I’ve been writing a lot about my graphic novel, Tracy Queen. As you may have noticed. And I started thinking about not just why I wrote it, but also how. The things that inspired me. The ideas that lit a fire under me. So I’ve started writing more about those intricacies to the creative process. As you might imagine, given that the subject matter of the book is a woman who creates a cyborg-clone army on the sets of porn films she makes…the writing I’ve been doing is a bit, er, subversive. So, hey! Let’s take a look!
Why a Graphic Novel About a Sex Worker Is So Important Right Now
I was super honored to write a guest post for Women Write About Comics detailing how, as I’ve moved through my career as a sex writer, I’ve started to see the chinks in the armor of why we say we look down on sex workers. And how the stereogypes and stigmas they support are pure bullshit. And also how I decided that sex workers should be portrayed as heroes more often. Here’s a nibble:
The world of sequential art is largely untouched by stories about sex workers, much less stories where sex workers are the heroes. But there’s something magical about sequential art that makes its characters accessible, no matter how different they are from their readers. And Tracy, though her life is packed with hyperbole, pulp sci-fi, and over-the-top adventures, really isn’t much different from “the rest of us.” In sequential art, I see an opportunity to introduce readers to someone who’s not only funny, relatable, flawed, gorgeous, and deeply human…but who also chooses, for her very own, very valid reasons, to start making porn. And discovers that not only does she enjoy it—she thrives on it.
Read the rest at Women Write About Comics!
Promiscuous Women Will Rule the World — And I Wrote a Graphic Novel About One of Them
I was reading a lot of science-y books about the evolution of human sexuality when I started out writing about porn. And it got me to thinking about gangbangs. Like…a lot about gangbangs. They fascinated me in the same way that evolutionary biology did, since both of them dealt quite a bit with promiscuous women. Who are often demonized but who, I was learning, were really amazing. And when I put these ideas together…voila! I got Tracy Queen! A promiscuous woman who’s also a biologist. Here’s a snippet from the article I wrote about how I got there on Medium:
Maybe women who do gangbangs are, at an instinctual level, driven by their desire to rule the world, genetically. With a bunch of kickass babies and then a whole bunch of grandbabies and eventually, like, a freaking army of offspring. Maybe porn stars (and other women) who do gangbangs are actually the most alpha women on the planet. Maybe, in future, those of us who looked down on them for their adventurous sexual behavior will be long erased from the gene pool, while the women who had sex with fifty men in one session will be quietly ruling the world from beyond the grave.
Makes you think, huh? Read the rest on Medium!
Oh, Hey Look! A Link to the Kickstarter for Tracy Queen!
It may be gauche to point this out, but the reason I’m writing all these articles is to get more eyeballs on the Kickstarter I’m running to try to fund the first volume of the graphic novel itself. Every eyeball means a possible click, and every click means a possible backer. So hey, if you’re into the idea of helping a sex-positive, feminist AF, badass graphic novel about a sexually promiscuous woman who’s literally trying to help the world… You know what to do. (Or, if you don’t, I’ll be clear: SHARE THE HECK OUT OF THIS LINK ON SOCIAL MEDIA!) If you use the hashtag #tracyqueeniscoming, I’ll be able to see it and say thanks for your help, personally!