PRESS RELEASE(February/2004)

 Child's Play? A Warning to Parents as A

Not-So-Happy-Hooker Unravels a Mystery

"No one's ever been born a whore," alleges Ann Bissell.  Something powerful has to happen to make a little girl grow up into a lady of the evening. Bissell should know. A "reformed" prostitute who started selling herself for money at the age of seventeen, she tells the gripping story of her turning away from prostitution in Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor.  This powerful new novel sends a chilling wake-up call to anyone even thinking about entering the sex industry.

 Juliet West is about to be married for the second time, to a conservative Christian who may not be comfortable with the idea that his fiancee has a bit more sexual experience than she's led him to believe.  Or, that she's having affair after affair as she meticulously attends to the plans for their wedding. Add to it that Juliet's scheduled to appear on the "Donahue" show to discuss the new 12-step program for women with pasts like hers and you have the recipe for a story that might be funny if it weren't true. Indeed, every part of Juliet's story is imbued with Ms. Bissell's irrepressible wit and ear for irony as she jumps back and forth in time searching for the cause of her "addiction" to what she broadly labels "the sex industry."

  The root, as she discovers, is childhood sexual abuse, " America' s dirty little secret," according to Bissell. "400,000 children in this country are victims of the sex trade each year," says Bissell in her Southern California living room where she now lives with her husband and son. "From juvenile pornography and street prostitution to selling sex at school, at least one in every 100 American children is involved in sexually exploitive activities. It's an epidemic. " Bissell, a teenage runaway, contends that her involvement in the sex industry is directly related to the sexual abuse she endured, abuse that began as early as age five.  The author is indeed a survivor, who by the age of seventeen had been incested, molested, raped, and prostituted.

 "It's not surprising," Bissell observed over a cup of coffee, "that most teens and young adults who enter the sex industry are victims of childhood abuse." Says Bissell, "I had to tell the truth about what happened to me.  If no one tells the truth, if we look away, then exploitation will become the norm."  Out of the sex industry for many years now, Bissell says she still suffers from anxiety, nightmares, and horrific flashbacks, and likens the reverberations of a life on the streets to the post-traumatic stress suffered by soldiers in war. Her goal is to "de-glamorize" the billion-dollar worldwide sex industry, particularly prostitution, which she sees as being far from a victimless crime.

"The victim is the prostitute. And chances are that prostitution is a direct result of having been sexually victimized as a child." Bissell has studied women in the sex industry for nearly two decades. She has worked extensively with women in the criminal justice system to help them get out of prostitution, or "the life." "I came from a white middle-class suburban background. Trust me, if it happened to me it could happen to your child or the child of someone you know."

 Daring, poignant, and provocative, Juliet's story is, in essence, a story of triumph.  She's one of the lucky ones who made it out of the sex industry alive. Not everyone is as fortunate. "Throwaway children turn into throwaway adults. I can't tell you how many files I've seen, and murdered women I've known, given the sardonic designation " NHI ," "No Humans Involved" when the victim is a prostitute."

   In Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor Anne Bissell has crafted a quick-paced, engrossing drama that should serve as a call to all parents not to look the other way if they suspect their child is being sexually exploited.  To that extent, her soul-searching new novel seeks to prove that some good can come out of the worst of situations.  

Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor is the first book in a trilogy, and it launches the Juliet West series. Juliet West battles the silent conspiracy of shame that immobilizes sexual abuse survivors around the United States , and worldwide.  

The Juliet West series is a brand new kind of mystery.  The mystery of the lost female soul.  This series launches a new genre for the 21st century called FusionFiction.  FusionFiction, is a blend of fiction and nonfiction, some might even call it "Reality Fiction."  The series is published by Cleopatra International Publications, which specializes in women's issues.