The story behind The Patron and the Artist

Just shy of two years ago, I decided that I would see if I could increase my audience by submitting a story to an open call. I found an interesting brief, that said that it was looking for stories based around a burlesque theatre called 'Theatre De La Nuit' run by Madame Morte. Mysteriously, the proprietor could be mentioned, but absolutely must not appear in the stories.

I'd had a few ideas, visual scenes really, with of a boy falling through a fragile roof, being impaled upon the broken debris and pinned to the floor. I could imagine his phone ringing, vibrating, just out of reach on the floor.

Out of the darkness a pale hand would appear, tentatively touching the source of the noise, then smashing it against a wall. Luminous eyes would appear and a ghost like child would sit, just out of the shaft of moonlight spilling through the broken roof.

Two lost souls, one dead, the other dying, comforting each other. It was a powerful scene, I may come back to that later, in another story.

I've always been a huge fan of Alice Cooper, and having this idea, which was burning to get out onto the paper, and needing to at some point to link into a theatre. Maximillian was born, a rake like figure, with the mannerisms of 'The Showman' from Alice Cooper's Last Temptation, and an inextricable link to Steven. (If you haven't seen Neil Gaiman's adaptation of the album into graphic novel - do so, it's amazing.) Steven appears in a few of Alice's songs, so it seemed honourable to name the main character after him.

Not knowing anything about burlesque theatres, I imagined that the reason Max could be taking Steven there, was to meet up with someone. A set painter, a man who could paint exceptionally life like paintings. There's all sorts of things in there, revenge, abuse, defiance, and some very interesting characters.

So that was the start of how The Patron and the Artist took shape.

Once complete, I submitted it, was shocked when it was accepted, but the book it was to be included it was never completed. Other than a few chasing emails, I've heard nothing, so don't have much hope of it surfacing - it has been two years after all. I do know that the site changed ownership, and some of the people involved are exceptionally busy, so figured that the anthology this story was to be included in had stalled, maybe indefinitely.

It's a shame as I was really looking forward to seeing what other writers had done with the brief.

There is some good news, you can read my submission in ebook form here . Or in paperback in my short story collection, Dark of the Night.

Best wishes

JW