My Refinery29 essay about being a "domestic failure" is up now

I got personal over at Refinery29 for my essay, "I’m A Feminist, But I Feel Guilty For Being A Domestic Failure." The title pretty much says it all, although the day before it ran, I wound up getting our couch cleaned and it looks amazing, if I do say so myself. Sweetest thing ever: my boyfriend told me he didn't like my essay, because I didn't give myself credit. He thinks I'm a great sous chef and kitchen helper. He already had my heart, but that totally sealed the deal.

Buy my erotica books in Berlin at vegan sex shop Other Nature

Yesterday, I read an article at Upworthy about feminist sex shops, specifically Other Nature in Berlin. They describe themselves on their site as "Other Nature is a feminist, queer-oriented, eco-friendly, vegan sex shop in Berlin Kreuzberg." Well, imagine my delight when I discovered that they carry my women's erotica anthologies Dirty Girls and the German translation of Fast Girls, which has a much sexier cover than the U.S. version, which is hot in its own way and is one of my favorite of my books:


on the Other Nature site

Both editions side by side:



Naturally (pun intended), I Tweeted about it, and here's what they said:



To inspire you wherever you are in the world as we head into Valentine's Day, here's my naked bubble bath book trailer for Fast Girls, whose title was inspired by the song of the same name by one of my favorite bands, Sarge (read more about that in the introduction to the book). Watching this again makes me miss making book trailers. People ask me sometimes whether they help sell books. Short and succinct answer: I have no idea, but I really enjoyed the process. As someone whose only real artistic talents lie with words, getting to work with images, to be onscreen and plan out these videos, was a lot of fine. It's not feasible to do these days, but I consider them a fond memory and wonderful learning experience.



For those outside Berlin, here's where you can grab a copy in print, ebook or audiobook form:

Amazon.com

Kindle ebook edition

Bn.com

Nook ebook edition

Powell's

IndieBound (find your nearest local bookstore)

iBooks

Google Play

Audible audiobook

Cleis Press

Feminism meets art meets technology with Pussy Bow scarves imprinted with images from inside artist Christen Clifford's vagina

The news this week is by and large awful, with shootings and violence and other atrocities. So to lighten the mood, here's my profile of the Pussy Bow scarf, imprinted with an image from inside a woman's vagina. Yes, really. Learn how and why artist Christen Clifford made them at The Daily Dot, and why she's donating 10% of the proceeds to Planned Parenthood.

How the Steubenville rape case inspired new young adult novel What We Saw

Aaron Hartzler's new young adult novel What We Saw, published by HarperTeen, was directly inspired by the Steubenville rape case, and features a similar story line about teens, adults and media in a sports-minded small town questioning whether a sexual assault occurred at a party where teens were drinking and documenting their partying on social media. Check out my interview with Hartzler at Salon, and read the book - it's excellent!

"My life as a feminist submissive" interview series part 2 at Elle.com

The first entry in my submissive feminist interview series at Elle.com struck a nerve, and on Friday, part 2 went up with the title "My life as a submissive feminist." I see these as an addition to the plethora (though that's an understatement in this case!) of information out there about Fifty Shades of Grey. Why I was especially interested is because I believe in the power of personal stories not to stand in for anyone other than the person telling the story, but as a way to make a topic, in this case, submission, BDSM and feminism, understandable. Maybe relatable, maybe not. I don't think a personal story has to have an agenda, I just think it has to be honest, and these women were extremely honest about a combination of topics that often get treated as if they can't go together.

Feminism, BDSM and submission at Elle.com

I profiled a woman who is nothing like Anastasia Steele for "What It's Really Like to Be a Submissive and a Feminist" at Elle.com. Please check it out and if you like it, feel free to share it on your social media accounts. I like that they asked me to do an as told to because so many pieces about submission in the wake of Fifty Shades of Grey have drawn giant, sweeping, problematic conclusions about submissive women. This is one woman's story (and of course, she said a lot of other amazing stuff but I couldn't include it all, but still, I thought what she had to say was fascinating).