from "Bugchaser" to "Conversion Party"

Today I submitted the manuscript for “Conversion Party” to Pulpwood Press for publication.  The work is a screenplay I began ten years ago in a Lynn Wallace class.  It has undergone so many changes over the years, but its core has remained pure: a grown man in the drug game trying to catch and spread HIV for erotic thrill.  It is a horror story rooted in counter culture, and the characters are all based on people I grew up with.  

When I was entering my twenties, the reckless actions of my teenage years haunted me.  When you are young, there are no consequences.  You just plow ahead, pushing every button hoping the damned thing doesn’t blow up in your face.  If it does, you are left with misadventure and a story.  “Conversion Party” was the summit of all my fears. 

My first HIV test was insane—these were the days when results took two weeks, and I was left biting my nails, dreading the call. When the third week began creeping in, I pulled out the flimsy business card they’d given me and faced destiny.  I was outside the office at Beach Package, waiting for them to answer, and when they did, they told me if I didn’t get a call, then I was probably OK.  I told them probably nothing, look at my results and tell me whether or not I had the bug.  I was fine, but the fear of the experience still lingers to this day.   

I read a Gregory Freeman article in Rolling Stone called “Bug Chasers: The men who long to be HIV+", and it struck a nerve.  I needed a subject for the Lynn Wallace screenplay class I was taking, and it seemed fresh enough.  I combined my own journey into substance abuse and reckless sex and combined it with the sensibilities of a horror film.  I called the story “Bugchaser”, and for many years I circulated it underground, showing it to close friends and feeling out reactions.  The response was interesting.  Many understood what I was driving at with the story.  Others were appalled at the lurid subject matter, shocking language, and honest approach to my misfit generation.  Often people cringe when I mention the topic, but I am not afraid of it.  Writing is about capturing the human experience and presenting stories in a way to make people think.  I heard Crispin Glover speak about art, film, and lit in Atlanta earlier this year, and he said that if the audience can’t question what the artist was doing or isn’t challenged by the film, book, art, than it has no real power.  I hope my story makes people think.

Over the years I have edited pieces of this tale out.  The original ending was a little far fetched, and there was some forced foreshadowing that was me playing with one of my favorite characters, Hugo.  Although the scene is now cut from the final manuscript, Hugo is still in the story, although he has been reduced to a much smaller part.  as far as the original ending, it was so deeply based in urban legend it devalued the credibility of the rest of the work.  I altered it to fit reality and the main character, and I think this “darling murder” makes for a stronger story.

Last November I began beating the hell out of “Bugchaser”, making the language as slick and natural as possible.  I knew it was time to man up and release the story, so I made it as tight as possible while still keeping in the squidspeak that makes the language pop.  One day Conrad and I will release a squidspeak dictionary, but until then, the lingo is coming out in savvy slang the characters jive to each other.  

On Christmas, I sat down and wrote out a fitting intro, and it was a gift for my facebook readers I tucked in my notes.  The essay touches on my attitudes on horror in lit and film, and how it has changed over the years as well as how “Bugchaser” fits into a genre I adore with all my soul.

On the eve of this spring break, as I was editing the intro, I discovered there was a film with the same name.  I was shocked, but I guess it was inevitable.  As I mentioned, I come from a misfit generation, and someone else stepping into this (real) world horror was going to happen.  This, however, did not hurt my feelings.  I’ve spent a decade on the story, and I think we are doing two different things with the subject.  Close friends advised I alter the name to “Anthony Buoni’s Bugchaser” or something John Carpenter-ish. I did not exactly like it, but I realized the need for a change.  

I thought hard as college kids from all over the country and world flooded Panama City Beach with two things on their minds: getting drunk and getting laid.  They were the starfighters I was writing about, the kids forgetting about the future and living in the now.  I work in a night club, the largest in the country, and living in an endless party, a land of night eternal, I knew I needed a name that was pertinent to both the story and that time of life when you change, albeit for better or worse.

“Conversion Party” has two meanings.  It is slang for the parties the bugchasers attend in order to contract disease as well as that passing from adolescence to adulthood, the moment in life you step up and take responsibility for your good deeds and carnage.  

As the book becomes closer to reality, I will post more about the process.  I may also put up some of those deleted scenes I mentioned.  There is a reason they were cut, but they exist.  Maybe they will grant some insight to the process of writing, editing, and pickikng and choosing your battles in writing world.

One last thing: happy birthday, Adelle.  She pushed me to finish this project, and realizing it has been amazing.  Submitting it on the celebration of your birth is nod to you.

Till the next, ciao, cats.