Happy editor news: my college paper The Daily Californian wrote about my reading

Because I'm determined to make The Big Book of Orgasms not only my best book but my bestselling book, I Google it every day. For whatever beyond me technical reason, that process yields finds that my Google alerts don't. Maybe it's crazy, but today I discovered a happy surprise: my college newspaper The Daily Californian wrote about my recent San Francisco reading at Good Vibrations, complete with illustration:

The stories are well written and surprising. They are personal and political, and each one pushes taboo and reminds us that sex is much stranger and more varied than we think. I lose track of the pronouns, and I stop assuming I can guess what someone will read by how they look.

That made my day! I was also interviewed by contributor Victoria Blisse and at Madison Kink, a site all about kink in Madison, Wisconsin. From Madison Kink:

Do you use any past experiences in your stories?

My first few stories were largely autobiographical. Now I still use elements from my life in my fiction, but it’s less direct, more subtle or disguised. I might take something that happened to me and twist it around or put it into the experience of a very different character. I love the real-life moments that beg to be written about, the ones that seem to find my by chance. I like burying the secrets in the stories like little erotic Easter eggs.

So yes, I'm a crazy narcissistic Googler, but that also means I'm finding hidden gems about my favorite book and that makes it worth it. Authors and editors, I recommend both Google news alerts on your titles and a bit of searching to find what falls through the search engine cracks.

Free erotic writing tips Friday the 13th in Berkeley and other West Coast tour dates

I leave tomorrow night for Portland for my how-many-events-can-I-do-in-one-month-without-exploding-last-hurrah book tour! Yes, it's my last book tour, unless I win the lottery or something equally improbable. I am excited about it, but also excited to return home and spend quality time with my boyfriend and my laptop, without the pressures travel and hoping people will show up and forgetting major Jewish holidays provides (yes, I forgot that Passover lands smack during my book tour and I am too selfish and gluttonous to give up things like Sweet Iron Waffles). I'm extremely proud of Best Sex Writing 2012 and beyond honored to be doing events with guest judge Susie Bright, which is why I'm doing this, but I'm also realizing that how I prefer to live my life is as a writer, not a performer. That's probably one of many things I'm not supposed to admit, but I hate feeling like I shouldn't say something. I will also be sporting a brand new tattoo from New Rose Tattoo!

I'm instructing my assistant and anyone I know to stop me before I go insane again. I will be bringing cupcakes and fishnets and amazing authors to Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Berkeley and, on April 25th, New York City. Here's the Berkeley details; awesome to read in my former home. Looking forward to seeing many of you and if you can't make it but know someone in those cities, please let them know. Details on my website.

April 13, 7 pm
EROTIC WRITING TIPS FROM PROFESSIONALS
Join Rachel Kramer Bussel, editor of over 40 anthologies, including Irresistible, Curvy Girls, Women in Lust, and Orgasmic, and local author Donna George Storey (Amorous Woman) for a free talk about how to break into erotic writing, writing prompts and how they each launched their careers in the field. Q&A and book signing to follow. Free cupcakes. Free admission.
Good Vibrations, 2504 San Pablo Avenue, Berkeley, CA, 94702, 510-841-8987
http://www.goodvibes.com

When dropdown menus go awry

I was beyond tempted to upgrade myself to Senator, but I didn't. OMG. Also, Republic of Berkeley - Lady? Lord? Wow. My friend asked, "Is Duchess an option?"







And less the suffixes feel excluded:

West Coast book tour is this week: Berkeley, San Francisco, Los Angeles! All free, all with free cupcakes, and hot, hot stories.

I'll be doing a separate post about my 3 New York City events in February, but as a reminder, unless I'm already traveling or have a special occasion like a panel, this is my last year of doing a bazillion outside readings. I just can't pretend like I can afford them or that I'm rich, and it doesn't make financial sense to be running all over the country when I could be working smarter, better and trying to sell more books. So my point is: come see me in Berkeley, San Francisco and Los Angeles now! I'm hoping to get to a few other cities like Denver, Minneapolis and Milwaukee in 2011 as well, fingers crossed.

A reminder with Facebook links - I'd really love it if you'd spread the word. All these events are free, it's a chance to get the just-released Gotta Have It signed by me and contributors (Denise Hoffner, who wrote census taker erotica story "Concensus" in Gotta Have It, has been added to Thursday's Berkeley Good Vibrations reading) and I'm getting fabulous, unique cupcakes, different ones from different local bakers, for each event.

Saturday night I will also make my third appearance on The Dr. Susan Block Show - listen online! Saturday night, January 29th, 10:30 pm to midnight, PST, I'll be on with Shameless author Pamela Madsen - my interview with her will be up soon at SexIs Magazine.



January 27, 6:30-8 pm
READING AND EROTICA ADVICE WITH DONNA GEORGE STOREY
Join me and prolific local erotica writer Donna George Storey (author, Amorous Woman, contributor, Orgasmic, Gotta Have It) and Gotta Have It contributor Denise Hoffner as we read some of our favorite erotica and share erotic writing advice. Free!
Good Vibrations, 2504 San Pablo Avenue (at Dwight Way), Berkeley, CA
510-841-8987

Facebook invite (no need to RSVP though, but if you want to pass it on to friends)

January 28, 7:30 pm
READING WITH VIOLET BLUE AT BOOKSMITH



Me and superstar author and editor Violet Blue read along with Orgasmic contributors Susie Hara, Dusty Horn and Donna George Storey!

Free cupcakes!

Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA
415-863-8688

Facebook invite (no need to RSVP though, but if you want to pass it on to friends)

February 1, 7 pm
COCO DE MER READING



Join me along with Eden Bradley (The Lovers), Pamela Madsen (Shameless) and Oriana Small, aka Ashley Blue (Girlvert) for a night of hot readings and free champagne and cupcakes in this beautiful setting!
At Coco de Mer, 8618 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles, CA
310-652-0311

Facebook invite (no need to RSVP though, but if you want to pass it on to friends)

Erotic author Donna George Storey in a corset and LIVE January 27th and 28th

I met Donna George Storey via Susie Bright. We both had stories in Best American Erotica 2006 and began emailing and then she started sending me stories and over the years, I've published a LOT of them! We've also read together in New York and Berkeley and...I'm very excited to be reading with her again twice next week. Please please please tell your Berkeley/San Francisco/Bay Area friends. The aspiring writers will especially want to come hear Donna and I read at Good Vibes in Berkeley and share erotic writing tips. Then next Friday there will be free vegan cupcakes and super fabulousness as we read about orgasms and hotness. But the real reason I wanted to talk about Donna is that she did a boudoir photo shoot with my friend Laura Boyd and wrote about her experience.

She writes:

Although middle-aged women are supposed to be invisible, I knew I felt much sexier, more confident and more me than I was at 25. I certainly felt bold and beautiful as I lounged about on the sets to the sultry sounds of my favorite jazz tunes, responding to Laura’s gentle instructions and encouragement.

You may have seen Laura speak about her experience behind and in front of the camera at In The Flesh; you can read more about her posing experience for Boudoir Divas here.


Donna George Storey in a corset I hope she wears to Booksmith (hint hint); photo by Laura Boyd

Berkeley is where I lived for three years, where I was a very different person, but definitely where I read my first erotica, so it's a special place, and now my publisher, Cleis Press, is based there. So I'm looking forward to heading back to Good Vibrations, where I last read along with Mary Roach and Violet Blue and Tracy Clark-Flory from Best Sex Writing 2009, which, though it has 2009 in the title, is still pretty damn red-hot imo.

January 27, 6:30-8 pm
READING AND EROTICA ADVICE WITH DONNA GEORGE STOREY
Join me and Orgasmic contributor Donna George Storey as we read some of our favorite erotica and share erotic writing advice. Free!

Good Vibrations, 2504 San Pablo Avenue (at Dwight Way), Berkeley, CA
510-841-8987

January 28, 7:30 pm
READING WITH VIOLET BLUE AT BOOKSMITH



Me and superstar author and editor Violet Blue read along with Orgasmic contributors Susie Hara, Dusty Horn and Donna George Storey!

Free cupcakes!

Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco, CA
415-863-8688

Go Team Cupcake, and Team Cleis (Press)

Because I got this card in the mail today (I turn 35 on Wednesday - yes, I'm a Scorpio!) from the whipsmart, amazing women of Cleis Press, and because I deal with them on a weekly if not daily basis, and am so honored to have Best Bondage Erotica 2011 coming out for my birthday and so many 2011 and 2012 anthologies in the works, I just wanted to say how proud I am and have been to work with Cleis Press for the last decade. They published my very first story, “Monica and Me,” in Best Lesbian Erotica 2001, edited by Tristan Taormino, just about ten years ago. I will never forget standing in the Chelsea Barnes & Noble with tears in my eyes seeing that beautiful byline.

I edit for them, and I also try my hardest to submit to as many of their anthologies as I can. Those calls challenge and push me as a writer to not be complacent. I have published probably over 100 erotica stories, I don’t know exactly, but the ones that I love, the ones that make my senses come alive, that preoccupy me, are the ones that make me feel the need to go deeper, to tell more than just a sex story. I consider them my publishing family, and this is not at all to knock other publishers I work with, who I’m of course a fan of as well, but to say that they have been there for me and with me and encouraged me and watched me grow as a writer and editor. I have learned a ton and I look forward to many more collaborations as we put out more kinky erotica and erotic romance and short shorts and who knows what else.

I love the way their books look and feel, the covers they get and the ritual of their annual anthologies. I love that I’ve befriended so many wonderful writers and editors through our mutual work with Cleis. I love working for a feminist, independent publisher whose offices are now in the town where I went to college (Berkeley, California). Go Team Cupcake, and Team Cleis, of which I am truly honored to be a part.

Part of why I love working with them is that I believe in the work they do, and have learned so much from their books (and been entertained and aroused), but they are also amazing people. This isn't just me telling you to buy their books, but me thanking the women who put so much time and energy into those books and the vision they had for their press in 1980. I'm so proud to be part of your world and have you be on my team and believe in me and collaborate with me. Anthologies are pure collaboration, between editor and publisher, and editor and authors (and, later, between authors, editors and readers), and that suits me very well. I enjoy the process of creating something from nothing, where not all the pressure is on me. I enjoy creating books where the whole is so much greater than the sum of its parts. I enjoy seeing what happens when we go from a call for submissions to a fleshed-out, varied, sexy book.

To read more about their history, click here. A huge thank you to Frédérique Delacoste, Brenda Knight, Felice Newman, Kat Sanborn and Kara Wuest. You rock!

Good Vibrations photo and Peep Show on Fleshbot!

Lots of Peep Show and other news to share, but for now...

Fleshbot ran a very sexy excerpt from Donna George Storey's "Clean and Dirty" from Peep Show, about a very special Japanese shower peep show. Stay tuned for the book trailer in which I act this out (well, I suds up in the shower).

I have some upcoming radio gigs, waiting for all the details but I believe Monday, October 26th, I'm going to be on Naked News, and then Monday night at 7:30 I teach erotica writing in Toronto at Come As You Are. And then when I get back I'll be on Hella Fabulous on East Village Radio - looking like the morning of Wednesday, October 28th. Will update (I learned my lesson with San Francisco - you snooze on the nonstop 24/7 event promotion, nobody comes to your events!).


Donna George Storey, me, Zille Defeu at Good Vibrations Berkeley on Sunday for the Bottoms Up reading

Yes, I wore jeans. And sneakers. I don't think in 9 years of doing readings I've ever worn sneakers, but there's a first time for everything. Audio from the reading coming soon.

Oh, and no time at all to investigate but my lovely little Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica blog that used to be at spanked.wordpress.com got removed for violating Wordpress's TOS. :(

The Spanked book trailer is still going strong on YouTube. An idea was floated to do a PG and an X-rated Bottoms Up trailer. Perhaps...someday I'd love to do 2 trailers, a clean and a dirty version. For now, I am eagerly awaiting the cut of my new trailer. And biting my nails.

Exactly how a reading should go

I'll post more about the 2 readings, Thursday's with Susie Bright for X: The Erotic Treasury at Books Inc., and last night's FABULOUS one at Good Vibrations in Berkeley. Huge thank yous to all the Good Vibes staff for being so friendly, cool, and helpful (they laid out wine, sparkling water, cheese, crackers, fruit and something sweet I didn't try!) and were offering 15% off all erotica that night, Cleis Press, especially my awesome publicist Brenda Knight, and the readers: Tracy Clark Flory, Mary Roach, Violet Blue, and Mistress Morgana Maye. I was meeting Mary Roach and Mistress Morgana for the first time, and all were really inspiring. I'm not sure that I'd ever heard Violet read before, and she was fabulous as well. Picking out which one of her columns to include in the book was one of the biggest (though welcome) challenges of putting this collection together.

And of course thank you to everyone who packed the place and made it such a welcoming environment. I lived in Berkeley for 3 years and at the time never could've imagined I'd be writing about sex the way that I do. I didn't even use a vibrator back then, hadn't even seen one in person! Yes, I was a very sheltered college student in many ways. So that was very exciting for me and now I'm hoping to come back in April or so for Do Not Disturb: Hotel Sex Stories and The Mile High Club: Plane Sex Stories.


L to R: Tracy Clark-Flory, Mistress Morgana Maye, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Violet Blue, Mary Roach
photo via Violet Blue on Flickr; thank you to the man whose name I forgot who took it!

One of my favorite things to ask people is how they heard about the reading; some people said online, many said via the East Bay Express and San Francisco Bay Guardian. One guy had bought the book at GV and came back to hear us. Tracy's family was there, and it was packed and really fun. I love reading and editing, but there is nothing like hearing authors read their work, with asides, in their own voice.

Also, I was very honored to meet Ericka Lutz, who I've read online and off. I'm hanging out with the very cool Single Mom Seeking author and Rachel Sarah this weekend.

If you missed us or just can't get enough sex writing, and/or want the cupcakes I'm going to bring on Monday night, come on out to Booksmith at 7:30, Monday, February 2nd, to hear me, Violet Blue, and Tracy Clark-Flory. 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco. Violet Blue snapped this photo of the store:


(the misspelling of my name, though, really has to stop - I don't know where it comes from or why when paired next to a properly spelled postcard it isn't caught, but the same thing happened with GV in umpteen listings. it's not the end of the world, it's just that it happens ALL the time.)

As always, read more about Best Sex Writing 2009 right here.