Tracy Quan's
Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl
Salon presents excerpts from Tracy Quan's new novel "Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl," which picks up where her original Salon series, Nancy Chan: Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, left off. The series is part of Salon Premium, but the first one's free!
An introductory note from the author:
Who is Nancy Chan? Ever since Nancy Chan's diary began running in Salon, I've been asked by readers and relatives, by prospective and former boyfriends: "Are you Nancy Chan? How much of Nancy is really you? How much of Tracy Quan's life are you revealing?"
I'm unable to give a completely straight answer because, well, I am like Nancy in some ways. Fact and fiction are often blurred in Nancy's life, and in mine. Like Nancy, I ran away from home during my teens, and I know what it's like to take pride in a job while keeping it a secret.
When the original series ended -- with Matt slyly inserting himself into Nancy's apartment to deliver a surprise marriage proposal -- I received hundreds of e-mails from readers wanting to know how Nancy would handle being a full-fledged fiancée: Could a girl like Nancy really give it all up for a guy when she's at the top of her career as a call girl? How big was that engagement ring, anyway?
My working-girl readers were especially intrigued. Contrary to the latest stereotype (that prostitution is just "sex work"), selling sex is much more than a job. Having sex for money can become a way of relating to men -- and enjoying men -- that competes with your romantic life. Successful hookers are sharp-witted, hardheaded and hardworking but many are also diehard romantics. We want our emotional fantasies to come true, perhaps because we spend so much time fulfilling other people's fantasies.
When you run your own business, you are married to your job. When this job is also a secret from your boyfriend, a proposal of marriage may represent the fulfillment of a fantasy but it brings real-life complications -- as Nancy is about to discover in this episode and in chapters to come.
As to whether I am currently guilty of leading a double life, planning to marry a guy like Matt, secretly in love with a wealthy client, or coming out with a sequel to the current novel, I have decided to follow the advice of Nancy's lawyer, and take the Fifth.
-- Tracy Quan
Episode 1
Ménage à quoi? When two girls are doing one guy, it's hard to keep the signals straight.
By Tracy Quan
[07/09/01]
Episode 2
Every girl has a favorite Jack seemed like the perfect client, until we started getting those creepy phone calls.
Second of a series.
By Tracy Quan
[07/13/01]
Episode 3
Call-girl I.D. Using different names makes remembering johns even easier, but it can get you into trouble at a cocktail party. Third in a series.
By Tracy Quan
[07/16/01]
Episode 4
Last-minute orgasm Time flies when you're being hustled by a veteran john. Fourth in a series.
By Tracy Quan
[07/19/01]
Episode 5
New York trollops I was in no mood to hang around with politically correct activist sex workers who didn't know where to wax. Fifth in a series.
By Tracy Quan
[07/23/01]
Episode 6
The loneliness of a longtime working girl How could I explain myself to my boyfriend, or to naive Allie -- who had never really paid her dues? Sixth in a series.
By Tracy Quan
[07/26/01]
Episode 7
My first trick I was so new to the game, I had no idea that 14-year-olds could charge more than 19-year-olds. Seventh in a series.
By Tracy Quan
[07/30/01]
Episode 8
Survival sex Three of my regulars from Jeannie's Dream Dates had given me their cards. I decided to call them. Last in a series.
By Tracy Quan
[08/02/01]