Latex depersonalization vs. punk rock

It seems that somebody's had the temerity to turn Neil Gaiman's award-winning short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" into a film. Judging by the trailer, the film is going to be a very loose adaptation of the story; but it's directed by John Cameron Mitchell of Hedwig and the Angry Inch fame, so that gives me hope. If anyone can make a premise like this work, it's him. Plus we've got the adorable/slightly kinky Elle Fanning on board, as well as Nicole Kidman cosplaying an opposite-sex David Bowie from Labyrinth. Her character certainly wasn't in the short story, but the girl with the doubled middle finger was. Make of that what you will. Anyway, here's the latex-slick movie trailer, and here is the original (very funny) short story, which you can read online for free.

A little diversion to tide you over

I've been busy and happy working on my next story, "Beware of Damsels in Distress,"  although it's taking time to rebuild my writing muscles. Fortunately, one thing that helps is all the reading I've been doing. Seeing some other writer carry out a great idea gives me more ideas of my own. I have several in mind right now, but I'm forcing myself to stay put on "Damsels" so that I can get it out to you as quickly as possible. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first draft and will share some of it with you as soon as I think the time is right.

Meanwhile, I've been thinking of other things to blog about. Yesterday I planned to post on an upcoming movie that looks to be very latex-heavy, but I'm decided to save that one for a few days because I've just now found something even kinkier. The Lovecraft eZine is a wonderful source of short stories by modern-day Lovecraft fans, most of them really first-rate authors. And I've just finished a tantalizingly MC-tinged horror story that I can't help but share with you all.

I don't want to give too much away, but the story starts as an instruction manual for budding ventriloquists, then veers into the mirror-staring hypnosis we all love before finally revealing the truth of who controls whom (The controller is never named, but since it's clearly supernatural and this is an eZine dedicated to Lovecraft, my bet is on Nyarlathotep. It would be just his style.).

I should warn you that the final chapter is pretty gory, but if you can handle a few paragraphs of the red stuff, you'll have a nasty good time with The Secret of Ventriloquism.