Feature on Sugar Babes by Mickey J Corrigan


Sugar Baby ABC's: Teachers Turn to Sugar World to Supplement Low Pay

According to a recent article in the Huffington Post, an increasing number of public school teachers are choosing to address their income issues by seeking work as paid girlfriends for rich men. In fact, the most popular sugar baby match up site reported a membership total of more than 40,000 public school teachers. And, according to the site's founder, this number is on the increase.

The reasons are obvious. Layoffs, the recession, expanded hours, hard work with low wages, the high cost of living. The National Education Association reports that teachers make less than half of what the average person with a bachelor's degree earns. Even though most teachers have a graduate degree as well.

Many teachers are dragged down by student debt. The average college loan can take twenty years to pay off.

Long hours plus low pay plus debt is a simple equation that adds up to the need for convenient, time-sparing, supplementary income. This is when dating for pay, something most women (and men) would never consider, can start to look like a viable option. For some, the sugar world may offer the only way to stay in one's home and put food on the table.

The average sugar baby may seek three to four thousand dollars a month in compensation. The extra cash can mean the difference between ramen for dinner every night and enjoying the occasional restaurant meal. The draw to the sugar life is understandable. If you are young and in need of income, you might wonder what, if anything, you have to lose. Why give it away if someone will pay you for your time and companionship?

There are drawbacks, however. Sugar babies get beaten, they get raped. They get STDs, they get blackmailed, they go to jail. Some end up as prostitutes, and that's no life for a woman. No life.

In interviews, sugar babies report suffering from low self-esteem, alcohol and drug dependence. Some get hooked on the lifestyle and develop expensive tastes they can't support with their own wages. A few fall for their sugar daddy, who is typically married, much older, and not interested in love. This can be heartbreaking for a girl. Normal relationships may not be possible after years spent  getting paid for companionship (and sex).

The easy answer would be for American schools to pay their educators a reasonable wage. But teachers are not the only people seeking mutually beneficial arrangements. According to Seeking Arrangements, the most popular of the sugar baby meetup sites, some 73,000 waitresses are members. Nurse members number over 60,000. And college students? More than 680,000 coed members on just this one sugar baby website.

Where I live in South Florida, a trip to the ritzy local mall can be revealing. There are always plenty of older gents with gray hair and expensive suits strolling around with hot-looking teenagers on their arms. Ethically questionable, legally legit, financially practical. These are the ABC's of today's sugar world.

Sugar Babies takes a fictional look at the sugar world and three young women trying to make the best of it. Esme, Niki and Maire are beautiful, bright, strong women, but they have economic troubles the sugar life promises to solve. Amidst the glittery glamor of Coconut City, a tropical paradise full of glittery oceanfront mansions and deep-water sharks, the choices they make are understandable, but not wise. And the results are not sweet. A sexy thriller, Sugar Babies is dirty sexy money, full of struggle, lust and suspense. The sugar life is not always what it pretends to be.

***

November 4, 2013:

from Champagne Books

a novel of sexy intrigue,

a blue martini with a nasty twist,

Sugar Babies

 

A sugar daddy can make your money woes disappear overnight. But for sugar babies, life is like a chocolate covered time bomb: sweet on the outside, deadly on the inside.

Young, beautiful, and hungry, Maire, Esme and Niki want what every woman wants: love, work, safe shelter, the bills paid off, a diamond-studded Rolex, and a two-bedroom condo with an ocean view. Working as sugar babies seems to be the only way to make this happen. But the sugar life is more dangerous than they thought.

Maire O’Rourke is too hot to handle herself properly. She tends to wear too tight clothes and too much make-up, but she’s got more than sex on her mind. She’s already landed one of the richest sugar daddies in Coconut City, a tropical paradise boasting more lonely men per multimillion dollar estate than just about anywhere else.

Sweet Esme Grant is a buxom blonde with a rough and tumble lover she’s left behind somewhere in hill country. She’s come to Coconut City in order to find herself a sugar daddy, a rich older man willing to fund her, along with her hometown boyfriend and their Mayberry-gone-bad dreams.

Niki Stephanopoulos, a dark, iconoclastic artist enrolled in a teaching certification program at Coconut College, struggles with depression fueled by guilt. She is embarrassed by her dependence on her family for the money she needs to survive. But she feels even worse after sleeping with her sexy, much older landlord when she’s short the rent.

Welcome to the secret lives of sugar babies. On the first day of the month, Maire, Esme and Niki struggle with bills and beaus. Readers can join them as they figure out ways to pay the rent, make decent love to indecent men, and stay upright on the rough road to happiness. Sugar Babies is a modern-day romance, a blue martini with a nasty twist. An intoxicating mystery steeped in social satire, the story of Esme, Niki and Maire is an all-American morality tale.

Three beautiful young women: place your order now.

***

Author Mickey J. Corrigan lies and works and gets into trouble in the lurid tropics of South Florida, where sugar babies are as common as gators, skeeters and snowbirds. Other titles include the novellas Geekus Interruptus, Dream Job, Professional Grievers, and Me Go Mango. Sugar Babies is her first novel. Visit at www.mickeyjcorrigan.com or on Goodreads at www.goodreads.com/author/show/5828647.Mickey_J_Corrigan.

 

Title: Sugar Babies

Author: Mickey J. Corrigan

Publisher: Champagne Books

Release Date: November 4, 2013

ISBN: 978-1-77155-026-0





12 comments:

  1. Sounds like a read not for the weak-stomached. I wonder which came first, the name of the candy or what you describe here. Either way, odd nomenclature.

    In any event, best of luck to you with your new release--and with your writing, generally.

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    1. The use of the candy names Sugar Babies (and Sugar Daddies) has become very common with the proliferation of matchmaking websites. I don't like the terms but I must say, they fit. All icky and sticky and bad for your teeth! I think the candy came first. Back in the old days, the term was mistress.

      Thanks for the good wishes.

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  2. Yikes! I'm glad I'm a teacher in Canada!! We get paid well here and have good benefits. It's crazy what some folks think our future is (isn't??) worth.
    Sounds like an intriguing setting for your story - good luck with it! :)

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  3. I had no idea! I mean, I know teachers get paid piddly, but I had no idea some felt they had to go to those extremes to earn a better living.

    This book isn't for the faint of heart. Thanks for sharing!

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  4. This book sounds so unique and interesting. I liked reading the post about sugar babies and the growing number of people involved in this setup. I had no idea it was such a large industry! Thanks for sharing. :)
    ~Jess

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  5. I can definitely see the draw of getting money for dating older men, especially when you don't make much money (librarians make less than teachers sometimes), but it sounds like benefits don't outweigh the many risks.

    Sounds like a great book! Congrats, Mickey!

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  6. Wow. I had no idea that stuff went on. I guess I live a sheltered life! It's very interesting to read about it, though.

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  7. Gosh I've never heard of this issue til now! I can understand how they'd resort to that though. Money is so tight especially in this economy.
    Nutschell
    www.thewritingnut.com

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  8. It's interesting. I was reading the Craigslist personals (for research purposes, I promise), and I couldn't believe how many men offered this type of arrangement.

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    1. Interesting. It seems to be growing in popularity. I guess because with the internet, it's just so easy to arrange. And the stigma has lessened. Younger women don't think there's anything wrong with it.

      Thanks for your comments.

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  9. Fab post! And what a thoughtful topic you have raised Mickey! Love Sugar Babies too, it's a fantastic read!

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  10. I Googled it and have some news items open. I knew this stuff went on, but with the sites it seems more organized and intentional.

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You can discuss your romance novel addiction too!