In my last post, I mentioned inspiration. To that end, I noted there were a few people that inspired me to write Matriarch. One of them was a burlesque performer who went by the stage name of Eyrie Twilight. Many years ago, a coworker of mine had asked me if I had ever been to a live burlesque show. I had not. His soon-to-be wife was a performer at the time. He invited me attend one of the shows with him one night - to experience it firsthand. He assumed, correctly, that I would enjoy it. I did.
That show was a mix of various performance types - perhaps closer to being a vaudeville show than pure burlesque.
Eyrie was one of the performers. She was young. I would estimate 24 - 25 years of age. She also left an indelible mark on me.
Some people do that, right. You don't have to know them. You cannot explain why. There is just something about that person and that moment that becomes engrained in your memory.
I'm fairly OCD when it comes to attempting to understand why someone has left an impression upon me. And, so, that memory rattled around in my head for years.
Yes, I have attended many other shows since. I have even had, on a couple more occasions, the opportunity to see her perform again.
Nothing satisfied that inability to really answer why she stuck out.
Things like that needle me, like the proverbial itch that cannot be scratched.
So, I took the opportunity to approach her at one point and convince her to allow me to interview her, as it were.
See, I had an idea that had been forming - the beginnings of a story. As the idea unfolded, expanded, and took on a life of its own, I knew that burlesque would play a large part in it. Once I came to that decision, I knew there was absolutely one person I had to speak with before I began writing.
Eyrie graciously accepted my request.
It's one thing to 'know' something from watching it - or experiencing it in attendance. It's another thing entirely to hear about the life lived as a performer.
I drank in every word she said like empty pages craving ink.
From the experience she had, a world was born in my imagination.
I relate this to another experience I had that never left me. I read a book once that spoke of Unfinished Business. That is, the act of crossing paths with someone and said experience, no matter how brief and minute in the scheme of things, leaves at least one of the participants altered. They carry with them a moment they can never forget.
Eyrie is an Unfinished Business for me. That crossing of paths and the resulting alteration in my life led to one of the three tales in my new book.
That tale, deeply rooted in the work of burlesque? The Hive.
Coming soon.