"Diary" takes the form of a "coma diary" kept by one Misty Wilmot as her husband lies senseless in hospital after a suicide attempt. Once, she was an art student dreaming of creativity and freedom; now, after marrying Peter at art school and being brought back to once quaint, now tourist-overrun Waytansea Island, she`s been reduced to the condition of a resort hotel maid. Peter, it turns out, has been hiding rooms in house he`s refurbished and scrawling vile messages all over the walls - an old habit of builders but gone nuts on his part. Angry homeowners are sueing left and right, and Misty`s dreams of artistic greatness are in ashes. But then, as if possessed by the spirit of Maura Kinkaid, a fabled Waytansea artist of the nineteenth century, Misty begins painting again, compulsively. The canvases are taken away by her mother-in-law and her doctor, who seem to have a plan for Misty - and for all those annoying