Happy publication day, Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

Today is the official release date of Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, which is racking up some great reviews on Amazon! So much work goes into an anthology, from reading dozens of submissions, selecting the stories, which in this case had to balance gender of protagonists and a variety of toys, both the types that exist, fictional ones and household items, then editing, copyediting, cover copy and now the happiest stage, sending books out to reviewers, paying authors and promoting the finished book. I have big dreams for this one, but one book promotion at a time. I hope you'll check it out and spread the word, and I will be sharing all over (@comeagainbook on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook) when I hear of stores stocking it. Right now I know indie bookstore Red Emma's in Baltimore has signed copies, it's on its way to indie bookstore Charis Circle in Atlanta, and Early to Bed in Chicago will be ordering it soon.



You can buy it there in print or at your local bookstore or sex toy store (ask them for it and they will order it if they don't have it in stock), as well as on Kindle, Nook and iBooks. I'm hosting a Facebook book release party online until midnight EST and at the official site, comeagainbook.com there's more info about the book and Q&As with some of the contributors. Happy pub day to my second favorite book I've ever edited!

Home and blissed out from CatalystCon

After having been away from home for 10 days, I have a lot to process and a few deadlines, plus today my boyfriend and I are mostly playing hooky and might go see While We're Young and just generally enjoy a rare weekday together. But I wanted to mostly share the sense of excitement and possibility I left this CatalystCon with, as I always do. The people I meet there are so inspiring, whether they are talking about asexuality or erotica or sex ed or just Cards Against Humanity and general life. It's hard to summarize in words but was so wonderful to see people from all over the U.S. and beyond talk, discuss, debate, learn, connect, and entertain each other. That is why I go to CatalystCon and why I will be at CatalystCon West in Burbank from September 11-13 (visit their site tomorrow to see the panel pitching details). To get a sense of what happened there this weekend, follow the #ccon hashtag on Twitter and check out the CatalystCon Instagram account.

It was also the perfect place to launch my brand new, hot off the press anthology Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica. I am proud to say that you can now get autographed copies at Red Emma's in Baltimore (they were the official bookseller at CatalystCon East) and that the book is now shipping from Amazon, and will be in stock at other stores any day now and out as an ebook April 14th. I loved being able to hand deliver copies to people who work in wonderful sex toy stores I admire like Forbidden Fruit in Austin and Dynamo Toys in New Orleans and Secret Pleasures in Washington, DC.

I loved that I was launching a sex toy anthology while the Sybian was across the room being demonstrated. I loved that everywhere I looked was someone I wanted to talk to. I loved that people who said things like "I don't know anything about art" sat down and made a card anyway with ArtPulp. It was a wonderful, magical weekend, one that pushed me to get past what is sometimes still my fear of public speaking or saying the wrong thing to be part of the opening keynote panel. I strongly encourage you to go to the next one if you have an interest in learning more about sexuality and activism of all kinds, or presenting. I will recap my wonderful panel on sharing our personal sex stories in various public artistic modes of expression soon, but wanted to share some early morning thoughts (I fell asleep last night at 9 and woke up this morning at 5, so that may give you an idea of how tired I was). Does that mean I have 100% of every thought in common with everyone who attended CatalystCon? Not at all. But I think it's safe to say even though I didn't get to speak with everyone there, anyone attending is someone I have something I could talk about with. The discussions I had outside of formal panels and sessions where among the most fascinating things about the conference. Some were about sex and sexuality related issues, and some were about general life. I truly cannot say enough good things about the conference, and the fact that there were so many first time attendees this year I think reflects that people are hearing about it and whatever their profession or hobbies, thinking, I could see myself as part of that world.



Here's me with my new book; today I will also be sending out copies to everyone who signed up to review it on Amazon. Get on my newsletter (left hand side of this blog or of my site, rachelkramerbussel.com) for new freebies and more info.