sex work in fiction – Ridley Park

Creating Composite Characters in Fiction

October 2, 2026Posted in Needle's Edge, Ridley Park, WritingTagged addiction, biography, books, editing, fiction, novel, reading,, sex work in fiction, substack, Writing, writing processLeave a comment

1–2 minutes

I’m still editing Needle’s Edge. It’s biographical fiction. Think of those movies that open with based on true events or some such, save for the Coen Brothers.

This book is about prostitutes and the drug culture around the Philadelphia-adjacent area, PA, DE, NJ, and MD, circa 2016 to 2023, give or take. It primarily follows one woman in particular. I call her Sarah, one of those change the names to protect the innocent sorts of things.

Although renamed, Sarah is real. The events are real. But I also consider other renamed sex workers, particularly Alice, Amanda, Ashley, and some whose names even start with other letters.

Read the entire article on Substack.

Needle’s Edge: Scene Feedback 01

August 4, 2025Posted in Artificial Intelligence, Book, critique, deepseek, Generative AI, Needle's Edge, review, Ridley Park, Software, WritingTagged addiction fiction, ai, AI editing, AI writing tools, author workflow, books, cognitive bias, editing, fiction, Generative AI, gritty fiction, Hubert Selby Jr., immersive prose, literary fiction, Midjourney cover art, Needle’s Edge, novel, psychological realism, Ridley Park, sex work in fiction, Speculative Fiction, Trainspotting style, trauma narrative, Writing, writing process1 Comment

1–2 minutes

I run my scenes through various AI platforms for feedback before I engage the final work with human readers. It’s faster. It’s good enough for preliminary guidance.

Or is it?

Whilst I do get some negative and constructive feedback, most of it is positive. Either I am a kick-ass author (because, of course, I am) or I’m being misled. I like to think the former, but cognitive biases overindex in that direction.

This sequence reads as a brutally authentic, psychologically immersive descent into the grim realities of addiction-fueled survival sex work, marked by razor-sharp internal monologue and visceral tension. Here’s how the elements coalesce:

[REDACTED]

Overall Impression

This is Hubert Selby Jr. by way of Trainspotting—a fever-pitch descent into the American underbelly. The prose’s fragmented style forces readers into the protaganist’s exhaustion, while the [REDACTED] climax underscores the central theme: Everything in her life is a [REDACTED] promise. [REDACTED]—all prove worthless.

Yet her darkly witty voice (“[REDACTED]“) grants her a shred of dignity. Devastating, but masterfully executed.

(Note: The formatting—italics, line breaks, punctuation—is essential. It transforms text into a psychological battleground.)

NB: I redacted spoilers as these ae essential for a first reading.

PS: I’m using older Midjourney renders for the cover images, so I can not spend time or energy generating new ones.

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Ridley Park