How does one discover a new writer that will rock one's world? Maybe a friend recommends a book. Maybe a book won an award. Or maybe you go to the Historical Novel Society Conference and witness an evening of sex scenes read out loud by their authors, a tradition initiated some years ago by Diana Gabaldon, who was the master of ceremonies.
Erika Mailman read a sex scene from Woman of Ill Fame (Heyday Books, 2007). I immediately bought and read the entire book, and I've been re-reading it ever since.
What is so special about Woman of Ill Fame? A low-rent prostitute travels to Gold Rush San Francisco hoping to strike it big. She runs afoul of a serial killer who prefers to kill "soiled doves," and leaves an item of her clothing on each of his victims. She has to find the killer before he gets to her, while climbing the career ladder from low-rent prostitute to higher-rent prostitute, a career filled with its own perils.
What this plot summary does not do is convey Nora Simm's voice, and it is her voice that enthralls.
I've been so enthralled with this book ever since I first read it that I decided to spend some time thinking about what makes it work so well.
As every writer knows, a good opening is essential. Let's look at the opening to Woman of Ill Fame. The story has a great opening sentence:
While the other passengers disembarked, I remained in the galley lying on a rice bag.
Just fifteen words, and we know we are on a ship, sometime in the past, and our narrator is staying aboard either because she is enjoying herself too much to leave or because she is injured and cannot leave—a lovely foreshadowing of the sex and violence that is to come.
The opening also gives us a good look at Nora Simm's character traits. If we go by David Freeman's character diamond, then we know a good fiction character will have four or five principal traits, some of which might be at odds or in tension with each other. Here are 368 words of the opening, which give us a good look at Nora's Traits:
Chapter 1
While the other passengers disembarked, I remained in the galley lying on a rice bag. My skirts were hitched up around my waist and my toes pointed toward the upper deck. The galley mate was young and full of vigor most ways, so I couldn’t exactly account for why this was taking so long. Fortunately, my nausea was subsiding since we were tucked into harbor, far from the roiling waves.
I had agreed to this last-minute tryst as he said he’d not only pay but also lug my trunk to the dock, saving me the porter’s fee. So while my heart was tugging toward the city our ship was now tied to, I attended to Sir Slow-to-Close, nipping at his earlobes and running my hands to the sweaty aspects of him that made him male—the parts that weren’t already plunging and bucking.
“Ah, but you’re built well,” I said to spur him further.
It was a stretch of truth the women of ill fame often used. He was skinny yet, but beginning to develop the muscles that would bring him into manhood. With his trousers around his ankles afore he dipped his ladle in, he looked like he should be at home still running chores for his father, not halfway around the world in a new port.
“Built as well as a pup his age would be,” said the cook, who had to keep stepping around us.
“Must you ruin the young ones as well, miss?”
“Keep your tongue in your head,” I said crossly. “Ain’t he got the working mechanisms?” “Perhaps not, which would explain this torturous flailing,” said the cook, gathering his stirring spoons together in a clatter.
I looked up at my lad’s face, searching for signs of facial hair or aught to indicate his age. Just then, as our eyes locked, he gave a tiny cry, his face crinkled, and I felt the coursing of his natural fluids. “That’s done,” he said, and immediately pulled out and stood. He made no gaspy blows of gratitude or amaze like I’d expected, but simply buttoned up his trousers. His cheeks were red with effort, but his eyes were dull.
Mailman, Erika (2013-11-11). Woman of Ill Fame (Kindle Locations 58-69). Kindle Edition.
What are Nora's traits?
Nora has lots of attitude, most notably her confidence in what she does:
I attended to Sir Slow-to-Close, nipping at his earlobes and running my hands to the sweaty aspects of him that made him male—the parts that weren’t already plunging and bucking.
“Ah, but you’re built well,” I said to spur him further.
It was a stretch of truth the women of ill fame often used.
Another aspect of Nora's attitude is her pride in doing her job well. She's so proud, in fact, that she expects others to acknowledge her skill:
He made no gaspy blows of gratitude or amaze like I’d expected,
She understands that socially she is the lowest of the low, but she is almost impossible to embarrass, as we can see from her exchange with the cook:
“Built as well as a pup his age would be,” said the cook, who had to keep stepping around us. “Must you ruin the young ones as well, miss?”
“Keep your tongue in your head,” I said crossly. “Ain’t he got the working mechanisms?” “Perhaps not, which would explain this torturous flailing,” said the cook, gathering his stirring spoons together in a clatter.
Her sense of her low social position leads us to her drive, the line of action she will pursue, which is to improve her social position, not by giving up prostitution (that would conflict with her confidence in who she is and her pride in doing her job well) but by becoming a higher class of prostitute.
A prostitute filled with confidence and pride, that we meet as she deflowers a minor? These are qualities and actions that could make her easy to dislike. But Nora has two other qualities that endear her to us. Her most endearing trait is her sense of humor, evidenced in her exchange with the cook. Nora's sense of humor is a sharp contrast to the sense of shame most of the other characters in the book have about sex, and it's refreshing, even to a jaded modern reader.
Nora's complete lack of self consciousness is also endearing, as she is clearly capable of plopping herself down and doing her job right in the middle of the kitchen, and force the cook to manoeuver around her to do his job.
Also endearing is Nora's sense of compassion, as we see in her reaction to the boy who has chosen to lose his virginity with her:
He was skinny yet, but beginning to develop the muscles that would bring him into manhood. With his trousers around his ankles afore he dipped his ladle in, he looked like he should be at home still running chores for his father, not halfway around the world in a new port.
So, we have a great opening hook in the opening sentence and the opening situation. We have a heroine with sharply defined qualities that are in tension with each other, and she has an interesint problem: she has just arrived in a new place with not enough money to pay a porter to lug her trunk to the dock, so she's doing a barter with a cabin boy, even though she's seasick and ready to get off the ship and start exploring this new city where she's come to make her fortune. A great opening hook that we experience through the eyes of a vividly delineated character.
Dean Wesley Smith has often said that setting is best conveyed through the character's opinion. Here is Nora's reaction to her first glimpse of 1904 San Francisco:
Up on deck with the wind mocking my chignon I was shocked by the hundreds of ships rotting at the wharf, their masts tilted. I crossed myself, hoping it wasn’t a sinister omen. Certainly didn’t look a happy sight to welcome the newcomers to California. It reminded me of the cant and skew of stones in an old graveyard. I overheard the boatswain saying the forty-niners had dashed off ship, all hands and captains included, leaving the boats to fester in the salty bay.
Mailman, Erika (2013-11-11). Woman of Ill Fame (Kindle Locations 79-83). . Kindle Edition.
Note the sensory description of the wind in her hair and crossing herself, which convey their meaning through the sense of touch as well as sight. The same description continues as she looks up at the city on the hills before her, its meaning conveyed through sight and sound:
I looked up at the hillside of this new city, smoke puffing from chimneys on this dim day. Tents were as plentiful as shacks, and I thought I could hear the far-off canvas flapping against the wind.
“This here’s the place to assay my future,” I murmured.
Mailman, Erika (2013-11-11). Woman of Ill Fame (Kindle Locations 84-86). . Kindle Edition.
It's quite clear from her use of the verb "assay" that she's here just like any gold-rush miner, to earn a fortune, fast, in a situation that has opportunities not available elsewhere. The masts and the graveyard promise trouble but also stand in for the spirit-numbing life she's left behind. The hills and the tents and the gold-rush are the new place for the new her. We get as much of a sense of her from these two short paragraphs as we do of San Francisco.
One of the pleasures of spending times with Nora is listening to the rhythm of her speech and the particular way she talks, which is always laced with her own brand of humor:
Who came up with that ugly name "cowyard" I don't know, but he sure don't put a twinkle in these eyes. … If they let me do some of the naming, we'd be "Women of the Loud Bed" or "Lasses with Asses." And I'd do away with "cowyard" — we'd be housed in an "Emporium of Volutpuousness."
This is another aspect of Nora's compassion: she is proud of all the women in her profession, of the profession itself, and believes it deserves more respect. Her opinions about her trade, and her opinions about her clients and women who look down on women like her, permeates the entire narrative. But she is not naïve; she knows what she does for a living with dangerous, and she does experience loneliness.
We see the impact of this as we see her try to make friends with other women, starting with some who share her profession and later reaching out to women who don't. We see her fight to save a woman who is bleeding to death, and fight to organize the women in the cowyard when they are threatened by a serial killer. Her actions match her opinions and her drive. She's the kind of woman who isn't afraid to rush in and do what needs to be done.
This promises us a story of a woman whose pride and compassion translate into a refusal to be beaten down and a drive to succeed, a promise which the story delivers.
No character, no matter how wonderful, can shine in a vacuum, and Mailman has surrounded Nora with contrasting characters. The first important character she meets is the proprietess of the cowyard, who Nora describes as having a face full of wrinkles even though she must be in her early forties:
“I’m in awe,” she smirked. “Of course I chose the painless and swift overland route.”
I grudgingly laughed.
“My china closet’s being admired by Injuns right now,” she continued. “Or buffalo. Left everything I had along the way as the oxen got skinnier and skinnier, and today look at what’s mine. If you want to pay less, build your own yard.”
Mailman, Erika (2013-11-11). Woman of Ill Fame (Kindle Locations 136-148). . Kindle Edition.
Here's Nora's introduction to one of her regulars, the Professor:
“Professor Hugh Parkson.”
“You’re a professor?”
“No, that’s just my given name.”
“Devil in a frypan, I wisht my given name was Lady or Princess. You can change your whole outlook with a name like that.”
“What a delightful turn of phrase, that ‘devil in a frypan,’” he said, and tipped his hat to me. “And that was a blague, dearest.”
“A blawg.”
“Ask Yvette.”
“I won’t see her for another fortnight,” I said. “Tell me.”
“A blague is a joke. And I am a professor.”
Mailman, Erika (2013-11-11). Woman of Ill Fame (Kindle Locations 1222-1232). . Kindle Edition.
Last but not least, here is Nora's first meeting with Abe, who becomes very important to her:
And then I saw a sight that made my heart droop like clients after the deed. A fella of about twenty years was walking down the line and all the girls was hooting at him, turning his head and confusing him. Worse, there was a pack of men pushing him onward, as vigorous as the bettors at the bull and bear fight. They were joshing him and knocking off his hat, replacing it only to flick it off again. There was something off about this fella and I knew what it was. His smile was a little overmuch, like this boy I’d gone to school with back East, and I thought, “Ah, God has shite yet again and sent a baby into the world without the brains to make a way.” He was red and unhappy-looking, but kept testing out that simplish smile on the girls. Those hateful cats, I thought. I opened up the window and leaned out, catching his eye without saying a word.
Mailman, Erika (2013-11-11). Woman of Ill Fame (Kindle Locations 777-785). . Kindle Edition.
Abe's key traits are clear in this introduction. He's a bit simple-minded and too trusting, but brave; he's accepted the bet to hook up at the cowyard and he's going to see it through. He's lonely too, searching for a connection.
So there you have Nora Simm's, indomitable, unabashed, funny, compassionate, setting out to get rich quick and along the way make the world a better place, who won't be stopped by hardship, social disapproval, or a serial killer. Does she get rich? Does she make friends? Does she find love? There's only one way to find out. You can find the book here.