My mate Elliot

And a shout out to the people keeping me on my toes over at Naylor’s Canberra. My “no-prize” this week goes to Dan at quantum meruit (chuckle if you’re a lawyer) for pointing out I had spontaneously re-named Libby Morris as Libby Hughes. I have a nasty habit of changing the names of "off stage" characters inconsistently. My writers’ group in Balmain pulled me up several times in the early chapters for changing the Carmichael family surname, and having Marina’s brother’s name shift to and fro between Stephen and Daniel. Until a character actually scores some dialogue, I often have trouble keeping a name in line.

I also agree recent instalments may feel rushed-to-the-page. Happy to receive any substantive comments people have on fixing that.

However, the reward for the faithful is coming, the next three weeks will be the conclusion of Chapter 6 – hopefully much more polished material, and the beginning of a markedly different phase of the novel.

And there may well be sex. (Now if that isn’t a teaser … )