A Small Town for Its Size — David Collins

Stifled by their upbringing in small-town Texas, Chaz and Kat yearn for escape, for a chance to explore other ways of thinking, being, dreaming. Sadly, their trajectories carry them to separate states and entirely different career paths. When they reunite ten years later in the tidepools of Houston's underground, there's not enough space in Space City to rebuild their abandoned relationship. But there's no harm in trying -- or is there? Follow the wandering thoughts of sleepy, introspective engineer Chaz, and the wry insights of insatiable, insomniac performance artist Kat as they pry at the strands of love's Gordian Knot. Sail the turbulent waters of the Houston art scene. Sop up the cultural gumbo of the Texas Gulf Coast. Straddle the meridians of desire and necessity, art and science, male and female, urban and pastoral, freedom and responsibility, classical wisdom and new pragmatism -- always in conflict, always seeking reconciliation.