What did you learn at work today, Rolanni?

[rolanni]

I learned about the ecology of salt marshes and that there are two kinds of phragmites -- one which is native to Maine and lives in peaceful harmony with the salt hay, cord grass and other marsh vegetation; and one which is an invader from the Middle East and is extremely bad juju.

I learned about floodgates and their relationship to high tide. 

I learned (thanks to kinzel's research librarian genuis) what a floodgate looks like and how the particular sort of floodgate needed in the story can go terribly, terribly wrong.

I learned that some people can't even do a simple job without screwing it up bad and wasting the lives of innocents.

OK, I knew that one already.

Comments

salt marsh

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

What exactly is a salt marsh?

Is it normal for them to form a sort of crust over the water strong enough to hold approximately 30 pounds before breaking? Or is that something else?

Re: salt marsh

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

A salt marsh is a marshy area connected to salt water, consisting of mud exposed below high tide and various types of grasses, sedges, and such. That crust you describe sounds more like a peat bog or a highly mineralized spring.

Re: salt marsh

[kimuro.livejournal.com]

It's moot anyway. They filled it in and built a housing development over it. Best place to get sassafrass when I was a kid - not to mention crabs and fishes.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. Working on fitting a flood gate into The Book Without A Name...

Anything to do with that rock?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hey, the book has a name. Not much of a name, granted, and it may change, stipulating a Brain Storm(tm) on the part of the author, but for now -- Carousel Tides

...and yeah. Everything's about the Rock.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Of course it has a name _now_, but that's the New! Improved! Vastly Different! book rather than the one we poked at months ago.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Vastly Different -- yup. New! and Improved!? We have yet to see.

Assuming that Plumbing Adventures and other Episodes of Real Life will knock it off, already and give me about sixteen more-or-less quite hours to finish the Author's Revisions, so I can begin begging for Beta Readers and go rest my brain...