“I started just knowing that the main character was going to work at NASA, where I imagined her on Gchat at her work computer,” says author, artist and poet Tao Lin of the cake-headed protagonist in today’s deadpan short story The Vegan Muffin, adapted into a darkly comical vignette by Australian director Edward Housden. “For a while I was writing a lot of little stories with animals as the main character—there was a manatee, an ant, a shark—and it seemed a lot more fun. This is the only food-based one. And the only story set at NASA.” Recognized for his unconventional prose style that reflects the immediacy of the internet generation with refreshing transparency, Lin’s semi-autobiographical third novel Taipei was published by Random House last year, and his Muumuu House press has put out work by vanguard American writers Sheila Heti, Ben Lerner and Megan Boyle. In Housden’s film, Lin’s surreal day-in-the-life is transposed to London, complete with a Gary Card-designed muffin head and narration by vegan model and actress, Tallulah Harlech. “The original story was published in 2009, and I haven’t written any like this in years,” says Lin. “I have about 10 on a Google Doc that I work on from time to time. I find them very satisfying.”