It probably surprised Jennifer Lynn Sweet as much as her colleagues when, doing research for a story on prostitution, the free-lance journalist took the chance and went to work at one renowned Las Vegas brothel. And, she came to enjoy the work and atmosphere.
"I'd first thought that doing it would make it a helluva lot more interesting story," says Sweet on the telephone from Las Vegas, where she works at the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. "The vibe of the place was surprisingly good. Everybody here treats each other like family, so it makes you comfortable coming in.
"I never expected I'd come back after the article was finished, but here I am."
But the 25-year-old is not exactly giving up the news room for the nudes room. She calls herself a writer first and foremost. "I'm going to continue," Sweet says with an emphatic lace to her soft voice. "My novel (to be called Happy Trails) is almost done. I'm really just doing this to pay off my credit cards and, hopefully, move to New Mexico to continue writing and not have to 'work' so much."
On the other hand, neither is she turning her back on erotic writing.
"I was not really sure what I was planning with this," she says, referring to work at the Bunny Ranch, occasional topless dancing, self-made videos, and even an appearance in the professional adult video Moonlight Bunny Ranch Girls with Ron Jeremy. "It kind of went a little faster than I expected, but I just want to keep on writing."
For one thing, writing for the adult magazines which are her primary clients is far more profitable than her other journalism. And, besides, she says, though she loves eroticism in her work and in life, the eroticism itself is not the be-all and end-all of her writing.
"Overall, I like to write more of the dark side of life type stories, the indulgences and the problems arising from decadence," she says. "Even the erotic life depends on the strength of the person, and that's the side I like to explore. You see, that strength depends entirely on what the person's values are.
"I think strength, in large part, is not only intelligence, though that's the key to strength, but it's also knowing yourself and knowing what you want to do, and not screwing up others' lives to achieve your own pleasure."
Which is also a large part of what she finds positive about the sex business she now practices in hand with her writing. "It all kind of fits together, and things go smoother for me, so I can focus on what I choose to from now on," she says.
Sweet also says, with a hint of continuing relief, that the Bunny Ranch girls are not obliged to have sex with any customer they don't want to deal with.
"Really, I can't speak for other houses," she says, "but this one…you can leave the room, decline negotiating with them, and you won't get into trouble or bitched out or anything, they understand. If someone makes you feel uncomfortable, they'll be asked to leave or talk to someone else."
"And at the Bunny Ranch, especially, it's so much more than I expected. You have options. You don't have to deal with someone if you don't want to, if they make you feel uncomfortable - they can either be asked to leave, or to negotiate with someone else, if you're not comfortable, they don't bitch you out over it. You don't get that in a lot of places in this business."
Sweet's odyssey from observer to participant in a renowned brothel began when PopSmear asked her to interview one of the Bunny Ranch's best-known women, Sunset Thomas. "And after talking to her (on the telephone), she was surprisingly likeable," Sweet says, an adjective which applies just as easily to Sweet herself.
"I'd never talked to any porn star before," she continues. "She explained (the Bunny Ranch) to me, this was about a month before I was due to meet her, and I mentioned the possibility of working there myself and making a bigger story out of it, and writing about experiences here that I would have. I was here a week before I started working here myself. And once I started, I was very comfortable.
"I'd gotten to know the people here, and they gave me their own insight on how they handle this type of business, and it turned out I have a lot of fun with it."
Sweet and the other Bunny Ranch prostitutes work twelve-hour shifts, but she's quick to add that it is not as grueling as that sounds. "It's like a slumber party here when the customers aren't here," she says. " It's like a slumber party when the customers aren't here, because you're not working the whole time. So you get your rest. You exercise. You sunbathe nude even, it's kind of like a working vacation. And we're not locked in here, either. They don't treat you like a prisoner, like I'd kind of expected it to be."
Her journalistic colleagues, mostly, were surprised and amazed that she even had the moxie to give it a try for the story. "PopSmear was thrilled," Sweet says. "Though they thought I was crazy for doing this. But they liked it enough that they said they'd put it on the cover."
If you visit her Website, JenLynn's Adult Fetish Pics and Fiction (www.jenlynn.com), you will find an arresting potpourri of photos and video stills, not to mention some samples of her writing. But you will also notice she exercises a fetish that she says she hadn't always realized was so much more prevalent among fetishists - smoking.
"I don't find myself that men smoking is very sexy, but there is something sexy about a woman smoking," says Sweet, herself an avid cigar smoker. "And a lot of men find that, too. This might surprise you, but a lot of people who are into the smoking fetish aren't smokers themselves. But maybe their parents, their mothers were smokers, maybe they had a particular girl friend who smoked and they found that attractive or erotic. But I think this is getting a lot more popular now as an erotic fetish."
Born and raised in Pennsylvania near the western border of the state, she also likes to spend her non-working time climbing and enjoying the Southwestern skies. She keeps two pets, a Cuban anole in a tree by her desk, and a Doberman pinscher named Ricci.
Quiet about her personal life otherwise, Sweet is a bisexual with a girl friend in Las Vegas, but has no boyfriend for now. "And he'd have to be someone very intelligent and very open minded," she emphasizes. "And it's not always easy to find or meet men, or women for that matter, who are. People don't really treat me weird because I do what I do, but you really don't ever know."
