People who are curious about my debut novel often ask, "What led you to write a book seeing as you're a performer?" (It's usually followed by "Did you write it yourself?" The answer is yes, thanks.) Writing a novel was actually an obvious step to take. On stage, I create escapist fantasy, little concentrated droplets of otherworldly dreams in which femme fatales covered in diamonds drape themselves on giant six-foot telephones, or parade with pony girls in three-foot-tall feathers under a rain of glitter to the deafening strings of Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet. A novel was simply a way to create even bigger fantasy worlds with more impossible scenes than I can create on stage. In my protagonist Tiger Starr's world, Bengal tigers rear up beside her as 20-foot fountains dance in the background to the music. Meanwhile, a shadowy figure is shoving death threats under her dressing room door.
As a child, I was mesmerised by silent movies of the 20s and 30s. What I loved was how the absence of dialogue allowed the viewer to project their own fantasies upon the characters. To this end, I never speak on stage; my dialogue with my audience is entirely visual, except for the odd sigh or yelp. So I fancied finding a voice through my novel. I wasn't after a serious literary tome yet; I chose to write a "bonkbuster" because I loved the tongue-in-cheekiness of it, since that camp element is always present in my stage shows. I love the genre's cartoonish heroes and villains, the pace, the Dynasty-esque glamour: private jets, sex, scandal, intrigue, catfights, dangerous liaisons. I had no shortage of inspiration.
In between shows, I sketched out two novels. I wanted the second to be a follow up to Tease – I am calling it Strip (of course). I filled those hours when I was on a plane or settled in my dressing room after a sound check. I suppose I let my working surroundings seep on to the page. I got to know my characters and created eccentric, dramatic little life stories for each of them. I let the hubbub of the real lifestyle lay its roots in the story. Yet when it came to the bulk of the text, I decamped to my house in south-west France. I envisaged my readers enjoying the novel on holiday, under the sun, or in a candle-lit bath with a glass of champagne – so I wanted to put myself there instead of in my dressing room. I also wanted to avoid real people making it into the fiction. Writing a novel was a bit like living in a parallel world; each morning I would look forward to what my characters were going to do that day.
On stage, what the audience sees is the tip of a very large iceberg. One 10-minute act can take around a year to create, from concept to research, with the designing and commissioning of props and costume, the music scores, choreography and rehearsing before it is ready to unveil. My costumiers alone hail from London, Paris, Vegas and New York. And then there is a production team to get the show on. Yet when I wrote my novel, my fantasy world unfolded right there on my laptop in front of me with just the tap of my bright red talons on the keyboard. I could decide whether or not I felt like killing off my villain yet – and then change my mind the next day. I could sit in my room and make my crazy worlds appear instantly in words.
There were no frantic fittings, prop prototypes, exhausting rehearsals, extortionate expenses, hours in the gym, heavy costumes that feel like medieval torture devices yet have to look light as a feather. I let Tiger Starr do all that in my place for a few months – and I also gave her a cupboard full of skeletons, a host of alpha males and bitchy vixens, as much sex as scandal, and decided to reward her with true love.
