‘Erovinia’: The Novel That Has Porn Industry Playing The Guessing Game

SAN DIEGO—The porn industry may expose everything on screen, but there’s much under the surface that insiders would rather not be known. Porn insiders can't keep their secrets under wraps any more, though, thanks to Erovinia, a new novel by journalist Leopard J. Ferry, based in part on his two years working for a Southern California adult entertainment company. While parts of this richly textured novel are fictionalized, much is based on direct, on-set experiences and being in close day-to-day proximity with the movers and shakers in the porn industry. The book's deftly crafted characters are already inspiring porn industry types to play the guessing game in hopes of figuring out their real life inspirations. For example, there’s:   Graham Vasger Tate, the 20-something porn company owner who turned a bedroom operation into a multi-million dollar company only to realize he needs something more than money or sex. He needs respectability. Jacksonville Dagger, a successful male performer in straight porn who’s never quite made the crossover from gay porn—and who makes much of his income selling his body to military men. Davon Skene, a violent talent agent who controls his female performers with an iron fist and will resort to murder to keep them under his thumb. Eric Oberhofer, the doltish editor of a porn news website whose solution to every conflict is a palm reading. Nema, a Slavic beauty who freely gives her body, but is forbidden to give away anything else.   The novel, set in San Diego, takes the protagonist, Russell Howland, from a stultifying job ghost-writing sermons for a vainglorious televangelist across town to Erovinia, where he’s tasked with launching a publication to appeal to mainstream America. Author Leopard J. Ferry has managed to combine comical and poignant insights into the controversial porn business with an action-packed narrative, making for a work that rivals the film Boogie Nights in scope and drama. But reader be warned: Like the porn industry itself, nothing in Erovinia is what it seems. The book, released Feb. 23, is currently available on Amazon.com. The author, Leopard J. Ferry, spent two years working as a journalist for a San Diego-based adult entertainment company. He’s also written for various national and local news organizations. This is his first novel.