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Life with Lucky
by
L.Z. Hansen

“Zoe… Zoe…”
I hear a scared muffled whisper from the other side of the door to our apartment. I was counting change at the kitchen table and had stacks of dimes, quarters, nickels and pennies in neat rows. The sound of Tommy’s voice made me jump, spilling the coins over.
“Who is it?” I playfully teased.
“It’s me!” he said.
‘Me,’ was my boyfriend, and partner in crime, Tommy. We’d been together six months, but it seemed like forever.
Tommy was a cool looking rock dude with straight straggly black hair, pale never seen sunlight skin, and the skinniest legs imaginable. We borrowed each other’s clothing, read the same books, listened to the same music, ate the same food; we even looked alike. We shared everything, in our perfect little Lower East Side haven.
I opened the front door as Tommy raced past me, over to our single window that looked over Orchard Street, where he quickly pulled the blind down.
“Baby what’s wrong? I asked, concerned. Tommy looked scared. His ghostly pallor was shinny from perspiration, his usually pinned eyes big as saucers.
He lit a Newport cigarette and sat down on the edge of the couch catching his breath, and looked up at me. Read More

Which appears in The Unbearables Big Book of Sex published by Autonomedia-

“I was honored to be among so many literary outlaws. It’s a rare collection of artists who haven’t sold out and do what they do well, go buy The Big Book of Sex.”

GOING DOWN IN GOTHAM

CHAPTER ONE

Alone in Gotham

On the wall across from where I was standing was a picture that caught my eye. I was drawn to the ancient old barn and a small duck next to a couple bails of hay, the sky was a stormy blue, and a dark winding road veered off to the right. There was something about the road that intrigued me. It appeared to be an entrance way into a darkened tunnel, a gateway into mysterious and secret world hidden from most.

My mind drifted to images of my mother reading me “The Secret Garden.” A story about a child who discovered a forgotten magical place that would come alive when visited. The tangled vines and over grown flower beds knotted in weeds seemed so inviting to me. I recalled wishing I could jump into that book and live there. I felt safety, solitude and beauty in that story, and this mysterious painting made me feel the same.

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Check out Ho, Ho, Hos: Sex at the Holiday Party, Steve Lewis’ review of my holiday bash.

In Vegas it’s all around, as obvious as the neon, but here you have to squint a little, ignore the lights and sound to see it. The clubs are filled with the unemployed, who wear nice shoes, live in apartments, and stay out late every night. Some actually have parental support or have their own money, but many depend on the kindness of strangers.

With that in mind, it’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas everywhere I ho. This Friday at 9pm at the Bowery Poetry Club, my pal Zoe Hanson will host her Sex Worker Literati Ho-Ho-Ho-Holiday Party. It’s readings from ho’s, hookers, call girls, and rent boys—with help from friends and allies. It is an xxxmas xtravaganza, with stories from Raff from Cycle Sluts from Hell, Michael Alago & Keith Caputo, and many more perverts or reformed perverts. Speaking of which, our favorite rabbit, Heather Litteer, is dancing. Zoe told me, “These monthly readings have picked up a rather nice following, and I enjoy hosting. I have a Sonny & Cher thing going with David Sterry, it’s rather amusing to take the piss out of him, which my audience finds hilarious! Of course done with kindness & just a touch of Zoe domination!” From the press release:

“Sex Worker Literati is the slutty child of the groundbreaking and internationally acclaimed anthology Hos, Hookers, Call Girls and Rent Boys, which shocked America by rocketing onto the front page of the Sunday New York Times Book Review, and gave voice to PhDs and high school dropouts, soccer moms and jailbirds, $5,000 a night call girls, $10 crack hos and hard-working rent boys. David Henry Sterry and Zoe Hansen will ride herd over an all-star lineup of the finest ho writer/performers money can buy.”

There will be a sex worker quiz and giveaway, and there’s no cover – the first time this crew hasn’t charged in decades. The press release comes with a tag line that sounds rather clever: “In the exchange of sex for money a window opens into the soul.” I will ask one of my ex-wives to explain it to me, they should know.

Besides David Henry Sterry, who is described as “Ex-teen manchild ho, ex-sitcom actor, Huffington Post muckraker, and author,” and Zoe “Ex-madame, ex-junky, ex-hooker, and memoirist,” readers will include Mary Raffaele, a former metal queen singer in Cycle Sluts From Hell, who wrote a memoir chronicling misadventures of a Midwestern girl who moved to New York to seek glamour in the lowest of places; Christina Cicchelli, a AVN nominee and Feminist Porn Award winner; Matthew Lawrence, a writer and curator who will tell tales of why he wasn’t a very good escort; Keith Caputo, ex-Life Of Agony front man who once worked with Flea & Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Björk, David Bowie, and the Pixies; and Michael Alago, who is famous for discovering Metallica. Michael is a talent scout, producer and writer who worked with Nina Simone, Johnny Rotten, Rob Zombie and Cyndi Lauper. He also turned to photography and put out the book “Rough Gods.” This event will of course attract all the unusual suspects including sweet, innocent me.

About Hos, Hookers, Call Girls & Rent boys:

“An eye-opening, astonishing, honest and funny collection from those who really have lived on the edge in a parallel universe… Unpretentious and riveting, their tales are also graphic, politically incorrect and mostly unquotable in this newspaper.”

Toni Bentley, NY Times

The Secret Lives of Prostitute Moms

by Tracy Quan

Mothers who sell sex for a living face a whole different style of life-work balance. From dealing with judgmental teachers to faking orgasms before the kids get home from school, Tracy Quan on the difficulties of living a double life.
What’s the worst thing you could say about a person’s mother? Everyone seems to agree that Dez Bryant had a right to be offended when an NFL executive, vetting Bryant for a draft, asked him if his mom was a prostitute.
I see no reason to make assumptions about Bryant’s mom, and I’m glad the NFL apologized, but the fact remains that there are many children in the world for whom the true answer is yes.
Zoe Hansen, a writer and former prostitute raising a child with her husband in Manhattan’s East Village, has her own maternal take on this.

“If someone asking my son if his mother was a whore is the worst possible thing that happens to him, I’ll consider him extremely fortunate and my job well done,” she says. And yet, Zoe doesn’t feel that her 7 year old is ready to learn about reproduction, and she wants to protect him from the facts of her own life “so he can be a child for as long as
possible.”

Read the full article here.

Four of us filed into the small dimly lit living room to line up and introduce ourselves to a new client. Dani wore a skimpy black lace teddy that barely contained her latest purchase: huge fake tits. Standing next to her was Desiree, skin black as night, long blond hair cascading down her back in waves of weaves. Jennifer, in a waist cinching corset, had short red pixie styled hair and freckled skin. Then there was me. I had real breasts, no fake orange tan, and shiny jet black hair that went down to my ass.

It was almost one a.m. I’d seen five clients and was satisfied with my earnings. My eyes lazily focused on a shaggy haired client sitting slouched in our ‘hot-seat.’ Adrenaline surged through my body. I looked to my left. Dani raised her painted eyebrow in a ‘he’s mine’ look. On my right Desiree jabbed me in the ribs. I whispered “shush.” We all stood there thinking the same thing: “Damn, this man is hot!” We sometimes made remarks about a handsome man, but not often. I liked the way his jeans were tight around thick muscular thighs. Under a mop of golden brown hair he had dark eyes, a prominent nose and a chiseled jaw. He made me nervous.

Dani was first. She pushed her surgeon bought breasts out and used a very Marilyn Monroe-esque voice I’d never heard before.

“Oh… Sorry, me first? OOP’.… Ok then, (giggle giggle) Helloo I’m Daniella.” She smiled a very none Dani coquettish smile. I rolled my eyes. He nodded his head at Dani and grinned. The client was sitting forward with his arm sticking up and bent at the elbow, fist on thigh. Very masculine pose. I could feel the women all exhale together. He was clearly comfortable. Not at all nervous, unlike most the men who sat in that chair.

‘Please God not me I dont want him. It’s too embarrassing to fuck a guy I might see out in my neighborhood, someone I know I’d date. Please God let someone else make the money, don’t let him pick me.’

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A Penthouse Forum cover story that was based on an interview with Zoe. Her name was changed to Dyana for legal reasons because she was still in the sex industry when she granted the interview.

The Lady is a Pimp

I was interviewed by Steve Lewis of BlackBook about Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, & Rent Boys.

Read the whole interview here.

My short story “Anti-Semitism as Fetish” was published on Carnal Nation on December 1st 2009.

“Lizzy, your eight o’clock is here. Room three. Hurry.” Ingrid yelled from the office.

I’d been lounging in the living room with the other women. I stubbed my cigarette out and pulled myself up from the couch

“On my way up now.” I yelled back.

I had been prepared for Sidney Glick, a client of the house who favored domme sessions. We had never met. Ingrid had directed him to me as I was the only girl on schedule who didn’t mind doing dominance sessions. I lunged up the stairs two at a time in my six-inch heels to the third floor. I knocked on the door and walked in, morphing into Mistress.

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HEROIN MY LOVE

by LZ Hansen

I was a sweet  looking child. I had a long thick mane of brown hair, that seemed to be constantly tangled, pure white skin and a pout, that kept people at bay. I was shy, withdrawn and at that age obeyed my parents…. And I had a secret. A secret I had cultivated from overheard conversations between adults, American TV shows, and later rock n roll memoirs I obsessed over. My secret was that I aspired to be a junkie, a really good junkie.

I copied the fashions of skinny straggly haired women who smoked unfiltered cigarettes and had far away eyes.

When I reached my teens and tired of the other substances I was indulging. I found heroin. It had been a fifteen year search and I was… excited. More than excited. I was turned on. I was a virgin on her honeymoon.

My new runaway boyfriend lived in a squat in Earls Court not far from my parents home. It was a teenage hangout, home, shooting gallery. I had a plan. At 5:30 Friday afternoon. I’d meet Tommy at his squat where he would have the drugs waiting. My heroin, my dream, my future.

I wanted to feel all of it, experience every moment. My life was in front of me. This was more than a love affair or a crush on a boy this was the gateway into myself, this was me, heroin was me.

Butterflies fought in my stomach, the anticipation. We sat on the floor…Tommy began to mix my hit with expert handling. He measured half a syringe of water and scooped a small amount of perfectly brown smooth beautiful heroin into a dirty spoon. With concentration and steady hands he held the spoon over a cigarette lighter, until the brown mixture almost boiled. Tommy bit off a tiny piece of a cigarette filter, rolled it between his filthy thumb and forefinger, and dropped it into the sweet mixture. With a old bent syringe he drew up my hit. Tommy tied my thin arm tightly with his leather belt and smiled at me. Holding the syringe to the light he flicked out an air bubble, and licked the tip of the needle.

I wasn’t nervous or scared I had waited for for, so long. I needed it. My lips felt loose, wet, trembling. He jammed the spike in my arm, shock at first…but… the pain felt good.  I saw the blood register, thick red virgin blood swirled up into the barrel in a slow dance, he plunged the muddy heroin downward, and immediately like a blissful transcending  orgasm, the heroin hit my mind, my crotch, my breasts. I could taste it in my veins feel it swirl in my wrists, my cheeks, my eyeballs, warm soft warmth.

I had had my first sexual orgasm when I was a young teenager. I was kissing and making out with a boy named Chris. He was a smart, handsome, & went to a good English public school. We were under the covers in his bed. After a long slow make out session he reached into my underpants and began to rub my clit. We touched each other softly, it was very sweet and innocent. With his fingers on my vagina suddenly I was shook. A flood, a wave of warmth and bliss curdled my blood. I was lifted into another world my eyes rolled back in my head as I came in a shocking surprise.

As Tommy pulled the spike out of my arm I sunk back against the side of the bed, limp. I felt him pull the belt from my arm and ask if “I was all right?” I opened my eyes to try and focus. I felt completely fucked.  As the hours passed my mind drifted. Images flickered, snapshots, moments in my life, horrific terrifying childhood pictures sizzled in a strobe like effect …but they… didn’t bother me any longer. I saw colors, reds and gold’s. Masturbating naked nymphs danced, and uncircumcised angles played in my mind. I tripped and fell into a warm soft comforting womb and cried in the devils arms.

I saw my soul.…I was in love, truly passionately, obsessively. I had been given my wings, my first time, I was on my way…..

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I’m guest-blogging on thedirtygirldiaries.com, run by Jodi Sh. Doff.

“Having graduated from U.C.L.A (University on the Corner of Lenox Ave) Zoe Hansen’s words and vivid descriptions take me back to the street I knew and grew up on. “My American Dream” is a compelling story of striving for just that, her dream, via the oldest profession. This is a totally original tale of one womens life that will make you laugh, relate and raise an eyebrow. Words of wisdom in a time when New York was a real jungle, you were hunting or you were the hunted…”.

Eric Weinstein, Associate producer of Entourage

source

Lenny Kaye on *My American Dream*:

“Zoe Hansen takes us on a ribald guided tour of the sexual netherworld, a harrowing and potentially sordid journey redeemed by good humor, transcendence, and the instinct of a survivor.”

Author: “You Call It Madness“

I just received the sample jacket covers for my soon-to-be-published novel, My American Dream – Going Down in Gotham:

Photography and Design by Scott Gillis.

Josh Alan Friedman, author of Tales of Times Square had this to say about *My American Dream*:

“My American Dream, Going Down in Gotham” highlights an era of New York prostitution, where the dark nooks and crannies of Man at his Worst are illuminated beyond the reach of mere psychologists. Zoe Hansen emerged from this netherworld of subterfuge, a gifted writer bearing witness.”

Josh Alan Friedman, author of Tales of Times Square

Danny Fields had this to say about *My American Dream*:

Zoe Hansen’s ‘My American Dream, Going Down in Gotham’ reveals a sensibility that is loving, brutal, touchingly and glamorously human, and savagely female. We are in a very modern survival mode, and there is never a titanium-steel slicing instrument far from Hansen’s hand, nor a happy/helpful hug. She sees the “Top” and “Bottom” sides of the sex industry, and sails into, through and above the many manifestations thereof. The legitimacy of The Industry, by the way, in never annoyingly questioned; anyone who doubts its amazing reach, in these days, must be living in the caves where Iranians are building atomic bombs.
Her narrative is dense and swift, the quicksand of sex on pages that will be turned with appetite aroused, and the reader’s eyebrows rising higher than you ever thought possible. Sex and the city of New York, together at last!

Danny Fields, author of “Linda McCartney: A Portrait.”

Buy Linda McCartney: A Portrait by Danny Fields from Amazon.com

From the  New York Times review: Hos Hookers Call girls & Rent boys’ Anthology

An eye-opening, occasionally astonishing, brutally honest and frequently funny collection of prose and poetry by all kinds of sex workers.

…actual bios for the contributors make for provocative reading and can leave one feeling like an unadventurous slacker. Zoe Hansen “achieved stability through methadone maintenance and felt it was time to open her own brothel, Sterling Ladies, which was on Park Avenue and 21st Street.”

It was the first of five brothels she opened during the next three years.” (I’m starting to get a brothel-opening feeling myself.)