Living the Illusion

By Christian Clarke

We first met Mick in A Synthetic Illusion. A forty year old hospitality professional who took a job as a driver for one of Melbourne's elite escort agencies and followed his ride through an escalating drug habit, that lured him into the seamier side of the industry.
Driven against all his natural instincts he crosses boundaries and breaks all rules. A few years on, while Mick believes his ride is over, he starts living the illusion once more...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Clarke
• Release date: Jul 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9780992276812

Christian Clarke

My name is Christian Clarke. My passion is writing about extraordinary events in ordinary peoples’ lives. I like to refer to myself as a METHOD AUTHOR, a term that originates from method acting which was founded by Konstantin Stanislavski (1863-1938). Method actors are often characterised as immersing themselves into their characters, to the extent that they continue to portray them even off stage or off camera, for the duration of the project. That's the sort of commitment I portray with the characters in my books. After an amazing career as a hospitality professional- restaurateur and Melbourne party boy I decided the party was officially over.... From a very early age I dreamt of being a writer, but my hectic lifestyle had never allowed me the opportunity to realise my dreams. There is a famous quote I've always loved "you only live once, but if you do it right once is enough" so one day I decided to throw caution to the wind, I hung up my designer suits and started my writers journey. Buckle up for a roller coaster ride of emotions -you'll laugh, you'll cry and at every turn you will question and think.......

Book preview

PREFACE

In 2007 I turned 40. Being a completely image obsessed party boy; I was beginning to fear that my time in the sun was over. The younger generation had hit the clubs and the rockers in my age group were becoming obsolete. I had seen it all, I had survived the 80’s, owned the 90’s, and by the time the naughties came along the Melbourne gangland wars had erupted. Friends turned on friends, enemies appeared from everywhere and the demise of club land reared its ugly head.

The party was officially OVER!!! I needed to continue the party and my journey led me to the sex industry…

I discovered that in the wonderful world of prostitution, society’s rules don’t apply. Everyone involved adheres to the laws of the jungle, ‘only the strong survive’ and ‘fortune favours the bold’. A Synthetic Illusion is based on my two year journey in Melbourne’s sex industry as a driver, Living the Illusion is the sequel ‘when the hunter becomes the hunted’, the story of how I became one of Melbourne’s most infamous pimps…

CHAPTER 1

September 2009 I celebrated turning 42 and I quit the escort agency I had been working for. I was officially unemployed for the first time in my adult life. I felt completely lost, bored, drug fucked and worst of all middle aged. I couldn't even imagine going back to a normal job in the real world. I'm a Virgo therefore I have a need for everything to be planned and executed perfectly, instead I did something I'd never done before, I threw caution to the wind and decided to let the universe take control and come what may.

One of my favourite receptionists from the escort agency had taken a job as a receptionist in an inner city brothel. She had been unhappy at the agency for awhile, so for six months she was taking down numbers and addresses of the agency’s regular clients; when she had collected over 2000 numbers she abruptly quit. She walked into a brothel and offered them the list in exchange for hiring her and letting her start an escort service where she would be sending their girls out at $350 per hour. The brothels bookings were $220 per hour, so they jumped at the chance. They set up an office for her in one of the rooms, they installed 3 phone lines, advertised in all the local papers and adult magazines and suddenly a new elite escort agency was born.

No client knew these girls also worked in the brothel, if they did they would just go there and pay $220 for the hour instead of $350 to have them come to their place. Within a month it was so busy she couldn't cope with the phones on her own, so she rang me out of the blue and asked if I would consider working with her. We had always got along at the agency, she had made no secret I was her favourite driver so whenever she was on I would get 80% of the bookings.

Was this it? The universe answering my call for help!!!

October 18 2009 I walked into a brothel at 6pm and started a journey that changed me and the Melbourne escort industry permanently!!

CHAPTER 2

I arrived at the inner city terrace with its red light and proceeded to the front door. Jenny greeted me with a hug and a kiss telling me she was glad to see a familiar face. We walked down a narrow hallway to her office. The office was originally one of the rooms used for sex. The bed had been replaced with a desk, computer, phones, safe, and a large couch in one corner; there was also a door leading to a private marble bathroom complete with shower toilet and spa bath. There were three office chairs around the desk and the room was painted a dark burgundy colour.

We sat down and pretty soon we were chatting like old friends. She told me she had contacted a lot of clients from the agency we used to work at and that they were now booking with her. She showed me the ads she had placed in newspapers and magazines and told me that the phones were ringing off the hook. I let her talk I could see how excited she was with what she had done, so I let her have her moment.

Finally when she took a breath I told her the thought of being a driver again wasn't very appealing to me, to my surprise, that's not what she was offering. She wanted me to be in the office with her. I knew having a guy answering phones in an escort agency was unthought of. The clients wanted