It’s a romp in the swamp!
Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure
by Alan Lampe
Genre: Historical Fiction
It’s a romp in the swamp of historic proportions!
Eager young reporter Jimmie Rains is assigned to write an exposé on the treatment of elderly residents of Our Lady of Sorrows Nursing Home. He soon finds that all the residents speak in awe and hushed tones of the life led by legendary fellow resident Bill Valencourt.
As a teenager, Bill was sent to work for his cranky and demanding uncle who ran a bordello on the edge of the swamp. His girlfriend, Anne Marie, was less than happy with this arrangement. As the granddaughter of the famous swamp witch Marie Laveau, she believes her magic is strong enough to keep Bill from straying. She seduces him, believing the taking of his virginity will bind him to her for all time.
When his uncle is murdered by the wife of an angry patron, Bill’s destiny is irrevocably changed, leaving him the new owner of the cathouse and setting him on the path to both riches and ruin. When he falls in love with one of his girls—the beautiful and curvaceous Ariel—Anne Marie vows revenge.
I recall the beginning of Isaac Asimov’s biography in his Foundation books where it says he “was born in the Soviet Union to his great surprise. He moved quickly to correct situation.” At the age of three, he stowed away in his parent’s baggage when they emigrated to the United States.
To many people’s surprise, I was born in Connecticut. I don’t have grand or fond memories of my time there. My family moved to Arkansas six months after my birth. I grew up a southern boy and enjoyed writing from an early age. The earliest recollection I have of writing for pleasure is a second grade writing contest. I placed second. I can’t remember if the contest was school wide or district wide, but I do remember where I finished. The prompt was “If you were stuck on a deserted island, what would you bring with you.” I wrote a fine masterpiece, one I’m sure the Smithsonian will treasure for years when they obtain it. My composition related how I would take a magic book with me and use it to conjure up the necessities and a flying carpet to leave the island. Welcome to the world of my writing.
I continued to write stories throughout junior high and high school. I wrote a science fiction series in colored magic marker, where each character was represented by a different color. Even at that young age, I found a way to remove the unnecessary tags. I believe there are over a dozen twenty-page stories in that series. I wrote a couple of science fiction trilogies, one included a comical slant. I even designed a worksheet with the mysteries of Dr. Investigator for my little sister to solve. Like a good author, I kept all these treasures. Maybe one day I’ll revise them and share them with you.
I entered the Air Force after high school and journaled my experience. On the last Sunday of basic training, at the church services, your flight is allowed to say a few words. I wrote a poem for my flight. It was read by another flight member. I still have those journals and interesting stories abound within them.
After the Air Force I continued to improve my craft. I wrote a novella and published it monthly in the newsletter of my local Society for Creative Anachronism group. That, as well as the work I did on the newsletter itself, allowed me get my Award of Arms, a lordship, within the SCA.
In the late 1990’s and early 2000’s I focused on poetry. During this time I lived in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. Teen drug overdoses were frequent and my poems drifted to telling their story. I have a poem in each of the following The National Library of Poetry anthologies.
- A Prism of Thought
- Soaring with the Wind
- A Picture of Elegance
- Outstanding Poets of 1998
- Blossom in the Dawning
- America at the Millennium
One of my post powerful poems, The Measure of 0.16, I wrote after a drunk driver killed four Brock High School students on December 19, 1998. 0.16 was his blood alcohol level and the event helped reduce the legal limit in Texas to 0.08. I’ve written over 80 poems and most fall into the “Tragic Poems of Life” chapter in a Word document where I keep them.
On April 20, 1999, the Columbine Massacre occurred where two students killed twelve classmates and a teacher. The school shooting dominated the news that week. It also led me to launch a memorial website, www.Columbine-Angels.com, where I tracked acts of school violence for the next ten years. The site has over 2000 entries, the most of any site that I know of. I also provide extensive data as to when and where the attacks occur. Many people from around the world visited my site and several asked for permission to use my data in their research. I wish I could have continued the site in perpetuity, but the ever-growing numbers, nearly 300 in one calendar school year, is just too much for one person. Keeping the site updated became a second job. Although I received great response from the site, I couldn’t continue to dedicate that much of life to it. From 2010 to 2015, I updated the site with acts of school violence I saw in the news. Those are fewer, but if you research diligently and consistently (i.e. twice a day like I was), you will see how violent are kids truly are. Early in 2016 I posted my last update to the site.
My former girlfriend and I developed the essence of Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure. We truly enjoyed our time in Bayou Cove. After we separated I built our escapades into a full length novel. This historical fiction romp takes place from 1939 to 1969 in the swamps of Louisiana. Bill works at his uncle’s bordello and is in love with a descendant of the infamous Marie Laveau. Things change and he falls for one of the soiled doves under his uncle’s employ. After World War II, he and her live in Amsterdam. When they return to Bayou Cove in 1950 he builds his grand Cajun House of Pleasure. Staying informed of world events via WFUX-TV, he and his women are able to play politics with the lieutenant governor’s wife. In the ’60s the sexual fun continues to roll when a few artist stop by and find what they need to be successful. It’s a fun story with adult language and sexual situations. I hope you enjoy it.
I am currently developing my next story. The new tale is set in medieval times on a different planet. It’ll be a fun romp as my characters travel across the continent. Highlights along the way include stops in Hack, where the Hackers live; Pee-On, where the Pee-Ons live; Dead Oak and their solution to depositing their dead on a cart to be hauled off; and more.
Alan Lampe has been writing down tales and stories since the second grade. Over the years, his writing matured and was recognized by The National Library of Poetry. They published six of his poems in their anthologies in the late 1990s. Jotting down ideas and cranking out numerous short stories off and on throughout the first decade of the twenty-first century, he focused on his writing in 2011 instead of Super Bowl XLV.
Bill’s Cajun House of Pleasure is the brainchild of Alan and his former girlfriend. The first nuggets of this romp in the swamp were hatched eight years ago. Between workshops, critic groups, and conferences, he polished his prose in the following years. Wanting to leave no detail unchecked, he traveled to Louisiana to capture the essence of Cajun life.
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