Prostitution is selectively legal in Nevada. It’s specifically prohibited in Clark (Las Vegas), Washoe (Reno), Douglas (Tahoe), and Lincoln (very conservative) counties, while licensed in Nevada’s 12 other counties, of which eight have prostitution.
Twenty years ago, there were 36 active brothels in Nevada, 10 years ago there were 29; today, there are 18. The decline is due, according to pundits, to the scope of illegal prostitution in Las Vegas, along with the proliferation of sex advertising on the web. However, as most of the brothels are located in rural areas, anyone who’s driven around Nevada can attest that traffic is light, therefore potential customers are few and far between.
Lora Shaner retired from a career as an Air Force public-information officer, moved to Pahrump to be closer to one of her daughters, and took a job at Sheri’s Ranch, where she worked full-time for five years, taking copious notes along the way. A sensitive, insightful, and superb writer, she captured the cathouse culture so penetratingly that we were literally wowed by the manuscript when it first arrived in the slush.
The book was so good, and sold so well (in hardback, no less), that we half-expected we'd field enough similar manuscripts to launch a prostitution imprint. We were right about seeing numerous submissions -- madam stories, hooker memoirs, limo-driver tales, even a guidebook to the brothels -- but none came even close to the quality of Madam. Frankly, it wasn’t until we had to reject practically every other submission in the genre that we realized just how unique Lora Shaner’s book was.
It still is. Madam has stood the test of time and continues to sell well, 15 years and three editions after its original publication.
(On a side note, Anthony Curtis tells of a mini-disaster that befell Madam during production. It was a typical hot summer weekend day and he was sitting in his back yard, editing the manuscript, while watching his young son Sam in the swimming pool. Out of nowhere, a big gust of wind kicked up and blew the pages, nearly every one, into the water. Luckily, after a mad scramble, the pages were retrieved -- wrinkly, but salvageable.)
The book begins by setting the brothel scene, then proceeds, as you’d expect, to the ladies of the house (eight chapters), the johns (four chapters), and the support staff. In the early 2000s, Sheri’s was completely renovated into a brothel-resort, which Lora covers, along with a how-to chapter for brothel newbies.
This week’s excerpts run the gamut. They start with Chapter 3, "Come Into My Parlor," which discusses the differences between bar and parlor brothels, the layout and selection process, and the madam’s consciousness.
We then turn to the "Happy Hookers" in Chapter 5; the proverbial hooker with the heart of gold, Alice, in Chapter 8; the long Chapter 12, "The Men," with subtitles like "The Generic Client," "Dawn Patrol," "The Hunks," "Foreigners," "Birthday Boys and Virgins," and "Husbands and Husbands To Be," among many others; and finally "They Also Serve: The Support Team," Chapter 16.
All told, you can read 90 out of the 340 pages of the book in an extended excerpt at ShopLVA.com.
For more information about prostitution in Nevada, check out Legal Brothels Near Las Vegas – A Guide at ToplessVegasOnline.com/.
