Oh, The Glamourous Life!

Dear Constant Reader,

This week marks the birthday of a lovely and truly magical lady, Dusty Summers! This is her story.

The Lady is a Stripper by Dusty Summers (2001).

To say that Donna had a lousy childhood would be an understatement. Her father was abusive, both physically and psychologically, and her mother refused to see it. Donna loved school, so her father made her quit. Finally, she ran away, and after she found someone who would listen to her woes, instead of just sending her back to her parents, she had a few years of happiness in foster care.

After an early marriage and divorce, at 18, in 1966, she found herself at the Airport Inn in Tucson applying to work as a bikini go-go dancer. Dusty Summers was born.

That was only the beginning. There were more marriages (nine total!), children, and a change from go-go to exotic dancing. Then Dusty met Professor Turban and her life changed again — she married him and he taught her magic. Abracadabra! She became Las Vegas’s Only Nude Magician.

And there’s even more, but I’ll leave that to the reader to discover.

Dusty’s story is often hard to read. The abuse she suffered from her parents and some of her husbands is heartbreaking. However, her determination, her accomplishments, and her love for her sister and daughters are inspirational. Throughout it all she was always classy, never raunchy, unashamed, completely a lady.

She’s still performing today, and if you have the chance to see her, don’t hesitate. Her magic is amazing and her performance skills are top-notch.

Dear Constant Reader,

Today’s review is particularly timely as there is a big party in L.A. tomorrow to celebrate the release of this book.

It’s All That Glitters: Portraits of Burlesque Performers in Their Homes, by Brian C. Janes (2012).

Photographer Brian Janes traveled around the country photographing burlesque performers in their homes, as the subtitle says. The performers were asked to be in costume and in some room of their house. Some are in the bedroom, some the bathroom, some their burlesque room. Some have been carefully styled to create a lovely backdrop for the performer’s personality, others were just as it is. All say “performer in her/his natural habitat”. Occasionally pets or children make an appearance.

Accompanying each full-page portrait is the performer’s own words, explaining what burlesque is to them.

I’m privileged to be one of the performers featured, along with Scratch and Betty. So if you get the book you’ll see my naked rear (I’m posing with my fans, of course) and well as my disaster of a sewing room. Brian really liked the overflowing bins of fabric, the overflowing book cases, the extension cords snaking across the floor (my overhead light needed to be replaced) and generally clutter. I think it’s funny that you can’t see my sewing machine, the usual centerpiece of the room, because it’s hidden behind me.

Dear Constant Reader,

Despite being so close to reviewing the last burlesque book in my collection, today’s book is not about burlesque at all.

Fox’s Folly: a Duals and Donovans story by Teresa Noelle Roberts (2012).

Full disclosure, the author is a friend of mine from way back. Teresa writes erotic paranormal romances, which means hot sex with a side of supernatural.

Her Duals and Donovans series is set in a world very much like ours, but with The Different — that is, witches, ghosts, demons, fae, and duals (shape-shifters) — mostly hidden from us “normies”. Fox’s Folly is the story of how Paul Donovan, a witch specializing in sex magic, and Taggart Ross, a fox dual, met while on the trail on a supernatural murderer. The attraction between the two men is instant (not surprising for readers of Foxes’ Den in which they are a long married couple) and the sex is steamy. But the murder mystery never gets forgotten, even when the sparks are flying.

There’s a lot of passion in her stories, both erotic and romantic. The author clearly believes in true love, although not necessarily with only one person (check out Lions’ Pride)… or creature… (see A Satyr for Midwinter, the last book in her Seasons of Sorania Cycle for some of that). You’ll sigh over the romance as much as over the lust (well, maybe not sigh).

The best part of Teresa’s books is that while the sex scenes are sizzling, the characters are well-developed and the plot is engaging. Well, that and that they are all available as ebooks, so you can be discrete about your reading. (wink)