Anne Bissell

Anne Bissell, author, Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor January 2004 (Published by Cleopatra International Publications)

Anne Bissell is the author of the Juliet West Series, and the creator of a brand new genre of fiction called FusionFiction™. She is the founder of Sex Industry Survivors Anonymous, and the co-founder of Sexual Abuse Survivors in Recovery Anonymous. Her mission is to de-glamorize the global, billion dollar sex industry, which she believes is not a victimless crime. Bissell has studied women in the sex industry for nearly two decades. She has worked extensively with women in the criminal justice system with the mission to help them get out of prostitution, or “the life.”

“Juliet West, the main character in Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor, is based on personal experiences. The character’s main goal is to expose the inter-relationship between childhood sexual abuse, promiscuity, and prostitution. Juliet West battles the secret, silent conspiracy of shame that is immobilizing women around the United States, and worldwide.”

Says Bissell, “Every day, a child is exploited, every day, we look the other way. If I did not tell the truth about what happened in my lifetime as a result of my own experiences as an exploited child, it would be as if I too was looking the other way. If no one tells the truth, the exploitation will become the norm.”

Bissell has delivered a message of hope and recovery into churches, recovery homes, and jails to both prostituted survivors and victims of other sex crimes. She has launched 12-step meetings for sexual abuse survivors in several Southern California cities, and is planning to expand meetings throughout the United States. It is her hope that the character Juliet West will inspire survivors to start groups such as the ones documented in the series.

Bissell, a third-generation writer and former technical writer in the computer industry, has a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Performing Arts/Journalism) from the University of Maryland. She has worked for well over fifteen years as a professional writer, and has also earned a certificate in writing from the University of California, San Diego. She lives with her husband and son in Southern California. Visit Anne online at http://www.annebissell.com

 

"Anne Bissell's Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor is a powerful, important book. Blending fiction and nonfiction, the experiences of the sex "worker" is conveyed in realistic detail, without sensationalism. The painful truths of victimization and addiction are brought to light, and offer a strong deterrent to anyone who is even thinking about entering the sex industry. It is a sympathetic, heartfelt book, and follows a woman's path from descent through emergence into a new life. I highly recommend it." Lisa M. Najavits, PhD, Director , Trauma Research Program, McLean Hospital Associate Professor in Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor" is from the trenches! A story of a lonely, alienated, abused child who fell victim to continued sexual exploitation. Anne Bissell's story is chillingly real, dramatic and typical of the lives led by hundreds of thousands of American children right here in the United States." Dr. Lois LeeFounder and PresidentChildren of the Night www.childrenofthenight.org

 

Pageonelit.com: Where did you grow up and was reading and writing a part of your life? Who were your earliest influences and why?

Anne Bissell: I shuttled between two coasts--the east and the west. Both my parents were aspiring writers. My grandmother was the author of over 52 children books. I grew up fascinated and impressed with my grandmother's books, which can still be found to this day in public libraries. My grandmother was a very significant role model to me. Because of the chaos and turbulence in the homes of both parents--my mother on the east coast--and my father on the west coast, I always found comfort in the structure, discipline and order I found in my grandmother's office.

My parents' dreams of writing were never quite realized. In fact, I was conceived, and born in Denver Colarado, where my parents old Chevy broke down on their way to becoming famous writers in New York City. My father, who wrote, but never attempted to publish over nine novels, ultimately gave up. And so I am a third generation writer, and through my father's example I learned (he actually said this to me! "One does not fail if one tries. One fails if one never tries."

Despite many rejections, and the three books written before the publication of Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor, I never gave up. Instead, over the years, I have passionately I dedicated myself to the craft of writing, which is ultimately what sustains any artist. The craft. In Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor, I believe readers will experience a blend of timely issues and "old-fashioned" literary sensibility. Since I have spent many years learning about the craft of writing, I also insisted on printing and publishing standards that are often not seen in most books, especially fiction.

 

Pageonelit.com: You are the founder of Sex Industry Anonymous (www.sexindustrysurvivors.com) and the co-founder of Sexual Abuse Survivors in Recovery Anonymous. Your mission is to de-glamorize the sex industry? Please explain. How do you define the sex industry?

Anne Bissell: I founded Sex Industry Survivors Anonymous in 1997. I co-founded Sexual Abuse Survivors In recovery in 2002 with Aspen Brock, a former porn star. My mission with the book Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor is to deglamorize the sex industry. It is my opinion that the sex industry kills, one way or another.

Our society glamorizes all aspects of the sex industry. Rappers win million dollar record deals so they can produce songs which influence multiple generation that "big pimpin'" is the way to go, and turning women into ho's is a major accomplishment. The anachronistic sexual stereotyping that follows these sociological mindsets is truly shocking, when one begins to really see that this is going not just in big cities, but any town, everywhere, at any time.

The commercialized sexual exploitation of children is our nation's silent epidemic. The purpose of Memoirs of A Sex Industry Survivor is to bring awareness to this fact.

Another important objective of the Juliet West series is to introduce a true feminine archetype, a new role model for women…Juliet West! We have turned porn starts into goddesses and pimps into Gods. Why else would Jemma Jameson (a porn star) be up on billboards in Times Square, larger than life. Why else would Snoop Dog have teamed with general motors to create the "Snoop Deville" car which is specifically designed to look like a immobile?

A Unique intersection of Media, Pop Culture and the Internet

The rapid distribution of media images, piped in via the internet, media images, and must has placed us in a new world. I call this the pornographic worldview. We now see through the eyes of the pornographer. We exist in a sexual abuse paradigm, where fashions, music videos, movies, MTV videos conspire to keep us in a trance where anything goes. Over time, we don't even realize that the stars our teen daughters emulate are younger and younger. Over time we don't realize that we have turned children into sex objects.

Perhaps this is why few people even realize that we are in the grips of a silent epidemic. At least 1 in 100 children in the United States are the victims of commercial sexual exploitation. Recently, I went into a department store when I was visiting Chicago. Why did the women's section have underwear made to look like little girls underwear, as in Sesame Street? Do women realize that they are being sold items that promote the sexualization of children?

We are mismanaging human sexuality. Sex has become commodified, and the co modification of sex ultimately leads to the disposable, throwaway nature of humanity
I was the victim of every form of sexual abuse and early childhood sexual exploitation there is. This early childhood exploitation led me into the sex industry I honestly believed I would be taking my power back. The problem with the sex industry is the that human sexuality becomes a commodity. This is mismanagement of sexuality.

Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor is one of the only books of its kind to go beneath the glamorized "Heidi Flyss," version of sex work. The book's main character, 31 year old Juliet West, has been out of the sex industry for ten years. Despite the fact that she has a successful career in a professional work environment, the secret shame she has been carrying is starting to poison her. She is having nightmares about being in the life, or the game (street terms for prostitution).

She begins a quest to discover the inter-relationship between early childhood sexual exploitation, promiscuity, and her experiences in the sex industry and her current life.

Juliet West…The Ultimate Survivor

In Juliet West, we find a character who is a true hero, and a true survivor. This book launces a trilogy. As the series of books proceed, we see Juliet heal, become whole, fight her demons to emerge triumphant.

 

Pageonelit.com: What are five words that you feel best describe the message of your book?

Anne Bissell: Daring. Groundbreaking. Poignant. Provocative. Soul-searching.

 

Pageonelit.com: How do you define the sex industry.

Anne Bissell: The sex industry is any and all forms of turning sex into a commodity. This includes porn, prostitution, internet sex, phone sex, madaming, pimping and even the global trafficking, or sex tourism as it is euphemistically called. For more information on the definition of the sex industry, please refer to www.sexindustrysurvivors.com.

 

Pageonelit.com: Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor is a powerful and honest book that is getting wonderful reviews--how did this book begin? How long did it take to write? I understand you researched for several years. How did you research this book?

Anne Bissell: I had, in my pursuit of the writing life, been attempting to write commercial fiction for many years. Each writing workshop, conference of club I joined recommended a different genre which they assured me would increase my odds of being published. Towards that end I wrote what I considered glitzy blockbusters, or saccharine sweet romances. In my pursuit of the goal of "being published" I was losing my true voice. The objective of any true writer, in my opinion, is to speak from one's own authentic voice. I had already worked as a call girl--why would I once again try to prostitute my own talents! Thankfully, I started Memoirs of a Sex Industry Survivor in the early nineties. It was the real story, my story, and it is the book I had to write. The book, and the trilogy that follows that launch the Juliet West series, truly represent my truth, and I believe the truth of many survivors, particularly women, who have suffered from sexual exploitation.

The first three books of the Juliet West series have been in development for the last ten years. Juliet's story is a reflection of my life in the early nineties. Juliet is about to get married for the second time, and although she hasn't been involved in prostitution for ten years, she still feels as if she were living in a double world, a false world.

 

 

Pageonelit.com: How did you research this book?

Anne Bissell:  As I have said, the book is based on my personal experience. I have collected the stories of survivors for many years. For example, in Memoirs, Juliet West tells the secret about being in the sex industry for the first time in front of a group of incarcerated women. Several of the chapters in Memoirs are a dramatized version of the visits I actually experienced in the women's jail.

 

Pageonelit.com: What is sexual addiction and how many forms does it take?

Anne Bissell:  Any addiction is characterized by increasing tolerance, an inability to control the one's need to consume that which they are addicted to, and an unfortunate progression of increasingly devastating consequences. In Memoirs of a Sex Industry, the concept that the sex industry itself can become addictive to participants is completely new. No book, anywhere, fiction or nonfiction has addressed this. The character Juliet talks about her own addiction to prostitution, and how she lost control of the game. Please refer to www.sexindustrysurvivors.com for more information about addiction to the sex industry.

 

Pageonelit.com: What is FusionFiction?

Anne Bissell:  FusionFiction is both an imprint of Cleopatra International Publications, and a brand. The publishers of the Juliet West Series felt that this was such an innovative concept, they wanted to trademark it. FusionFiction is a blend of fiction and nonfiction--kind of like what reality TV is to television. FusionFiction is also a technique I devised to make people think.

 

 

Pageonelit.com:Why do you write? What do you hope to achieve with Memoirs?

Anne Bissell:  Juliet West is a sex-crimes detective. Her weapons are not violence. But truth, and the writing life is a path, a lifestyle. I write because we are now in what I call a pornographic worldview, and most of us have not really thought about how we got there. For the last fifty or so years, our nation has been given doses of increasingly pornographic images. Within the context of these images, children are turned into consumable sex objects. The trafficking of women and children for the purposes of what is really no more than sexual slavery is not just a third world issue. It is going on right now in the United States. Recently in Oklahoma, when nineteen pimps were busted, their charges were not for pimping adult women. We need to address the facts. We have merged with the cultural icons. There has been an intersection of media, myth, technology that is unprecedented. And that is the main idea behind FusionFiction. In Memoirs, Juliet West is a myth detective. She is always questioning. She asks questions like, did reading The Happy Hooker as a teen (a complete glamorization of prostitution by former Madame and Penthouse columnist Xaviera Hollender) contribute to her choice to enter the life? Of course she did.

If we are not careful, if we do not wake up to what is going on right now in our nation--the commercialized sexual exploitation of children--there will be a terrible price to pay. Memoirs of A Sex Industry Survivor, via the new groundbreaking genre of FusionFiction, is a wake up call to any who would casually deny the connection of porn with sex crimes.

 

Pageonelit.com: What has been your feedback from readers?

Anne Bissell:  Despite the feedback from my mother and sister, who I am no longer speaking with (they didn't like the way they were depicted in te novel) the response has been incredible. From men and women alike, they find the story to be utterly compelling and most say, "I couldn't put the book down."

 

Pageonelit.com: What's next?

Anne Bissell:  Since this is the first book in a trilogy, which then begins the Juliet West series, I have been hard at work at the next book. This book will be out in early 2005.

 

Pageonelit.com: What was the last book you read?

Anne Bissell:  East of Eden, John Steinbeck