My Mother the Porn Star, Or: How I Cut "Diamonds"
by Raymond Benson

The question every author hears and fears is "Where do you get your ideas?"  My answer to that is yet another question--"Does any author really know?"  Only those of us who do attempt to create fiction from a blank page understand that ideas are fleeting, cheap, mostly unoriginal, and exist in a deep cavern that lies somewhere in our subconscious.  Sometimes we go spelunking and successfully mine an idea or two from this abyss--and other times it takes a major excavation to find something interesting. 

Another source for ideas is the world around us.  The people we meet, the everyday situations we find ourselves in, the news reports from around the world, or something as simple as a magazine cover might be the catalyst for idea fertilization.  And if that sounds somewhat sexual, maybe it is--metaphorically, anyway.  The author must add his own essence to an existing THING and hopefully the result will be that elusive, metaphysical, ethereal concept known as an idea. 

SWEETIE'S DIAMONDS began this way. 

A few years ago, when I was the 4th official author of the James Bond 007 literary series, I became involved with PLAYBOY magazine.  Despite what one might think of the magazine's pictorial content, for fifty-plus years it's also been considered a great LITERARY periodical.  Mr. Hugh Hefner, the magazine's founder and editor-in-chief, always thought of it as a literary magazine with some nice visuals.  He hired the greatest writers of the latter half of the 20th Century to contribute--Ray Bradbury, Alex Haley, John Updike, Walter Tevis, and countless others.  PLAYBOY was also the first American periodical to publish the work of Ian Fleming, Bond's creator.  So, PLAYBOY and Bond have always been in bed together, so to speak.  When I became the Bond author in 1996, I’m proud to say that PLAYBOY published two of my Bond short stories and some excerpts from my novels.

Where is this leading?--you ask.  What does PLAYBOY have to do with SWEETIE'S DIAMONDS?  Well, as a result of my association with PLAYBOY, I got to know Mr. Hefner and we became friends.  I visited the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on numerous occasions, and I met a lot of PLAYBOY Playmates—you know, the beautiful women who pose in the centerfolds.  I met Playmates from all decades of PLAYBOY's existence, beginning with the 1950s.  Most of these women went on after their magazine appearances to marry, have children, and lead normal lives. 

During one of my visits to the Mansion, I was speaking with one of the Playmates from the 1960s and she was telling me about her son who was grown and successful in business.  And I asked her, "When did he find out you were a PLAYBOY Playmate and what did he think of it?"  She answered, "He was around twelve and he thought it was incredibly cool, and all of his friends did too!"  Interestingly, another Playmate told me that her children were mortified by the fact that their mother had appeared nude in her younger days.

And this got me thinking.  What would a child's reaction be if he or she learned that Dear Old Mom had been a centerfold in a men's magazine—or to take it a step further—a former porn star?

This was the genesis of SWEETIE'S DIAMONDS.  The central characters are Diane Boston, a 40-something single mom who is one of the most popular teachers at her high school, and her 13-year-old son David.  One day, David and his best friend happen to find an old videotape, and it turns out to be a porn movie from the late 70s that had been transferred to video.  It stars an actress known as "Lucy Luv."  Needless to say, David is shocked and amazed when he realizes that "Lucy Luv" is really his mother. 

Uh oh!  Poor David’s mom is not who she says she is!  In fact, Diane has been hiding behind a facade for twenty years.  In 1980 she escaped from the grips of a mob-connected porn czar, ran away from Los Angeles, and took a cache of stolen diamonds with her!

This central premise was too compelling to ignore.  The idea grew, developed, and culminated in the Leisure Books release that finds its way into stores this month—a little thriller called SWEETIE’S DIAMONDS.  And it was one of the easiest books I ever wrote.

So there you have it:  from a couple of harmless conversations with PLAYBOY Playmates—to an idea—to a finished book. 

If only all my books were cut from stone so smoothly…  :) 

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