THE CANDY MAN

The Candy Man (working title, will most certainly change) is a WIP mature audience coming-of-age work in its early stages based distantly off of personal experience. A survivor’s tale of sorts, a character named Nic recounts her late teenage years in a difficult-to-define relationship with an unnamed rockstar simply referred to as "The Candy Man”, who is only ever pictured with his eyes obscured or lurking in the shadows. Looking at the banality of grooming, the whys and hows of abuse, and the ensuing, unexpected cautionary tale of chasing fame to the grave, it’s also Nic’s confessional on personal mistakes made, the issue of memory, flaws, reactive abuse, shameful thoughts, and the learning process of young adulthood. It is as much of a study of the self as it is the other. It skirts the line of fictional and non-fictional, though some events likely resemble real life occurrences, they are intended to evoke the emotional and sociological impacts of grooming, societal enablement and the cult of celebrity rather than memoir-style whole truths.

The Candy Man, as a work, is not interested in taking prisoners when it comes to the cruelty of grooming, lasting trauma and realities of celebrity. As of its current iterations, it is graphic. It also takes interest in uncovering what makes people tick, and will exhibit empathy for certain aspects of an abuser, which may not be something every reader wants to see. Annie is usually geeked on a good ol’ revenge tale, and has done a lot of these works (The Sprawl and the accompanying work thri11s33k3r), but this work is intended to dig through human psyche rather than socially ostracize or physically punish a “villain.” By the time its done, it won’t be for everyone. Think about it in a Hunter S. Thompson way. No way can Annie write like him, but it is fictional with truths scattered in. You just won’t know what and where.

In current discussions, preliminary art, and script iterations that you may see blips of online during the process, CWs include: derealization, emotional and sexual trauma, psychological horror, alcohol and drug use (heroin, cocaine, cannabis, LSD, prescription drugs), sexual content, abusive and derogatory language, misogyny, grooming of a freshly of-age teenager, bodily fluids (blood, semen, vomit), suicide and suicidal ideation, depression, psychosis, hospital/medical content, trauma-bonding (in this context, between both victim and abuser), self-harm, and nightmare/dream sequences of violence.

For clarity’s sake: there are NO depictions of minors in any situation other than social explorations of childhood. Not even as background characters. Fuck that noise.

For now, you can watch Annie work on the more tame aspects on Instagram. Process on this is being kept private for a myriad of reasons but if you’re interested you can DM and request Close Friends story access from Annie on Instagram.

Big BIG Disclaimer: This is a creative work mildly based off of long-term memory. Memory fades. Some things stick with you for a very long time and some things just don’t. Anything that could possibly shift the few truths still within the story through poor memory has been excluded. Privacy is critical to this practice. Significant artistic liberties have been taken. Anything that could narrowly and potentially paint any other living person in a poor light have been removed. Essentially, almost everything within is purely coincidental to real life, other than a few occasional real truths, and a couple of people who offered their likenesses for the fun of it all.