Excerpt from Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

"You fucking asshole," she scolds, putting her phones away. "It is televised. It's a big deal. People don't just accidentally get nominated for an Oscar."

"Best Live Action Short Film. There's no dialogue and it stars a mouse."

"It's a big deal," she counters sternly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Thank you," I finally relent, accepting her words of appreciation. I glance around the park. "Is that why it's so crazy today? Nominee announcements?"

Tara laughs, then nods her head toward the soundstage looming to my right. "You could say that."

I follow my friend's gesture, gazing up at a colossal display emblazoned across the building. I was so focused on getting in and out of the backlot that I didn't even take a moment to look up. Now that I have, I'm overwhelmed by the presence of an enormous mural.

The entire side of this soundstage has been covered by an image of superstar actor Chris Oak. He's sitting at a glass table and looking exhausted, the lighting orange and dramatic as it shows off his notoriously expressive face. The guy is breathtakingly handsome, his brown hair slicked back but disheveled. He's wearing a white suit, a ghost of the 1980s woven through its tailoring. A hint of brilliant red is splattered across the stark cuff of Chris's wrist.

Workers perched on hanging scaffolding are carefully pasting this image into place, rolling it onto the wall piece by piece. Still, there's more than enough here to deliver the text.

Huge block letters stretch across the top: THE YEAR WAS 1986. THE CITY WAS MIAMI. THE MAN WAS LEGENDARY. CHRIS OAK IS ENZO BASILE IN … BROKEN DON.

Excerpted from Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle. Copyright © 2024 by Chuck Tingle. Excerpted by permission of Tor Nightfire. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.