Today’s guest at the Bookseller to the Stars is a best-selling author of the ‘Manhattan Call Girl’ series, Tracy Quan. Her books are currently being planned as a HBO series in the US, with Darren Star of ‘Sex and the City’ and ‘Melrose Place’ fame. As an advocate and supporter of sex worker rights, she often blogs and writes passionately and intelligently on the subject for all sorts of people, including The Guardian and The New York Times.
Tracy’s new book is the third in that series, ‘Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl.’ This is the synopsis:
Married call girl Nancy Chan has been asked to do something outrageous -- even by her standards. Most favoured customer Milt has invited Nancy to his luxurious new villa in idyllic Provence. That's a lot of euros, but ! Can a (married) Manhattan call girl really holiday with a client? Seeing him morning, noon and night, coming up with new entertainments, and maintaining both a light tan and a 'professional' distance? Not to mention Milt's Viagra habit. In a difficult economic climate a girl can't always meet her quota, and Nancy's worried about losing her edge. Nancy jumps at the chance to have a break from Manhattan (and from husband Matt) for a few weeks. Desperate for an alibi, she invents a vacation with her mom in southern France. In reality, Nancy is hard at work with some new playmates -- Tini (Malaysian, with something extra), Isabel (a St-Tropez madam), and Serge (Isabel's hunky chauffeur) -- while Matt grows more inquisitive. As Nancy discovers, the French countryside is 'ten times trickier than Manhattan' and nothing in her temporary world is quite what it seems. When Milt's enigmatic cook Duncan turns up unexpectedly in Nancy's erotic fantasies, she begins questioning everything she knows. Can Nancy keep getting away with this?
BTTS: Tell us how Nancy Chan is now in Book Three, 'Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl'?
TQ: She's doing fine, thanks! Nancy’s finally adjusted to married life, which means she feels less conflicted about cheating on her husband. She's focusing on the logistics of how to get away with it, and everything’s under control. Just kidding, of course.
That’s what she’d like to think, but it’s never that simple. Nancy gets in way over her head. She goes to the south of France, and it’s not really a vacation, it’s a job. Milt, her favorite customer, invites her to his villa in Provence, where she’s faced with emotional and sexual temptation. Nancy is trying in her own way to be a faithful wife while she sneaks around on her husband for money -- but it's getting harder to maintain that delicate balance. And every woman who feels the need to cheat on a man she loves will know how delicate, how fine, that line is.
A few years ago, someone gave me a hat that said "Lead me not into temptation, I can find it myself." A playful allusion to The Lord's Prayer. It might also be Nancy's motto. There’s a light-hearted religious theme running through this adventure. Religion -- while it should not be taken too seriously – is formidable, and we shouldn’t underestimate its peculiar power. Religion is messing with Nancy’s life in a big way, and she doesn’t even know it. But she's getting a chance to practice her French!
BTTS: Does Nancy take a vow of chastity by the end of this book then?
TQ: Not quite. But she does have to make some surprising decisions!
BTTS: Are you planning in your head what the reaction will be from Nancy's husband when he eventually finds out that she is a call girl?
TQ: Aha! That’s a trick question, Mark, I’m not falling for it.
BTTS: You have a great affinity and spiritual connection with the UK, don't you? Tell us about your time here.
TQ: Oh my. Well, it wasn’t very spiritual! I hope you don’t think I’ve gone all spiritual just because I play with religious themes in my new novel. That would be a mistake.
I was in London during my teens, and I lived in Highgate with a boyfriend. Coming of age as a sex worker, I had champagne for the first time. Developed a taste for Tattinger. Worked in a club where customers had to order two bottles in order to sit with a girl. It was a very genteel clip joint, and it felt like a temporary home in some ways. I felt safe there, and it was not too competitive. For someone just finding her feet in the trade, it was the right place at the right time.
BTTS: Since we last checked in with you two summers ago here on the blog, have sex workers rights changed for the better? Tell us more about your involvement.
TQ: At one point, I was doing a lot more in PONY (Prostitutes of New York.) It’s a good idea to step aside and let new members define a group, so I’ve done that while also staying in touch with the current members.
Sex worker rights? Well, the situation is always in flux. You can say things are improving, but they are also worse. Ban Ki Moon, the Secretary General of the UN, has been saying that sex work should be decriminalized. That’s a progressive thing to say, but does anyone listen? Cambodia recently outlawed prostitution. As a result, sex workers are being attacked by the police, and sexual assault is common. Wherever sex workers are arrested, the police are known to steal.
It’s also a problem in the United States. I know a sex worker who was recently arrested. The police took $500 from him, claiming it would be used as evidence. He never got his money back, but he considers himself lucky to have had the charges dropped. That’s the kind of thing that happens when prostitution is illegal.
There’s a backlash against sex work, and some of the people responsible for this are pretending to rescue sex workers from what they now call trafficking. It’s a big political scam. A game of words, and easily recognized as such if you understand the power of language.
BTTS: How has New York changed since Mayor Bloomberg's arrival?
TQ: Whatever his flaws may be -- and what mayor doesn't have a few -- anything’s better than our previous mayor. Rudy Giuliani, a Catholic from the borough of Queens, had no respect for the diverse nature of his own religion. He invoked the Church in an effort to punish the Brooklyn Museum for presenting the work of a Roman Catholic artist, oddly enough. It’s a world religion, but our previous mayor was
freaked out by a depiction of the Madonna as a black African. We don’t have situations like this under Bloomberg, he’s mostly about business.
Despite any number of annoying qualities, he’s not an ideological mayor. He's into law and order because that’s his job. He’s a rather boring public figure, but that’s fine. We knew way too much about Giuliani and his problems.
Under Bloomberg we experienced a real estate boom, but now we’re in a recession. If you work in a service job, you’re vulnerable. The sex industry, along with restaurants and beauty salons, feels the impact of a recession. But some New Yorkers feel relieved because there’s less pressure to show off. If you’re not a zillionaire yet, you can blame the economy, and it’s not all your fault.
BTTS: Would Bloomberg make a good running mate for Barack?
TQ: He would have to be a very agile floor-crosser. The Republican National Convention was held in New York in 2004 and people feel that their civil liberties were violated because our Republican mayor was too beholden to his party. Even those who weren’t protesting were using terms like “police state” to describe the atmosphere in the streets. A state judge held the city in contempt of court because people were detained without being formally charged. This was four years ago, and it might not matter outside of New York, but it suggests that our mayor is not the ideal running mate for a Democrat candidate. He’s not a right-wing ideologue, and he calls himself an Independent, but I think his loyalty would be an issue and it would be an enormous distraction.
BTTS: Despite his almost rock-star like status and fresh appeal for change, can a black man beat an old white, Republican war hero?
TQ: When you put it like that, yes. I know some Republicans who fought in the second world war, not Vietnam. They’re disenchanted with their party, opposed to the current war and turned off by McCain. I know a doctor on the Upper East Side who’s a Republican – she’s a Reagan Republican and she’s been rooting for Obama since before the nomination. These are just random cases, people I talk to, but it makes me think Obama has a transcendent appeal.
BTTS: Thanks Tracy!
Tracy Quan’s new book, ‘Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl’ is in bookshops now. All great bookshops will have the others too.
