Former call girl Tracy Quan makes a fortune writing about her days turning tricks - but she confesses there are times when she wishes she could go back to the sex industry.
In 1998, Tracy started writing a semi-autobiographical column on the internet about the exploits of high-class call girl Nancy Chan.
The explicit and funny accounts of daily dealings with "johns", the battle to constantly stay young and fresh and the dilemmas of hiding your work from your nearest and dearest, quickly became a cult sensation.
A publishing deal soon followed, making Tracy the first person to ever secure a book deal from an internet column, and Tracy's first book, Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl, became an underground hit. However, despite her success, the author says she actually misses having sex for a living.
"There are times when I do think I would like to go back, but it would just be impossible for me now," she said. "I mean, I do like the fact that I now have more time for romance in my life and believe it or not, I am quite romantically inclined.
"I also like the fact that my work is no longer in conflict with my love life, but I do miss it because there were aspects of it which were really fun.
"It was an incredibly satisfying profession and while I enjoy writing, you have to wait much longer for a sense of satisfaction from writing. In the sex industry you get that pretty immediately. And yes, I now have to make more of a conscious effort to exercise now. When you are a sex worker you get a lot of exercise on the job, but as a writer you don't."
Tracy, who doesn't like to give her age but who is probably somewhere in her late 30s, started selling her body when she was just 14, despite wanting to be a librarian when she was growing up."
Brought up in Canada, Tracy's parents separated when she was just eight-years-old. She then spent most of her time touring round Europe in a van with her mum. Mother and daughter eventually settled in Wales, but by then, the nomadic lifestyle had taken its toll on Tracy.
"It really drove me out of my mind," she says. "I didn't feel we had a permanent home, and I soon made up my mind to run away." Tracy headed for London to move in with a boyfriend and found herself hanging out at a Marble Arch hotel "known for its action".
Her first customer was a lonely American Vietnam veteran.
She said: "I didn't know what to expect. I was very struck by the fact that I was behaving likesome kind of nurse to him, and that he was so needy, emotionally. I remember sitting in a cab afterwards and wiping off all my make-up with a Kleenex. I didn't want my boyfriend to see my make-up. I really had no idea what I was doing."
Three years later, Tracy moved to New York where she met a private "madam". From there she spent the next 10 years building up a list of high-profile clients that she saw regularly and charged US$500 a time. She then left the industry to start writing, and sex workers hailed Tracy as a hero for writing a Bridget Jones for prostitutes.
Others praised her for being the first author to deal with the realities of hooking. Tracy said: "I am really honoured by the Bridget Jones comparison because that book was such a huge inspiration.
"I have also been amazed at how well people across the world can relate to what goes on in the life of a New York call girl." The third book in the Nancy Chan series, Diary of a Jetsetting Call Girl, has just been released and Tracy's first novel is now being turned into a TV series for HBO by Sex and the City producer Darren Starr.
She said: "I am really excited about the TV series. "The pilot is being made at the moment and I can't wait to see what it is like and to see how the characters work in another medium. "We did talk about doing a movie to start with and Julia Roberts was going to play Nancy, but Darren thought the material was more suited to a TV show."
Bizarrely, despite her frank accounts of life as a sex worker, Tracy cites old-fashioned children's author Enid Blyton as one of her biggest inspirations. She even reckons her love of boarding school stories contributed to her eventual choice of profession.
She said: "When I was little I loved books about boarding schools, especially Enid Blyton's St Clare's and Malory Towers. "My parents were always trying to get me to read the Famous Five, but I just didn't like them because they were masculine and they didn't like the school books because they were too girly.
"I think that has influenced both of my careers and I think you can see similarities between my books and those stories. Both are about girls who live in these enclosed worlds where men come and go, but the friendships of the girls are at the core of everything that happens."
Tracy still lives in New York but unlike her character in her books, she is single.
She said: "I don't date as much as people think I do. I can't really go on free internet dating services like Devil Called Love even though it is my most favourite, so it is actually quite hard to meet guys. I'm too much of a romantic for that anyway and I tend to get too involved with guys. I suppose I am quite oldfashioned in that respect. I know it is a bit of a paradox, but I actually fall in love quite easily."
Tracy still keeps in touch with her hooking friends, who keep her updated on what's going on and provide plenty of new material for her novels. But otherwise, the only contact she now has with the industry is through her work with New York sex workers activist group PONY.
Tracy said: "There is a bit of a backlash against sex workers at the moment, possibly because so many people are coming into their own and being more public about what actually goes on. So a large part of what we do is trying to stop the authorities making life even harder for those in the sex industry."
Tracy has been accused of glamourising prostitution, but says she knows there are many different sides to the sex industry. She is also a staunch advocate for decriminalisation, although she says she would never encourage anyone else to enter the business.
She said: "I think there are numerous sides to the sex industry and I hope that does come across in the books. When Nancy starts working, she is in a far more dangerous situation than when she becomes a call girl and whenever she gets into any trouble, she is terrified that she is going to end up back there. The risks she took as a teenager constantly haunt her.
"I would never encourage anyone else to become a sex worker, but all I can say is that I enjoyed it. There were good days and bad days and there were things you worried about like health, not making your quota and getting arrested. But there are things to worry about in all jobs.
"In many ways it was just like being a kindergarden teacher. While you are working you assume that persona, like a teacher does with children, but when you go home or go out on a date, you need to put all that aside. The part of me that's capable of casual sex like that is channelled into my profession, but when I am not working that's not me."
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