AustLit

'Nicole politely offered me a swig. Her friends were as handsome as I imagined.

'Afterwards, she quivered beside me outside until my bus arrived. Our breath danced in front of us in the dark, in the cold – just trying to keep up.

'‘You’ll be fine. We’re in Denmark!’ she laughed, waving goodbye as I staggered up the burnished stairs of the empty bus. No WiFi, no SIM card; just a fleeting woman in a pair of laced-up dress shoes, gazing out a window at not much at all. Female, tan, early twenties, slender-build. Travelling alone in a time zone eight hours behind her mother’s. Last seen in a vacant bus after midnight, somewhere just north of Copenhagen.' (Introduction)

'KYD Writers’ Workshop and Extraordinary Routines bring you a monthly column delving into the routines, writing habits, rituals, challenges and triumphs of a diversity of Australian writers. In this edition, philosopher and author Damon Young shares a typical day and his thoughts on the precarious nature of writing for work, the benefits of discipline, and attending writers festivals as an introvert.'  (Introduction)

'A former rollerblading obsessive reflects on a youth spent skating in the Far North in the 1990s, and on what the sport’s dramatic decline has meant for the former professionals who once loomed so large in his imagination.'