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

Sunday, May 31, 2009

someecards.com rocks BEA

Ha ha - the someecards BEA promo postcard

Love this and their holiday-themed postcard book is off the hook! Check out their site for more hilarity. See all my 2009 BEA photos in this Flickr set.

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Californication fan alert: God Hates Us All by Hank Moody

Out August 25th from Simon Spotlight Entertainment. I guess it's the
guy equivalent of Love Letters from Great Men?

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Cover of Sex, Drugs & Gefilte Fish

I have an essay coming out in this.

R Crumb


R Crumb
Originally uploaded by rachelkramerbussel.com

BEA 2009 Day 2


Another reason to love NYC

Wifi and magazines in Bryant Park.

2 readings tonight, plus one June 8th with Carol Queen

Off to BEA again, have already reached the BEA fatigue stage. Got my IPPY Awards last night, stopped in at the packed Tweetup and then had a lovely double date with my guy and Lambda Literary Awards winner Jenny Block (who is all over Fox News defending polyamory these days!). She and others are reaidng with me tonight as you can see below, and then I'm heading to Brooklyn for Gayety at plus size clothing store Re/Dress as previously posted (sorry, in a hurry, but it's with Swish Joel Derfner!). Also, mark your calendars, Monday, June 8th, 7-10 pm, Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome St., NYC, I'm reading with Carol Queen and Dr. Elizabeth Wood of Sex in the Public Square, benefit for The Center for Sex and Culture. Details TK.

This reading is tonight, 8:30-11 at The Center, 208 West 13th Street, NYC.

Bi Lines II:

A Celebration of Bisexual Writing

in Reading Music & Theater


Program

Welcome: Sheela Lambert

Founder, Bi Writers Association

Reading: Edmund White

Rimbaud: The Double Life of a Rebel

Reading: Honor Moore

The Bishop's Daughter: A Memoir by Honor Moore

Musical Performance: Louisa Mc Bee Light

Reading: Jenny Block

OPEN: Love, Sex, and Life in an Open Marriage

Reading: Ron Suresha

Bisexual Perspectives on the Life and Work of Alfred C. Kinsey

Musical Performance: Rorie Kelly








Reading & graphic illustration slide show:

Christy C. Road

Bad Habits: A Love Story

Reading: Rachel Kramer Bussel

Crossdressing

Musical Performance: Rob Barton

Reading: Bobbie Geary

The Janeid

Performance:

Scenes from bisexual one-woman play FLUID:

Written & performed by Erika Kate MacDonald

Reading: Ann Herendeen

Pride/Predjudice

Musical Performance: Dan Manjovi

Special thanks to:

Lambda Literary Foundation,

Bi Women of All Colors &

Christine’s Delights Catering

from the Bi Writers Association

www.biwriters.org

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Friday, May 29, 2009

Cartman does BEA

Click through to my Flickr account for more BEA photos.

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Book signing at BEA!

Me and my mosquito bites will be signing free copies of Best Sex Writing 2009 Friday from 12:30-1:30 at Book Expo America, autographing area, Table 11! I am so so excited. I'll be Tweeting and maybe even vlogging for the next 3 days from there. And I'm going to the Tweetup tomorrow night after I get my gold medals for the IPPY Awards!

Other signings tomorrow you don't want to miss (well, I don't want to miss, though surely I will not be able to get to all of these). This list is as much for me to remember as to share. And if it looks all over the map, that's how BEA is, but so much moreso. Check booth numbers with official BEA schedules at the link above or at BEA.



Don’t Judge a Girl by Her Cover, Ally Carter, 9:30-10:30, autographing area

Permission Slips by Sherri Shepherd, 10:30-11:30, autographing area (unticketed, curiously)

Lit by Mary Karr, 11-12, autographing area

FREE: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson, 11-12, Booth 3358

Getting It Through My Thick Skull by Mary Jo Buttafuoco, 1-2, Booth 2559
(I both think this is an amazing title, and, um, have read both of Amy Fisher's books, so really should read this)

Dear American Airlines by Jonathan Miles, 1:30-2, autographing area (I've been wanting to read this)

Live Nude Elf, Reverend Jen, Friday, 1:30-2:30, Booth 4437

Revelations by Melissa de la Cruz, 1:30-2:30, autographing area

Lost Constellations: The Art of Tara McPherson, 2-3, Booth 2759

The Mere Future by Sarah Schulman, 2-3, Booth 4514

Secret Society by Tom Dolby, 2:30-3, autographing area

Obsession: An Erotic Tale by Gloria Vanderbilt, 2:30-3, autographing area

Watching What We Eat: The Evolution of Television Cooking Shows by Kathleen Collins, 2:30-3:30, autographing area

Going Away Shoes by Jill McCorkle, 2:30-3:30, Booth 3577

The Cake Mix Doctor Returns by Anne Byrn, 3-4, Booth 3577

The Memoirist by M.J. Rose, 3:30-4:30, autographing area

The Gospel of Hip Hop: The First Instrument by KRS-One, 4-5, Booth 4237

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"I miss the idea of the agony."

I know, well, that this blog sucks lately. It's photos and blah blah PR and honestly, I'm so busy trying to just get up in the morning, go to work, cupcake blog, get my books out the door, stave off my student loans, have a relationship, etc., that blogging for free seems, well, kindof pointless. Not to mention when you have family, maybe exes, maybe who the hell knows reading, it's hard. Or harder. Maybe it always was and I didn't notice, I don't know.

Anyway, last night at How I Learned, there were some amazing performances. David Heatley breakdanced and sang "Suburban White Girls" and relived some tough junior high moments. Claudia Cogan cracked us up about strap-ons on Viagra.

But there was a line Cynthia Kaplan read from her memoir Why I'm Like This that really resonated. It was about all these not right guys before she met her husband. And right at the end, she said, "I miss the idea of the agony."

And I got it, completely. Prior to that, I was half-listening, crouching on the floor in the packed room, worrying about this or that, my usual stress mess. And I sat there and just wondered how much of "the agony" of dating is what I've gotten used to.

I hooked up with my boyfriend at that same reading series, three months ago. I'm in that room every month for mine and have confessed so many fantasies and realities. I wouldn't say I miss "the agony," but I will say that the other night, while I was on vacation, before I went to bed, a twin bed in my aunt's house with my 3-year-old cousin breathing loudly in the bed near me, I texted three boys. Men, really, but I think of the as boys. At one time or another, I've thought of all of them as potential mates, baby daddies, boyfriends. Maybe, possibly, definitely.

It's hard to juggle all that in my head and my heart sometimes, the might have beens, the maybes, the possibilities. It's confusing because the minute I start to wonder, I feel like I'm betraying someone else. I got sortof taken to task because I only spend 2 nights a week, if that, at my boyfriend's. Maybe "taken to task" is too strong, but my uncle was like, "You don't do more than tip your toe in the water, huh?"

It's funny because to me, 2 nights are a lot. We are both very busy and frankly, after a long day at work and going out, getting together after all that is sometimes just too much for me. It's too late, I'd rather get together on the weekends when we can sleep in. But it's also that I have no idea what's going to happen. I don't know what I want to happen. Is it "serious?" Yes, in that it's definitely not casual. But when I was sending those texts, thinking about those other boys, I couldn't help but be a little sad, a little wistful, because how do you ever know if you're making the right choice, if what seems right, feels right, really is? Maybe the person who doesn't "seem right" is actually a better fit.

I am actually really happy with how my relationship's been going, save for too much travel has meant we've hardly seen each other, and the summer seems to promise more of the same. And it's not that I want to see other people or just go on in some aimless dating direction. I had to answer a bunch of questions for a potential gig and I put it off and off and off because I honestly have no idea. I am not exactly Miss Experience when it comes to dating. Sex, perhaps, but dating, love, all that, no. And being sick this week has kindof compounded things, making me even more...whatever that feeling was, something like wanting everything and everyone at once, or rather, the good parts of all of them and none of the bad.

I know life doesn't work that way; people don't come with mix and match disassembling instructions, and I wouldn't want them to. I have lots of stuff I'm trying to deal with and sometimes I think it'd be better just to do that on my own. I don't like to open up about those things because they are not my proudest moments, they are concrete evidence of my fuckups, my (perhaps) fatal flaws. They are things that would not look good on a future domestic partner (or whatever) checklist.

So I have no conclusion, I barely know if any of this makes sense, but I wanted to put it out there, as nonsensical as it may be. And just to be clear, I don't think of this as "agony." I've been there, probably will again. It's not "agony" to the level that Cynthia Kaplan was talking about, but it's close, closer to agony than contentment. Maybe that is a myth, that you meet "the one" and forget about everyone else who might ever have possibly brushed up gently against that mythical state. But that line stuck with me. I don't want to be someone who's so caught up in the "drama" that I can't enjoy being with someone, as well as, of course, grapple with, the work, the unfun parts of a relationship. It's not like there's some major issue, it's just that there are moments when I Don't Know. And I hate that. I like knowing, or not knowing but not caring and throwing myself 100% into something. I did that last year and yes, maybe it was doomed from the start, but I believed. I wanted it to work. I want this to work, though I'm so afraid of jinxing things I fear writing even that. At the same time, I have crushes, moments, fantasies and I wish there were something simple to do about them, wish there were a recycling bin I could purge them in, get rid of them. But instead, they live in my head, and lurk there, when I'm sending texts before going to bed.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Book review: Live Nude Elf by Reverend Jen

I wrote this on Amazon.com, hence some of the blanked-out words. More info at publisher Soft Skull Press.

Catch Reverend Jen reading from Live Nude Elf on August 20th at In The Flesh Reading Series!



My review:

Live Nude Elf breaks the mold of sex writing and sex columns, not only because its author dons elf ears, lives on the Lower East Side, and is a self-proclaimed "art star," but because her wit, sense of humor, offbeat friends and mix of earnestness sans materialism are something we've seen unfortunately little of when it comes to sex writing. Based on her "I Did It For Science" columns for Nerve.com, Reverend Jen Miller gives her life story, as a misfit, artist, New Yorker and lover, without devolving into the same old clichés we've seen a million times.

Miller can get away with saying something like her a--hole is "smiling," because she's already walked us through all the research she's done to get to that point. She tackles her assignments not like they are acts from another planet, but with genuine curiosity, whether it's working as a nude housecleaner or doing a stint on a porn set. The people she meets along the way are more than just "subjects" or fodder for her writing; they are given room, here, to be as crazy, funny, obnoxious, and sexy as they want to be.

One of the most tender moments here happens when Jen is trapped inside a balloon at a fetish party. First, she's alone, then she's joined by a young man. "We stared at each other like we'd just climbed through a wardrobe and found Narnia. It was hard to believe the real world lay just outside the latex."

What I liked best about this book is that Miller doesn't have an agenda. Though she certainly gains sexual skills along the way, she's not looking to offer sex advice or flaunt anything. She admits to being just as messed up about love as anyone else. After a breakup, she writes in a chapter entitled "I'll Never Wash This Vagina Again," about her broken heart. "I was lonely and he was a good lover. And a good lover, no matter how cruel, is hard to give up. I needed rehab for my addiction to Nick's penis."

She dates musicians, enters her very own Sex Toy Olympics, hunts for rich older men and fresh young ones, watches the entirety of Sex and the City (the TV show), and learns to squirt. For much of the book, she has an affair with a bisexual couple (who both are into her, not so much each other). Love is as much as a part of Live Nude Elf as sex, and her artistic passion extends into the bedroom.

This is an excellent, funny, wild, yet also heartfelt book. It's a far cry from Carrie Bradshaw and company, who I highly doubt would ever want to associate herself with being an "art fag." Reverend Jen is a sex columnist for all the freaks, misfits, and artists who don't give a ___ about Manolo Blahniks, who wouldn't buy them even if they could afford them (which they can't). Her humor is intelligent, rather than simply playing sex for laughs. Take this book to bed and you're sure to get off, in more ways than one.

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New Michael Musto book in February 2010: Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back

BEA hasn't even started yet and I'm catching up on book publishing news!

Apparently, Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto has followed his editor Don Weise (who's a friend and was also the acquiring editor on my book Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women) from Carroll & Graf, who published his excellent La Dolce Musto: Writings by the World's Most Outrageous Columnist, to Alyson Books, for his latest collection, to be published in February 2010, entitled Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back. See my Mediabistro interview with Musto about the first book (among other things).

Here's what Alyson says about the book:

Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back is the latest zippy collection of columns and essays from Michael Musto, the popular columnist for The Village Voice and a mouthy groundbreaker who takes no prisoners. This collection zooms in on Musto’s favorite celebrities to punk (Sean Combs, Paris Hilton); New York’s most debauched and amusing nightlife experiences; and Musto’s own odysseys, as he talks about the art of TV whoring and the allure of kinky sex, pausing to don drag to imagine what it must be like to be him as Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe. Stopping for some actual appreciation, the section titled "Weirdos Are My Heroes" celebrates the oddballs and entertainers who’ve elevated the culture, shockingly including Jerry Springer and Sarah Silverman. The book also features an introduction written by Musto, as well as new pieces on universal fame in the new-media age, the state of the celebrity closet, and the appeal of blind gossip items.

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Sex! Tonight!

By which I mean, Blaise K's awesome How I Learned Reading Series, with my friend Claudia Cogan and my elementary school classmate (Bryant School, Teaneck, NJ!) David Heatley. I'm 90% sure I'm going, still sniffly/covered in mosquito bites. Read author bios at the How I Learned site.


photo of Claudia Cogan by Anya Garrett

HOW I LEARNED ABOUT SEX
(because you knew we'd do a sex one sooner or later)

Featuring:
CRAIG BALDO
(Premium Blend, Last Comic Standing)
CLAUDIA COGAN
(ECNY Awards Best Female Stand Up Comic Nominee)
DAVID HEATLEY
(My Brain is Hanging Upside Down)
CYNTHIA KAPLAN
(Why I'm Like This: True Stories, Leave the Building Quickly)

Hosted by BLAISE ALLYSEN KEARSLEY

ALSO! There will be live music and visual aids! If that's not a reason to hump I honestly don't know what is.

Wednesday, May 27th
8:00 pm (Bar opens at 7:00)
FREE
HAPPY ENDING
302 Broome Street
(between Forsyth & Eldridge)
Look for the pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club"
(212) 334-9676
Get directions

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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Little trailer, under the weather

I'm pretty under the weather today - thought it was allergies to the dogs on the Vineyard, but apparently, it's not, so I'll be spending as much of the rest of the day sleeping as I can. More on my Peter Pan Bus/Fung Wah travel saga later. For now, a little trailer I made for my website - didn't want to let my blowout go to waste. I'll be fine, it's just a bad/annoying cold. Gotta get better for BEA! Oh, and the dress is from ModCloth.

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Monday, May 25, 2009

It really is beautiful here

About to go lie on the beach and read and bake in the sun. Just me and
my 100+ SPF sunblock (it's hot, but not that hot here).

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Awesomeness at Fluevog Boston

I got shoes, not these but maroon and red ones.

Quote at counter: "If Dorothy had worn Vogs none of that would've
happened"

Friday, May 22, 2009

New documentary: The Promise of New York



Official blurb:

A blogger turned stand-up comic, an obsessive political gadfly and a high-school math teacher compete against each other and arch rival incumbent Michael Bloomberg for the post of New York City mayor. As these ordinary citizens take politics into their own hands, The Promise of New York explores the meaning of democracy and the identity of a city with hilarious irreverence and thought-provoking sensitivity.

See more at www.thepromiseofnewyork.com

And, um, full disclosure...I'm dating one of the stars of this movie! Which is how I found out about it.

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Thursday, May 21, 2009

Gayety May 30th!

I'm also reading this same night, earlier, at Bi Lines at The Center - details TK.



You can also RSVP on Facebook, and Re/Dress is a very, very cool store.

Gayety is back and this time it's SUPER SEXY!

With special guests

Rachel Kramer Bussel --Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, and a Contributing Editor to Penthouse. Rachel has edited or co-edited 20
anthologies, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2, Sex and Candy, He's on Top, She's on Top. She has written about sex for the Village Voice, Curve, On Our Backs and come to think about it, just about everywhere.

Joel Derfner, the adorable author of the award winning Gay Haiku and
Swish: My Quest to Become the Queerest Person Ever. The last time Joel
and Kelli performed at the same show, they both ended up naked. No
promises, but we're just saying.

And of course Gayety regulars:

Kelli Dunham, everyone's favorite boidyke comic, who once taught a nun
to masturbate

Bevin Branlandingham, producer of Femme-Cast and Former Titleholder,
Queen of Drunken Texting

Date: Saturday, May 30, 2009

Time: 9:30pm - 11:30pm

Location: Re/dress New York's only vintage store for sizes 14 +

109 Boreum Place Brooklyn, NY

Still only seven bucks!

Gayety: Comedy just like your mom made. If your mom was really really gay.

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The Simpsons stamps

I bought 400 (literally) forever stamps, so I really do not need postage stamps right now, but I couldn't resist these. My mail/office supply fetish lives on...

The Simpsons stamps - I couldn't resist!

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Wednesday, May 20, 2009

In The Flesh on Boing Boing = SHOW UP EARLY!

Since I got berated last time for the huge crowd from someone who'd never been (it was SRO, but it's a rather small bar), I'm now saying that while the official start time of In The Flesh Reading Series is still 8:00, you should arrive by 7:30 if you want a seat. Doors are at 7! See below or the In The Flesh site for details.

Thanks so much to reader Craig Yoe, author of the excellent Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman's Co-creator Joe Shuster and BoingBoing for listing it!

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Orgasm quest: Mara Altman talks about her memoir Thanks for Coming

And thank YOU for coming out tomorrow night, May 21st, to hear Mara and the rest of the awesome In The Flesh Reading Series lineup! May 21, 8-10 pm, Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street, NYC (FREE plus candy and cupcakes!) - click here for full lineup/directions.

"I discovered while writing this book that people actually live on orgasms."

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Monday, May 18, 2009

I won 2 gold IPPYs!



I won! That is, the IPPYs (independent publishing book awards).

I won the GOLD for erotica (Tasting Him: Oral Sex Stories and Tasting Her: Oral Sex Stories tied!) and for Sexuality/Relationships for Best Sex Writing 2009. Congratulations and thanks to my awesome independent publisher, Cleis Press, and my amazing contributors. This is inspiring, especially as I put together the 2010 edition of BSW.

I get my gold medals at the ceremony on May 29th (I'm also signing FREE copies of Best Sex Writing 2009 that day from 12:30-1:30 at BEA)

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Reminder: Thursday May 21st is In The Flesh!

Most of these books are newly released and I'm really excited to hear these talented authors read!



IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
May 21st at 8 PM (doors at 7; we recommend arriving by 7:30 for a seat)
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Between Forsyth & Eldridge. Look for the hot pink awning that says "XIE HE Health Club."
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com


May’s In The Flesh offers a mix of steamy erotica, kept women, an orgasm quest, the mile high club, real-life sex adventures, and an intriguing look at Superman’s fetish art. Featuring novelist Anna David (Bought, Party Girl) on kept women, memoirist Mara Altman (Thanks for Coming) on looking for an orgasm, erotica writers Jeremy Edwards (Oysters & Chocolate) and Robin Glasser (My Life as a Concubine), memoirist Suzanne Guillette (Much to Your Chagrin), Blaise K (host, How I Learned Reading Series), and Craig Yoe (Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster). Hosted and curated by Rachel Kramer Bussel (The Mile High Club, Do Not Disturb, Spanked). Books will be for sale by Mobile Libris. Giveaways include the fun word game SexySlang, samples of Wet® together™ for Him lube, a copy of Oysters & Chocolate and Ravenous Romance e-book gift cards. Free chips, cookies, candy and cupcakes by Baked by Melissa will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the country'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, Mo Beasley, Susie Bright, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, Zane and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth.

Mara Altman is the author of Thanks for Coming: One Young Woman's Quest for Orgasm (Harper Perennial) and has written for daily newspapers in India and Thailand. She was a former staff writer for The Village Voice and has written for New York Magazine and The New York Times. She is currently an adjunct faculty at Columbia University's Journalism School, and working on her next book project. She lives in Brooklyn with her computer.
www.maraaltman.com

Rachel Kramer Bussel is an author, editor, blogger and reading series host. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a former sex columnist for The Village Voice. She’s edited numerous anthologies, most recently The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories, Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories, Best Sex Writing 2009, Tasting Him, Tasting Her, and Spanked. Her writing been published in publications such as Clean Sheets, Cosmopolitan, The Daily Beast, Fresh Yarn, Huffington Post, Mediabistro, Newsday, New York Post, San Francisco Chronicle, Tango, The Village Voice, and Time Out New York, and in over 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006. She has hosted In The Flesh since October 2005.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

HarperCollins released Anna David's novel, Party Girl, in 2007, the same year that an essay of hers appeared in the Dutton anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys. Sony Television has purchased the film rights to Party Girl. Harper Perennial will release Anna's second novel, Bought, in May 2009 and her anthology on reality shows in early 2010. Anna is also the sex and relationship expert on G4’s Attack of the Show, appears every month on the Fox News cult favorite Red Eye, has been featured regularly on The Today Show, Hannity & Colmes, and Showbiz Tonight, and occasionally pops up on MTV News, VH1 and E. Her Sirius radio show on the Maxim channel, "Sex Files," was the network's number-one specialty show and she's been published in Playboy, Details, Cosmo, Redbook, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The L.A. Times, and Maxim, among many others.
www.annadavid.com

The libidinous fiction of Jeremy Edwards has been widely published online, as well as in over thirty print anthologies (new releases include The Mile High Club, Oysters & Chocolate, and Playing with Fire). His work was selected for the two most recent volumes in the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica series; while in the world of periodicals, his lascivious prose can be found frolicking in magazines like Scarlet. Jeremy's eroto-comedic novel Rock My Socks Off has been acquired for upcoming release by Xcite Books. Drop in on him unannounced (and thereby catch him in his underwear) at http://jerotic.blogspot.com.

A recovering copywriter, Robin Glasser has written for a variety of magazines ranging from Readers’ Digest to Penthouse Letters, where she wrote a column called “The Red Hot Woman.” Her poetry has been published in Upstairs at Duroc and The Riverside Poets Review. Robin guarantees Men at Work, her book of suggestive poetry, will put twinkles in your eyes and sparkles in your pants. Ms. Glasser’s latest novel, My Life as a Concubine, which is based on her experiences in Paris or as she likes to call it, The City of Merde, is available at www.phaze.com and Amazon and in a Kindle edition. She now reads at various venues in New York.
www.myspace.com/robinglasser

Suzanne Guillette's first book, Much to Your Chagrin: A Memoir of Embarrassment, chronicles the year she spent collecting embarrassing stories on the streets of Manhattan, in hopes of compiling them for a book. But, as the year progressed and the stories began to pile up, Suzanne slowly came to realize that the embarrassing story she was really meant to tell was her own. Her work has appeared in Tin House and SELF, in addition to a handful of other publications. Suzanne holds a Bachelor's in Philosophy and a Master's of Fine Arts in Creative Non-fiction.
www.suzanneguillette.com

Blaise K is the host and producer of the How I Learned Reading Series at Happy Ending. She is also a writer, photographer, and veteran blogger who has appeared at PS 122, Lolita, Bowery Poetry Club, Lucky 13, and The Tank at Collective Unconscious. Between her writing and photography, she has been published in Nerve, Vice, The Black Table, The Morning News, Gothamist, Gawker, Playbill, and in the books Mortified and Cringe. She believes 2009 might be the year she finally finishes writing her novel, but she also has a lot of YouTube videos to catch up on.
www.bazima.com

Craig Yoe the author of Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster. After co-creating Superman and selling the rights for $130 dolllars, Joe Shuster found himself on hard times in the 1950s and illustrated dark S+M porn for under-the counter pulps. The Nights of Horror books figured into the murder trioal of the Brooklyn Thrill Killers, Jewish Nazi juvenile deliquents who horsewhipped girls and killed bums in Brooklyn Parks inspired by this porn. The Supreme Court banned the books and ordered them destroyed. Yoe runs the New York design firm YOE! Studio with Clizia Gussoni, and is the author of over 30 books, including The Art of Mickey Mouse. Yoe has won the Gold Medal from the Society of Illustrators, two Addys, a Mobius, and an Eisner Award.

Blaise K is the host of the How I Learned Reading Series. Her written work has been published in four online magazines, one print magazine, and one newspaper, and she has been written up favorably in four newspapers, one British magazine and one newsletter for young orthodox Jews who live in Toronto. She has two websites, one blog, five cameras, four wigs, and two signature karaoke songs. She has been 29 since 2002, and single for approximately 180 days and is thusly available for parties and rebounding. She performs often and eight times out of 10 she’s pretty funny.
www.bazima.com

You will be hearing from the following books:











Secret Identity cover

Below are images from Secret Identity: The Fetish Art of Superman’s Co-creator Joe Shuster.





Free samples of Wet® together™ will be given away:

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To read next: I Love Yous Are For White People by Lac Su

I had a chance to read a lot on my trip - one book I'm reviewing for Penthouse, as well as Robyn Harding's YA novel My Parents Are Sex Maniacs... (which I won in the contest from pubilsher Annick Press, Ayelet Waldman's Bad Mother. Yesterday I was very slow and lazy and stayed home to finish reading Jon Ginoli's memoir Deflowered: My Life in Pansy Division. It has tour diaries (especially interesting are their tours with Green Day) and an insider's look at both wanting to make gay rock songs and the music industry. Definitely recommended.

I have a huge list of books I want to read, plus Book Expo is next Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but one I am really look forward to is I Love Yous Are For White People by Lac Su. I heard about it from this interview at LitPark and it's published by one of my favorite imprints, Harper Perennial.



I especially loved this part of the interview:

You joined a gang when you were a teenager, and I was very, I don’t know, I think the word might be touched to find out it was a graffiti art gang, and all these little thugs had sketchbooks. What’s the connection for you between art and healing?

The beauty of art is that you can dump your negative energy into a medium and make it beautiful. It’s called “channeling”, I think. I understand how the most tortured and grieved writers and painters can create such beautiful masterpieces. When you look at a Van Gogh or Pollack, those intricate scribbles, patterns, and colors come from somewhere. Writers, like painters, tell stories with emotion. For a long time, I had a lot of negative emotions that I kept bottled up inside. Being able to release these bad vibes and make art out of it is soothing. Art says things that you’re unable to otherwise express. Writing is cathartic, and you hope that someone will connect with your art. For someone to say, “I know what that’s like,” serves as a form of healing for me.

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British Airways menu options

When I went to sign up for the British Airways frequent flyer program, this drop down menu cracked me up:



I think I didn't pick a preference. Wound up eating pretty decent chicken and pasta on the flight from Heathrow (where they sold cupcakes at Starbucks and EAT!) to JFK. I'm home now, usual week o' madness with proofing Peep Show, trying to finish up Best Sex Writing 2010, In The Flesh on Thursday and who knows what else. It's great to be back though!

Here's what I ate on the plane:



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Saturday, May 16, 2009

Goodbye Geneva food porn

Couldn't resist the salami pretzel!

Great interview with me about In The Flesh at Flavorwire

I love this interview Mandy Van Deven did with me over at Flavorwire about In The Flesh called "The Mouth is the Hottest Part of the Body." Complete with video and everything. Do check it out (and if you like it, please rate it at the bottom).

FP: So sex sells and all, but what do you think draws people to the event?

RKB: I bring a lot of food! (Laughs.) Chips, cookies, candy, and cupcakes. I’m the founder and co-editor of the cupcake blog Cupcakes Take the Cake, and am also one of those people who never shows up to a party empty-handed. I go to Trader Joe’s every month and stock up on snacks galore, plus now we have mini cupcakes from Baked by Melissa. I think food, especially chocolate, is sexy — so they go together. It’s also part of the whole throwing-a-party vibe.

We also have giveaways every month, like the game Sexy Slang or a gift basket from Good Vibrations. I wish I could give everyone a goodie bag to take home, but I try to feed them and give out prizes so they walk away with something more than just the stories they’ve heard — and hopefully want to return.

Oh, and everything is free! Having the event be free is very important to me. I wouldn’t feel comfortable charging money for people to hear me read, and if people show up and aren’t into it, they can leave without having lost anything.


Read the entire Flavorwire interview here, and see the May 21st In The Flesh lineup here! See you there...

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Friday, May 15, 2009

Switzerland and Evian photoblogging

It's been a loooong week, one largely without internet access, and now that I have it, I'm gorging. Saturday night I fly home, Sunday run errands and see my boyfriend and enjoy being able to understand the people around me. It's true - I speak maybe 3 words of French but haven't had any problems, especially with my mom to translate for me. I even bought a cupcake book in French!

More later about the trip, but for now, some photos:




taken in honor of my friend Twanna

Taken at the Musee Olympique, which we visited today mostly because we thought there'd be this sand exhibit. Turns out the sand started to be assembled today...in the rain. Will be up through mid-September, when the public (I think) can partake in destroying the sculpture. Interesting museum, learned lots of Olympic factoids. I loved that they had this whole section on doping, including this:




I snapped this camera porn photo for my favorite photographer (and friend, and fellow cupcake blogger) Stacie Joy

We stayed at a nice hotel in Lausanne for two nights, and ate crepes and went to the design museum Mudac and saw a fabulous exhibit on packaging (everything from potato chips to designer perfume bottles to water bottles) and one on funerary urns (one was for pets and one was a dual one, part for ashes and part for a disc holding all your life's info that someone could then put in their computer and watch/read).

I also ogled this very expensive (I think around $1,500) Jil Sander dress:



I was very much a tourist.



I even went to Starbucks, which horrified my mom, but the sight and taste of Tazo tea made me feel...warm, literally, and, I don't know, just something that was worth the 5 SF. And I was also scoping out potential cupcakes. There was a nougat muffin there that came the closest, but we ate plenty of ice cream, chocolate, pastry, and meringue the rest of the trip, so I didn't really miss eating cupcakes, but I did miss my blog. It's weird, to miss a blog, to miss the internet, in general, but I did. I post pretty much every day there, and to not be able to made me feel very out of the loop, like important cupcake happenings were taking place and I had no idea. Was probably healthy for me to separate from the computer for a bit. I did a lot of "thinking writing," as I call it, meaning mapping out stories or articles in my head. I soaked in baths and finished books; that was a luxury I rarely get.



We took the chocolate train, which went to Gruyeres (raclette and fondue food porn TK - my battery died so those are on my mom's camera) and to a chocolate factory in Broc. Was fun, and great views from train window, also met cool woman from Moscow (who thought I was 27, which made me smile).


Macarons in Evian - didn't try them, but too pretty not to photograph

We spent 2 nights in Evian, visited a flower garden, poked around in shops. I wound up having all of 5 minutes to spend in the casino. I was excited to see new and, you know, French slot machines, but I walked in and saw "All That Glitters" and "Egypt" and "Chinatown." Of course, the instructions were in French, which meant I couldn't figure out how to cash out. I wound up losing just 4 Euro before heading back out to the boat.




Water garden/wetlands preservation center near Evian


I don't know the technical name for this, but I call it "pretty garlic."

Today was the toughest day. I think the fatigue, togetherness, and just challenge of the mother/daughter relationship, or at least, mine, got to us. It wound up, though, with a delightful chat with my friends The Jacksons and then dinner somewhere we'd never have discovered as mere tourists. We ate Eritrean food in a restaurant that's in a former apartment. It was absolutely delicious, tangy and hot and delightful. A delicious and fun way to spend the last night of my trip.

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Sunday, May 10, 2009

Humpday poster

I'm still very excited about Humpday (and still annoyed with myself that I missed it at SXSW, but next year I am leaving even my own cupcake party to make the movies I want to see). New poster is out (via Apple, where you can watch the trailer, via Pop Candy):



Official blurb about the film:

Sometimes male bonding can go a little too far. When Andrew unexpectedly shows up on Ben's doorstep late one night, the two old college friends immediately fall into their old dynamic of heterosexual one-upmanship. To save Ben from domestication, Andrew invites Ben to a party at a sex-positive commune. Everyone there plans on making erotic art films for the local amateur porn festival and Andrew wants in. They run out of booze and ideas, save for one: Andrew should have sex with Ben, on camera. It's not gay; it's beyond gay. It's not porn; it's an art project. The next day, they find themselves unable to back down from the dare. And there's nothing standing in their way - except Ben's wife Anna, heterosexuality, and certain mechanical questions. HUMPDAY: a bromantic comedy.

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Adira Amram, "Mom Song," pot and leotards - all in one music video!

I've loved this Adira Amram song since I first heard her perform it, and now there's an awesome, pot and leotard-filled video to go with it!

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Feminist Sex at In The Flesh: LA on May 13th...at Hustler Hollywood!

I rarely say this, and rarely think it, but I wish I were going to be in LA on May 13th to hear all about feminist sex at In The Flesh: LA at Hustler Hollywood. It has a great lineup, helmed by the one and only Stan Kent, who I think I met a while ago in LA, introduced by Tristan Taormino.

One of the readers is Shira Tarrant, whose new book Men and Feminism I'm looking forward to reading soon.

From In The Flesh LA:

It is almost 31 years to the day that Hustler Magazine released it's June 1978 issue that was to cause such a stir. It was the infamous "Meat Grinder" cover on which Larry Flynt pronounced that Hustler would no longer hang women up as pieces of meat. Much controversy surrounded the issue and a lot of the satire and point of the cover was lost in the outrage of those times. Now, all these years later, thanks to the growing involvement of women taking charge of their portrayal in erotica, that pronouncement has come true with women dominating the industry and the marketplace. The porn paradigm shift will be celebrated at the next In The Flesh, Wednesday May 13 at 8pm at Hustler Hollywood, where the subject is Feminist Sex - and just for old time's sake - here's the cover that started all the discussion.

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Geneva trip photos, days 1 and 2

A few photos so far. I'm mass purging photos from my iPhone so my personal Flickr stream is a bit out of date, but I will make sets when I get home. Will be nice to have my iPhone operate a wee bit faster than my overclogged laptop! Something weird went down on my laptop and I can't log in to Flickr, which makes blogging doable, but challenging.

Today we walked down to the water, where we're taking a boat tomorrow to Lausanne. Also went to the Red Cross museum and saw an amazing photo exhibit called Stigmates, all dealing with some form of human suffering. These photographers say so much, very often by what's left out of the photos, especially Gustave Germano's images. His reflects disappearances in Argentina, and there were 6 photos, 3 sets of one family photo, then the same pose recreated with the family members who remain. Stunning.


Giraffes at Giraffe, Heathrow


I couldn't resist the stripes, especially after traveling all night and being kind of out of it and still needing to find the tram, which was pretty easy. Had one of the ones on the right; was filled with chocolate cream and quite delicious.


Broken chair statue outside the UN


UN


Posing like Ghandi - pose was my mom's idea


Agent Provocateur's take on global warming


This is actually a cafe in Geneva, near the Uni-Mail stop. To their credit, they had delicious caramel ice cream.

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