Think the economic downturn is hitting you hard? Try being a porn star. Pay rates are going down (so to speak), and the number of barely 18's willing to blow strangers on camera is going way up — or so I'm told. While the sex worker lifestyle has always been a daily grind (ahem), the reality turns palpable in David Henry Sterry and R.J. Martin Jr.'s anthology Hos, Hookers, Call Girls, and Rent Boys: Professionals Writing on Life, Love, Money, and Sex. Contributors to this uncensored collection of skin-trade memoirs, confessions, and rants include porn icon Nina Hartley, ex-call girl Xaviera Hollander and The Devil in Miss Jones's Georgina Spelvin. Topless test shoot following the signing is optional.

Thu., Sept. 3, 7 p.m., 2009

Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.