This one's "Cherokee Purple", a heritage variety I grew last year and quite liked. Plus a "Red Pear", just in case the second "yellow Pear" gets munched as well -- the red variety is a much more robust plant and thus a far less tempting snack.

9000 words and counting

Only 1350 words today, because I needed to stop and think about how to handle the last section I wrote last night. It's a tricky balancing act, because the POV character and the pair of doms he's just met are talking at cross-purposes, and they are coming on to him in what they see as a pushy but not outrageous manner, because they think he knows who they are. Only they're wrong, and from his perspective they're threatening him. So I need to write this so that it is obvious to the *reader* that it is just a misunderstanding, while staying in POV. predatrix and I spent a couple of hours this afternoon discussing how I can handle this, and basically tweaking the existing stuff so that it works better. I may need another test reader in a couple of days to see whether the tweaks have worked. That's taken the total word count so far to 9000 words, so this is looking like at least novella length when it's finished.