Recent press

There's been a lot going on, and I am a bit overwhelmed of late, so sorry if blogging has been light. So be it for the time being. There's a bunch of book reviews forthcoming and some cupcake press, some of it national glossy, but I don't want to jinx it. I'm also up for an ongoing writing gig that I'd love to get, so please keep your fingers crossed for me on that one. Here's a little press recap:



This week's Village Voice picked Tuesday's Best Sex Writing 2008 reading as a Voice Choice, which is totally awesome, and I'm thrilled Eudie Pak wrote it up. However, I did find it odd that there's no mention that I'm a former Voice columnist, nor that the book contains work from the Voice by Tristan Taormino, and also includes Michael Musto's work, but still, I'm thrilled. I'm having Kumquat Cupcakery make their special peanut butter chocolate mini cupcakes and some strawberry cream cheese ones, so there's added incentive. Here's what the Voice wrote:

Sex Uncensored
Big mouths, red sheets, and sacks

If romance novels have lost their luster and clicking on
literotica.com isn't providing the same spark, come to a reading and
signing of Best Sex Writing 2008, a nonfiction series jammed with
explicit articles. Want to know if Jewish women's mouths were made to
give better head? Then check out Rachel Shukert's "Big Mouth Strikes
Again: An Oral Report." Trixie Fontaine's "Menstruation: Porn's Last
Taboo" will no doubt have you thinking differently about your white
bedsheets. And if you're the asexual type, then explore how far
eunuchs will go to destroy their lustful tedencies in Ashlea Halpern's
"Battle of the Sexless." (Ouch.) At 7, Rapture Café & Books, 200
Avenue A, 212-228-1177.

And at Audacia Ray's Live Girl Review," Best Sex Writing 2008 gets a video review. That's a first for me!

Time Out New York gave In The Flesh a shoutout in their "it's-all-connected detox planner."



Forum UK reviewed Crossdressing: Erotic Stories:

There's a lot more to crossdressing than simply a desire by men to wear women's clothes, and this intelligent anthology covers it in thrilling detail. Yes, there are trannies here, most vividly brought to life in Tulsa Brown's Temporary, the tale of an unexpected liaison between a drag queen and one of the kitchen staff in the sleazy venue where she's performing. But there's also a straight girl who fulfills her dominant lover's request to dress as a boy (Alison Tyler's Like a Girl), a butch femme who finally embraces her girly side by wearing a beautiful evening gown (Teresa Noelle Roberts' Tough Enough To Wear a Dress), two couples who attend a fancy dress party as James Dean, Sal Mineo, Clara Bow and Joan Crawford and discover how much it is when boys will be girls and girls will be boys (Helen Boyd's Halloween) and even a woman whose fantasy is to have sex while dressed as a Yeoman of the Guard (Lisabet Sarai's Beefeater). Throw in an introduction from Veronica Vera, the head of Miss Vera's Finishing School For Boys Who Want To Be Girls, and a high quotient of stories featuring men in panties (always guaranteed to keep me turning the pages!), and this is one short story collection which doesn't need to be dressed up as anything other than really hot read. -- E.C.

ForeWord Magazine covered the Independent and Small Press Book Fair and had this to say about my panel, though I will interject and say that I don't remember exactly what was said (the panel was taped tough), but I'm sure I didn't say there aren't any male erotica writers. I always namecheck my favorites like Stan Kent, Thomas Roche, Simon Sheppard, Maxim Jakubowski, Michael Hemmingson, etc., and there are others. Not enough, it seems, but there are plenty out there. I'm excited about my upcoming July release Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica because it may have the most male authors proportionally of any of my books.

In the Flesh: Writing and Publishing Erotica

Four prolific writers of erotica discussed how in different ways they came to write in the genre. The diminutive Tsurah Litzky is the most senior of the group. "You have to go deep into yourself to speak the truth," she says. "In a conservative Christian country, we have to set the libido free!" Her work has appeared in more than eighty publications.

Sofia Quintero, president and founder of Sister Outsider Entertainment (www.sisteroutsider.biz) believed there was a need for erotica for Latinos. Asked about her thoughts on writing she said, "You have to do it because you are compelled. If you want to do the great novel tomorrow, give up writing."

The relevance and scope of erotica was defined by Polly Frost, author of Deep Inside, published by Tor (978-0-7653-1587-8), who said, "If you don't write about sex, you don't write about America." (www.PollyFrost.com). Panel moderator Rachel Kramer Bussel who laid it out by saying, "Pretty much anything you are interested in can be merged with sex."

Bussel is a prolific writer, editor, blogger, reading series host, senior editor at Penthouse Variations and the author of the "Lust Lady" column for the Village Voice (www.rachelkramerbussel.com). Among her books are Hide and Seek (978-1-57344-291-6), He's on Top (978-1-57344-270-1), She's on Top (978-1-57344-269-5), and Best Sex Writing 2008 (978-1-57344-302-9), all by Cleis Press.

While the distinction between "erotica" and "pornography" is often in the eye of the beholder, this writer believes they meet in a continuum bounded by nuances of storytelling and artistry, and unadorned prescription and demonstration.

I asked the panel whether there were any well-known male erotic writers working today and got no suggestions. There seems to be an opportunity here.