Strange Flesh

I thought I had only the denouement and a flashback left to write, but a quick survey shows that chunks of various sizes are missing from a majority of chapters. (I'd forgotten to write chapter 17 altogether!)

To qualify as a Draft Zero - which is what I'm aiming for - I can leave scenes somewhat incomplete, as long as I know what's going to fill in the gaps. Gaaaah. Should I put in the extra work and go for a First Draft? Or am I going to end up changing stuff so much, when I come back to the ms in six months or so, that it'd be a waste of effort? Or am I just sick of the sight of the thing? Or will it taunt me from the drawer if I don't finish it properly??

ETA: OK, triaged it. 8 out of 22 chapters are still at Draft -1. :)

Finishing this book is going to cost a fortune in visits to cafes.

(I have reading glasses now! A godsend for long stints at the laptop.)

Weekly Refugee Update

Still no word on the fate of the 200+ Tamil refugees who arrived by boat this week. Next week Immigration Minister Scott Morrison will visit Sri Lanka to attend the commissioning of the patrol boats Australia has given to that country to stop refugees escaping combat people smuggling. In the meantime, some Tamil asylum seekers in Australia, facing refoulement, are soaking themselves in petrol and setting themselves alight.

Thwarted yet again by the High Court when it comes to temporary visas, Morrison has now announced a new method of processing applications for a permanent visa in which he will personally assess each one according to the "national interest"- and reject it. You guessed it - that will mean another High Court challenge.

The Australian Human Rights Commission's inquiry into children in detention will force detention centre workers to give evidence, allowing whistleblowers to circumvent confidentiality agreements. The International Health and Medical Service's substandard provision of children's medical services will be investigated as part of the inquiry.

The government continues to pressure asylum seekers to "voluntarily" return home rather than processing their applications, although the promised bribes will not be paid until the returnees produce receipts.

(Personally, I'm surprised how much effort is being put into getting rid of asylum seekers who are already on Australian soil - surely the vote-winning slogan was "stop the boats"? I suppose the Minister is anticipating the time when the Pacific Solution collapses and he has to find some other way of keeping all those troublesome darkies reffos asylum seekers out.)

The government is spending $4.3 million a year on its team of spin doctors (additional to the Immigration Department's spin budget of $8 million a year). Given a recent interview with the Immigration Minister, which columnist Annabel Crabb compares not to Kafka but to Monty Python, they're not earning their money. (But part of their job is monitoring social media, which means these blog postings are not in vain. Hi, guys.)