I dreamed quite vividly and memorably of renting the room above the Rhallunn ice cream parlor, next to the drugstore.  It surprised me as much in waking as asleep–I had not realized that Rhallunn could have any wholesome corner in it, downright stimulating with the presence of so many up-and-coming artists.  That dream taught me something important about the liminal nature of creativity.  It also taught me not to write off Mission Beach after all, nor what a loved one sought there.

I invented the confrontation between Malcolm and Marduk because it had to happen.  Things like Marduk’s trauma happen in the waking world, in countries locked in a downward spiral of oppression provoking rebellion, provoking more oppression, provoking more rebellion, until both sides erode their humanity away, each believing that the other side does worse, each thinking that only escalating cruelty will put an end to the whole awful cycle.