Free books for life giveaway and Book Angel program helping kids in need

My November articles (so far) for Forbes.com are below, where I've been covering all things books, publishing, libraries, authors, literary agents, book clubs and more since November 2018, are about some cool things independent bookstores are doing. You can follow me there so you don't miss anything, and I'm now working on January 2021 articles and beyond, so if you're a book publicist, editor, agent, bookseller, librarian or book club organizer or anyone else doing something new and unique in the book world, feel free to pitch me (rachelkb at gmail dot com with "Forbes" in the subject line).

Having this beat has totally changed my freelance writing career and given me a great way to focus my interests, and cover books for other outlets like Publishers Weekly and Washington Post Book World.

Here are two articles I hope you'll appreciate. You can nominate someone to WIN A BOOK A MONTH FOR LIFE from London, UK bookstore Heywood Hill through Sunday, November 8, and you can donate a book to a child in need with Oblong Books in Rhinebeck, New York, either in person or online. More details in the pieces.

"Why UK Bookstore Heywood Hill Is Giving Away A Book A Month For Life"





"Bookstore’s Book Angel Program Ensures Kids In Need Receive Books For The Holidays"

How authors can book readings directly with bookstores

Over at Medium, I have an article up on how to book readings with bookstores. I interviewed several independent bookstore staffers, and can say anecdotally from booking my own readings for many years that if you follow the instructions of each bookstore, it's usually a smooth process. Sometimes, I haven't heard back, but usually I've been able to book events in cities I wanted to. If you like the article and use Medium, please give it some claps (hold down the hands button on the bottom left, up to 50 times), which helps it be seen by more readers. This article was originally published in the Novelists, Inc. (NINC) newsletter.



Speaking of bookstores, I hope you'll mark your calendars for Valentine's Day, February 14, if you're in LA and let all your LA friends know. I consider bookstore readings for my Best Women's Erotica of the Year series so important that I put my money where my values are (yes, I cover all my own event costs) and am flying out to LA for this sexy erotica reading at Skylight Books along with Joanna Angel, CD Reiss, Jayne Renault and Sabrina Sol. They were so wonderful to us for our Volume 2 reading and are a delightful bookstore with a tree in the middle!

Read my new Forbes article if you dream of opening a bookstore

In case it relates to your New Year's plans (or future business plans or retirement plans), I wrote about how to open an independent bookstore over at Forbes.com. I interviewed owners of four recently opened independent bookstores, including two going the popup store route, about their career paths, steps and advice.



Hope you find it useful (and if so, I'd love if you shared it). I have lots more articles in the works relevant to authors, such as a few about how to get book deals (here's one I already did about getting published based on your Instagram account), so stay tuned.

You can follow me at Forbes after you make an account there to receive an email when a new articles posts. I write 5-7 per month. This has been a wonderful addition to my freelance writing, especially since I started in November after a year in which I had very few other writing gigs. I get to learn from authors, editors, publishers and bookstore owners, and generally geek out about books. If you're an editor, publishers, publicist or literary agent with an idea for an article you'd like to pitch me, or a standout title and why it's newsworthy, email me at rachelkb at gmail.com with "Forbes" in the subject line. Note that I cover publishing news and trends, and generally not individual titles or series unless something about them makes them stand out, like you can draw on the covers.

Bookstores' Most Wanted Books for 2019

For Forbes.com, I wrote about the 10 books that independent bookstores are most excited about for 2019. They include new work by Margaret Atwood (the sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, Marlon James, Pam Houston, Helen Oyeyemi and debuts by Dana Czapnik and Stephanie Land, among other books. Obviously, I didn't have time or room to survey all indie bookstores but I tried for a good cross section of ones across the U.S.

Want a free book from me? Just snap a photo of Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1 being sold by a bookstore!

Since I love books and bookstores, and just unpacked all my books and have a lot of extras (see the photo below), I'm offering you the chance to get a free book from me just for snapping a photo and letting me post it on my Best Women's Erotica of the Year Instagram account. Easy peasy, right? If you see my new book (and my favorite, because yes, I play favorites and am not ashamed to say I'm super proud of it and of my authors), Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, at any bookstore anywhere in the world, just snap a photo (like I did at Good Vibrations), send it to me at bweoftheyear at gmail.com along with the bookstore name and city and your name and mailing address, and I'll send you a book I've edited. If you have your heart set on a particular title, let me know and I'll do my best to make sure you get it. That's it; everyone who sends me a photo by February 29th will get a free book and my thanks!

I wish I could personally visit every bookstore stocking the book, but I can't unless I win the next Powerball. I made a list of 10 independent bookstores thanks to some IndieBound sleuthing (that's where you can go to find out what independent bookstores are in your neighborhood) which currently have the book in stock, and I'm sure there are others I don't yet know about so I'm looking forward to find out who's selling it and giving them some social media love, because I want to support the bookstores taking a chance on my book in any way I can.

I still get a rush of excitement when I see "on our shelves now," because I picture someone pausing and pulling my book from the shelf. Maybe they've read Fifty Shades of Grey; maybe they've read Anaïs Nin, maybe they've never read erotica before. Maybe they're a woman; maybe they're not. Maybe they've been wanting to write erotica of their own and read all the bios at the back and think, I'm going to try my hand at writing a sexy story. Whoever they are, that these bookstores are putting my title, one of probably tens of thousands, they could choose from, on their shelves, means the world to me. Not just to my career, but to me as a book buyer and reader who often browses in the hopes of coming across a book I've never heard of before that sweeps me away. Whether or not people buy Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1, which I certainly hope they do, it's a huge symbol for it to be stocked at these wonderful stores, and I want to pay tribute to that in my own little way, and I greatly appreciate your help in doing so.

Thanks for your help and I hope to send out lots of free books! As I said, I'll be sending the book of my choice, but I do take requests, and these are most of the available books (there's an almost complete list on my website):

Why used bookstores aren't killing authors' careers

For the new year, I've wanted to try all sorts of new things: routines, behaviors, ways of thinking. The latter seems like it will be the most challenging to crack. I can't really blame myself for not sticking to routines when I spent the first week of the year packing to move and the second week moving and unpacking. But I'm trying. I now devote Fridays to bookkeeping, inputting everything I spent on my business the week prior. I've done my best to get out and jog/walk a few times a week (now to figure out the key card to my gym!).

One of the ways I want to change my bad thinking habits is to expect more good things, of the world and myself, and part of that means rather than lamenting and berating and obsessing over what I haven't done (but meant to), I celebrate the things I have, while also, of course, keeping myself accountable and on track to catch up with what needs to be done.

I'm on a plane right now to L.A., for my two writing workshops tomorrow. During my bus ride into New York, and again when I got on the plane, I made copious to do lists, basically rehashes of all the other to do lists I made earlier this week of articles I need to write, emails I need to send, various tasks I need to accomplish. I write them down to remind myself, but what often winds up happening is that I look at them and cringe and start to hate myself. So I'm working on better systems; I don't have the answer yet, though if I come up with anything useful, I'll share it.

Which brings me to this week's writing. I have a new piece hopefully going up next week for a site I haven't written for before, but one that did go up today that I was happy I got to write is about why used bookstores aren't taking money away from writers or at all akin to piracy, as was suggested by writer Kristen Lamb. I offered up my thoughts on used bookstores and quoted various writers I know, none of whom was dead set against used bookstores, and some were even very pro-used bookstores. Tiffany Reisz told me, "I’d no more apologize for buying a used book than I would for buying a used car."



Are my trying to form better thought patterns and my new article connected? Yes. My work world moves so fast that sometimes, even though I share most of my pieces on my various social media channels, I forget to take even a few seconds and savor the feeling of a new byline, a new piece that I worked hard on, whether it took an hour or twenty hours. I want to try to take that time more often, as a way of stepping back and also pushing myself forward. My old way clearly wasn't/isn't working, because all it does is leave me feeling overwhelmed and, often, hopeless, thinking my glass isn't just half empty, but dry as a well and never to be watered again, when the rational side of me knows that's not true.

So here's to spending a few days in the state where I used to live, writing new words, and savoring the ones that are harder to come by, but just as, if not more, meaningful than the ones that roll easily off my fingers.

Your favorite bookstores, according to my newsletter subscribers

On Friday, I sent out my December newsletter with the subject line, "What's your favorite bookstore and why?" 38 of you responded (and are getting a free book as a thank you!). Some said that independent bookstores in their area have closed, some favorite Amazon and Barnes & Noble. The others from around the world listed these as their favorites, many of which I've heard of and in some cases, shopped at, many of which were new to me. The list also includes sex toy stores which sell books as well. I didn't plan to write a blog post about this, but I was so impressed with the store names and the stories behind them; readers are attached to their bookstores, and have passionate things to say about why they like their favorites.

I'll be reaching out to them about stocking what I think is the best book I've ever edited, Best Women's Erotica of the Year, Volume 1. Want to receive my January newsletter, full of news and giveaways and other fun stuff? Subscribe on my website at rachelkramerbussel.com (left-hand side).

Do you have a favorite bookstore that's not listed here? Or a place that sells erotic books? Leave the name in the comments and I'll look into them too! (The free book offer is now over, but there will be more giveaways to newsletter subscribers next year.) Whatever you're reading, I hope you enjoy it.

Favorite bookstores according to my newsletter subscribers

A Cappella Books
Amazon.com
Bargain Books
Barnes & Noble
Bonnett's Bookstore
Bluestockings
The Book Exchange (Manteca, CA)
The Book Nook
Book Review
Book Soup
Books Inc.
The Bookshop on Oxford Street, Darlinghurst
Borderlands
Browse About Books (Rehoboth Beach)
Bureau of General Services -- Queer Division at the GLBT Center (NYC)
Busboys & Poets
Cupid’s Closet
Doctor John's Lingerie Boutique
Doylestown Bookstore
Early to Bed
Fireside Books
Half Price Books
Iliad Books
Kramerbooks and Afterwards
Liberty Bay Books
Loot
Modern Times
Passional
Politics & Prose
Powells
Powerhouse ARENA
Purple Passion
A Room of One’s Own
Strand Bookstore
The Tattered Cover
Unabridged Bookstore (Chicago)
Vroman’s
A Woman’s Touch
Women and Children First
Word Up

The crowdfunded romance only bookstore that won't stock Fifty Shades of Grey

I interviewed Bea and Leah Koch, book-loving sisters who are crowdfunding via Kickstarter to open The Ripped Bodice, a romance only bookstore, in Los Angeles. Check it out to read about why they want to overcome stereotypes about romance readers, how the bookstore will function as a community space, and why they won't be carrying Fifty Shades of Grey.

Indie bookstores and sex toy stores where you can buy Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

On comeagainbook.com, I have links for the main online sites you can buy Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, my latest sexy short story pride and joy.



But I also wanted to share the local shops that are so important to me as a reader, consumer and book lover, especially because I don't think I'll have an indie bookstore near me in Atlantic City, and I sure wish I did. If I ever win the lottery, I'd love to open a bookstore, because how fun would that be to be surrounded by books? Well, I'm actually surrounded by books pretty much all the time, given how many I own, even with giving away at least a thousand during this move, but still. That's a crazy dream I have, but supporting real live bookstores is not crazy. It's important.

Also, most of these stores have 1 copy of the book; a very small handful have more. So this makes your support of my books all the more important. Buying local sends the message: readers want erotica. If you don't make that clear, these stores don't know. In general, many indie bookstores don't have an erotica section, some don't have a sexuality section, and some don't even have any erotica books, so for these stores to go out on a limb for my book means they believe in it. My dream is to edit another book of sex toy erotica with all new authors, but for that to happen, this one has to knock it out of the park. This year especially, my sense is that my books are being put to a test: will you do well enough to make it worth our while to keep working with you? I dearly hope the answer is yes!

Here's the list I've been given, and I'd love to add to it! Know of a store that carries the book not listed? Email me at rachelk at comeagainbook.com and I'll add it. Want to stock it? Email me you're info and I'll connect you with my publisher, Cleis Press. I missed Independent Bookstore Day earlier this month, but really, isn't every day Independent Bookstore Day? THANK YOU to all of these places for stocking my book. Trust me: it matters, especially for someone like me who gets by with a lot of help from everyone who's ever purchased my books. I hope to keep on doing this for a long, long time, and your support helps make that happen! Already have the book or can't purchase it? Tweet about it and tag @comeagainbook or mention us on Facebook. I'm also going to work on getting the most ancient bio of mine around updated to something more modern; I've one a lot since those early, early days. Up All Night was the first anthology I edited, and I actually co-edited that one. This year, I think I'll hit 60 anthologies! While that is something I'm very proud of, I'm far more interested in what the next book will look like, and which authors I can publish for the very first time.

Bookstores (in no particular order)

Powell's Books (Portland, Oregon) Joseph-Beth Eagle Eye Book Shop

Women & Children First (Chicago)

Books Inc.

Antigone Books (Tucson, Arizona)

Bluestockings (NYC)

Boulder Bookstore

Red Emma's

Gallery Bookshop (Mendocino, California)

Book People (Austin)

City Lights (San Francisco, I don't see it on their site, but am told they've stocked it)

Elliott Bay Book Company (Seattle)

Sex toy stores (This list I'd especially like to boost since I think it's such a natural fit for a book of sex toy erotica to appear alongside sex toys)

Good Vibrations (San Francisco Bay Area and Brookline, Massachusetts, I'm not seeing it on their site but am told they've stocked it)

Self Serve (Albuquerque)

Smitten Kitten (Minneapolis)

Bookstores where you can find Best Bondage Erotica 2015, or I love the words "on our shelves now"

If you've been to more than a handful of independent bookstores in the United States, you'll know that often erotica is scarce. I make it a point to visit bookstores while traveling and aside from Barnes & Noble (where you can also buy this book and I hope you will because that shows them there's a market for kinky erotica from independent publishers), it's often slim pickings. So I want to give an extra special, you-make-my-anthology-work-possible shoutout to the stores that do carry my books. Please buy from them (not just my books but any books), because that is the way they will know there's an audience for the types of books you like. Plus you can always ask your local bookstore to order a book for you.

Based on the information I've received from my publisher Cleis Press, these stores have ordered Best Bondage Erotica 2015 and should have it in stock. There are surely others, but these are the ones I could check out and link to, and I'm happy to update this if other stores want to get in on this hot book action. They are in no particular order save for the order the list was given to me. To make this totally clear, most of these stores have ordered 1, 2 or 3 copies of the book. I've never worked in a bookstore so don't know exactly how the process wrks, but I imagine if people are buying and asking for the book, they will order more. In the long run, that is what determines if books like these keep getting published. If they don't have it on the shelves, ask for it, and if they do, if you send me at bestbondagerotica2015 at gmail.com a photo of the book in their store along with the store name and city that I have your permission to post online (with credit if you want it), and you also send me your mailing address, I will send you a postcard or bookmark in return!



Bluestockings, New York City (Lower East Side!)

Schuler Books and Music, Grand Rapids, Lansing and Okemos, Michigan

Joseph Beth (they have locations in Lexington and Crestwood Hills, Kentucky, and Cincinnati, Ohio - contact individual stores for availability)

Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Arizona (they also have a store in Phoenix)

Skylight Books, Los Angeles

Unabridged Books, Chicago

Harvard Bookstore, Cambridge, Massachusettes

Elliott Bay Book Company, Seattle

Tattered Cover Bookstore, Denver, Colorado

Powell's, Portland, Oregon

McNally Jackson, New York City

Boulder Bookstore, Boulder, Colorado

Shakespeare and Co. Booksellers, 939 Lexington Avenue between 68th and 69th, New York City (sadly, their website tells me the downtown Broadway store, which I fondly remember shopping in when I lived in the NYU dorms from 1996-1999, has closed. Boo. That's why we need to support indie bookstores.)

Bookshop Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, California

Chaucer's Bookstore, Santa Barbara, California

The Book Loft, Great Barrington, Massachusetts

Left Bank Books (St. Louis, Missouri)

City Lights Books, San Francisco (I'm not seeing it listed on their site, but it was on the list I was given)

Books Inc, San Francisco Bay Area (I'm not sure which locations have it, so call ahead and ask/order)

Self Serve, Albuquerque, New Mexico (it's not in their online store but I know it's in their brick and mortar store)

12 independent bookstores where you can buy The Big Book of Submission

I'll be stopping in at as many of these stores as I can to show them just how excited I am about The Big Book of Submission: 69 Kinky Tales, and adding to this list as well as promoting the sex toy stores selling the book @submissionbook on Twitter and on Facebook and Tumblr. I'm thrilled that BDSM erotica is so popular that even Harvard Book Store (!!) is carrying it. Who knew?



If your favorite store doesn't have it, ask for it and they'll order it for you - then let me know you did at shortsubmissionantho at gmail.com and which store it was and I just may send you a special present.

Long story short - this is a make or break year for my little books, and I'm hoping they make it in a big way! I'm doing everything I can to help them along, though most of it involves luck and magic and who knows what else. But one thing that definitely helps is bookstores seeing that readers want a certain topic. I've learned about the importance of hand selling on my little tour this past week and am hoping this little kinky book connects with readers and booksellers, because I'm very proud of it.

Posman Books (New York)

Bluestockings (New York)

Book Loft (Columbus, Ohio)

Books Inc. (San Francisco Bay Area)

City Lights Bookstore (San Francisco) - I didn't see it on their website but I'm told they ordered it so please ask if you want to buy it from them!

Wicked Grounds Cafe (San Francisco)

Elliot Bay Book Company (Seattle)

Harvard Book Store (Cambridge, Massachusetts)

Powell's Books Inc. (Portland, Oregon)

Boulder Bookstore (Boulder, Colorado)

Tattered Cover Bookstore (Denver, Colorado)

Unabridged Book Inc. (Chicago)

Feminist bookstore I want to move into: Book Woman in Austin

Really: just give me a cot and I'll give up the apartment I can't get home to anyway and move in to feminist bookstore Book Woman in Austin. It is amazing! I went there last night to see my friend Shanna Katz, sex educator and author of Oral Sex That'll Blow Her Mind, give a workshop about sexuality, complete with vulva puppet. She was hilarious and informative and in half an hour I learned a lot and had a lot to think about, like the compliment sandwich. My friend Kambri Crews is reading from her memoir Burn Down The Ground on Friday.

I saw that the Delicious Issue (shouldn't every publication have one?) of Curve is out with an article I wrote about Cupcake Royale owner Jody Hall. I discovered on their new books table two by Naomi Shihab Nye I'm coveting, plus Transfer which I'm already a fan of, and the memoir Not Quite Nirvana: A Skeptic's Journey to Mindfulness by Rachel Neuman, which I obviously need to read, not just because she shares my name. I discovered the very first anthology I was ever published in, back in 2000, Best Lesbian Erotica 2001. I was just in awe of the entire place and impressed that while feminist bookstores have come and gone, this one is around and thriving and putting on amazing events. They had a bunch of my erotica books and a healthy sexuality bookcase too! I'm loving it here so much that am half tempted to try to talk my guy into moving here. So yay Austin!


me with ten of my books (and Suite Encounters was on the shelf below)


Shanna Katz with vulva puppet



If you're in Brooklyn and can get out safely, BCakeNY in Prospect Heights is giving out free cupcakes from 5 to 6 today. I will be giving out free candy to trick or treaters at a friend's in Austin!

Housing Works Best Sex Writing 2012 reading

Housing Works is my very favorite bookstore I've ever been to. I love all the galleys they have, I love the atmosphere, I love that I often run into people I know, I love that it's a nonprofit and I'm very excited to be hosting such an amazing lineup. The official Facebook invitation is here if you want to let anyone know about this special event with free cupcakes and below the listing are the titles and links, where applicable, of what you'll be hearing, along with some probing questions by me and a Q&A by the audience. See you there!

Wednesday, April 25 at 7:00 pm Best Sex Writing 2012 reading Join Best Sex Writing 2012 editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Camille Dodero, Ellen Friedrichs, Lynn Harris, Amanda Marcotte, Joan Price, Abby Tallmer, and Rachel Rabbit White for readings from this year's collection of the best journalism and essays about sexuality and a Q&A on wide-ranging topics, include SlutWalks, aging and sexuality, teenagers and sex laws, dating sites for people with STDs, drag shows, men who prefer fat women, and the gentrification of the West Village. Free and free cupcakes. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe proceeds go toward the fight to end AIDS and homelessness. Housing Works Bookstore Cafe, 126 Crosby Street, NYC
B/D/F/M to Broadway/Lafayette
212-334-3324

What you'll hear from (though it's possible I may not be able to resist one last public reading of "Adrian’s Penis: Care and Handling" by Adrian Colesberry):

"Sluts, Walking" by Amanda Marcotte (original to Best Sex Writing 2012)

"Grief, Resilience, and My 66th Birthday Gift" by Joan Price (excerpted from her book Naked at Our Age)

"Latina Glitter" by Rachel Rabbit White

"Dating with an STD" by Lynn Harris

"Guys Who Like Fat Chicks" by Camille Dodero

"Losing the Meatpacking District: A Queer History of Leather Culture" by Abby Tallmer (original to Best Sex Writing 2012)

"Penis Gagging, BDSM, and Rape Fantasy: The Truth about Kinky Sexting" by Rachel Kramer Bussel

"The Continuing Criminalization of Teen Sex" by Ellen Friedrichs (original to Best Sex Writing 2012)

Sex diary, sex tip and Best Sex Writing 2012 West Coast and NYC tour dates

A lot of info all at once, and at the bottom, some art I loved at the Milwaukee Art Museum, where I want to go back and spend hours upon hours, it was so incredible, and up top, Valentine's Day appropriate, neon hearts at the restaurant Elsa's in Milwaukee. I'm back, but am planning a return trip to Milwaukee when it's warmer. $98 flight on Frontier Airlines and so much awesomeness. You can read about my erotic writing workshop at Northwestern in The Daily Northwestern. I also did one at The Tool Shed, which has an amazing selection of sex toys.

This week's sex diary involves a busted Hitachi Magic Wand, foreign guys and bad communication, and an expat exploring a new city. (I'm the editor; if you want to write an anonymous sex diary, email me at sexdiaries at nymag.com)

I gave a Valentine's Day sex top to Blisstree.

And in April I'll be going on what is probably one of my last proper book tours unless I suddenly win the lottery or write some kind of blockbuster, so I'm going all out, to old favorites like Powell's, which deserves its own essay about the piece that's only in Best Sex Writing 2012 because of Powell's, Elliott Bay, and Booksmith, and Bookshop Santa Cruz, where I've never been, and the bookstore where I spend the most money and score the most incredible finds, Housing Works. There will also be assorted interviews along the way and hopefully a cupcake meetup in Seattle and attending theater and I'm also reading at Writers With Drinks April 14th. But these are the Best Sex Writing 2012 events, where I'll get to meet a lot of my contributors. And do readings with Susie Bright! See you there. Whether you can or can't make these if you've got a blog, I'd love to have you join the March virtual book tour for Best Sex Writing 2012. These dates are left - email bestsexwriting2012 at gmail.com with "Tour" in the subject and include your URL and mailing address and you'll be assigned a date. Thank you!



Free cupcakes at all readings!

April 6, 7:30 pm
Powell's, 1005 W. Burnside, Portland, Oregon
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Tim Elhajj, Kevin Sampsell and Lidia Yuknavitch. 503-228-4651.
Facebook invite

April 7, 7 pm
Elliott Bay Books, 1521 10th Avenue, Seattle, WA
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Kevin Sampsell and Lidia Yuknavitch. 206-624-6600.
Facebook invite

April 9, 7 pm
Booksmith, 1644 Haight Street, San Francisco
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, guest judge Susie Bright and local contributors Greta Christina, Tracy Clark-Flory and Thomas S. Roche. 415-863-8688.
Facebook invite

April 12, 7:30 pm
Bookshop Santa Cruz, 1520 Pacific Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel, guest judge Susie Bright, and local contributors. 831-423-0900.
Facebook invite

April 25, 7 pm
Housing Works Bookstore, 126 Crosby Street, NYC
Free and free cupcakes! Featuring editor Rachel Kramer Bussel and contributors Ellen Friedrichs, Lynn Harris, Amanda Marcotte, Joan Price, and Rachel Rabbit White. 212-334-3324.
Facebook invite

Milwaukee Art Museum art:


Nancy by Chuck Close - more info below, and the Nancy Graves piece was adjacent to it




Object Disguised 4 Times by Nancy Graves


St. Dionysus by Kehinde Wiley




Bluffs by Tara Donovan (made of buttons!)


There was sun, snow and water right out the window, and it was beautiful. And below is what I saw when I looked up.



This greets you when you either look down from street level, or right when you walk in from the parking garage:

My latest at Open Salon: Why I Love Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD

"Why I Love Greenpoint, Brooklyn indie bookstore WORD! It's not just for the pencils, I promise:

Powell's loves Please, Sir!

I'm blogging from the cafe at Powell's Books, where I bought two books by the poet Naomi Shihab Nye, whose work I've been eager to read but wasn't sure where to start, so getting to browse the shelves helped, and the new Ms. magazine and ogled the extensive erotica section and saw this:



Plus I walked by Voodoo Doughnut but will save a taste for Sunday. I am sleepy and heading off to Eugene and will have some exciting publication news to announce soonish.

I talk romance and erotica on the Bookrageous podcast

Click here to hear me talk about being a book lover, favorite books and the romance and erotica genres with In The Flesh alum Sarah Wendell of the wonderful blog Smart Bitches Trashy Books, along with hosts Rebecca Schinsky of The Book Lady and Jenn Northington of JennIRL (also events manager at WORD). I recorded my part at Greenpoint, Brooklyn extremely excellent indie bookstore WORD, where I'll be in the audience being a fangirl getting my Sarah MacLean and Kieran Kramer books signed April 27th.

Snapshots from Seattle

No way to fully capture the trip (or rather, trips), plus I have less than 48 hours at home before going to Minneapolis (NOT a smart move in any way on my part, and I'd cancel if I weren't doing a fantabulous book party on Tuesday night that better be crowded for the free music/sex toys/cupcakes). I just don't travel that well, not for such extended periods. I had fun, but ate too much and was a bit mopey and didn't write. Working on changing that, starting now.



You can now get autographed copies of Best Sex Writing 2010 at Powell's in Portland by mail order or in the store, and at Elliott Bay in Seattle.

Saw this on my way to Elliott Bay on Tuesday:



After a day full of cupcakes, I ate at Barrio in Capitol Hill and it was AMAZING:


Taquitos


Queso fundido


Calamari


Goofing off (with a little help from iPhone app The Best Camera) with Carrie of Bella Cupcake Couture, who was my tour guide, and Jody Hall, owner of Cupcake Royale, who's done, you know, a few little things like be invited to the White House to talk about health care. Such amazing people and if I lived in Seattle, you'd see me with my laptop at Cupcake Royale's Capitol Hill outpost A LOT.

They gave me a t-shirt that says "Rock out with your cupcake out." Then I bought one for my baby cousin.


Trophy Cupcakes not only made the amazing cupcakes with my face on them but also hosted a cupcake meetup yesterday that was well-attended, fun, and gave us some insider scoop on running a Seattle cupcake business. And fed us with s'mores cupcakes that had a graham cracker bottom! This frosting was seriously to die for. Marshmallowtastic.

At Bluebottle Art Gallery, to be owned April 1st by my friend Jessie Oleson of Cakespy, I not only got some Matthew Porter monkey magnets but lusted after this painting called "Miss Petits Gâteaux" of a topless girl with cupcakes by Julie West, whose work I now covet.


There was a lot of being tired/nauseous/emotionally overwhelmed/missing people in hotel rooms, thinking about the past and the present and the future, thinking about both the book A Spy in the House of Love and the reality.


The view around 6 am looked like this from my room at the Westin.


I pack heavy stuff.


You might've heard...it's snowing in New York. My friend Heidi likened it to powdered sugar. I'm so thrilled to be back.

Portland, I heart you

Portland has been nonstop - stayed at Hyatt Place, because I was antsy about coming to a residential neighborhood at 1 am sans phone, and had a lovely time. For $85 I got a giant room with couch and bed and there was a pool - obviously if I forgot my phone I didn't think to bring a bathing suit, but anyway, then I took the light rail to the Apple Store, got a new phone that is so fancy I barely know what to do with it, went to Saint Cupcake for a meetup, hung out with my friend Douglas who showed me some of the many food carts in Portland and we caught up.


Hello Kitty greeted me in the mall (I am a Jersey Girl at heart so of course my first stop was in a mall to get a new phone)

Then my friend Irena picked me up - I spent almost all of the summer of 1999 hanging out with her and her then-girlfriend having the time of our lives. Now she lives in a house that reminds me of a friend's in Silverlake, completely with cute little dog and guest room and we go to catch up and hang out with her wife and talk baby names, good (and bad) tattoos, cupcakes and life. And eat at Mio Sushi, where I was introduced to sushi pizza! Yum.



Tonight our pro-affair, pro-cunt sexual outlaw Best Sex Writing 2010 mini book tour with me, Kerry Cohen (Loose Girl) and Janet Hardy (The Ethical Slut) hits Tsunami Books in Eugene from 7-8, Monday night we're at Powell's on Burnside at 7:30 in Portland and Elliott Bay in Seattle at 7 on Tuesday (the latter 2 with free cupcakes). You don't want to miss it, I promise. I'll be talking about the book and what I think it means to be a "sexual outlaw."


Loose Girl author Kerry Cohen ("Anatomy of an Affair")


The Ethical Slut co-author Janet Hardy ("The Portal")

Are books "broken" on the web?

Tim from LibraryThing, in a post about their partnership with Portland's famed Powell's Books, writes:

The big picture. On the web, books are broken. A few small parts are solved or on their way—Amazon, Abebooks.com, Google, Powells—and this gives many the illusion that books are a solved problem. But the rest of the "bibliosphere" isn't where it could be. Libraries and publishers, authors and most bookstores are adrift, and not part of the conversation.*...

*My correspondent at Powell's asked me for examples. Here's my rant/reply:

You can't Google a book and find out where in town to get a copy. You can't Google a book and find out whether your public library has a copy. Your library doesn't know the author is touring the area. The author doesn't know which independent bookstores are selling the most copies, and so where to read. Bookstore software is crap and most independent bookstores aren't online at all. The second-largest US bookstore chain—Borders—is less online that Powell's! Libraries are absolutely *terrible* online; you will rarely get a library in the first ten pages of a Google search because search engines can't "see inside" library websites. Library data is largely inaccessible and dominated by an inflexible data monopoly. Book data is mostly from Amazon or from a welter of other companies that don't or can't help any but the largest providers. Publisher websites a seldom more than 1990s brochure-ware. Small presses sometimes have good websites, but aren't included in the book-data game. There's no online network for authors and agents. There isn't even a decent "works" system for books—and to the extent there are systems like this, publishers and libraries have completely different systems.