northie

Cardboard boxes lay scattered throughout the house – full, empty, and every state in between. Emily Standish sighed. It represented progress of sorts. Progress which would have to accelerate in pace and scope if they were going to be ready for the movers. She surveyed what could be seen of the ground floor from the foot of the stairs. The boxes resembled Brobdingnagian demerara sugar cubes tossed away without thought and left to lie where they landed. She climbed the stairs in search of Tom

My story, Spudhunter!, is now loaded. It wasn't quite clear whether you wanted the links here or not. This is mine:

There'll be no chapter this week. Sorry. Life (mostly in the form of a writing course) has got in the way of me preparing this week's chapter. Things will resume (hopefully without interruption) thereafter.

I imagine it has for a number of readers. Inclusive, non-judgemental sex and relationship education is essential. The shame is that people have missed out on so much due to ignorance, discrimination, and a lack of empathy.

Thank you. As I said elsewhere, if I were to write the first volume again, more of Eric's backstory would be already out there. This came out as a kind of infodump - relevant but still pretty dense.

👀 Thank you! ☺️ I also find stories without shade or a little darkness ultimately unsatisfying. This is a perfect way of putting it. Yes. to be aware of what you've missed, what you can't have is painful.

It wasn't that easy to write either.

I imagine it could do for a lot of people. That level of ignorance and shame (exemplified perfectly in Channel 4's It's A Sin) scarcely seems possible now. Is that good? Hell, yes.

An excellent way to put it. Yes, Eric's life has been colourless, flat, boring - everything a good garden shouldn't be. How much change is possible? We'll have to see.

For me, I came from a family that thought it was both. Or at least, that's what I think in hindsight. I can't imagine Eric's experience was unusual. At a small town school in the 1970s, there was no sex ed, never mind relationship advice.

Yes. Of course, if I'd constructed a proper backstory for him in the first volume, you would've got some (if not most) of it then. 🤨😄

Eric marvelled at the difference four months had made to Andy's garden. Though why he should be so surprised was a puzzle. He knew the seasons as well as the next gardener. A filled plastic salad bowl in one hand, he paused on the patio and looked around. August's latter half was rarely a good time to view gardens. Many plants had lost their flowers and as for trees, their freshness was a distant memory. He spotted a couple of repeat-flowering roses, cream and yellow, further down and what

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😄 This really made me smile. It's great my writing has drawn you in so far, Def. 👍

Good - cos that's what I've done. Think I'd probably be rolling an infinite number of times otherwise. 👀😄