Can someone help explain this oscillator to me? (EL wire power supply)

Disclaimer: Given the general cheapness of this circuit, I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't just really poorly designed.

http://i.imgur.com/oqIA6.png

Here's the circuit. The D1616 is an NPN transistor with an unconventional pinout.

This is the supply for an EL wire kit. L1 and L2 make up the primary winding of a center-tap step up transformer. The secondary winding is not shown, but it supplies 100VAC or so at 3-ish kHz to the EL wire strand it's attached to.

I tried running this thing in LTSpice, but the program seems to be a little too touchy when it comes to getting oscillators to start/keep oscillating.

To start oscillation, V2 is pulled low. Here's what I think is happening:

1. Q1 turns on and current starts to rush down L1.

2. The back-EMF of L1 pushes current up L2 through C1 and eventually down to Q1 again turning it on harder.

3. I'm really not sure what happens here. My guess is that L1 reaches steady state causing L2 to lose its back EMF, but I don't see how this will eventually turn off Q1.

Oscillators have always been a weak point for me and regardless of whether or not this circuit is the "right way" to achieve the results needed, it does actually work, and I'd like to understand how.

Thanks for your help!