London readings July 2 and 4

I'll have lineups and addresses soon, but for now, I can tell you that I'm going to London (UK) and doing my very first readings every there! I'm so looking forward to it, and as a fan of Sh! and Coffee, Cake and Kink (which has since closed their previous venue but we are cooking up something fabulous), having visited both places on my last visit there in, I think, 2007, I'm extra excited. And of course there will be cupcakes! The readings will be:

Sat 2nd July at Sh!

&

Mon 4th July at Coffee, Cake and Kink (venue tba)

And look, Sh! is excited too!

Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories up for NLA-I Award

I'm so excited about this recognition and for those attending, I'll be sending a batch of Bottoms Up as well as some Please, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission postcards. I've been really enjoying Sexis and encourage you to check out Sarah Sloane's piece (linked below) and their other content, including Tuesdays with Nina - Nina Hartley, that is, a weekly video segment. You can also get a pretty print copy of Sexis.

FINALISTS ANNOUNCED FOR NLA-I WRITING AWARDS

(Columbus, OH) -- National Leather Association: International (NLA-I), a leading organization for activists in the pansexual SM/leather/fetish community, announced today the finalists for its recently created writing awards. Named after activists and writers Geoff Mains, John Preston, Pauline Reage, Cynthia Slater, and the organization Samois, they are awarded annually to recognize excellence in writing and publishing about leather, SM, bondage and fetishes.

The finalists for the Cynthia Slater Non-fiction Article Award are:

Gloria Brame, "Transformation and Transcendence in BDSM," which appeared in Filthy Gorgeous Things, July 2009, "Force" issue. Available at: http://filthygorgeousthings.com/

E.R. Chaline, "Contemporary Gay BDSM in the UK," which appeared in Skin Two (2009).

Jeff Mann, "How to be a Country Leather Bear," from Richard Labonté and Lawrence Schimel (eds.), Second Person Queer: Who You Are (So Far). (Arsenal Pulp Press).

Jack Rinella, "Juggling," which appeared in LeatherViews

Sarah Sloane, "The Biochemistry of BDSM," which appeared in Sexis. Available at: http://www.edenfantasys.com/sexis/sex/bdsm-biochemistry-110492/

The finalists for the Geoff Mains Non-fiction Book Award are:

Lee Harrington, Sacred Kink: The Eightfold Paths of BDSM and Beyond (lulu.com)

david stein, Ask the Man Who Owns Him: The Real Lives of Gay Masters and slaves (Perfectbound Press)

Two Knotty Boys, Two Knotty Boys Back on the Ropes (Green Candy)


The finalists for the Pauline Reage Novel Award are:

Melinda Barron, Graceful Submission (Loose Id)

James, Buchanan, Hard Fall (MLR Press)

Alex Ironrod, Obsession (Nazca Plains)

Claire Thompson, Submission Times Two (Romance Unbound)


The finalists for the John Preston Short Fiction Award are:

Kieran Wyn DeWhurst, "The Last Mistress of the Chatelaine," in Cecilia Tan and Sarah Desautels (eds.), Like a Thorn: An Anthology of BDSM Fairy Tales (Circlet Press)

Jack Fritscher, "Goodbye Saigon," in Phillip Mackenzie, Jr. (ed.), Special Forces: Gay Military Erotica (Cleis Press)

Shanna Germain, "Second Skin," in Cecilia Tan and Sarah Desautels (eds.), Like a Thorn: An Anthology of BDSM Fairy Tales (Circlet Press)

Jeff Mann, "Lost River," in Richard Labonté (ed.), Daddies: Gay Erotic Stories (Cleis Press)

Xan West, "Missing Daddy," in Richard Labonté (ed.), Daddies: Gay Erotic Stories (Cleis Press)


The finalists for the Samois Anthology Award are:

Cecilia Tan and Sarah Desautels (eds.), Like a Thorn: An Anthology of BDSM Fairy Tales (Circlet Press)

Rachel Kramer Bussel (ed.), Bottoms Up: Spanking Good Stories (Cleis Press)


The winners will be announced at the NLA-I’s Annual General Meeting, which will be held during Tribal Fire in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (April 30 - May 2 2010). Please contact the award committee chair, Steve Vakesh, for more information about the awards at stevevakesh@gmail.com. For more information about Tribal Fire, the National Leather Association, and the NLA-I's meeting on Sunday morning, see: http://www.tribalfireokc.com/ and http://www.nla-i.com


Bottoms Up is for sale from:

Amazon

Bn.com (Barnes & Noble)

Powells.com

IndieBound

Cleis Press

As sweet as it is kinky, "Bottoms Up" will propel you to pick up a paddle and share in both pleasure and pain, or perhaps simply turn the other cheek...For those who have an endless capacity to bare their ass in preparation for a sound smacking ~ or deliver the deliciously ecstatic pain to a lover ~ this torrid tour de force is essential reading.
Review at Rainbow Reviews

"...the stories here are a wonderfully diverse mix tackling spanking from a myriad different approaches.

For any fan of cheekily chastised cheeks, Bottoms Up is a collection that can’t fail to deliver."
-- Review at Erotica Readers & Writers Association

My story "Crossed," inspired by Dark Odyssey

I started writing my story "Crossed" while in the lobby of the hotel for Dark Odyssey earlier this year. I found the atmosphere ripe for writing, and below is the beginning of what I came up with. Something I talk about in my Erotica 101 workshops (hoping to be teaching more soon!) is using your surroundings as writing fodder, whether that means a desk, a bed, a kitchen, a moving vehicle. Obviously, a sex conference is a place that's ripe for this kind of exercise. I didn't do much there, save for spanking a few people (that was interesting in and of itself though) but I found the people around me, the atmosphere, and the furniture all of interest.

I parlayed my story into a finished piece that's just been published in Hurts So Good: Unrestrained Erotica, edited by Alison Tyler and just published by Cleis Press.

Crossed
by Rachel Kramer Bussel

I’m strung up on a St. Andrew’s cross, blindfolded, my breasts pressing through the space of the X as I face the wall, my back and ass exposed to any and all who want to look. And though my eyes may be covered, there are plenty who want to look. I can hear them chattering behind me while my husband, Chuck, readies his implements. I’m nervous, but the kind of nervous that makes my pussy tighten, my nipples harden. I like being nervous, I like trying new things. I like being pushed to my limits.

There’s a leather ball gag shoved in my mouth. I happen to know it’s purple, but only because Chuck told me after he’d blindfolded me. He bought it especially for me--large. I know because he used to use a smaller one on his ex, but he told me I not only have a bigger mouth, but I’m a bigger brat, and I needed more of a challenge. I’m such a competitive, horny slut that hearing this only made me open wide as could be. We both have mixed feelings about gagsæat the right time, there is nothing hotter than hearing a man or woman scream in ecstasy as she gets beaten in all the right ways. Those piercing cries can fill a room and become the perfect soundtrack to sadism. But there is also a charm in watching someone struggle, in being aware that those screams exist but for the moment are locked away, known only to the one holding them in. It’s like watching a silent movie, and the noise has to transform into some other outlet of pain, be it a wrenched face or muscle spasms or twisting and writhing, all of which can send any true sadist into orbit.

I should know, because despite my current enjoyable predicament, I am oneæa sadist, I mean. See, the two of us are switches, meaning that we go both ways kinkwise. We can get off on being held down, controlled, dominated, as well as being the one inflicting the best kind of pain in the world. I have been known to grin as widely as a lottery winner when I’ve got him over my knee and am turning his wide ass a beautiful shade of rose. But I can’t deny that being strung up, immobilized, cuffed into place is also one of the most highly charged fantasies I have.
We like to spice things up to make sure our lives never get stagnant. So for the annual BDSM conference we attend in our nation’s capital, far from our small Iowa town, we decided to bet on who would be the top and who would be the bottom for this momentous occasion, and who could get the other off the fastest. Having been high school sweethearts and marrying at age 20 (we’re now 42), we know a lot about how to make each other come. But apparently he knew just that much more than me, clocking in at three minutes, six seconds, while it took me three minutes, twenty-two seconds to make Chuck come in my mouth. Not that I’m complaining—first because I love blowing him and would gladly linger on his cock for an hour; and second because now here I am, with a whole audience watching my still trim ass and strong back as I await what will happen next.

For the rest, check out Alison Tyler's just-released anthology Hurts So Good: Unrestrained Erotica.

And the table of contents, direct from the editor herself:

The Sound of One Hand Clapping Nikki Magennis
Sting Jessica Lennox
No Substitute for Experience James Walton Langolf
Panty Lines Sommer Marsden
Lucky N. T. Morley
Testing the Water Teresa Noelle Roberts
Never a Rookie Craig J. Sorensen
Provocation Jay Lawrence
I Promise to Do My Best Teresa Joseph
Party Manners Morgan Aine
Trophy Buckle Rakelle Valencia
Toying with Lily Mike Kimera
Turnaround A. D. R. Forte
Flick Chicks Allison Wonderland
Equilibrium Anna Black
First Time Since Xan West
Omega to Alpha Diana St. John
Crossed Rachel Kramer Bussel
My Mainstream Girlfriend Stephen Elliott
Rock Paper Scissors Shanna Germain
All in the Wrist Alison Tyler

My new blog BFF: Clit Think

from Clit Think

So the past two days in London have been all over the map. Yesterday was quite trying, one might even say rock bottom. I was meant to meet my Cleis Press publisher at the Tate Modern, and was so busy congratulating myself on getting there on time that I didn't realize we were supposed to meet outside the members room. That was very frustrating, though I did get to see the museum and the Louise Bourgeouis exhibit. Then I made my way to Holborn and then to Coffee, Cake and Kink, where I was treated quite grandly and found out they do a weekly reading on Saturday nights, and have fetish nights on Fridays. I got some bad news as I was working on my computer and was feeling rather like a complete loser, when I happened to note the woman at the table next to me, who had already seemed quite cool, perusing my book Crossdressing: Erotic Stories.

So I told her it was my book and then it turned out we have a friend in common and that she's a blogger. We had much to chat about and since then I've been perusing her very hot and fascinating blog, Clit Think (tag line: "Polemics, BDSM and Polyamorous Sex from a Feminist Slut"), which I think many of you will enjoy.

I was still a bit down in the dumps about various problems that I'm anxious to get home and resolve, but today I ventured to two cupcakes bakeries, Hummingbird Bakery on Old Brompton Road and then over to Buttercup Cake Shop, where the owner, Donna, was very kind and gave me free mini cupcakes, including banoffee (butterscotch frosting, toffee shavings, and banana cake!), which may be my new favorite cupcake. Many photos of those coming soon. Then I made my way on the National Rail to Hitchin to visit my friend whose baby was due...yesterday. She was in good spirits and we caught up and played with her 3-year-old son and ate more cupcakes. Then we came home and had yet another super hot kinky scene, all of which I may write about at another point, that's been both a highlight and somewhat of an unexpected surprise of this trip.



I've had a great time in London, and have spent many hours up late at night, listening to F. snore and enjoying the warmth, quiet, and coziness of his flat. I've gotten to know the Millenium Bridge, seen the Spice Girl, ate my very first Scotch egg, and generally taken a break from the madness that is my life in New York. I've realized that while I miss New York, I don't miss the madness. I actually really like routine and calm and don't have enough of that, so I'm hoping to make 2008 a year of order and organization. I say that now, quite easily, but I also know that I distract myself from goals like that by the next party, the next event, the next thing I feel I cannot miss. I want to get back to falling in love with writing, with challenging myself and meeting those challenges.

Also in the time I've been here, I've been invited to read or speak in Miami, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and London. I'm working on all of these and will post details when I have them. I'm trying to be calm and not freak out as much as I usually do when things go awry. So my head's a bit scrambled these days, with much to write and ponder and figure out. I've been off my game in a lot of ways, kindof letting the days and my life pass me by, as if watching from afar. I want to get my momentum back without going into ridiculous overdrive where I have no time to relax. Finding that balance is challenging, to put it mildly.

For now, I'll leave you with some words from Clit Think:

Right then, Ms. Domme really was a little grrl. His little grrl. I needed my Daddy so very very much! He took me, cradled me and controlled me, enveloping me simultaneously in safety and in almost unbearably acute sensation. Pleasure crackled over me as he teased, tightening me like a string until I was humming and vibrating with need, whimpering, skin beginning to glisten.

And then his fingers finally, finally, FINALLY plunged under my panties and into the soaking wet lips of my convulsing cunt. A bolt of energy shot through me, and I think I called out and jerked like a puppet in his arms. He gathered me against his chest, holding me close while I buried my face into him, breathing him in with short gasps. He moved soooo gently and soooo softly, sliding back and forth over my swollen clit. When he paused, I felt it throb and quiver against his finger tip. My whole being felt wide open, beyond thought and consciousness.

“Daddy wants his little grrl to feel sooo good. He wants his little grrl to be such a happy little grrl. She deserves to feel this good,” he murmured into my hair as I swirled closer and closer to cumming...

Read the rest of her post