Multi-mediaphile Bary Yourgrau's latest book of stories is "The Sadness of Sex" (Dell/Delta Books). A performer as well as a writer, Yourgrau stars in the forthcoming film version--"The Sadness of Sex", the movie--directed by Rupert Wainwright. Yourgrau and his fictions have appeared on "MTV Unplugged", Comedy Central, National Public Radio, and at clubs and performance spaces nationwide. He has written for "Spin", "Travel & Leisure", "The New York Times Book Review", "Self", "Buzz", "Artforum" and "Sonic Net". Recent anthologies include "Sudden Fiction (cont'd)" (Norton) and "The Literary Insomniac" (Doubleday, due in October).

As a sometime actor, Yourgrau has starred in a heavy-metal video (Anthrax's "Black Lodge", 1993), and fought hand-to-hand with action star Lorenzo Lamas in this spring's HBO futuristic thriller, "Terminal Justice".

The story here, "Carpet", is from a work-in-progress, "Haunted Traveler".