Switch is the first part of a four part novel called Switch: a novel. The novel is the story of Johnny and Maeve’s adventures.

Switch is the story of Johnny’s forced consent to a strange schedule created by Maeve, the gorgeous wife of his friend, for a week’s events including prostitution and group sex. Chapter One (Sunday, September 21, 1958) introduces the two main characters and The Schedule. Chapters Two through Eight each portray a single day’s events, Monday, September 22 through Sunday, September 28, 1958.

The next part of Switch: a novel is called The Baby Sitter.

Links to Chapters
Story Codes and Disclaimer
Research
Writing Process

Links to Chapters
There are eight chapters, each covers one day’s events. A ninth link is to The Schedule referred to throughout the story. The Schedule appears at the end of the first chapter.

Switch is about 40,000 words long — I hope you enjoy it. If you do (or do not) let me know, contact me.

Story Codes and Disclaimer
This story, more than my others, perhaps deserves story codes. Here they are:

Predominately heterosexual — MF, M+F, but also FF, M+FF (last two chapters).

Themes: Blackmail, prostitution, humiliation, gangbang, exhibitionism.
Oral, anal, vegetables/objects

BDSM themes: Bondage, whipping, dominant/submissive
There is a scary “captive” sequence where a character is bound and hooded, humiliated and worse. As a warning, this sequence really bothered my first reader.

No one is killed or seriously hurt in this story. Most sex is consensual.

None of the sex is safe sex, even by the standards of the time. I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone gets the clap. Oh well. Take it from Bingo, while waiting for one’s results for an HIV test is not the time to begin thinking about safe sex.

DISCLAIMER: Some of the things the characters do in this story are seen as offensive or frightening (even terrifying) by some if not most people. Please don’t surprise anyone. Always ask first. Have an agreed upon safe word even if you don’t do BDSM.

Research
Four sources provided background about prostitutes and prostitution used in Switch.

Interviews with two punk prostitutes in the 1980s punk and new wave culture zine Re Search were helpful. Here are three quotes from the article (Andrea Juno. “Punk Prostitutes.” Re Search 1 (1980): 32-34):

R/S: Aren’t you married?
X: I’m sort of dissolving that relationship — nothing to do with my job though. Before I met my present husband sometimes I’d work all day and see nine guys and I’d come home, change my clothes and go to the bars and cruise. One’s work and the other’s pleasure! (Page 32)

R/S: Do you have orgasms with clients very often?
X: Yeah, I do! Actually it was a really good thing that happened to me as a result of working. In high school I had a boyfriend that could do it for me but then I spent the next 5 years unable . . . [then] I started to break through this thing I had built up . . . and pretty soon I was able to come — I can have orgasms almost whenever I wish. (Page 33)

R/S: Do you ever feel guilt?
M: Some people are so hung up in morals — they think, I could never do this — but I tell you, it’s just like drinking a glass of water. This is a weird way to put things — but once you murder someone it becomes that much easier to murder and murder again. No matter what you do in life — if you’re straight and you become a homosexual or a lesbian — the first couple of times, it’s weird, but it becomes easier and easier. (Page 34)

An interview with a madam in a book seen at a college library years ago (the title is long lost to me) provided the germ for the story Maeve tells Johnny Wednesday night. I’ve done an internet search, and the book may be Pauline Tabor’s Pauline’s: Memoirs of the Madam on Clay Street (Louisville, KY: Touchstone Publishing Co., 1972) which recounts the activities of a depression era madam working in Kentucky, Illinois and Indiana.

The experiences of a former pimp were recounted by him on the public radio show This American Life in the show “Pimp Anthropology,” (4/16/99 Episode 127). The hour-long story recounts events in the late 1970s. You can listen to it . The website for This American Life has an additional portion of the interview, which was edited out. Go to their web site, search for “Pimp Anthropology” and you will see a link on the page that comes up so you can listen to it.

Gabriel Vogliotti’s The Girls of Nevada (Secaucus, NJ: The Citadel Press, 1975) was an important source. The author devotes most of the book to Joe Conforte and The Mustang Ranch, but does describe Joe’s early experiences as a pimp. One of the (few, in spite of the title) women, “Carol,” in the book provided a model for Maeve. A wealthy seventeen-year-old runaway (she drives off in her Jaguar), “Carol” worked in a house for several months until “rescued” by her even wealthier uncle. Of course, they had sex.

Catherine Millet’s The Sexual Life of Catherine M. (New York: Grove Press, 2002) provided inspiration. Catherine never prostituted herself, but is extremely sexually adventurous. In some instances, Maeve’s experiences are loosely modeled on Catherine’s.

Writing Process
The rough draft for Switch was written in a little over a week’s time in the 2003 holiday season. The first Sunday and The Schedule were written, then a chart was prepared for Maeve’s activities as a prostitute. The prostitute sections for Monday through Friday were written next. The evening sections followed in chronological sequence except the part occurring at Ronald’s house the last day, which was written before Thursday evening’s part. During revision, short sections were added to some of the evening and weekend portions. Switch was written as a respite between the second and third parts of Scum.

Stories
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