Email: rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com



 

Lusty Lady

BLOG OF RACHEL KRAMER BUSSEL
Watch my first and favorite book trailer for Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica. Get Spanked in print and ebook

Saturday, March 31, 2007

My weekend (so far) in photos

And for anyone who thinks my life is so scintillating, it's Saturday night at almost 11 and I'm at Bluestockings writing erotica. Not complaining, just saying, I really don't have much of a social life of late. Heading off to get some food and then back to writing and proofreading, and a family seder tomorrow. But next weekend will more than make up for any shortcomings this weekend possesses.

A few photos from my weekend thus far. I walked across the Williamsburg Bridge for the first time in ages and I loved it. Must try to make that a daily trek.







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The Kinky Virtual Book Tour has begun!

Viviane's Sex Carnival kicks off the Kinky Virtual Book Tour (a day early, even!) with an excerpt from "The Inner Vixen" by Saskia Walker from She's on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission.

Viviane, who knows way more than I do about this stuff, has also posted some relevant Technorati tags she's asking people to include to make it easier to read all the posts on the tour.

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What do you want to know about erotica?

I normally don't really love public speaking, which is ironic considering that I run a reading series and keep saying yes to various readings. I don't hate it, and I do get a rush from having done it, but I'm not always so confident. I just don't have the Stan Kent swagger.

But I've been thinking of developing a short workshop on erotica writing, because I get asked about it so often and as I finish up various anthologies and get ready to wade into new ones, while my brain percolates on what I can do next, I've realized that through the last 7 years of writing smut, I've amassed a pretty large body of work and learned a thing or two about the industry. I'm hoping to teach a workshop at The Pleasure Chest in Chicago at the end of July, right before BlogHer, and to that end, want to know from you:

What do you want to know about erotic writing?

Could be anything from plot to dirty words to publishing.

And I'd be remiss if I didn't point out the brilliant resources already out there, chiefly:

Erotica Readers & Writers Association - where I got my start and continue to find out about so many calls for submission and interesting topics, not to mention finding a wealth of great writers

Erotic Authors Association

Leave your answers in the comments or email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com - I may post some responses here though am mostly just trying to figure out what people would want to find out more about in a workshop format.

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Friday, March 30, 2007

I give good blurb

A sticker's going on every shrink-wrapped copy of Paul Pope's PULPHOPE with a blurb from yours truly.

See image here.

Erotica, "Late for a Spanking," part 1, from He's on Top

Some Friday smut...part two TK. From He's on Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission, in which I write from a male POV, as I do on occasion. Not a true story, but inspired by my problem with punctuality.



Late for a Spanking
by Rachel Kramer Bussel

Laura is late. There’s no escaping the fact that the clock tower outside my apartment has just loudly chimed six and my spankee has yet to show. I walk around my bedroom, running my fingers over the implements I’ve set out in preparation. There’s a tiny slapper, a small, patent-leather nothing of a toy, one whose bark will always be worse than its bite. There’s a ruler, an extra-long, coated one, for maximum impact. There’s a shiny black paddle, stern and strong, like me. There’s one with fur on one side, for when I want to soothe her, or just lull her into a false sense of security. There’s a strap, my belt, a wooden paddle. I probably won’t use them all on her, but I like to have them ready, just in case.

I pace around, trying not to get too angry. Our spanking dates are about fun, about mutual enjoyment as she bends herself over my knee or splays herself across my lap. Sometimes I sit in a chair, completely clothed, while she strips before me and then lies down, her long, black hair brushing the floor. I have to wait for her to become totally still; she’s that perfect blend of nervous and excited that makes her body gently hum and quiver.

I pick up the strap and slap it against my hand. The noise and sting bring me back to earth. I look at the clock and see another ten minutes have passed. We’ve talked about this countless times; I’ve tried to instill in her the importance of punctuality, not just when she’s meeting me, but generally. It’s rude to be late, it insults the person you’re meeting by prioritizing your schedule over theirs. She always nods contritely, and I give in to her, even though once I almost sent her home without her dear spanking. My cock was pleading with me to go through with it, though, and I did, though the lesson might’ve sunk in more had I been a stronger man.

My dates with Laura are about spanking and spanking only. You see, even though I’m dominant to the core, I’m in love with a sassy, whipsmart submissive named Evangeline. She knows she’s got me wrapped around one of her tiny, delicate little fingers, and I actually like it that way. On the surface, I call all the shots, telling her when she can and can’t wear panties, supervising her nipple piercings, exerting control whenever and wherever I can. I know it makes her wet when I give even the slightest command. “Spread your legs farther apart,” I’ll whisper in her ear on a crowded subway train. She’ll turn and give me an infuriated, but utterly aroused, grin, as she does it. She’s only playing at being mad because now her panties will be wet, her pussy seething, her mind racing for the rest of the day as she wonders what else I’ll tell her to do later that night.

We have an open relationship, but the door isn’t flung all the way wide. We keep it partly cracked, just ajar enough so other women, like Laura, can get in and get the spankings and punishments they, and I, crave. But, horny as they make me, Evangeline has forbidden me from fucking them. I’ve managed to work that energy and want into my scenes, even though it’s sometimes very hard to resist those wet pussy lips I’m allowed to stroke but not enter. Laura’s the worst of all, the biggest temptation, and sometimes she gets spanked extra hard because otherwise I just don’t know what to do with all the pent-up arousal. Evangeline wins too because when she comes over after I’ve played with Laura, I fuck her so hard she can feel it for days afterward.

I finally sit down on the bed, my hand lightly resting on my crotch. There’s no real way to simulate spanking a pretty, willing, needy girl’s ass when you’re by yourself. Watching videos just doesn’t quite do it for me; I need flesh and blood, I need to her hear beg, I need to look down at her face and see the answers written across her features. At six forty-five, my doorbell finally rings. I have to admit, I've pretty much given up on her ever showing up. Maybe we'll never see each other again, and while I'll be disappointed, what can I do? So I’m partly surprised, partly aroused, and partly annoyed when I open the door to see her standing there blowing her sweaty bangs up off her face, looking contrite and bedraggled but still goddamn sexy. She’s pushing thirty but dresses like a schoolgirl⎯literally. She has on a pleated plaid skirt, strategically ripped fishnets, big black platform shoes, and a skimpy little white tank top and no bra, letting anyone who cares to look see the twin barbell piercings adorning her nipples. Her hair is in two braids, black eye makeup smeared around her eyes, red lipstick emblazoned across her mouth. Those lips are so tempting, even more than her ass; I’ve had many a fantasy about sinking my cock between them, letting her do what I’m sure she’s brilliant at.

Just the way she makes her sorry face, her mouth open, eyebrows up, hip cocked, makes me want to fuck her. Since I can’t do that, I let my annoyance show. "What took you so long?" I snap, blocking her entrance with my body, even though part of me longs to grab her and give her a hard, solid kiss.

"The train was delayed, and I forgot something in the house . . ." she seems to be making excuses, her voice getting whiny. When she looks up at me, her eyes blaze both apology and defiance. I know she hadn’t been deliberately late so that I’d spank her harder; we don’t need to play those kinds of reverse psychology mind games. She’s genuinely tardy, as Laura often is; she just assumes whoever’s waiting will be patient and forgive her. All her friends have gotten used to it, considering themselves on “Laura time” when they’re meeting her. Even I, for the most part, have adapted, but our spanking dates are special. I’ve made it clear that she’s to treat them with the utmost importance and care, if she’s truly dedicated to our play.

Just because she wasn’t late on purpose, though, doesn’t mean she’s above trying to tease me into going easy on her. She steps forward, pushing me until I relent and let her inside. Then her hand goes automatically to my cock. “Miss me?” she asks with a smirk as she massages my dick. The rules of our relationship are clear; I can spank her, and we can be naked together, but Evangeline doesn’t want me touching her private parts or her mine. We’ve found ways to push the limits of those restrictions, but I take care to abide by them, even though it’s maddening sometimes to watch her pussy get wetter and wetter as I smack her ass and not be able to feel just what I’m doing to her.

I grab her hand and shove it behind her back. She’s a feisty girl, and immediately tries to fight me, plunging us into a mock wrestling match I’m destined to win. “Aren’t you even going to say you’re sorry?” I ask, pinning her down so her hands are raised above her head, her cheeks flushed, her breathing heavy as she surrenders to my superior strength. I know that even that little bit of immobilization has her aching to be spanked⎯and fucked.

“Maybe,” she says, her voice rising in the sexiest lilt I’ve ever heard. Even if she didn’t have the slamming body and completely masochistic nature she does, her voice could do me in every time.

“Maybe? Oh, I think more like definitely. I’m going to make you say you’re sorry, girl. You were forty-five minutes late! I really should’ve just left, and your punishment would’ve been to go home with your bottom just as pale and bare as it is right now. But I’m going to make you pay, don’t you worry,” I say, my cock stiffening as I speak the stern words. She sticks her tongue out at me, but rolls over quite willingly when I let up on her arms and nudge her over. I decide to start off right there on the floor, pulling off her shoes and tossing them into a far corner, where they land with a thud.

“You’re going to get forty-five whacks⎯one for every minute you were late. I know, you think that’s nothing, but those won’t all be with my hand, I’m not that dumb,” I say as I push her skirt up. I yank off her fishnets, the tearing sound ringing pleasingly in my ears. Usually she gets totally naked, but her skirt is so short I can practically see her ass, and the image of the tiny garment shoved up above her lower curves, with her white cotton panties around her knees, is too hot to resist.

My dick is pressing upward against her stomach as she does her best to make me come in my pants, wiggling and squirming. I shove my fingers through her mass of sleek back hair and tugged, watching her neck bend backward just so. I tug harder, just enough to make her body ripple in pleasure. “Stay still, Laura; you’ll like this better. You’re going to count for me, and if you mess up, we’ll have to start over, but I know you won’t mess up,” I say somberly. She gazes back at me with a look that wouldd wrecked a lesser man, her moist lips slightly open, her eyes wide and luminous, her nostrils flaring, her need to be spanked, by me, etched as strongly into her skin as a tattoo. Over the course of our relationship, I’ve figured out just what sets her off, and I know how to take her into that magical sub space with just the sound of my voice and a simple tug on her hair or snap of my fingers.

I let go of her hair, catching the gentlest of sighs pass from her lips. Her ass is right there, all mine for the taking, wide and round and pale and perfect. She’s got just enough meat on her bones to make her rump perfect for spanking; girls who are too thin make me worry I might truly be hurting them, and I like asses that are wide enough to cover a range of smacks, ones where I need to hit them a few times to cover the entire cheek. I place my left hand on her lower back, letting my thumb just graze the upper edge of her asshole. I’d love to press it against her sweet puckered hole, but I save that for Evangeline. With Laura, it’s all about hinting, dancing just around the edge of our desire, getting the most bang for our buck, if you will.

I press down against her body, ensuring that she won’t jerk when the first blow lands. Then I raise my hand and bring it crashing down against her right cheek, hearing the boom, seeing her skin go from pale to pink in moments. “One, sir,” she says, her voice loud and direct. It always starts off strong, like she’s trying to show me just how powerful she can be even spread across my lap. By the end, I’ll have her whimpering out her numbers⎯if I’m doing my job right.

Go read part two and then read the rest of the deliciously dirty stories in He's on Top

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Adventures in book covers: Cherry-popping edition



Sexography: One Woman's Journey from Ignorance to Bliss by Carly Milne



Yes, Yes, Cherries: Stories by Mary Otis

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Win a copy of She's on Top from Radical Vixen

As part of the Kinky Book Virtual Book Tour for He's on Top and She's on Top, you can win a copy of She's on Top over at Radical Vixen's blog. All you have to do is leave a comment on her blog and you'll be entered, winner to be decided April 4th, the day of her tour of duty on the virtual book tour. She describes herself thusly: "I'm a kinky hippie political activist who talks dirty on the phone."

And yes, you are going to be hearing a LOT about these two books between now and May 6th. As I mentioned yesterday, I've spent well over $1,500 buying and mailing books and postcards and trying to drum up some sales, so that's how it's gonna be for a while. Plus these books are so shiny and pretty they make me want to kiss them. (But I haven't, yet.)

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No more Flickr, maybe

Update: Other people seem to be accessing my photos just fine, so...it's not so bad. Just very scary to log in and see NOTHING except my friends' photos. Thank you for your help! Hopefully they'll show up for me soon too.

Anyone have any idea what might have happened to wipe out all my photos and groups on Flickr? This was my account. I'm baffled - any help would be MUCH appreciated. I had a lot of personal photos but also ones for In The Flesh and Cupcakes Take the Cake. I'm just really curious if it was Flickr or a hacker or what. Guess it doesn't really matter at this point, but still, if there's any hope of recovering all those photos, I will pursue it...in a month.

No time to really deal with this anytime in the near future, so I hope you guys enjoyed my photos. At least I ordered my Moo cards in time.

I do have a very old gallery on my site BUT I somehow lost the password and haven't been able to get into it in about a year, so all my favorite photos, the new ones by Anya Garrett and such, aren't there. I may get rid of that gallery in the near future too, but that'd be voluntary.

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Thursday, March 29, 2007

Justine Joli on YouTube

You can thank me after you stop drooling. Or whatever. Damn, she's so freaking hot. There was another video on there but I didn't get to see it because it got taken off!

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365 Portraits

My friend Jon Friedman told me about this fabulous new photo project, 365 Portraits, in which Park Slope-based photographer Bill Waldman is shooting and posting one portrait every day for 2007. I just looked at all of them he's done so far and they're captivating, plus lots of photo nerds (I say that lovingly) comment on the photos. You can also contact him to participate in the project.

Here's Jon's photo

And I really liked this one of dancer Eran Bugge

Just reading some of the humorous bios and seeing the sheer joy some of the subjects exhibit should make you smile.

In this one, I really can't stand the cuteness. Only thing cuter would be an actual baby. This one is also pretty darn cute.

Looking at them all, and realizing Jon and Grant Stoddard are the only people I know of the bunch, makes me realize, yet again, just how many amazing, interesting people this city holds. Sometimes I forget that and get safely ensconced in my little worlds, which lately I've been too busy or traveling to even take part in, and then I get antsy, because I don't have enough time for the friends I already have. But I don't think friendship is finite, and love when I connect with someone new and find out how we're alike, and not, and develop the rhythms of communication and knowledge. Friendships take just as much "upkeep," though I hate using words like that to describe relationships, as romantic relationships, and it's easy to let them backslide, but even when I'm not physically with my friends, I think about them. It's one of the reasons I love blogs so much; I can read about, say, Courtney's new bible, and remember I need to contact her. But blogs and email are no true substitute for in-person communication, and for now, my time's pretty strapped. I know my friends understand, and miss me too, and I will be back in action in a few weeks. For now, it's crunch time, and I'm learning to roll with it.

Will Chelsea Handler's Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea be published?

When I first heard that Judith Regan had been let go from HarperCollins, I wondered, like many other people, what would happen to the books slated to be published by Regan. It seems that most have been moved into other HC divisions, like Anna David's Party Girl and, I believe, Stephanie Klein's Moose: A Memoir of Fat Camp, which Amazon is still showing as a June 1st Regan release.



But one of the books I was most looking forward to reading was Chelsea Handler's Are You There Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea. (formerly titled Hello Vodka, It's Me Chelsea)

However, in late February a HarperCollins publicist told me the book is no longer being published by HarperCollins!

I did discover that Simon Spotlight Entertainment and Amazon are showing an untitled Chelsea Handler book to be published in September 2007 that, like Are You There Vodka? is clocking in at 224 pages. I have an email in to SSE to confirm that it's the same book. I certainly hope so because it would be a shame if it didn't get published at all.

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Radar and Fleshbot awesomeness and shameless self-promotion the hard way

Radar went to a recent Playgirl party and reviewed the mag, giving a mention to my anthology Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z.



And the fabulous folks at crazy hot Fleshbot blogged my He's on Top/She's on Top kinky virtual book tour! It starts this Sunday, April Fool's Day (for real) over at Viviane's Sex Carnival. From April 1st through May 5th, you'll get giveaways, reviews, excerpts, and deep thoughts about dominance and submission!



When I was in Oregon people kept asking about my book "tour." I don't think they quite understand that I pay my own way for all my travel, and bought 90 extra copies each of my books to do this promotion and a lot of other promo (like take an ad out on Susie Bright's blog. Hopefully it'll pay off, but I've spent out most of my advance. By choice; it's a calculated risk, one I can take because I have other money coming in and because, frankly, otherwise I don't really know how to spread the word about my books. I feel like I've been gifted with these brilliant, gorgeous covers, and I'm so proud of every single dirty story in these two; there's no filler, no iffiness, no things I'm not that cool with. Recently, another publisher I'd worked with in the past, Alyson, chose to cancel one of the anthologies I co-edited for them, called Second Skin. I was sad, because my co-editor and I put a lot of work into it and the three previous books in the Fetish Chest series, but at the same time, it made me realize that publishers, especially ones new to the erotica field, don't always know what they're doing and can come up with unsellable ideas just as easily as us authors can. When you're really broke or in debt, you have to jump at any opportunity given to you, and I did, and we put those first three out at breakneck speed. I have my own ideas about why they didn't sell all that well, largely to do with the covers, content (an equal mix of straight, lesbian, and gay erotica) and placement (I believe they are in the gay/lesbian section of most stores, due to being published by Alyson, but am not really sure). I still think those are great books but have to put my energies into the ones I'm most passionate about. I'll also always be the kind of person who wants to know what's being said/written about me, and wants to take an active part in the publicity process. I know that can only be a boon next year when working with Bantam (part of Random House) to promote my first novel, Everything But... I'm not saying I know everything, but I do feel that I know the erotica market pretty damn well, both in terms of selling my work, editing anthologies, and figuring out which media outlets might bite.

I hear and observe a lot of authors pretty much leaving everything up to someone else, and I can't speak for them, but for me, that'd be a mistake. I'm a control freak about a lot of things and I want to know what's happening with my books, and also, for me, I got into all this not so much to make money (though clearly I want that), but because it's something important to me. Though my erotica has largely, though not entirely, shifted from true, personal stories to actual fiction, it's still me writing it, and I still cover topics I care about. I miss the sex journalism I used to do but am looking for new outlets for that, but am also welcoming the freedom fiction gives me. Sometimes it is a tough balance between the creative work and the marketing work, but I also find a real satisfaction in it. Plus I get to indulge my post office fetish and feel a little bit more connected to my readers. Sending out postcards all over the country has been really cool and whether or not those people buy books, I like having a little piece of something I created to hand out. For me, that is always the most exciting part, to take an idea from the mere idea stage and turn it into something people can hold in their hands, can savor, can jerk off to. I sometimes forget that that's what erotica is for, which sounds odd, I know, but I'm in it and surrounded by it all the time, so it's rarer now that I get so lost in it, but show me a good story, and my body reacts. I think these books tap into really elemental, key parts of some people's sexuality - at least, I hope they do - and knowing that, I hope I've done them justice. All this to say that I'm very invested in how my books do, not just for ego or financial purposes, but because they're a part of me. They're my babies, though I think I am definitely playing favorites with my books much more than I will do with my babies. Yes, I want a couple of those someday too. Like three, or four.

I think doing your own publicity, as my friend Audacia Ray has written about, teaches you about what works and what doesn't. It allows you to try innovations like this virtual book tour, and I think there is also something about the personal contact, as opposed to the publicist pitch, that can help. I deal with publicists about book reviews all the time and they're courteous and helpful, and refer people to my books' publicists when I need to, but even leaving aside my post office fetish, I think over the last six or seven years I've gotten pretty good at publicizing my readings and events. It's hard, and there's a lot to stay on top of; you can't just mail stuff off and forget about it. I saw my Powell's reading listed in The Oregonian, via Google news alert, but had to be told that it got a very nice plug in The Portland Mercury. I think it's all valuable, but it does come at the expense of, and uses a different area of my brain's creative energies, writing at times. I've never been the hide away in an attic type of writer, and while I don't often physically write in public (though I did file a piece that's running tomorrow, on cupcakes - I think it's my first paid gig writing about cupcakes - from the Portland airport), I think getting your name out there, forcing yourself to overcome the nerves and do readings, is valuable and can be fun.



Speaking of book promotion, the fabulous Michelle Goodman, author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide: Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube (which I also recommend for those of you, like me, who work full-time, and to men), looks for affordable printers and quotes some of the stats I found. I wound up getting my She's on Top promo postcards, which I'm bringing/sending to bookstores and sex toy stores and mailing out to interested readers (want one? email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with "postcard" in the subject line and your name and mailing address in the body) from 1-800-POSTCARDS, because they were local and I thought I'd get them before SXSW. That didn't happen, but I am still really happy with their service. I also chose them because they did some of the layout work for me for only $25 extra, because I have ZERO brain for design. Next time, I'd go with 4 X 6 instead of 3.5 X 5.5, but still, I'm happy. And still have well over 4,000 postcards, which I'm sure I'll be using and handing out for a long time to come. (Thanks again to this Saturday's Spextravaganza organizer and Girl With Glasses author Marissa Walsh for the 1-800-POSTCARDS tip.)

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HOT Heeb Storytelling: The Seder lineup, April 3rd

So I got switched to April 3rd from the 2nd...and am now with Meital Dohan, aka, the hot Israeli chick who did the brother in law with a strap-on in Weeds. !!!!

We each have to talk for ten minutes, without notes, on the topic of "Freedom." I guess that's what I'll be working on over the weekend! And this will probably be way more religious than my family's seder.

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NYU News name drop

Not really sure what this whole controversy is about (it's the first I'm hearing about it), but my name gets dropped:

Clearly, Rachel Kramer Bussel isn't syndicated in Rhode Island.

"Brown plays a sex party safe," Andrew Nusca

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I love For the Love of Letters by Samara O'Shea



I read a lot. Every day books cross my desk or catch my eye. I love that moment of cracking open a delicious new book that I've been anticipating. I read in a very specific way - I read the back and inside covers, then acknowledgements, then, if it's a straightforward narrative, dive right in. But I also like to peek - I cheat, and skip around, peruse, but I love when I just dig right in and fall in love. That happened with Samara O'Shea's beautiful, inspirational For the Love of Letters: A 21-st Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing,which I was truly honored to be asked to blurb (the original title had "from the Elegant to the Erotic" tacked on) . Here's the blurb I sent in (though an edited version will appear on the book):

Samara O'Shea has outdone herself with her own passionate love letter to the written word. For the Love of Letters takes readers on a guided tour through epistolary history, including her own, and shows exactly when and how to craft a letter that will get your every emotion across. For those seeking to seduce, her section on erotic letters offers tasteful, yet totally hot, ways to make him or her drop everything and rush into your arms when they realize just what you're offering to them. Sensual and bold, O'Shea bares her soul in this book, serving up letters that will make you wish you'd received even one displaying such strong emotion. In our text message-mad era, she revives what's become largely a lost art. As soon as I was done, I got out my pen and started writing some very lusty letters of my own!

And...the legal eagles, copyright nerds, erotically-minded folks and literature lovers will appreciate the section about James Joyce's highly erotic letters, which Samara was unable to acquire the right to reprint from Joyce's grandson (but she includes her own letter to him). Samara will be reading from these explicit Joyce letters on May 16th at 8 pm at my erotic reading series In The Flesh along with literary It boy Dana Vachon (Mergers and Acquisitions) and others. Samara also includes one of her own very racy letters in the book (and I'm still lobbying to get her to read it in May!).

Now my awesome friend and one-time In The Flesh reader Felicia Sullivan (whose memoir The Sky Isn't Visible From Here is finally available for pre-order on Amazon was available the other day for pre-order and now has disappeared, boo! Update: heard from Ms. Felicia that the book's now coming out in January - trust me, I heard her read from it and it's gonna be something to tuck in with you under the covers some chilly winter night and stay up late until you finish.) is having a contest where you can WIN a copy of For the Love of Letters. What are you waiting for?

Felicia also linked to CraftyPod's ode to letter writing.

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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

BlogHer 2007

Okay, now I'm definitely going to BlogHer. A reading at Early to Bed already in the works. I'm a Blogher virgin though, so people I know (or should know), let me know if you're going.

Also, new blog addiction: Hana Schank's More Perfect. She's the author of the memoir A More Perfect Union: How I Survived The Happiest Day of My Life, which I got at Powell's and am now reading in my "spare time." Also check out Hana's recent Mediabistro essay, "How To Write About Family and Friends So They'll Still Speak to You."

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Susie Bright hearts Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z

Susie Bright, the magnificent editor of the Best American Erotica series (which I've been included in in the 2004 and 2006 editions), has this to say about my Naughty Spanking Stories series:

Rachel Kramer Bussel's "Naughty Spanking Stories" have legions of fans for good reason: she literally knows how to hit the sweet spot. Her second edition is out, and you should feel free to bang the drum, or your buttocks, whichever you prefer.

So what are youwaiting for?

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A She's on Top excerpt: "By a Firm Hand" by Debra Hyde



Both books (He's on Top and She's on Top) are now IN STOCK from Amazon, finally. And if you were at the reading or have read one of the books and enjoyed them (which I truly hope you have), please feel free to leave a comment to that effect on Amazon. I also still have She's on Top postcards if anyone wants one - email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com with "postcard" in the subject line and your name and mailing address in the body. The kinky virtual book tour starts on April 1st at Viviane's Sex Carnival! Stay tuned for excerpts, contests, and more naughty book fun.

From "By a Firm Hand" by Debra Hyde in She's on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission.

The reward came in the form of clanging pots and pans. Robert was, finally, getting to the scrubbing part of his punishment.

Serves him right, she thought. That'll teach him.

It wasn't his masturbation that she was punishing. No, not at all. Judith understood the male drive and its neediness and how the convergence of such things would result in a man taking his dick in hand. She accepted how orgasm brings relief. What Judith could not tolerate was Robert's messiness and, even worse, his lack of respect for her possessions. That he left his dirty magazines lying about—on their marital bed, no less—irked her, but what really raised her ire was the pair of soiled panties she'd found there.

They were emerald green, soft and silky, and had cost her good money. She had found them amid the mess of his magazines, stiff with his jizz. He had taken these panties, a delicacy he had begged for, and then paraded about in them like a prancing mummer, and had coarsely used and discarded them. He had treated her expensive gift as if they were little more than a catcher's mitt, and he had done so with absolutely no regard or respect for her. He hadn't even had the common decency to tidy up after himself.

But that, Judith reminded herself, is why she ruled over him. Robert needed it, badly, too. Somehow, his need to be directed and controlled was deeply embedded, acquired perhaps at his mother's feet and over her knees in his little boyhood, then long sublimated only to blossom during adulthood as an erotic peculiarity—a peculiarity that made for her pleasure.

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Tuesday, March 27, 2007

the cupcake and cleavage combo


At Powell's with a cupcake
Originally uploaded by rkb1.
Comes to the west coast. Cupcake by Cupcake Mama, cleavage by nature, with a little help from my Betsey Johnson pushup bra.

book porn


100_1137
Originally uploaded by rkb1.
from Powell's last night.

I'm in love


my sexy Macbook
Originally uploaded by rkb1.
Or lust, or something like that - with my laptop. Or maybe I just like fondling it. It's quiet and light and pretty and perfect. It hasn't quite gotten me in full-on must-write-every-second mode, but we're getting there.

Thank you to everyone who packed Powell's for our He's on Top/She's on Top reading. Photos TK. It was fabulous and amusing (we were right near the kids' section), I finally got to meet Shanna Germain (and learn how to pronounce her name), was awed once again by Stan Kent's fashion sense and sexy wit. We signed lots of books and gave out cupcakes from Cupcake Mama and all of it made me want to come back to Portand very soon. Stan gave me pretty much the best compliment about a reading ever: "after nights like that I just want to write until I drop." Also, you can now add Stan as a friend on MySpace. And Shanna, who has a really cool slideshow of book covers. One more day filled with babysitting, visiting, and perhaps more sweets, though I'm about done with eating sweets for a while. I'm craving spinach and fruit and healthy things. I walked from the Powell's on Hawthorne to the Powell's on Burnside, where I got to meet Kevin Sampsell of Future Tense Books, with a break in between for some Lebanese food. It's been truly lovely though I am ready to come home where I have much to catch up on, friends I feel like I haven't seen in ages, my baby cousin who is now walking and talking, both of which I've missed out on, and another little trip I'm very much looking forward to.

Monday, March 26, 2007

5 Questions About Blogging

Hanging in Peet's Coffee (cause Powell's was too crowded) on Hawthorne in Portland, readying myself to walk about 3 miles to Voodoo Doughnut and the other Powell's but first complete some overdue work that's been plaguing me. I'll wait out the rain and hopefully make a dent. Tonight after the reading I go stay with alpacas and tomorrow morning I help babysit three little boys, ages 2, 4, and 5. Got to catch up withs an old friend who just moved here which was fabulous and I definitely want to return to Portland when I have fewer bags and deadlines!

Crossing my fingers that my books have arrived at Powell's and that people show up tonight. At least two bloggers, Figleaf, who I think writes some of the smartest sex writing around, and Heidi of Adventures in Multiplicity, will be there. And I'll be bringing absolutely gorgeous (so pretty we declined to eat them last night cause they are so beautiful, a peril of the pretty cupcake) cupcakes from Cupcake Mama so please come out if you're in town: 7:30, tonight (Monday, March 26th) at Powell's Books, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd., to see and hear me, Shanna Germain, and Stan Kent read from She's on Top and He's on Top. (which are OUT NOW, despite whatever Amazon may tell you)

The fabulous Viviane interviewed me for her 5 Questions About Blogging series. That photo was taken by Paul Sarkis, but in real life I'm much more of a plain cotton bikini panty girl than a thong one.

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Thursday, March 22, 2007

Off to Eugene and Portland

Even though I will be bringing my laptop and not shutting down my computer, I probably won't be answering non-essential email until I get back on Wednesday. Off to Eugene and Portland for a fun hotel stay, catching up on reading and writing and editing, visits with family, playing with alpacas, eating cupcakes and donuts, reading smut, hanging with the literati, and exploring. My reading was listed in the Powell's newsletter, and I think I may pick up The Zinester's Guide to Portland. Probably little known fact: way back in law school, I put out three issues of a zine called I'm Not Waiting (after the Sleater-Kinney song).

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"Feeder" teaser



Last night I read from the story "Feeder" by Adelaide Clark in She's on Top. Here's a snippet:

They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, but what the mysterious "they" don't know is that the way to my pussy is also through a man's stomach. Just so we're clear—I get off on watching guys eat. Not just any guys, and not just any food, but my boyfriend, under my direct supervision. You could say it's part of my housewife fetish, but really, it's a lot more than that. Men's lips are the opposite of their cocks—soft and yielding, curving and delicate. When I'm stroking my boyfriend Ron's cock, I always like to stick my finger in my mouth and then trace it over his lips. I make him wait before slipping the finger inside. His mouth always opens for me, lets me enter, take over. It's wet and warm and soft and alive, kind of like my own sex, so maybe that's why I like it.

But anyway, my favorite form of foreplay is to make an extraspecial meal and then feed it to Ron in slow, sensual bites. I don't do it all the time, or he'd be thin as a reed, because these snacks aren't so much about his nourishment as his submission. Sometimes I bind his arms behind his back with rope, so all I see before me, under his floppy brow of jet-black hair and those piercing blue eyes, are his open mouth, pink tongue slightly visible, and cock straining against his pants. I'll be stirring something over the stove and he'll come up behind me, nuzzling my neck, his hands going around my waist, most often trying to get beneath my apron. All I have to do is tskand he gives me his puppy-dog look of contrition. I wouldn't really say I'm a cook, and am just as happy eating cold cereal or a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but cooking for Ron brings out a whole other side of me.

He's the kind of guy who frequents five-star restaurants for work, since his job as a publicist requires him to schmooze with editors all day long. I know that sometimes he heads over to Peter Luger's and indulges in a thick, juicy steak with his friends. I'm not always perfect about it, but I try to avoid red meat myself. Still, that hasn't stopped me from jerking off on those nights when he's all suited and tied, hair slicked back just so, or from picturing him cutting into that red, oozing slab of flesh, his hands slicing it into tiny bites like a child, then lifting each one to those precious lips. I picture things I can't see, like the meat once it's placed inside his mouth, getting masticated into tiny pieces. I slip my own fingers into my mouth and suck on them, hard, while plunging my other hand into my panties, as I wish I were there to watch, or supervise, to observe two men doing something men all over the world must do every day—enjoy a meal together, savor what's on their plates in ways that are so troubling for women that we rarely indulge in that ultimate sensual pleasure with quite so much vigor. If it were just Ron and me, alone, I'd make him cut his meat with my bulging breasts right in front of his face, trying to distract him. Then I'd take each almost-raw (his favorite) piece and put it into his mouth myself, feel it slip from my fingers onto his tongue, maybe rub it in for good measure, then let go, letting my meaty fingertips linger under his nose for a moment. I'd watch him swallow, his eyes wide, fixed on me, the pleasure of eating converted into a different type of pleasure entirely as he does it under my gaze.

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Courtney McLean hotness


Courtney - Gaze
Originally uploaded by Rob Boudon.
I think Courtney McLean has a natural beauty, not to mention beautiful energy and spirit. Every time I see her I walk away smiling and I feel like we share this artistic drive and passion. Last night the fabulous and utterly socially networked Rob Boudon passed out some Flickr moo.com business cards (I am getting some for myself ASAP) and I snagged one with a stunning pic of Courtney. But this one blew me away.

Check out the rest of Rob's Flickr stream, including one of him and me that required a mini camera lesson, and one that can honestly be called cupcake porn.

And to tie this all together, Courtney is reading at April 18th's True Sex Confessions Night at In The Flesh (I will be plugging it heavily because like last year, I've booked some of my favorite people in the world, and ones who don't always talk about this kind of stuff. Jessica Cutler's story, sadly not videotaped, will live on in infamy.)

April 18th's 2nd Annual True Confessions Night

I'll be reading from my oh-so-2006 essay "Where Sluts Fear to Tread" from Lisa Solod's forthcoming anthology Desire: Women Write About Wanting, to be published this fall by Seal Press. You just have to show up to hear what it's about. It's one of those essays I'm really proud of, but am so far removed from now, but it helped me clarify some of how I think about my sexuality in relation to people I'm dating, and I think is about some of those fears and worries we have that we can't bring up to our partners. It's also hot (I think). Anyway, if I could do true confessions every month, I would. There'll be room for audience participation too!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
TRUE SEX CONFESSIONS NIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com


The second annual True Sex Confessions night features an all-star roster of artists, bloggers, and writers, including Chelseagirl (Pretty Dumb Things blog), Valerie Frankel (The Accidental Virgin, Hex and the Single Girl), Dan Goldman (“KELLY,” Shooting War), Peter Hyman (The Reluctant Metrosexual, “Group Therapy” show), Logan Levkoff (Third Base Ain’t What It Used To Be), Courtney McLean (“Normal-C, “Super Glossy!”), and Veronica Vera (founder and author of Miss Vera’s Cross-Dress for Success, Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to be Girls). Hosted by erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2). Audience members will have the chance to share their anonymous true confessions throughout the night. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Andy Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Susan Wright, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from Escape (Hong Kong), The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.



Rachel Kramer Bussel is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com, and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have been published in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited 13 erotica anthologies, most recently He’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission, She’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission, Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com



Chelsea Girl began her blog, Pretty Dumb things, in March of 2005. Her writing has been featured in the UK magazines Scarlet and Modern Woman and on Audible.co.uk. She won the Best Female Sexblogger 2006 award from Dirtyspoke.com. While Chelsea Girl maintains that she is a writer of a blog with sex, not of it, the world seems to disagree. She, rather predictably, lives in Chelsea, where she is working on several long and overwhelming writing projects.
Prettydumbthings.typepad.com



Valerie Frankel has written thirteen novels, including The Accidental Virgin, The Girlfriend Curse, Hex and the Single Girl, and, for teens, the Fringe Girl series. Her new novel, I Take This Man, was released in March 2007. She also writes a lot about sex and dieting (sometimes at the same time) for magazines such as Self, Glamour and Allure. She's lived in Brooklyn for nearly twenty years, has two daughters, three cats and one husband, the opera singer Stephen Quint.
www.valeriefrankel.com



Dan Goldman is a writer, illustrator and designer of mostly comics. The artist behind Shooting War, the upcoming graphic novel from Warner Books, Dan is also a founding member of the daily comics anthology ACT-I-VATE, where he writes and draws the damaged romance Craigslist thriller "KELLY". While known primarily for his work in the comics medium, writing prose is his first love. He lives in New York City.
dangoldman.net



Peter Hyman is an author and journalist who happens to do some comedic performing on occasion. He is a contributing writer for Radar magazine and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Details, New York Magazine and Slate.com, among others. He is the author of The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches From An Almost Hip Life and is at work on a satiric novel about post-war Iraq.
www.pdhyman.com

Logan Levkoff always hoped to become the voice of the next generation of sexually healthy young women. She began her career in sexology as a peer AIDS educator in high school and she hasn't stopped since. Today, Logan frequently appears on television, including Oprah, VH1, Fox News Channel, and The Today Show. She also serves as the sexual advice columnist for many magazines and websites. Logan is the spokesperson for Trojan , and is the author of The Espresso Dating Guide, a project created by Starbucks and Yahoo!Personals. Her first book, Third Base Ain't What it Used to Be: What Your Kids Are Learning About Sex Today and What They Can Still Learn to be Sexually Heathy Adults will be published by NAL in October 2007.
www.loganlevkoff.com

Courtney McLean's solo performance work 'accomplishes the highest moral function of theater: to promote understanding' as well as totally nerding out on stage. Courtney's first show, "Normal-C" debuted in San Diego to sold-out houses in 2002 (after the discovery that auditioning for other people's stupid plays sucks) and was toured to Washington, DC and Minneapolis, MN last summer after a stint at the Triad in NYC. The new show, "Super Glossy!" a sci-fi satire on women's magazines, just debuted at the NYC Frigid Fest and is preparing for flight across the nation this summer. Courtney lives in East Harlem with her cat and her vibrator.
www.courtneymclean.com

Lianne Stokes has a really hard time with numbers. She was always awful at math. Which means that she's constantly overdrawn in her "WAMU" checking account. A budding quirky creative type, she’s been doing stand-up on the New York indie scene for five years. Known for her high-energy style, she appreciates that "Dudes think she's funny." Most recently Lianne's had the pleasure to write and workshop her solo show, "Unrequited," around town. Oh! She's also got a blog. Yes! And, she's super proud that said blog is often linked by Gawker.com.
Liannestokes.blogspot.com



Veronica Vera is the author of Miss Vera’s Finishing School for Boys Who Want to Be Girls: Tips, Tales and Teachings from the Dean of the World’s First Crossdressing Academy (Doubleday) and Miss Vera’s Crossdress for Success, A Resource Guide for Boys Who Want to Be Girls (Villard). Miss Vera’s Academy is in New York City. Brochure and application upon request. (212-242-6449).
Missvera.com

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Wednesday, March 21, 2007

The definitive "Do You Blog on the First Date?" SXSW panel recap and sexual politics redux

The very prolific, detail-oriented, and intelligent Amelia G of Blue Blood attended our "Do You Blog on the First Date?" panel at SXSW and gives what has to be the most exhaustive account of almost everything we covered.

Also, she's hilarious:

At this point in the panel, I apparently passed Forrest Black, who was shooting the presentation, a note which read: “MY BROTHER SHOULD MARRY SHELASKY ONLY HER FACE IS NOT HEART-SHAPED.” (For the non-Luddite savvy, note passing is a sort of low tech Twitter.)

She captures the ambivalent feelings most of us have about blogging about sex and dating. I'm the first to tell you that it's tricky territory that I'm constantly reevaluating. I deleted my whole blog in 2005 because there was too much that was so raw and painful and, I'm sure, hurtful, but it was also how I needed to process that particular breakup. I think I've wised up a little, though I still use it for catharsis, I'm more interested in looking at other people's sex lives than strictly my own, though I always draw from my own experiences.

How much do I heart Sexerati? They continue to give me reasons to swoon over their very intelligent, often amusing, writings about the non-glamorous side of sex. See their latest piece, "How to Have Awkward Sex."

- Dirty talk is always good. Awkward dirty talk is even better. Consider mentioning: your mom, your partner's mom, animals, politics, Ron Jeremy, your grandmother, Twitter, the last time you had a condom break, MySpace, babies, your blog. Works like a charm.

My fellow panelist Melanie Boyer also did not get laid in Austin.

"OK, now, are you still on hiatus?"

"No," I said. "It's not really a self-imposed hiatus so much as it's just that I haven't met anyone I want to date, or sleep with, or anything else. If someone came along that interested me, and I interested him, I wouldn't walk away from it, but I'm not looking either."

And in terms of a one-night stand, I can think of nothing else less sastisyfing or more of a black hole of wasted energy. It just doesn't sound good at all. There's a lot of messy bodily fluids involved in sex. I don't want to get all up in it for nothing, unless we can do it again. And again and again and again, for a long time to come, and get really good at it.


I'm so right there with her in terms of not wanting one-night stands, casual sex, casual anything really. I don't even want casual friendships. I want people in my life who are going to stick around, who don't just want some idealized version of me, but the real me, who will give me their honest opinions even if that involves tough love. I have had plenty of casual sex and there were times in my life I welcomed it but in the last year or two I've just found that I don't want that, it leaves too many hollow spaces, too many gaps, too many voids sex alone can't fill.

I think it's important, though, to differentiate what I'm talking about in my personal life versus the overall goal of sexual freedom, which has to include casual sex if the term's going to mean anything. There are so many subtle and overt ways right now that sexuality in various forms is under attack. I think that we can simultaneously look at how casual sex might not be ideal for some people without denigrating our right to choose it. I feel like we're seeing again and again scolds who warn us of the perils of hookups, who are there to be our supposed big brothers and big sisters when the truth is, a lot of us need to learn from experience. And not everyone will walk away with the same conclusions. I don't regret anything I've done in the past, though am trying to be smarter about dating and sex, to not make assumptions about other people's motivations, to really think about what I want independently of what society or other people are telling me to want.

I keep seeing the same debates on feminist blogs about certain sex acts, and I'm really tempted to write a book called Feminist Sex: An Oxymoron. Maybe someday. I don't think sexual freedom is the be-all and end-all of feminism, but it has to be part of the goal, and not just a narrow definition of sexual freedom. It's easy to argue for it if "freedom" means safe, behind-closed-doors, heterosexual, married penis-in-vagina intercourse. But news flash: lots of people, married, heterosexual people included, don't always have safe, pretty, perfect, penis-in-vagina intercourse. I go back to this example a lot, but when Caitlin Flanagan tosses off that blowjobs are "debasing, uncomfortable, and messy," I do feel the need to defend the act. Not as a feminist act per se, but as the right of men and women to perform it. And now that I revisit her words, I think there's something cock-phobic about it as well. What if she had said that in terms of cunnilingus, it's "more debasing, uncomfortable and messy" than giving a handjob? Would that have been offensive to women? I just think some of these conservative takes on sex need to be examined more thoroughly. On the other hand, do I think all is perfect in the world of teenage sexuality? No. But teenagers and adults alike are not, I don't think, going to curtail their sexual explorations simply because someone older and wiser tells them to, nor should they. I'm not saying that how we conduct ourselves in public and private is apolitical, but I don't think there's a single reading we can give any sex act. It's about the context, the people, and the motivations and yes, I'm going to get more impassioned about the things that I'm personally interested in, but I do believe in sexual freedom broadly defined, not just for women, for everyone.

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I'm not shutting down my computer EVER

This week's New York Press cover story by She's Such a Geek co-editor Charlie Anders about World Shutdown Day:

Not everyone is excited about Shutdown Day. “My first instinct is to flinch,” says blogger, writer and sex guru Rachel Kramer Bussel. “I just can’t imagine a whole day. I could imagine half a day maybe.” But, she admits, she’d feel better about it if she absolutely knew nobody would be trying to contact her online during her stint of cyber-deprivation. Even then, “I would feel really antsy about it.”

Kramer Bussel has friends who freak out as though she may have fallen down a well if she doesn’t answer their emails within a day. She does all her work online, and productive time is mixed in with messing around.

Five minutes in the “real world” are like 10,000 years online. Civilizations rise and fall, philosophies flourish and collapse under their own contradictions. Most of all, your own reputation can turn from crap to gold and back again—several times. Step away from the Internet for a day, and you may come back to find everybody else’s tag clouds have gone carnivorous. And people are speaking Urdu.

Kramer Bussel worries that if she leaves the blogosphere alone too long, she’ll have missed her chance to respond to someone else’s point. If you don’t parry someone’s thrust right away, the conversation will move on and you’ll have lost the argument.

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Tonight: Suzanne Portnoy! Cadbury creme eggs! Cupcakes! Smut!

Welcome Howard Stern listeners and In The Flesh audience members...you heard sexy Suzanne Portnoy on the radio, now come hear her read from her memoir LIVE tonight at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street, 8 pm, Free!



I usually tell people to arrive by 7:30 to get a seat, but you might want to get there even earlier. And I'll have cupcakes, the usual candy, and Cadbury Creme Eggs to give away, plus He's on Top and She's on Top for sale. See you there!




IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 21 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com


This month, join Cheri Crystal (Erotic Interludes 3, 4, 5), Joel A. Nichols (Dorm Porn 2, Travelrotica 2), Carol Novack (Mad Hatters’ Review), memoirist Suzanne Portnoy (The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker), who’s making an appearance all the way from London, and Claire Thompson (Golden Boy, Slave Castle), along with host erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Caught Looking) for hot stories from across the sexual spectrum. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served and authors’ books will be available for sale.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Andy Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Susan Wright, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from Escape (Hong Kong), The L Magazine, New York magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette and has been recommended by Dr. Ruth. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com, and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have been published in over 80 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited 13 erotica anthologies, most recently Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Cheri Crystal enjoys reading, writing, reviewing, eating, working out, and having sex—not necessarily in that order. Since appearing in Erotic Interludes 3: Lessons in Love, Cheri has erotica in other Bold Strokes Books, Cleis Press, and Alyson anthologies. When she’s not busy raising a family or working in health care, Cheri is putting the finishing touches on her first novel, A Closet in Syosset.

Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz is a fiction writer and poet. Her work has appeared in various online and print journals as well as several anthologies. Though new to the erotic genre, Mintz has had work published in the online journal Clean Sheets as well as Down & Dirty 2 and Velvet Heat from Pretty Things Press. A very short work received an honorable mention in a contest at Katy Terrega's Sex-writers.com.

Joel A. Nichols was born and raised in Vermont. This year stories of his will appear in Dorm Porn 2, Travelrotica 2, Second Skin, Fast Balls, Distant Horizons: Queer Science Fiction (Haworth Positronic), C is for Co-ed (Cleis), Got A Minute (Cleis), and Sex by the Book: Gay Men's Tales of Lit and Lust (Green Candy Press), and have appeared in Alyson's Full Body Contact, Just the Sex, Ultimate Undies, and Sexiest Soles. An excerpt from his novel in progress won second place in the Brown Foundation Short Fiction Prize 2005. In 2002, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Berlin. Joel studied German at Wesleyan University and has a Creative Writing M.A. from Temple University. He lives in Philadelphia with his boyfriend and works for an internet porn company.
www.joelanichols.com

Carol Novack's writings can & will be found in many publications, including The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets, American Letters & Commentary, Del Sol Review, Diagram, First Intensity, 5_Trope, La Petite Zine, LIT, & Notre Dame Review. She publishes the e-journal Mad Hatters' Review.
carolnovack.blogspot.com

Suzanne Portnoy has been an entertainment publicist for twelve years. Divorced and with two children, aged 13 and 15, she is formerly from New York and now lives in London. Attractive and finally a size 8 after twenty years of yo-yo dieting, she is happily single and spends her spare time writing, having sex and acting as a one-woman car pool service. Her first book, The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker: An Erotic Memoir, is published by Virgin Books.
www.suzanneportnoy.com

Claire Thompson has written erotic fiction since 1995. Much of her work focuses on the romance of erotic submission, as well as the darker exploration of BDSM. Her most recent work focuses on the male/male romance and erotic submission. Claire has published numerous novels and short stories, both in print and ebook format. Says a reviewer for eCataRomance, “…Claire Thompson draws a compelling, graphic picture of a loving dominant/submissive relationship. Erotic and confronting, yet tender and intimate.” Visit her website for a listing of all Claire’s novels, upcoming releases, and more information.
www.clairethompson.net

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Sugasm #71

Sugasm #71


The best of this weeks blogs by the bloggers who blog them. Highlighting the top 3 posts as chosen by Sugasm participants. Want in Sugasm #72? Submit a link to your best post of the week using this form. Participants, repost the linklist within a week and you’re all set.


This Week’s Picks

Roué
(http://www.easilyaroused.co.uk)

“Her sighs of contentment build as my touch does its work.”


Wrong Number (http://radicalvixen.com/blog)

“They said clients were trying to call me and getting this restaurant instead.”


Ride to the Cabin (http://eroticawriter.blogspot.com)

“As he pulled into a dark lane that led into a grove of trees, I reached over to stroke him.”


Mr. Sugasm Himself

Loveland (http://sugarbank.com)


Editor’s Choice

Your hair (http://erotischism.blogspot.com)


More Sugasm

Join the Sugasm


(Sugasm participants should re-post all the links above. The following links may be excluded as long as you include all the above links.)


Erotic Writing and Experiences

3 is The Magic Number: Three Songs (http://dirtydetails.blogspot.com)

AMBER~~”Anything You Want” (Part Four) (http://buttocksblog.blogspot.com)

The Desperate Tango (http://femmefataleteen.blogspot.com)

The Dress II (http://wanklog.blogspot.com)

Entry Box…. (http://afterschoolmonologues.blogspot.com)

Midnight Thrusts (http://kinkyfarmwife.blogspot.com)

My Wet Dream (http://maude-tim.blogspot.com)

The Need (http://joeheather.blogspot.com)

Public Affections (http://www.sex-kitten.net)

Rug Burn (http://confessions112.blogspot.com)

Setting Your Panties on Fire (http://secretbrain.blogspot.com)

Startled Awakening (http://bikersballsandteacherstits.blogspot.com)

That night instead of round 2, I passed out (http://thatjuicyjuicy.blogspot.com)

Turning Tricks for Tapas, Dos (http://cakeandcock.blogspot.com)

Why Aren’t You Naked? (http://designingintimacy.blogspot.com)


Podcasts & Poetry

“Cocaine” Kimberly Was Her Working Name (http://eroticjournals.blogspot.com)

Episode #1-Sex with another woman (http://deliciously-naughty.typepad.com)

Styx Orchestra-Inspired Poem, thanks to Public TV (http://totalsensuality.blogspot.com)


Sex Work

During (http://thismuse.blogspot.com)


BDSM & Fetish

Birthday Spankings! (http://sexualevolution.blogspot.com)

Distracted pixie (http://insidedarkpixie.blogspot.com)

Happy HNT - Sexy St. Patrick’s day (http://darkside-journey.blogspot.com)

His rope (http://www.kinkerbelle.com)

Marked (http://pick-up-pieces.blogspot.com)

Nature versus nurture, spanking-style (http://www.spankingwriters.com/blog)

Relationships and the lifestyle (http://alternativealbany.xlogz.com)

“So punish me” (http://blog.atlantabondage.com)

Solipsist’s travels in subspace (http://mistress160.blogspot.com)

Zapped (http://www.timidboy.com)


Sex News & Politics

The Flaming Genitals Archive (http://www.quirkysex.com/blog)

Morality in Media Loses Congressional Funding (http://fullfrontalpolitics.com)


Thoughts on Sex and Relationships

Afro-desiacs and “Blow” Jobs (http://shayssexcolumn.blogspot.com)

Feeling Unsafe– Tease Me! (http://perverselypoly.blogspot.com)

Lights On or Lights Off? (http://sexeteria.net)

My Own Sex Confession (Part Two) (http://aslipofagirl.blogspot.com)

The SXSW date that wasn’t, and why (http://lustylady.blogspot.com)


NSFW Pics (& videos)

Can’t blame a man for being a man (video) (http://myhotbox.blogspot.com)

Half-Nekkid Thursday: G-String Season (http://www.taratainton.com)

Half-Nekkid Merkin (http://sweatshopsissy.wordpress.com)

Half-Nekkid Sex Blogger (http://www.tarasnaughtyshop.com)

Nora Marlo Peek-A-Boo Shots (http://eroticandy.blogspot.com)

Poll result: Shower sex (http://marriedexploits.blogspot.com)

Stairway To Heaven (video) (http://myhotbox.blogspot.com)


Woman in G string courtesy of Tara Tainton.

Labels:

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Girls With Glasses Spextravaganza 2007, March 31st

*Girls with Glasses Spextravaganza 2007!*
Saturday, March 31st
Bluestockings, 172 Allen St at Stanton St
(212-777-6028).
Subway: F, V to Lower East Side-Second Ave.
7pm
suggested donation (to bluestockings) $5.

A spec-tacular evening of words and music with:
-Marissa Walsh, author of Girl With Glasses: My Optic History

-Tara Emelye of indie-rock duo The Reverse (www.thereverse.com)

-author, blogger, editor, and former Village Voice columnist, Rachel Kramer Bussel

-author of Hipster Haiku and 30 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do Before Turning 30, Siobhan Adcock

&

founder of the Cringe Reading Series, Sarah Brown

Be there & be square.

xoox
marissa

www.myspace.com/marissawalsh
www.tipsyinmadras.com
www.myspace.com/thejealousybook

Labels: ,

Sex-positive hotness


Molly, Buck, and Dacia
Originally uploaded by Audacia Ray.
Links may be NSFW (I feel like I now have to do that all the time, but I don't want my good friends getting in any trouble).

Burlesque performer and It-girl illustrator Molly Crabapple, "man with a pussy" porn star Buck Angel, The Bi Apple director Audacia Ray

Monday, March 19, 2007

Better Read Than Dead

I'm reading from an erotica story by Zonna called "Games" that I published in Up All Night. I had met her and done a reading with her, and then suddenly, she was gone. I think she was 42 or 43. I felt very strange, sad but also unnerved, so have the words of someone no longer alive in one of my books. I was disappointed that we wouldn't get to read any more of her stories, because they were funny and hot at the same time and had this unique quirkyness about them. "Games" is about two women who agree to be "friends" but then play a game where they take turns being blindfolded while the other one masturbates, so one can hear but not see the other, and goes mad with imagining what she's doing and what it might be like if they were together. I was honored to be asked to read on such a lineup, and grateful I get to go first. When I read at In The Flesh, which is almost always, I make myself go first to get it out of the way. I may skip reading this month, or ask someone to do it for me. I'm excited for this one but even more excited for April 18th's True Sex Confessions night. The lineup is just so fantastic and it feels like a real milestone to be doing a "2nd annual" type reading. But one thing at a time, I am so overloaded right now I can barely remember what I'm doing from one moment to the next this week.

Tuesday, March 20th
BETTER READ THAN DEAD, at the LGBT Center (208 13th Street).

Reception starts at 6 pm, reading at 7 pm.

Rachel Kramer Bussel on Zonna
Samuel Delany on ?
Wayne Hoffman on David Feinberg
Blair Mastbaum on Paul Bowles
Joan Nestle on May Swenson
Minnie Bruce Pratt on Audre Lorde
Naomi Replansky on Wilfred Owen
Lauren Sanders on Djuna Barnes

Reading material

Megan Hart, author of Dirty andBroken (both from Harlequin's Spice line, the latter forthcoming), asks in her Amazon plog whether it's better for authors to write their own cover copy or not.

Rachel Aimee, one of the editors of $pread magazine

The kind of piece that I think really says nothing and doesn't matter:

"Where's the sex better?" (New York or London) - this is for New York magazine's NY vs. London issue, but...I just feellike you can't really accurately generalize about a whole city or country. We have bumbling men too and I know this is the nature of a piece like this and I don't personally know if there are big differences but it's like anytime I get asked what the "dating scene" or "sex scene" is like in "New York." I have no fucking clue and a) we're surely talking about a very small slice of "New York" without actually saying that out loud and b) I can tell you what it's like amongst my friends, and that's about it. Maybe ultimately I'm not cut out for this job because lately I feel like I'm becoming more and more conservative, in the sense that I don't think it's a race to see who can "excel" at sex or "keep up with the trends." I don't want trends, or peer pressure, dictating what I do sexually. Maybe that's imbuing this short piece with more than it deserves, and while perhaps the whole notion of "Who cares?" could apply to all the NY vs. London stuff, I think especially with sex, it's just irrelevant. There's good sex and bad sex and mediocre sex to be had all over the place, and those definitions are also totally subjective.

Some author blogs of note:

Sue Katz, Consensual Adult - Sue wrote me that her agent had recommend she read this very blog, which of course flattered me, but she also has some great links to sexuality resources and articles and writing a book called Mature Heat, which "covers the landscape of alternative sexualities that other books for older people wouldn't touch with a 12-inch dildo."

Girl With Pen, blog of author Deborah Siegel - she's the co-editor (with Daphne Uviller) of the new anthology Only Child and author of the forthcoming (and high on my to-be-read list) Sisterhood, Interrupted: From Radical Women to Grrls Gone Wild

Nobody Passes, blog of the anthology Nobody Passes: Rejecting the Rules of Gender and Conformity edited by Mattilda, a.k.a Matt Bernstein Sycamore, author of Pulling Taffy (also on MySpace and soon-to-be-read-and-blogged-about-by-me)