I thought the last entry was a little skimpy, so I decided to answer a question which might be asked someday, which is where the chapter titles in U-town came from.

Some are obviously literal ("The Funeral," "starling"), but most are not. So, here is the scoop on this question.

arrival -- the title of the first episode of the classic television show "The Prisoner"

a world so alive -- a quote from the lyrics of the Television song "Venus"

the mystery dance -- an Elvis Costello song, from his first album

prove it (just the facts) -- another Television song

pre-war housing -- a sign I saw on a building once, which made me think that it should have been more specific about which war it was referring to

in the chapter starling, most of the episode titles are episodes of "The Prisoner" ("Once Upon a Time," "The Girl Who Was Death," "Arrival," "Living in Harmony"), or references to "The Prisoner" ("In the Village," "Information"). "At the Edge of the City" is a song I wrote a long time ago

live through this -- the album by the band Hole (my favorite album of the 1990s)

curse the darkness -- a song I co-wrote once ("A Change of Mind" is another Prisoner episode)

like crazy paving -- the chapter title which works on the most different levels, since it's from a song called "Rattlesnakes," about a girl needing a gun these days (for the rattlesnakes), and it contains the line, "Her heart's like crazy paving, inside out and back to front," which refers both to starling's state of mind and heart, and to the actual state of the pavement in U-town and the tremendous significance this has for her. The song is by Lloyd Cole And The Commotions, but I know it from Tori Amos' cover on "Strange Little Girls"

the forces at work -- a song by the band The Feelies

a short rest -- the chapter in The Hobbit where they rest at Rivendell

the dream, now -- a line from The Time of Your Life

unleashing the demon -- from the comic book Cerebus ("Everything done for the first time unleashes a demon")

on separate stars -- a quote from the Patti Smith song "We Three"

In the new novel:

Always Crashing in the Same Car -- a song by David Bowie on the album "Low" (I think I will do something called "Sound and Vision" at some point, too)

The U-town Murder Case -- a reference to the Philo Vance mystery novels, where the title was always "The xxxxxx Murder Case," with "xxxxxx" always having six letters (Greene, Bishop, Canary). I cheat with the hyphen, of course

next time: the names of places and people