Cornelia Quick

Today on Medium, “Too Hot to Sleep – Caught in the Pool” — when the air conditioning in her motel room fails, Zoe sneaks into the hotel pool next door; can she convince the security guard who catches her to let her cool off, or will things heat up?

Zoe Chapelle is an adult film actress who stars in a larger work-in-progress; you can read a sample that mentions (but does not feature) here here: post-shoot scene. This story takes place before the main story I’m working on, when Zoe is still mostly working low budget “gonzo” scenes but is starting to get some traction beyond the sleazy underbelly of porn: she’s sassy, smart, and enthusiastic, and knows how to rise above her circumstances.

Writing this story helped me get into Zoe’s character a little more; she’s similar in a lot of ways to Tiffany in “How I Won Spring Break“, I think, but comes from a very different background and so has had to make different choices. She’s not a reluctant sex worker — it’s pretty clear that she gets something from her job beyond a somewhat precarious paycheck — but she’s more than a little cynical about the industry that she’s in.

I enjoyed letting Zoe get a little “civilian” action; that was one of the things I liked about “Fan Service,” which features her co-star in the work in progress.