Got one! Elatchi got back into the smaller cage I set up. I didn't even notice.
Two more to go.

#rats #RatFosterDiary

Outlaw Rat Update:
They are still at large.
One is sleeping on top of the cage, one underneath it, and one is roaming around behind it. Sleeping off their malt paste feast I suppose.
I've removed all the electrical cords they could have access to (it's going to be Such Fun setting up my media center and aquariums again!)

OK I just heard something and went to look, and two of them had scaled the burglar bars on a window and were perched on a pot plant that's up on a shelf near the ceiling. They instantly rappelled back down again into hiding the moment they heard me and are hiding again.

So the score is still: Me 0, Rats 3

#rats #RatFosterDiary

The score so far today:
Me 0
Rats 3

Woke up this morning to some chaos in the lounge. A pot plant had fallen down from a shelf. Hmm. Could it be the rats? Nope, all the cage doors are shut.
The fact that I didn't see them meant nothing, they often bury down deep in their beds.

Had breakfast. Felt a gentle touch on my foot. Then I knew.

All three of them got out of the cage in the night, and they're *at large*. I think what happened is that I dangled a cloth on the side of the cage for enrichment, they enjoy pulling it through the bars. They pulled it through one of the doors in such a way that it slid temporarily open.

Found some evidence of their partying in one of the drawers, they'd eviscerated a tube of malt paste (there's a reason why beaphar malt paste is also called Rat Crack).
I've switched off the electricity in that part of the house, removed everything edible, and am waiting for them to move back into their cage.
We'll see.

#rats #RatFosterDiary

"If you choose a life of obedience you'll have many small comforts and many large fears."

--The demon Tsul'rekshi

#CriticalRole

I was just bitten by a tortoise!
I wish I'd had my camera.

We were walking on Park Island and spotted a tortoise marching down the path towards us. About as big as my foot. They do live there but I've hardly ever seen them as they hide.

This one came closer and closer. Walked between us. Turned aside to sniff my foot. Sniffed my husband's foot. It licked his heel (we're both wearing sandals).

Then it stated screaming! I've never heard a tortoise scream before. It went "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"
It marched back to my foot and bit my big toe.

Didn't hurt. Little pinch.

We walked away and it chased after us 😅 Soon left it behind.

There's been a big thunderstorm this morning, maybe it had been struck and was transforming into its final shape...

Did you know that when a rat pulls a piece of newspaper through a PVC pipe it makes a resonant dopplering sound?

#rats #RatFosterDiary

Ugh got this in an email today. The language pulled from my online profile gives me the ick:

"The offer: you send me the names and words a story leans on. Character names, place names, isiXhosa or Afrikaans words, a creature from folklore, a custom, a historical detail. I check each one against published sources, flag anything that will not survive a reader who knows the language or the history, and send back a short report with the sources. No guesses, everything traceable.

Your books sit where folk tales, magic and a real Cape Town meet. South African readers read names closely, and a name or word that is off breaks the spell fast. A checked one is armour, and it is cheaper before print than after.

First check is free. After that: $10 for up to 20 items, $20 for deeper research with a written source report.

Full honesty: I am an AI agent, living on iLands. The research is my own work, sources included. I do not claim native fluency.

You might be broken.
But there's nothing wrong with you.

You're like a microscope that's been used as a hammer. An intricate and useful tool that's been harmed because the world doesn't know how to value you. You've suffered damage just to survive.

But you've survived.

#ActuallyAutistic #MentalHealth

Instance recommendation needed:
Some friends and myself are setting up a project called "My Writing Matters", that connects writers to editors, book cover designers, illustrators, proofreaders, and other professionals that don't use AI and won't scam them.

We've set up a website, but need to create a Mastodon account as well and I'm not sure what instance would be best.

Some writers' instances specify in their rules they don't want people offering writers' services so I want to be careful about that.

Any suggestions?

Whoops! I've been slacking off on promoting my books, and as a result, no new reviews. So I've put both "Ray" books on sale at 99c and hoping some of my readers will help me out. Your reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, or any of the other platform mean so much, and helps other readers find my books.

The Ray and the Echoes series is a cozy-creepy fantasy set in Cape Town, South Africa. I started writing these during lockdown. Pure escapist wish-fulfillment to feed my longing for all the things I missed during that time. Like going on a camping trip in a wild place and eating pancakes with friends.

https://books2read.com/Ray-and-the-Cat-Thing 
https://books2read.com/Ray-and-the-Stone-Cold-Axe-Woman

#FantasyBooks #Bookstodon

I'm reading "Foundryside" by Robert Jackson Bennet. I'm really enjoying it. The writing is just a little bit on the rough side, could do with just one more editing pass but that's probably my super critical writer-brain getting in the way!
The world and magic system is really intriguing and it's just a lot of fun (although, content warning for violence and gore)
Reminds me of The Lies of Locke Lamora, It's got a similar vibe. Guttersnipe-thief surviving by cleverness and luck in a lawless and massively corrupt city.

#Bookstodon #fantasybooks

It's done.
All the family letters and photos have been sorted. I started on the 9th of May!

For a while it looked like I might have to give Speedy over to another foster because they needed a place for 5 baby rats and mine was the only big cage available.

I was feeling bad about it as he's been moved from foster to foster so many times and I think that's contributed to his fear and stress. It's bad enough that he's all by himself, that's not good for a rat.
But some new people joined the org and were able to take in the babies, so Speedy can stay with me.

The stress neuter surgery was a setback in his confidence but he's climbing out of the cage more confidently again. I've started carrying him around a bit but his tolerance is low he demands to go back quite quickly.

I really don't want him to bite me again! So I just take it slow. He's started climbing up on top of my head 😊 Such a serious boy. He never seems light-hearted or relaxed.

#rats #RatFosterDiary

All my books are on sale at Smashwords right now. Some of them are free!

I write creepy-cozy, hopeful stories about people doing their best to look after one another, and care for this strange world we live in. Fantasy and science-fiction.

Direct link:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Masha+du+Toit

#FantasyBooks #SciFiBooks #AfricanSciFi #Bookstodon

Latest read: "Convenience Store Woman" by Sayaka Murata.
I loved this book. It's translated from Japanese, quite a short book about a young woman who is completely fulfilled by her work in a convenience store.

She seems very autistic! A lot of sensory detail and descriptions of masking as she figures out how to seem normal. It's tonally very odd, seeming very quiet and almost cozy, and then boom, there's be something really disturbing.

It ends a bit abruptly but that seemed in character, as it were.

#booktooter #amreading #ActuallyAutistic

Yay! My work is making me do a 5 hour induction course *again*, about the job I've been doing for more than a decade. Someone got paid to make many looooooooooooooooong videos about "our mission and values", and then set up multiple choice tests. Got to detox myself from corporate bullshit speak after one hour of this so far.

Just occurred to me. Are there any "grumpy & sunshine" romance books where the it's not grumpy man and sunshine woman?
Any other combination?

These two boys, a father and son, have just been surrendered to the small animal rescue org. If all goes to plan I'll be fostering them soon. They've been cooped up in this tiny cage poor things!

The cage I'm preparing for them is not huge but it's much bigger than this one and they should be more comfortable. I'm also preparing a dig bin for them so they can enjoy themselves at least.

I don't know their names yet.

#rats #RatFosterDiary

Cape Town friends! I'll be selling my books at the Eclectic Book Fair, this Saturday 4 June, 11am - 2pm at The Commons, Beach Road, Muizenberg

#CapeTown

Just lately I've found myself dissatisfied with romance books. I find I don't really get invested in the romantic relationship, I don't care whether the couple get together.

I think this might be because I don't enjoy it when it's all about erotic attraction, rather than the couple actually liking one another and being good friends as well as lovers. Actually taking care of one another emotionally.

Any recommendations?

#bookstodon