I can't wait to read my friend Michael's new book! Buy links are at the bottom...
About
The Case of the Missing Drag Queen takes place in
1982 – three years after I came out of the closet. The local gay bar was
clique-ish. My circle consisted of upper-middle class white guys around my age
who’d grown up in Lexington.
Aside
from occasional-to-frequent walks on the wild side, we kept our distance from
anyone who wasn’t like us—especially drag queens. What can I say? We were
young, dumb, and—like everyone else at that time—raised to be homophobic.
Today’s
distinctions in the Trans community were unfamiliar. Anyone who dressed up was
a drag queen. Some performed in drag shows. Most did not. A few were always in
drag. Whether an individual was or wasn’t transitioning was a subject for
speculation and gossip.
Several
years later, my partner and I started going to the 10:00 p.m. drag show.
Getting to the disco before 11:30 was totally uncool. The drag show was a
better option than falling asleep at home waiting for it to get late enough to
go out.
Go
ahead. Try not to enjoy a drag show. I dare you. From the first show, I was
hooked.
Years
of research watching drag shows at various venues around the country went into The Case of the Missing Drag Queen. Much
of the action in takes in the Gilded Lily showroom where Luke Tanner tends bar.
Get a taste by reading the excerpt below.
Blurb
Broke, saddled with a mountain of
debt, and dependent on his Aunt Callie's support, aspiring writer Luke Tanner
has returned to Kentucky to put his life back together after a failed five-year
relationship.
On his twenty-fifth birthday, Luke
meets diminutive Pixie Wilder, a long-time performer at the Gilded Lily. After
headliner Ruby Dubonnet doesn’t show up, Pixie takes her place as the star of
the show—a motive that makes her a suspect in Ruby’s disappearance.
Luke reluctantly agrees to help his
new-found friend clear her name. He and Pixie set out to find the missing drag
queen, and in the process, put themselves in danger.
Cover Artist:
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Author Bio
Michael
Rupured writes stories true enough for government work about gay life from the
1960s to today. This life-long Southerner was born in Fayetteville NC, grew up
in Lexington KY, and after 18 months in Washington DC, moved to Athens GA where
he’s lived since 1999. By day, he’s senior faculty in the College of Family and
Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia. He’s an avid fan of the Georgia
Bulldogs, the Kentucky Wildcats, and any team playing the Florida Gators. In
his free time, Michael tinkers with his garden, plays with Toodles (his
diabetic chihuahua), and keeps up with his many friends around the country. Previous
novels include Until Thanksgiving
(thriller), No Good Deed
(mystery/thriller), Whippersnapper
(regional), and Happy Independence Day
(historical). Visit his website (http://rupured.com), follow on
Twitter @Crotchetyman), like his Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/AuthorMichaelRupured/) or shoot him a message (mrupured@gmail.com)
Excerpt:
Thursday, October 21, 1982
The smoke-permeated Gilded Lily
barely contained the standing-room-only crowd for the eleven o’clock drag show.
Luke Tanner had never been so popular. Thirsty customers vying for his
attention stood three- and four-deep along the bar as he quickly mixed drinks,
opened bottles, and poured draft beer.
The house lights blinked several
times, and Frank Marvin’s voice echoed from the loudspeakers. “Five minutes
until the show begins, folks. Still plenty of time to see Charlie or Luke for a
cocktail. Tip them well, y’all, because I don’t pay ’em shit.”
Luke stuck out his lower lip and put
on a sad face as he fixed drinks for three different customers. Every gay man
in town wanted to bartend at the Garden. The hourly rate was the same
everywhere, but bartenders in any of the Garden’s four bars averaged thirty
dollars an hour in tips—more upstairs in the Green Carnation disco and on busy
nights.
The day Luke got back to Lexington,
he’d popped into the Garden. Five years earlier, in the months between coming
out of the closet and moving to Atlanta, he’d danced in the Green Carnation six
nights a week. who owned the Garden, remembered him from the thousands who
frequented the club, and shocked when he’d offered Luke a job.
They’d never met before. Luke would
have remembered. Frank had been on a very short list of men in his desired age
range—. Then and now, the age group was under-represented at the Garden.
The house lights dimmed, and Frank’s
voice again filled the showroom. “Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, queens, and
queers.”
The crowd responded with cheers,
jeers, and whistles.
“Welcome to the Gilded Lily, home of
the best motherfucking drag in the entire United States!”
Luke dropped a cocktail napkin on
the bar in front of a handsome man wearing an expensive-looking patterned
sweater who appeared to be in his late thirties. He cupped a hand to his ear to
hear his order above the thunderous applause.
“Cape Cod,” the man shouted and held
up a finger. “One, please.”
Rather than taking orders from other
customers and making several drinks at once, Luke gave the well-dressed
stranger his undivided attention. As he topped an ice-filled tumbler of vodka
with cranberry juice and a squeeze of lime, he wondered if he was a gay visitor
from out of town or a straight tourist observing homosexuals in their natural
habitat. Most likely gay. A heterosexual man at the Garden who wasn’t clinging
to a woman for dear life was rarer than snow in July.
“Three dollars,” Luke shouted as he
placed the drink on the cocktail napkin.
The handsome, blue-eyed man gave
Luke a dazzling smile, a wink, and a ten-dollar bill and said something drowned
out by the din.
Luke furrowed his brow, shook his
head, and leaned forward. “What?”
The man formed a megaphone with his
hands again and leaned toward Luke. “Keep the change!”
“Oh.” Luke’s face grew hot.
Good-looking and a big tipper. “Thank you, sir.” He shoved the ten into
the register drawer and moved seven dollars to his tip jar. When he turned back
around, the man was gone.
“And now,” Frank yelled through the
microphone. “Please welcome to the stage, the dark and lovely Dirty Duchess of
Broadway, Simone!”
The stage went dark except for a
spotlight trained on the center. The music started—a dance club remix of a
recent Diana Ross hit—and Simone burst through the curtain wearing a tight red
cocktail dress, red spike heels, and an Afro wig that added a good eight inches
to her height. She danced from one side of the stage to other, then strode
quickly to the end of the catwalk and danced some more. In between wild bursts
of joyous and energetic dancing, she bent to air-kiss adoring fans who
clustered around the stage waving bills of various denominations to get her
attention.
Russel Clark stood just offstage
with his burly arms folded across his massive chest. The
bodyguard-slash-bouncer was six foot seven inches tall and weighed over three
hundred pounds. In the weeks that Luke had worked at the Gilded Lily, Russel’s
hulking presence had prevented any unwanted interaction with the performers from
even the most inebriated fans.
By Simone’s encore, the preshow rush
at the bar had slowed to a trickle. In between customers Luke emptied ashtrays,
cleared empties from the bar, and washed glassware. When nobody was looking, he
shoved his hands into his pockets to soothe a relentless itching that he
suspected was what he got for washing his underwear with cheap laundry
detergent.
“Ladies and gentlemen, please
welcome to the stage, the queen of the cathouse, Miss Kitty Galore!”
Kitty Galore was an S&M queen,
standing and modeling as she lip-synced. The tight-fitting Kentucky blue and
silver gown she wore emphasized her fabricated curves. Matching heels and an
elegant backswept bouffant embellished with pearls added to her already
impressive height.
Charlie Ross, who Luke had shadowed
for two weeks to learn the ropes, crossed from the other end of the bar into
his section. Charlie was a good head taller than Luke with strawberry-blond
hair, brown eyes, a smattering of freckles across both cheeks and the bridge of
his nose, and an imposing, athletic physique. He intimidated Luke, and for
essentially the same reasons, turned him on. Not that turning him on was
particularly difficult. He hadn’t had sex in months.
“Hey, man,” Charlie said. “Think you
can handle the bar without me?” He reached down and groped his crotch. “I’ve
got some business to attend to.”
Luke gulped, struggled to maintain
eye contact, and pushed thoughts of what a naked Charlie might look like from
his mind. “Frank say it’s okay?”
Charlie nodded. “If it’s okay with
you.” He scratched his butt. “He’ll pull somebody from elsewhere in the Garden
to help if it gets too busy for you.”
“I can handle it,” Luke said,
feigning confidence. This was only his fourth night with his own section. If
everyone in the showroom wanted a drink at the same time or someone ordered an
unfamiliar cocktail or—
He slammed the brakes on his runaway
train of thought. No point giving Fate any ideas.
“Thanks, man,” Charlie said,
extending his hand.
“No problem,” Luke replied. He
swallowed and wiped his sweaty palms on his hips. Shaking hands was not his
thing. A firm grasp had thus far in life eluded him. He reached out, and
Charlie engulfed his hand with a finger-crushing grip that hurt more with each
pump.
“I owe you one,” Charlie said. He
let go of Luke’s throbbing hand, pulled a five-dollar bill from his pocket, and
tossed it into Luke’s tip jar. “Mind shutting down for me? I really need to
run.”
“Sure,” Luke replied. He’d assumed
Charlie would break down the well on his end of the bar before leaving but said
nothing. He’d also kept his mouth shut for two weeks when he’d done all the
work and Charlie kept all the tips.
The handsome, big tipper approached.
When he reached the bar, another Cape Cod awaited him. He raised his hand and
saluted. “Thanks, handsome. I’m flattered you remembered.” Then he thumbed
through his wallet, pulled out a bill, and slid it across the bar. “Keep the
change.”
Luke gasped when he saw the
twenty-dollar bill. Too stunned for words, he nodded as the gorgeous man turned
and walked away. The big tip was only partially responsible for his sudden
inability to speak. That some imbecile somewhere hadn’t remembered his drink
was as shocking as being called handsome. Presentable yes, perhaps even interesting,
but handsome? Never.
On stage, Pixie Wilder wrapped up a
disco version of “Rose Garden.” Her look was classic Nashville: big hair,
flashy jewelry, a vibrant turquoise dress embellished with ten or fifteen
pounds of rhinestones, and high-heeled, rhinestone-studded boots. For a girl,
she was short. For a guy, she was tiny.
Luke kept up with the demand for
beverages as Simone, Kitty Galore, and Pixie Wilder each performed a second
number. The crowd grew restless, but nobody left. Business at the bar picked up
as Pixie performed her second number. Ruby Dubonnet was next, and nobody wanted
to miss a second of her performance. Only a couple of customers still waited
for drinks as Pixie retrieved the tips she’d dropped and exited the stage.
A church bell sounded, and two
well-oiled young men stepped onto the stage wearing white bikini briefs and
matching bow ties. They marched in step to the end of the catwalk and back,
tossing white rose petals from large baskets into the wildly cheering crowd as
the bell chimed two more times. Luke was alone at the bar when they stopped on
either end of the stage.
A hush fell over the Gilded Lily.
Everyone stared at the stage, waiting. On the fourth chime, the curtains parted
and Ruby Dubonnet emerged in an elegant beaded wedding gown with a long veil
over her head and an enormous bouquet of white lilies in her arms. She took a
few steps, stopped, and looked over the enthusiastic fans who scrambled for a
position next to the stage to the back of the room.
Nobody—including Jennifer
Holliday—did “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going” better than Ruby Dubonnet.
Ignoring her adoring fans and the bills they tossed onto the stage, Ruby gave
herself to the performance. As the song progressed, she flung her bouquet to
the ground and stomped on it a few times, yanked off the veil, and ripped the
dress from her body in pieces. For the dramatic conclusion of the Broadway
showstopper, she sat in the remnants of her tattered dress with an upraised
fist, mascara running down her cheeks, and the mutilated bouquet in her lap.
When the music stopped, she stood,
straightened her hair with a few well-placed shoves, quickly wiped the mascara
from her face with a recovered sleeve, and stripped away everything but a lacy
bra, dainty white panties, a garter belt, white hose, and white spike heels.
She blew kisses to the rapturous fans tossing crumpled bills at her. Then she
traversed the stage touching the fingertips of her fans and blowing kisses
while the flower boys picked up her tips and tossed them in the baskets they
carried.
The crowd gasped when the handsome
big tipper vaulted onto the stage. Russel leaped into action, moving toward
Ruby with far more grace and speed than Luke would have thought possible for
such a large man. Ruby stopped him with an upraised hand. Then she opened her
arms to embrace the handsome big tipper. He hugged her close, kissed her right
on the lips, and after a moment, stepped back to bow deeply before hopping off
the stage.
Moments later Ruby and her boys
slipped behind the curtain, the lights came up, and the crowd dispersed to
other parts of the Garden complex until one o’clock when the bars closed.
Nobody lingered in the Gilded Lily. Even Frank and Russel had left.
Luke thoroughly scratched his
irritated nether regions and then counted his tips, and readied the deposit for
Frank to take to the bank. Cleaning up both ends of the bar took longer than
expected. Exhausted, Luke brushed his teeth when he got home, stripped to his
underwear, and fell into bed.
