"Nine Sketches, in Charcoal and Blood"
The townhouse of Richard Lowell was not one known to respectable members of
Society. He had entertained few guests during his life, and hosted no social events, so all
that was known of the house and its contents came through rumour and gossip, whispering of
just enough scandal as to be fascinating. Thus, when word went out that Lowell had died, and
moreover had died without a will, an unprecedented opportunity arose to investigate the matter
-- through suitable intermediaries, of course. The public auction was set for May the
fourteenth, and many a wealthy man instructed his gentleman-factor to attend, there to
observe, and perhaps to purchase any oddities which might appeal.
The recent film of The Phantom of the Opera was not entirely to my taste, but there was one thing about it that very much caught my imagination: the auction scene. I loved the way the two characters kept exchanging glances, the sense that they were the only two people present who actually understood the things being sold that day, the weight of hidden story the objects carried. That unspoken subtext stayed with me, and not long after, some characters strolled onstage in my brain and started having a conversation. I pretty much had to write the story to find out what was going on -- who they were, how they knew each other, and what they had come to the auction to buy.
Things I write with my hindbrain are often among my favorites, and so I'm very pleased to say that "Nine Sketches, in Charcoal and Blood" was published by On Spec in November 2007. If you would like mood music while you read it, put on the soundtrack from Interview with the Vampire; the track "Libera Me" is reserved for my dark fairy-tale retellings, but the rest lent an appropriate air to this mannered little story.