Right - it's slow-going today but I now have just 970 words to go to fulfil the contractual wordage (and just as well, as my hands are burning...)
Half the problem has been the research: for every thousand words I write, I need to read something like another four to five thousand to make sure I get the facts as accurately as I can, and triple check my sources, given the paucity of information available. Ever tried speed-reading Cassius Dio's Roman History in translation? (Well, OK, only selected books, the ones that deal with the invasions of Britain, but all the same...) Selected parts of Ammianus Marcellinus work of the same name? Ditto of Julius Caesar's Gallic Wars? (That brought back memories of Latin O Level classes...) I'm not actually complaining - once I got used to the idea and the style settled down I've quite enjoyed it - but it all takes time, and that's the one thing of which I simply never have enough.
Brief break, then back to it... When I've finished, I can read the remaining three Earthian manga that arrived this morning!