I need to let Q Without A U settle a bit before editing. I’m working now on a new short story. I want to step out of any of the modes I usually work in and write about different types of people. I’m thinking the retro hipster type…

…at least a draft of it–is finished.

Death above the Great Barrier Reef.

I’m very near the end now. A quick tour of Sydney, an encounter with a deranged street person, a quick death, and a final shot of the three survivors standing at the railing looking out…

I’m working now on the very brief tour of the Sydney Opera House. I’ve been there but I was all of thirteen years old. To my mind, you can’t ever just say “Then they toured the opera house.” You have to have some salient point, some aspect that someone who’s been there would remember. There’s a number of settings in this book–Chicago, Brussels, Las Vegas, Nova Scotia, French Polynesia, Sydney–and I want each one to ring true for people who’ve actually been there.

I haven’t written since Thursday and I feel it. I’m just not built for a gap that long. Every part of me feels off when I go too long without writing.