Suggestive

Writers and artists often speak of the creative chain, where one idea, element, image, or something similar will spark a sort of developing sequence in the brain. In simpler terms, sometimes a picture or sentence will cause a reaction in the creative brain, something like an old Polaroid developing all at once.

This picture did that for me when I spotted it on the fantastic blog The Slab. A story began germinating in my head about a shy bloke from a cold city in the winter -- the pale one in the picture -- who takes a business trip to a more exotic, warmer, sun-drenched city where he's seduced before he knows what's happening by a cool, tanned, self-assured stud with a mysterious past.

Rather than audit the company he was supposed to be visiting and helpless with his sudden new infatuation, the shy lad allows himself to be wooed and deflowered whilst lounging around the confident stud's house and pool. His new amour suddenly disappears one morning and, although the home office is cluttering up his cell with increasingly panicked messages, the shy bloke sets off in search of the man who stole his heart. Will he find he's been duped and used as a patsy in a complex criminal scheme or that his one true love really is in danger? And what will the shy lad tell his wife back home?

It's Death in Venice meets Thelma and Louise meets The Usual Suspects. If only we could pitch gay projects at the studios with a hope that they would buy them. Will that day ever come?