My Philadelphia Inquirer op-ed on smartphone addiction

My first byline of 2019 is my smartphone addiction op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer. If you're local, it should also be in print today or tomorrow (I have to see if it's available where I live in New Jersey or I'll get a Philly friend to get me a copy).



I'm proud to have a new publication to add to my credits as 2018 was a slow year with a lot of rejections (including one from this same paper, which I didn't hear back from when I submitted one in June on Seth Grossman). However, that one was to a generic address. This one was to a specific editor. I follow Sonia Weiser on Twitter and subscribe to her excellent editor pitch list newsletter, which is well worth the suggested $3/month and how I got this piece published. Sonia collects Tweets from editors about what they're looking for from writers. Happy writing (and less smartphone obsessing) in 2019!

An iPhone app will now calculate how good your sex life is

My latest Medium post is called "I Don't Want or Need an App to Measure My Sex Life." If you like it, please click "recommend" at the bottom and spread the word. And I took my Hitachi Magic Wand for a sex drive:



This isn't really related, other than to say that while I don't want badges for having sex (you earn them using Spreadsheets), even on Hannukah, I do highly recommend the JetBlue badges program. If you already fly JetBlue, it's totally worth it. You get frequent flyer miles just for joining, and then more when you earn badges for travel, social media use and other things. I have a few trips coming up with JetBlue: Burlington, Vermont, Charleston, South Carolina and Albuquerque, New Mexico--I chose the latter in part because JetBlue had cheap flights, $133 each way. But really I'm such a booster for them because they make flying as easy as possible. They don't charge for the first checked bag, which I so appreciate; for other airlines, I'd rather pay more for my ticket price and not have to fork over an extra $25 each way for my luggage. I just overall have had good experiences with JetBlue, though I check prices and fly whichever airline is cheapest.

Best Sex Writing 2012 praise, sex diary, iPhone essay and photos

A few things to share (though for faster linkage, try my Facebook fan page, and yes I know that sounds pretentious, sorry, or add me Google+).

My new book, the one with the buy one get one free from me offer through this Friday, Best Sex Writing 2012, was named by Creative Loafing Atlanta "one of the top 10 most provocative books out this month."



This week's sex diary (I'm the editor): "The 'Terrible Girlfriend' Making the Most of Holiday Sex" and last week's in case I didn't link to it: "The Marketing Consultant Getting a Blowjob at His Parents' House for Christmas."

I wrote an essay for Open Salon called "My iPhone Photos (all 5,000 of Them), Myself" along with some of those photos, like this one:



And over at Romance Divas I'm the Author of the Month, with an accompanying interview about Irresistible: Erotic Romance for Couples, which will be published this month and I'm very excited about! Read 16 hot excerpts here.



And last but not least: 11 Cupcakes I Liked in 2011! and Top 10 Cupcakes Take the Cake posts of 2011.


s'mores cupcake


Samoa cupcakes


Andes mint cupcake

Breasts on book covers: I'm a fan

I bought Coercion by Lux Zakari largely based on this crazy-hot cover, and also because I have a story of hers, "Truss Issues" coming out in Best Bondage Erotica 2011 in December and like her writing.



I don't have a Kindle or any other e-reader, but I do have Kindle for iPhone; I've only made five purchases so far, and all are e-book only.

In other erotica news, check out Erotica for All for some cool erotica author interviews.

"8 New Internet Sex Fads" at The Daily Beast

My latest piece for The Daily Beast is "8 New Internet Sex Fads."

The Passion iPhone app screen grabs didn't make it in, so I'm posting it below:







And then to rub it in:





And if you like the piece, please consider Digging it. Thanks!

Google maps gone wrong on my iPhone

Yes, even though I've lived in New York since August of 1996, I still sometimes get turned around, especially on the windy, wily streets of the West Village. Last night, I was heading to bakery Batch, which apparently has gotten a reprieve from its sad closing and will be open a little longer (call the store to find out exactly how much longer!).

So last night, after answering 2 hours of questions from NYU journalism students (who knew time could fly so fast when talking about yourself?), I tried to meet my friend and fellow cupcake blogger Stacie Joy there.

Here are the directions I got:



If it's not immediately clear what's wrong with this picture, I'll tell you: You can just make a left on West 10th Street, the street Batch is actually on! Plus it was freezing cold. I'm pretty sure these are meant to be driving directions, in which case it makes sense, except that, oh, I live in New York and don't drive. There really needs to be a "walking directions" option.

I outsmarted these convoluted directions by making said left, only to find Batch closed. Grr...at least I knew where I was once I got to West 10th. Still, these looping directions had me super confused.

Survivor: Lost iPhone

I feel like I’ve been on a reality show called Survivor: Lost iPhone. Yes, I am really good at losing things, and someday maybe I’ll write about my extremely messy apartment, hoarding, shopping, throwing things out, etc. But now is not that time. But I try not to lose the most important things: keys, glasses, phone, Metrocard, and I have to say, I do pretty well with that.

Suffice it to say, I had a call from a reporter, various friends, and then 6 increasingly frantic calls from my grandmother, where she seemed to have imagined I’d died. And yes, in a way, being iPhoneless, a part of me had died. I’ve becoming so attached to that phone, and its many uses. It’s my first smartphone and even though there’s tons of things I haven’t yet explored on it, having my 4 main email accounts handy at the touch of a finger is extremely helpful.

I admit I didn’t look too hard for it because it was kindof a nice break. I love being connected, I love the Facebook app and Twitterfon and all of that, but sometimes unplugging is necessary, even if it’s not deliberate.

That being said, I have it now, so I can Twitter from the tonight’s In The Flesh!