Shortly after I came back from Ireland and my five-week European excursion, I holed up in Saint Peters Village, Pennsylvania, with my strategically unemployed friend Robert Mauger, and cranked out this screenplay in three weeks. Bob and I worked together in a record store from 1986 to 1988, and we've wanted to write about the experience ever since. The Birth of Something Nasty is the eventual result.

The Birth of Something Nasty tells the story of a little record store in a mall that's badly run, can't compete with the bigger store down the mall, and is on the verge of closing. The characters in the screenplay (the store employees and the people who hang out in the mall) are all going through life changes that either impact or are affected by the failure of the store. One character is pregnant, another breaks off a major relationship, and another young character has sex for the first time. A mall security guard pursues a thief and accidentally wounds an innocent bystander. The store manager has a painful parasitic infestation, and gives birth to insects. By the time the store is finally closed, each character has been transformed in some way, and is able to leave the store behind and get on with their lives.