Greetings. Yesterday I returned to my home in Los Angeles for the first time after two and a half months abroad. I explored everywhere from St. Ives to Salem, from Washington state to Washington DC, from San Francisco to Edinburgh, and many parts in between. During that period, I slept on no fewer than 23 different beds/couches/floors. That's a lot of bedbugs. I drank Bath (UK) water; consumed several H&H bagels; went to the second smallest post office in the United States; enjoyed the lovely WaterFire in Providence, RI and endured the horrible "World in Miniature" in Goonhavern, Cornwall; ate oatmeal inside the U.S. Supreme Court; learned that it is a bad idea to ride Air India and to take the train to Scotland instead of flying; and visited the extraordinary Fonthill.
In short, I had a fabulous time. Although I do look forward to forging ahead with Claustrophobia, in truth my return to LA has been somewhat depressing - mainly because, shortly after my arrival, I was informed that I have to cough up some hefty cash to pay for reputed "damages" to the house where Claustrophobia was filmed. Also, my landlord wants to remodel his house, and it may be so drastic that I'll have to vacate my little guest house in back. Which would suck, as I've been here for nearly eight years and I love the place. I wish I could just go on traveling, where my biggest worry is wondering how much to tip the waiter.
Be that as it may, I'm eager to complete Claustrophobia, and because it looks like it indeed will be much shorter than I planned, I have decided to write a prologue and an epilogue in order to stretch it out to feature length. We'll be shooting those scenes - without the principal cast - in mid-November. Editing should recommence shortly as well.