In Atlanta, I felt my first twinge of homesickness; I reckon it’s because I was back in the Deep South, in a city I’ve visited many times, and saw many familiar business names and the like that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Mancrack (who as you may recall provided the art for my Lammas column) was my hostess, and I got to meet a number of readers both at my Liberty On the Rocks event last Monday, and in private on the night before. Another interesting thing about Atlanta was that three of the attendees at my event were running for office; perhaps that indicates a strong Libertarian Party in Georgia, but one way or another I think it’s very important that politicians (of any political party) hear about sex worker rights, so I’m really pleased and I’m hopeful for similar attention to future events.
While you were reading last Tuesday’s Tour Diary, I was en route to Tampa Bay, where I stayed with my friend Kelly Michaels. Since I hadn’t heard anything from any of the people I had contacted in the area, I was expecting just a quiet week of visiting; however, while I was in Atlanta I was emailed by Tampa-area reader Hotlix, who absolutely would not hear of this, and beat the bushes to attract more attention to my visit. Kelly hosted a potluck supper and discussion group at her house Friday, and Buttons Berry advertised it on SWOP Tampa Bay’s Facebook page; in all eight people in addition to Kelly and I showed up, and it was absolutely one of the best events of the whole tour. Besides the quality of the participation, everyone really made me feel like a rock star; so much so, in fact, that I was a little embarrassed by it. I’m really happy to be reaching so many people that they come out of their way to see me; three of them made a two-hour (one way) drive from Orlando in Friday afternoon traffic! As you read this I’m in New Orleans, but everything I’m doing here is private; the Tampa Bay event was therefore the last public one of the tour, and I couldn’t have wished for a better sendoff.
Up to this week, the pace of my tour has been relatively sedate, with more downtime than appearances. But as of Saturday that changed; Chicago will be a whirlwind, and the number of quiet days from here to at least Charleston will be in the minority. So even though last week in Memphis and Nashville was rather quiet, I wasn’t all that concerned; it gave me time to catch up on some writing so I won’t be caught flatfooted before the end of August.
Since my book is self-published, most large bookstores won’t carry it on their shelves; however, independent stores can do as they like so a few have agreed to stock Ladies of the Night. Before leaving Memphis last Monday I stopped in at The Booksellers at Laurelwood to sign their copies, and was pleased to hear that one had already sold over the weekend. If you’re in Memphis, call them to see if they have any left! That night I had dinner with one of my “Angel” sponsors in Nashville, and this morning I’m having breakfast with another in Chicago. I also had dinner and visited with activist Cathryn Berarovich in Chicago on Saturday night; the picture is us in a grassy lot where the Everleigh Club, Chicago’s busiest and most elegant brothel, used to stand. And on Friday night in Indianapolis, I had dinner and a long discussion with a criminologist who is preparing a study of violence against sex workers in criminalized and legalized systems.
My one public event in Nashville was a presentation at Liberty On the Rocks; since the space was rather noisy and the group relatively small we opted for a discussion-group style event rather than a lecture followed by questions. Though I felt as though the format was a bit more chaotic than I prefer, the attendees seemed pleased with the outcome and one even wrote about it. There’s a small footnote to that event which emphasizes the reason I’m out here and gives me hope for the future: when I left, I felt like getting some ice cream so I stopped at a small parlor on the next block which was still open. As I walked out and was eating my cone on the sidewalk, a young woman (university age) asked which flavor I’d bought, and she and her boyfriend and I struck up a conversation. When I told them who I was and why I was travelling, they expressed enthusiastic support for the cause, wished me luck and asked for a card to read the blog. I think their attitude is more common than the prohibitionists want to admit; in twenty years, young people will view repression of sex work in the same way young people now view attempts to suppress gay rights: as a weird, incomprehensible thing people used to do which has no valid place in a civilized society.
Here’s my tour schedule, which is still in flux; check back when I’m getting close to you for details of local appearances. If your city isn’t on the list, but it’s within about four hours’ drive of another city which is on the list, just send an email asking me to visit. Your request will have even more impact if you can suggest a specific place I could do a book reading or give a talk, and it’s virtually assured if you can actually make the arrangements yourself (in other words if it’s your store, club or whatever).
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale her infinite variety. – William Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra (II, ii)
Yes, it’s been four years already, and some of you have been reading for most of that time; I’m very pleased to see how few of you have tired of me. Pleased because, though I would certainly like to believe Enobarbus’ description of Cleopatra also applies to myself, one must always be careful to take flattery with a grain of salt, and never to fall for one’s own ad copy. At the same time, false modesty in excess tends to make a lady look more silly than sincere; I therefore try to maintain a balance between self-promotion and self-deprecation, though I suspect you’ll forgive me if I err a bit on the side of the former on occasions like this. Custom has not yet staled my variety for most of my regulars, and I gain new readers all the time; a look back at last year’s anniversary column will serve to illustrate that. The Honest Courtesan now has almost 1500 posts, 92 assorted pages, almost 40,000 comments, about 1200 subscribers and 3900 Twitter followers, and 2.8 million page views from all over the world. I write regular features for Cliterati and the Eros Guide; have seen my work published in Cato Unbound, Reason and the Washington Post; have published a book of short stories (which I’m currently promoting on a national tour); plan to release a book of essays in January; and have done so many interviews, speaking engagements, consultations and other such work that I’ve completely lost count.
So all in all, I think I can safely declare this blog a success. I’ve got my procedures down to a science now, so I can do outside projects without too much difficulty (though a 15-week book tour is definitely testing the limits!) and I’m even starting to make a small amount of money from it. That, however, will never be my primary motivation: this blog exists to spread knowledge about the demimonde; to debunk propaganda spread by our enemies to demonize or infantilize us; to help people realize that whores and our clients are really just regular people and our work is regular work; to argue for self-ownership and the rights of individuals to direct their own lives without interference from tyrants and control freaks; to call attention to the awful things those tyrants do to advance their agendas; and to entertain y’all in the process. And though I’m rarely at a loss for words, none in my vocabulary are sufficient to express the gratitude I feel for all of y’all who choose to spend some of your valuable time with me every day, and without whose attention, praise and support none of this would have been possible.
While you were reading last week’s diary entry, we were driving down from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The effects of the prolonged drought are strikingly horrific; what was green and lush the last time I drove that way is now a barren waste of parched brown grass, and farmers are planting only a fraction of their arable land because there wouldn’t be enough water to irrigate all the crops if they planted all they could.
Of course, Los Angeles looked like Los Angeles always looks; our hotel was near the airport, so getting downtown for my talk at Liberty On the Rocks was not difficult. The turnout was good, and the audience very enthusiastic; it was a mix of LOTR members and readers, and the questions were all good ones. Then on Friday morning I had my makeup done professionally (for the first time in my life!) in preparation for my interview on Reason TV. My interviewer was Dr. Thaddeus Russell, whom regular readers may recognize as the author of A Renegade History of the United States; he first expressed an interest in interviewing me last November, but since I don’t exactly get to LA that often it took a while to set up. It should be edited and posted sometime in the next few weeks, and when it is I’ll embed it in that week’s TW3 column.
My friend went off on a side trip Friday morning (we’re going to meet up again in Las Vegas this weekend), so on Saturday I rented a car and drove down to San Diego. I didn’t have any public gigs there, but I was interviewed for the Edge of Chaos podcast and spent the afternoon and evening with my husband, who’s been working in the area for some time now. Today I’m driving over to Tucson to meet with some sex worker activists there, then on Thursday I’m headed to Las Vegas, where…well, you’ll see next week!
One of the attendees at my LOTR appearance gave me a primer in how to accept payments and donations via bitcoin, so as soon as my application for the processing company is approved you should see a new way to donate appear below the subscription box. And that’s important because, frankly, my expenses have been higher and revenues lower than I had originally hoped, and it looks as though I’ll be doing a lot more sex worker rights activities than book activities. So, I’ve set up a GoFundMe page, which has already attracted almost 20% of my goal since I activated it Friday night; if you can contribute anything please do! Some of you have already been extremely generous even before I set up this page, and I can’t possibly express how grateful I am for each and every one of you.
Here’s my tour schedule, which is still in flux; check back when I’m getting close to you for details of local appearances. If your city isn’t on the list, but it’s within about four hours’ drive of another city which is on the list, just send an email asking me to visit. Your request will have even more impact if you can suggest a specific place I could do a book reading or give a talk, and it’s virtually assured if you can actually make the arrangements yourself (in other words if it’s your store, club or whatever).
I never sleep well when I know I have to get up early to do something important, and last Tuesday night was no exception; it took me until 2 AM to get to bed, and three hours later I was wide awake again. So I got up and started doing the many things I needed to get done before leaving, and we were able to depart a little earlier than I expected and make it to Denver before midnight. Since my friend had family business to attend to there, we stayed all day Thursday, then departed early Friday morning and drove for an incredibly long time until we reached San Francisco (my friend’s idea, not mine); I have rarely been as exhausted as I was when I collapsed into a hotel bed in Berkeley at 4 AM Saturday.
I don’t need as much sleep as I did in my younger days, however, and was up again four and a half hours later. That night I read three of my stories at the Wicked Grounds Kink Cafe to a group which included regular readers Chris Hall and Sophia, NOT Loren, and the next day three different ones to a small group at the Center for Sex and Culture. After that, we ate a a Tibetan restaurant; I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it before, but I love eating at ethnic places and Tibetan was one of the few I’ve never had the opportunity to try before.
Today we’ll be driving down to Los Angeles, where I’ll be speaking at Liberty On the Rocks on Thursday night at 7 PM. Then on Friday I’ll be recording an interview for Reason TV, and that weekend I hope to be able to spend some time with my husband in San Diego. Watch this space next week for further developments!
Here’s my tour schedule, which is still in flux; check back when I’m getting close to you for details of local appearances. If your city isn’t on the list, but it’s within about four hours’ drive of another city which is on the list, just send an email asking me to visit. Your request will have even more impact if you can suggest a specific place I could do a book reading or give a talk, and it’s virtually assured if you can actually make the arrangements yourself (in other words if it’s your store, club or whatever).
Since I left home for my book tour today, I thought this would be a good day to answer questions about the book and the tour. Some of these are actual reader questions, while others are questions I anticipate I might get or information I think you could use in Q&A format. If you have another I didn’t include, please ask it in the comments below and I’ll get to it tonight in the hotel.
Is this book wholly composed of stories which already appear on the blog? If so, why should I buy it?
All of the stories except the last, “Nephil”, already appear on the blog (if you’re wondering what the title means, here’s a hint). There are a number of reasons why you might want to buy it besides that story, though. If you’re anything like me, you just like paper books and enjoy the experience of holding one in your hands, turning the pages, being able to lend it to a friend, etc. You might give it as a gift to someone who would enjoy my stories, but isn’t much of a blog reader. You might just like having all the stories in one place, bound together and topped off with fabulous Chester Brown cover art of yours truly. Or you might just want to support my work, in which case you could think of the book itself as the gift you get for donating to a Kickstarter or public TV pledge drive. Even the Kindle edition fulfills all of these but the first; I selected the setting that allows you to share your copy.
My favorite story isn’t in the book! What’s up with that?
I wanted to keep this one as close to the whore theme as possible, though I did make a few exceptions, including the aforementioned “Nephil”. Most of the stories that weren’t included, or that have been published since last November, will be in the next collection (currently scheduled for January 2016 and entitled The Forms of Things Unknown) along with a couple of older stories I haven’t shared with you and at least two or three new unpublished ones.
When will you release a book of your essays?
I’m going to start compiling Whore’s Eye View after I get back from my tour; it will include some of my favorite essays in their original forms, others in revised and/or expanded forms, still others in combined and rewritten forms and others which I originally published elsewhere, assuming I can get permission to reprint them. I’m going to try to get it out by the end of January.
Will you be visiting my city on your tour?
Here’s my tour schedule; if your city isn’t on the list, but it’s within about four hours’ drive of another city which is on the list, just send an email asking me to visit. Your request will have even more impact if you can suggest a specific place I could do a book reading or give a talk, and it’s virtually assured if you can actually make the arrangements yourself (in other words if it’s your store, club or whatever). Notice that the calendar is still in flux; check back when I’m getting close to you for details of local appearances.
What if you aren’t coming anywhere near my city?
Unfortunately, I had to plan this to be doable with the time and money allotted, which meant leaving out large sections of the country (especially the North and Northwest). However, as I explained I’ll be doing another book quite soon, and since I’ll be better at this tour thing by then I will probably be able to do a better job next time. Seattle will definitely be on next year’s tour, and if you’d like me to come by your city as well, read the question above for suggestions on how to make that happen. If you represent an organization well-funded enough to pay for my travel and accommodations, you needn’t even wait for next year; just email me with the details. But it’ll have to be by train or rental car; I fear and despise air travel.
Why aren’t you visiting anyplace outside of the US?
Beside the problem with air travel mentioned above, there are currently issues too complex, boring and ridiculous to explain (nutshell version: bureaucratic incompetence) that prohibit my getting a passport until I can afford the lawyer to clean it up. Maybe one day, but not in the next few years.
Are you dedicated to self-publication, or do you plan to use a traditional publisher later?
I don’t take rejection well, and I’m not really good at asking people to do things for me, so I couldn’t handle finding either a publisher or an agent. The whole “proposal” and “sample chapter” thing is also anathema to the way I think and write; I can’t do something halfway. In other words, if I’m going to write a book I just write it, and once this one was written I had no desire to waste months or years shopping it around. Now it’s out, and if a publisher sees it and wants to do a new edition or suggest a deal for my next book (or books), I’m certainly interested in hearing the offer. But I’m much more comfortable with someone approaching me and asking, “Would you do x for me if I pay you?” than with having to approach someone and ask, “Will you pay me to do x?” The former sits much better with my harlot’s soul.
Will you ever publish your memoirs?
Almost certainly, but not until at least five years down the road; I want to do the other books I’ve mentioned first, plus one tentatively entitled Dear Maggie and an analytical history of the “sex trafficking” hysteria once it starts to die off (that one will probably appear in 2018 if my predictions hold true). I think it would be premature to do my memoirs before I know how well all the other stuff will sell, and how well-known I’ll be after publishing those. Gossip fans take note: I have absolutely no intention of naming any names in my memoirs.
A book is like a child: it is easier to bring it into the world than to control it when it is launched there. – George Bernard Shaw
Last Thursday I had my very first book signing at the Healthy Rhythm Community Art Gallery in Fairfield, Texas. I had met the owner, Ken Vail, at the Southern Harm Reduction Conference in New Orleans last December, and he had graciously invited me to hold my very first event there. A reporter from the local newspaper interviewed me; she also reviewed my book last week and had some very kind things to say about it (I have already posted a quote on Amazon). Following that was the actual event; the crowd was small, but Fairfield is a small town so I didn’t expect a multitude. What was really nice about it was that it turned into a sort of discussion group, and one young couple stayed after for quite some time after the official end of the event, asking the sort of intelligent questions I love answering.
One of the things I’m looking forward to is doing a number of different types of events. I expect that some of them will be large and some small like this one; in some I’ll perhaps share the stage with others, while other times I’ll be alone. Some events will be more book-centered, while others will concentrate more on my blog or activism. But the important thing in all of them – large or small, lucrative or not – is that I’ll be meeting people, giving them a chance to ask questions, busting myths and showing that sex workers are neither vampires nor victims, but just people like anyone else they might meet. And as long as I get plenty of opportunities to do that, I will consider this tour a success.
The small force that it takes to launch a boat into the stream should not be confused with the force of the stream that carries it along.
– Friedrich Nietzsche
The day has at last arrived! Tonight at 6:30 I’ll be appearing at the Healthy Rhythm Community Art Gallery in Fairfield, Texas (a bit southeast of Dallas) to read selections from my book, sell copies, sign autographs and answer questions. I met the gallery’s owner, Ken Vail, at the Southern Harm Reduction Conference in New Orleans last December, and when I told him I would be publishing a book soon the first question out of his mouth was, “Have you chosen a place to do your first book signing?” When I told him I hadn’t he volunteered his gallery, and here we are! I hope some of my readers from the Dallas area (and Austin & Houston, if you don’t mind a two-hour drive) can make it out to show your support; if you’ve already got a copy I’ll sign it for you, and if not I’ll have a whole box of ‘em with me. If you live farther away, check my tour page to see when I’ll be close to you, and if you have any advice or input about events I should attend, places that would like to host a book signing or have me speak, etc, please let me know. If you own or manage a business or organization and would like to hold an event for me, please contact me ASAP so we can work out the details; if you aren’t the boss but still think you could put in a good word, let me know that too! And even if you live outside the US, or in a part of the country I won’t be visiting, please take a moment this evening to beam me a few prayers, positive vibes, good thoughts, best wishes or whatever the equivalent in your philosophy; as I embark on this new adventure outside my comfort zone, I’ll take all the help I can get.
An elderly Italian man got a rather unwelcome surprise when he ordered an escort – and his…40-year-old son’s South American girlfriend…arrived at his house…the pair declined to take the encounter further and swiftly parted ways. The man [decided]…to tell his son…prompting a bitter fight between the pair…the son [sued] his father for injuries…
…All right-thinking people seem convinced that Barbie instills in her pre-school fans a false and remarkably detailed standard of beauty. Hence the widespread praise for Lammily, the latest anti-Barbie concept doll. A crowd-funded project from artist Nickolay Lamm (the source of her ungainly moniker), Lammily is based on the average proportions for a 19-year-old…[but] the average 19-year-old female American stands 5 feet 4 inches tall. She has a 33.6-inch waist and…weighs 150 pounds…If Lammily were true to life…she’d have rolls of fat, not a firm plastic tummy…Celebrating one version of average as “normal” and “realistic” implicitly stigmatizes everyone who doesn’t meet that standard. Barbie doesn’t pretend to do that; Lammily does…
This NPR article on diversion programs is full of the usual “sex trafficking” nonsense and dishonest platitudes about the programs’ effectiveness, but one section was especially troubling:
…Judge Pratt says that initially her treatment-focused approach…improved the ability to prosecute the traffickers. But…a lot of the boys…were becoming pimps. “The foster care system and juvenile justice system is creating both sides of this market, the suppliers and the goods,” she says…
Her revolting dehumanization of girls as “goods” is bad enough, but her willful mischaracterization of young male sex workers as “pimps” in order to prop up the vile “pimps and hos” myth is utterly reprehensible.
A manager at Cheetahs strip club says his dancers felt violated by police who photographed them almost nude…10 officers swarmed the building with guns and bulletproof vests, interrupting business for a couple of hours…to make sure all 30 dancers had proper permits and were in compliance…
Male delusions about sex work start extra-early in Sweden: “Swedish police have received a report that three underage boys [as young as ten] speaking bad German tried to sell sex to women at a busy commuter hub in central Sweden…”
…Poorly conducted, [biased]…research needs to stop being used as the foundation for fundraising…the refusal to have sex work acknowledged as real work…has all but halted any civil discourse…Allowing moral biases to dictate policy is dangerous for those who are there by choice and force…
…while police responded to [a] domestic violence call, one of the officers allegedly took the woman into an upstairs bedroom and sexually assaulted her…Deon Nunlee has been charged…Detroit Police Chief James Craig said…“This is an anomaly. This is not what our police officers do”…
A former Detroit police officer who was convicted of criminal sexual conduct involving participants in his boot camp for misbehaving teens is being sued by two of the victims…Geoffrey Townsend…began making unwelcome sexual advances [eventually culminating in rape when one]…victim was 13 years old…and…the…[other] 16…
[Durham, Ontario police Constable Scott Andrew Terry] sexually exploited [a 16-year-old girl] …with whom he first came into contact after she was busted for shoplifting in May of 2000. Instead of filing charges…he…[offered] her a rental room in his house…[then] began making advances which…escalated to nude photos, sexual touching and eventually rape…“in exchange for the rent”…
This dumb story about dumb strip-club restrictions in Chicago is, as you might expect, mostly just dumb. But these comments from anti-whore zealot Bob Fioretti venture into a higher realm of dumbness: “we have an underlying social problem. Between 15,000 and 25,000 women a day engage in prostitution…in this city. That underground activity undermines us a city — a world-class city…” I’ll bet you didn’t know we were so dangerous, or that roughly 4% of the adult female population of Chicago were whores.
An enterprising association of sex workers in Barcelona has angered some of Spain’s most prominent feminists by offering an “intro to prostitution” course…at a cost of €45…the four-hour intensive course for aspiring sex workers was held last month by the Asociación de Profesionales del Sexo…Lidia Falcón…[who] has spent years fighting to have prostitution [criminalized] in Spain…said…the problem with the course lies in its underlying suggestion that some women are working in the profession out of their own free will…
So Falcón wants the course banned because it blatantly disproves her lies.
Though the social climate which led to the Satanic Panic had been building for years, it was the McMartin Preschool hysteria that really launched it. Now that it’s a generation in the past, even media outlets like the New York Times which fully embrace “sex trafficking” hysteria recognize its earlier incarnation for what it was. Here’s a good retrospective called “McMartin Preschool: Anatomy of a Panic”; watch it with the current hysteria in mind and note the many parallels.
[A rumor] warns of attempts to abduct women and girls in broad daylight at crowded shopping centers. It warns that a new gang initiation requires members to kidnap, rape and beat women and then dump them in parking lots. For years, authorities have tried to keep such messages from spreading, debunking their claims as urban myths…
To clarify: Women being abducted by gangs for quick rape = “right up there with Bigfoot”, but women abducted by gangs for years of captivity and sexual slavery = 100% credible.
…the recent arrest of Alejandra Gil…[is due to] new legislation, which…conflates sex work with human trafficking…Gil has worked tirelessly for the human rights of sex workers for many years…Laws and policies that target “third parties” under the premise of “protecting” sex workers, increase our vulnerability to abuse and exploitation, and create real barriers for sex workers organising…
Considering that more than 90% of whores prefer to work illegally than submit to licensing, how well do you think this colossally stupid Italian law will work?
…prostitution will be permitted in private houses, subject to certain conditions, including the use of condoms…the draft law, which was presented…by…Maria Spillabotte…includes the issuance of a licence, stating that the holder is free of sexually transmitted diseases and confirming that a payment has been made…of €6,000 for a full-time licence or half that amount for part-time work…Prostitutes will also be required to get a certificate of mental fitness. “This is a fundamental way of getting women away from coercion,” says Spillabotte. “During an interview, the specialist will be able to tell if the girl is being forced into prostitution or if it is her free choice”…
When a politician obsesses about “protecting children from porn”, this is usually the reason: “A senior aide to David Cameron resigned…the day before being arrested on allegations relating to child abuse images. Patrick Rock…was involved in drawing up the government’s policy for…online pornography filters…”
This article on “Why Viagra Ruined Sex Work” quotes a few ladies whose names regular readers may recognize:
…“I wouldn’t say ED drugs are the worst thing, but they are really annoying,” laughed…Jolene Parton…“it…makes it harder for the client to come.” Anna Gristina…dubbed [it]…“The working girl’s worst nightmare come true…It went from wham-bam, thank you ma’am,’ to ‘Oh my god, can you just finish, man’”…Amanda Brooks…says…men become obsessed with having an erection at the expense of any enjoyment for anyone…
Texas joins the states arresting people to force them into “diversion” programs: “The Corpus Christi Police…conducted a ‘Jane Sting’…in conjunction with the Red Cord Diversion Program…all six arrested persons were signed up to participate…rather than have criminal charges immediately applied.” Yes, they actually referred to sex workers as “janes”.
In a bold move aimed at protecting workers from exploitation while on the job, the government today passed a new law that criminalizes most employers and customers…Law and Order Minister Punter MacCunny…pointed out that 95 per cent of people hate their jobs and want out, according to a new government-commissioned study…Police welcomed the new law, which gives them sweeping new enforcement powers to target the huge increase in organized crime. According to Det. Sgt. Billy Clubber, head of the RCMP’s new Slave Save Squad, “We’ll be cracking down on slavery rings, basically any place where workers are bribed with wages to provide services”…The law now designates employers and customers as “pimps” and “johns,” respectively…
It’s an unusual move to go from policy and social commentary to fiction, especially as the stories cover a range of genres from romance to crime to sci-fi. And yet it works. The eye for detail that fans of Maggie’s non-fiction writing appreciate is well played here. She invents worlds with ease and populates them with thought-provoking, yet never two-dimensional, women and men. If you love plots with twists, she has them to spare. (If you’re not into twists, or women who aren’t always whiter than white, probably best to stay away.) And the cover art by acclaimed cartoonist and Louis Riel author Chester Brown is wonderful.
Dominique Roe-Sepowitz answers the many criticisms of Project ROSE by denying them to Christian Post after refusing interviews with mainstream reporters. And if you imagine the denials are substantive or backed by facts, think again: her entire rationale for cooperating with cops to railroad people and deny them lawyers is, “sex-work…is against the law.” Meanwhile, in last week’s other installment of “Traffic Jam”, a demonstration of the motivation behind the fakery:
A study of advertising placed during the recent Super Bowl in New Jersey suggests the volume of sex trafficking that will occur when the event comes to Arizona in 2015 will likely exceed the ability of any one law enforcement agency to address. Phoenix Police Lt. James Gallagher, who co-authored the study…said law enforcement must coordinate to combat sex trafficking during major events…
Who learns most from a good book is the author. – José Bergamín
Y’all have been pushing me for a book for a while now, and I’ve been talking about it for even longer, but at last the day is nigh! As I think I’ve mentioned in print somewhere, I plan to do two books, one of fiction and one of nonfiction. And given that I’m new to the whole self-publishing thing, I decided to do the fiction volume first because that way the “front end” would be easy, allowing me to concentrate on the “back end”; in other words, since most of the stories were already written I wouldn’t have to generate much new content and could devote my attention to all the details of actually preparing the product. Now that I’ve learned how to do all that (and set up the infrastructure to manage the business end), that aspect will be relatively easy next time and I’ll be able to concentrate on writing the composite essays necessary for the nonfiction volume.
There was also a bit of strategy involved in releasing the books in this order. There are two main reasons for writing books rather than just blogging: first, to make money; and second, to expose a wider audience to my ideas. And I believe both of those can be maximized by doing a volume of fiction first. Stories are more accessible than essays; one might say they have a lower entry threshold, and many people who would never pick up a book of essays by an author they’ve never heard of will happily buy a book of stories by the same person just because the description seems interesting or they like the cover art. If they enjoy those stories, at least some of them are likely to buy a future essay book with the same name on it, and even if they don’t ever give my nonfiction as much as a glance they’ll have been exposed to the central theme of most of my writing, both fiction and nonfiction: whores are not a special “type” of person, but rather just people like anyone else.
Since most of the content of this volume is already available for free on this site, I wanted to give the readers who choose to buy one something special. So not only did I write a new, longer-than-usual story for the collection which will not appear online, but I also wanted to have some top-notch cover art (I also figure an attractive cover will get more attention). Accordingly, I asked friend and regular reader Chester Brown (creator of Paying For It, Louis Riel and many others) if he’d do me the honor, and as you can see the result is magnificent (and you may recognize the model). As for the format and design of the book itself, I hope you’ll find it adequate; if not, one of the advantages of self-publishing for the reader is that he knows exactly who to blame! The official release date is Wednesday, but it still may take a few days for it to pop up in Amazon searches. You’ll be able to buy it four different ways: First, as an e-book; second, as a paper book; third, in an autographed copy mailed directly to you from my own stock (this will cost just a little extra because of the handling and all); and fourth, from me at a book signing, of which I plan to have as many as possible this year (and will inform you of as they come up). With any luck the book will sell well enough to attract the attention of a conventional publisher, but even if it doesn’t I plan to keep releasing new ones at least once per year or so in the future. Wish me luck!
UPDATE: You can now buy the book on Amazon for $15.95 US; it’s also available on Kindle for $8 US, but the autograph option (for which I’ll probably charge $30 US, with free shipping) may still be a few weeks yet. It’s also available for £9.95 in the UK and €11.95 in France, Germany and Italy. Readers in other countries will need to order it from the Amazon branch which gives them the best price and service, or directly from CreateSpace (international shipping applies), or from me once that option becomes available in March.
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In Atlanta, I felt my first twinge of homesickness; I reckon it’s because I was back in the Deep South, in a city I’ve visited many times, and saw many familiar business names and the like that I hadn’t seen in a long time. Mancrack (who as you may recall provided the art for my Lammas column) was my hostess, and I got to meet a number of readers both at my Liberty On the Rocks event last Monday, and in private on the night before. Another interesting thing about Atlanta was that three of the attendees at my event were running for office; perhaps that indicates a strong Libertarian Party in Georgia, but one way or another I think it’s very important that politicians (of any political party) hear about sex worker rights, so I’m really pleased and I’m hopeful for similar attention to future events.
