Christine ~ Wildflower ~ Kyle Taylor ~ Interview

Please welcome Kyle Taylor  author of Wildflower.

Kyle will be giving away a a $25 Amazon gift card to the commenter who leaves the best question or comment.

Wildflower  

The Dramatic Life of Barbette —

Round Rock’s First and Greatest Drag Queen

By

Kyle Taylor

INTERVIEW:

1. What or who inspired you to start writing?

I’ve enjoyed writing since I was in grade school. I attempted writing a novel when I was twenty one, but I wasn’t mature enough to complete it. About four years ago, I felt the urge to write novels again. I have a journalism degree and write articles for an architecture magazine, but a novel is a completely different animal.

2. How did you come up with ideas for your books?

Kyle Taylor novels have a unique voice. I love history and wanted to combine my love of that with gay themes. So each of the three novels I’ve written will take you into a different world. Wildflower follows sixty years of the life of Barbette, the great aerialist drag queen—from 1914 to 1973. Exposition takes place during the construction of the amazing World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago. Billion Dollar Dreamer is contemporary, but features the renovation of the fabled ocean liner, the SS United States.

3. What components are necessary for the genre of this novel?

No matter what genre, you need a good story. Without that you’ve got nothing. Both Wildflower and Exposition are in the orbit of historical fiction. The trick of historical fiction, in my mind, is to shape a mental image of the world for a reader—providing this backdrop of history—so the characters feel right in their setting. For me, it’s always a tempering. Too much description can weigh down the novel. So I’m looking for tidbits of history that support the story. If you can do that, it flows better. For example, Billion Dollar Dreamer may be too long in description at points. I’ve gotten better as I’ve progressed.

4. What expertise did you bring to your writing?

Because I write for an architecture magazine, you’ll find I have a comfort describing places. I ascribe to the old line from Winston Churchill – ‘we shape our buildings and they shape us’.

5. As far as your writing goes, what are your future plans?

I plan on taking a long holiday with John Driskil (the hero of Billion Dollar Dreamer) on his new yacht. Destination unknown.

6. Do you outline your books or just start writing?

Yes and no. I usually have a very strict outline for my stories. It gives me a sense of the pacing. But Wildflower came about as a lark of sorts. I created a very different outline for a book where Barbette was to be a costar, more of a dreamlike apparition for a contemporary character. But as I continued to research Barbette’s life, I scrapped that entire outline and began writing what you are reading today.

7. Do you have any hobbies and does the knowledge you’ve gained from these carry over into your characters or the plot of your books?

I grow antique roses. In both Billion Dollar Dreamer and Exposition, there are characters who tend to rose gardens. For John Driskil in BDD, the garden is a symbol of his soul. In Exposition, Evelyn’s rose garden illuminates the distinction between the leisure class and the commoners. For Wildflower, when a friend of Barbette’s dies unexpectedly, Coco Chanel arranges for white sprays of roses to cover the casket. (True story, by the way) The roses are an association with death, a prominent theme in Barbette’s life.

8. Have you started your next project? If so, can you share a little bit about your book?

I only have an idea of its subject matter. It involves a gay film star from the Roaring Twenties and his house created by a master architect’s son. I shan’t say more. I don’t want to jinx myself.

9. What is your favorite reality show?

I’ve had a several year fascination with any show featuring Gordon Ramsay. I think his own personal transformation as a human being is just as interesting to watch as the make-overs he attempts. His intense desire for perfection, no matter how vulgar at times, can be inspiring in its own way even for the viewer.

10. Who is your favorite actor and actress?

Like architects, I don’t think an actor becomes truly great until they reach a certain age. Anthony Hopkins, Meryl Streep, Judy Dench, Maggie Smith and Emma Thompson are all great actors.

11. Can you tell us a little about the black moment in your book?

Barbette, whose real name was Vander Clyde Broadway, had to deal with his mother marrying an alpha male, Samuel Loving. Historically, we know Loving rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. He was the town’s sheriff. In my mind, I had to think young Vander and Loving wouldn’t see eye to eye. They come to blows in one scene. For me, it was a cathartic sort of experience writing the scene. I could vent the pain I’ve personally felt from derogatory words and actions against me because of my own homosexuality.

12. If you were a casting director for the film version of your book, who would play your lead roles?

Neil Patrick Harris could do a smashing Barbette. I plan on getting him a copy of Wildflower this summer.

13. Anything else you might want to add?

Wildflower was the first book where I had a hand at crafting the entire presentation. The book’s design, its font choices, layout and editing were all crafted by Kyle Taylor. I hope the reader feels the love I put into the presentation!

Thanks for having me come by!

BLURB:  

“More fun than a sex party!”

— Barbette

Long before Ru Paul eyed his first pair of six inch stilettos or Boy George donned his colorful caftan, a handsome young man from the small town of Round Rock, Texas barnstormed the stages of Europe’s most lavish theaters and night clubs as Barbette, a beautiful aerialist drag queen who became a scandalous sensation throughout the Roaring Twenties.

Performing his erotic, high wire and trapeze routine in lavish, feminine regalia, Barbette shocked audiences by revealing the true nature of his gender at the very end of his act.

From a child who picked cotton and walked his mother’s clothes line to headlining at the Moulin Rouge in spectacular drag, Wildflower reveals long-forgotten secrets of this enigmatic performer: his arrest in London on morals charges, his bout with polio, his infamous collaborations with some of Hollywood’s greatest stars— Orson Welles, Vincente Minnelli, and Judy Garland, Jack Lemmon, and Tony Curtis as well as his hidden affair with French surrealist Jean Cocteau.

Wildflower captivates with every page, dramatically revealing the startling and at times heart-breaking story of Round Rock’s first and greatest drag queen.

EXCERPT:

Crowning the side of her head was the smartest crimson hat Vander had ever seen. If her appearance wasn’t striking enough, there was the matter of the fully grown cheetah walking alongside her. Lean and slinking on a sparkling chain attached to a jeweled collar, the cheetah most certainly put the woman over the top. Passersby cleared a path for the woman and her wild animal as she made way down the street—the woman’s head held high and mischievously proud, pretending not to notice the commotion she was causing as she made way.

“Please! Stop looking at her!” Radiguet begged.

“Josephine!” Cocteau remarked with some excitement and knowing. “Your only true competitor—the great Josephine Baker! Look at how she walks down the street—African queen of the jungle! I don’t know what they are putting into the water in America to grow such exotic flowers as you both.”

Vander was well aware of Josephine Baker. Her scandalous dance, where she only wore a skirt of bananas tied low about her hips, was the talk of Paris. If Barbette’s star shone bright, Josephine Baker was a super nova.

“She has a cheetah!” Vander exclaimed.

“Yes!” Radiguet said extremely agitated. He held his hand up to the side of his face to hide his visage from her so she would not recognize him if she turned her head toward the front window of Harry’s. “The cheetah has an unpleasant disposition!” Radiguet warned. “Chiquita is her name. She terrifies me! How Josephine is not arrested on the spot for having such an animal roaming the streets!”

Vander could do nothing by gape.

“Don’t look her way or she will come over!” Radiguet hastened.

“It is a good thing Princess Violette is at home, because you know she would have made a big fuss,” Cocteau added. “It seems the princess fancies Josephine. She excites her. She finds her fascinating.”

“In all my time in America, I’ve never seen a Negro looking like that!” Vander exclaimed. He watched Josephine move down the street, like an exotic cat herself—so strong and confident, yet her eyes were vivid and alert tingling with a hint of mirth. The woman owned the street, with or without her pet cheetah!

Then, almost directly across from Harry’s Bar, a blonde driver in a black, gold-braided uniform emerged from a long, white Rolls Royce with sweeping lines and fancy running boards. The chauffer opened the rear door to the stunning automobile. Josephine was ten paces from the car. She released the cheetah’s lead and the cat leapt inside of the auto in a single bound. Josephine smiled at her driver as she stepped into the car.

“Unbelievable!” Vander remarked, eyes wide open. “I’m not in Round Rock, Texas anymore!”

“You most certainly are not!” Cocteau replied with a flourish.

“Thank god she is driving away,” Radiguet said, quickly downing his Bloody Mary to settle his nerves.

“If there is one way to keep autograph hounds from running up, that is it!” Cocteau smiled. He too downed is midday cocktail and turned to Vander. He pushed back from the table. “Now, we must head onto our next great adventure. Vander, my dear, have you ever seen a pornographic film?” 

BARBETTE

AUTHOR INFORMATION:

Kyle Taylor is the author of Wildflower, Exposition and Billion Dollar Dreamer. The Kyle Taylor character debuted in Billion Dollar Dreamer as a journalist who was assigned to write a story about high school history teacher cum overnight billionaire John Driskil. He resides in New York—and of course he is a work of fiction! You can contact Kyle at BillionDollarDreamer@gmail.com.