losing the fantasy duel

Well, to no one's surprise, I'm losing the fantasy duel to my prolific husband, whose work-in-progress The Night Girl has topped 40,000 words. But don't count Plain Kate out. Current word count: 39,450*. Of which these are -- well, nowhere close to the best ones written today, but some of the few that don't give anything away.

Taggle was leaning out from the prow like a figurehead, his whiskers quivering close to the water. Kate glanced: catfish stirred in the willow roots, slowly working their pale mouths. Taggle was staring at them, almost cross-eyed with desire.

“I’m going to lie down,” she told him.

“Fish, fisssssh,” he answered.

There was really no point, she decided for the thousandth time, in a talking cat.