View of the new part of the Strip in Las Vegas.

Over the last few weeks, things have been coming together. I’ve been working on the second novelette in the Beware of Warlock series. I made the deadline in sending it to my editor. I went to a writer’s conference in Las Vegas. Agents listened to a flash fiction piece and didn’t give it the thumbs down. In fact, there was applause.

Cut to a friend facebooking an article about a Club Kid called Michael Alig. It talked about how he is getting out of jail on May 5, 2014. Naturally being the curious writer, I started doing research, and a whole new world opened to me. But it seemed incredibly familiar, because I recognized one of the Club Kids, Richie Rich.

Richie grew up in California. I knew him from the club scene here, and later in San Francisco. I recognized the high energy from the clubbing days carried on to New York, and I started looking up interviews, and finding out about the whole New York Club Kid scene movement. Seriously, I don’t know how I missed it, except that I was obsessed with finishing college, clubbing on the West Coast, and later went to live in Paris. By 1995, I was trying to find myself a career, and discovered the pub scene. My obsession with the UK and Europe took me away from the hip club scene of the late 80s and early 90s. Plus, you burn out. You change direction. But, I digress.

There was a spark while researching this new area of interest. There was something I related within the Club Kid movement. There is a need to have people’s attention, that hunger for fabulous style and being noticed. And in 2014, this might be making a come back, or maybe I realized, it’s always been there but keeps changing. Really, what does make someone so fabulous?

Flashback to my trip to Vegas. I am obsessed with the town right now due to my Beware of Warlock series. The second novelette is set there, and so will be the third. Without too many spoilers, I’m creating an underground club world that welcomes witches. I mean, really, Vegas wouldn’t miss out on having VIP rooms for vampires, werewolves and witches if they could make money. Everyone is welcomed in the town. So, in my research, I had to experience some Vegas action. I saw Chris Angel’s show Believe, played Blackjack, and saw Cirque du Soleil’s show Zumanity.

Sitting in one of the red couches, I enjoyed Zumanity’s theme of sensuality. I was splashed by the acrobats in the fishbowl, and enjoyed the 18 and over provocative scenes. Then, one of the cirque performers grabbed my hand, and pulled me from my couch as a volunteer. As I walked to the front of the stage, I tried to remain calm. Anything can happen in a Cirque du Soleil show. As I stepped up the stairs to the stage, the Diva Ringmaster grabbed my hand and said in the mic, “Don’t worry, you look fabulous.” Those words were like a rock in the sea of nerves. What happened next is for 18 and over, like in my books. But I was asked at the end, what I was thinking and I responded, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”. It had to be said.

Did I found out what fabulous is? Will any of us find it? Vegas, my Club Kid research, writing new adult and spicy romance; it’s all a quest towards that fabulous inner self trying to emerge within me. Tonight, I watched a video that was the opening for a fashion show for the Heatherette label, Richie’s line of fashion with co-founder Trevor Rains. Amanda Lapore looks at herself in the mirror and covers herself with pink lipstick while wearing fabulous aqua stilettos. It was the symbol of trying to look your best. It represented that desperate need to shower yourself with jewels and be seen.

At that moment, I got it. You are fabulous. Whether you are a frumpy housewife that goes cougar at a Zumanity show, or a beautiful grown up Club Kid still making others fabulous, you are it. You are fabulous if you believe in yourself. And if you have a moment if you doubt, try to find your nearest sturdy support. It could be your cat, husband, wife, kids, or the fabulous divas that populate the Strip in Las Vegas, remember you are who you can be. It’s never too late to be you.