X Goes Audio!

I'm very excited to announce that the most sensually luxurious erotica anthology you can get your hot little hands on, X: The Erotic Treasury, is now available as an audiobook. For the aurally inclined--and I include myself in that persuasion--this means you can just lie back and enjoy steamy stories by erotica writers such as Rachel Kramer Bussel, Susan DiPlacido, Shanna Germain, P.S. Haven, Bill Noble and yours truly, slithering softly into your ear. Best of all you'll have both hands free to do, you know, whatever! Can you think of a better way to spend a sultry summer afternoon?

You can hear some excerpts at Susie's Blog. An advance reviewer told me my story "Yes," was read by a man with a nice, deep voice. Can't wait to hear him murmur those naughty commands for myself....

“On Top” with the Second Person POV

Thanks everyone for your comments on POV, first, second and third! I’m thinking I may start my new novel in third person, because it would be different from Amorous Woman and I feel like I need a departure. But I may go back to first depending on how it feels. It’s reassuring that you all agree with that intuitive part of the equation!

But on to naughtier topics. Because second person is the most “forbidden” by editors and writing teachers, it’s only natural that we erotica writers would find it particularly attractive, at least on occasion. I actually have two (an appropriate number, no?) second person samples to share. Today I’ll give some author insider background about my story, “Yes,” which appears in Susie Bright’s X: The Erotic Treasury and was first published in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s He’s on Top. So I guess that wicked and verboten second person POV was a success in terms of publication credits!

This particular “you” is not a command as much as an attempt to connect, as in “You know what it’s like when you’re driving down the street and a cop pulls you over and….” It’s a “you” that’s more like an “I.” As I wrote, I felt this as a running monologue in a man’s head. I could slip inside a man’s skin, but still maintain a distance, the way I can sometimes step back from what’s happening to me and make myself into a character. I’m not sure if I’m expressing this well, but this form of second person narrative helped me tackle the challenge of writing from the male POV, which was one of the requirements of the original call for He’s on Top. With my obsession for the truth of a sexual experience, I feel a bit of a fraud when I write as a man, but I also like the imaginative stretch I have to make, too. It reminds me of my acting experiences in high school and college. Plus, my readers can be sure I always make sure to get the story vetted by a biological man a.k.a. Herr Doktor DGS!

Speaking of which, my husband said he “heard” this story as the voice of a woman describing the man’s experience “for” him. Perhaps my husband’s interpretation is not surprising because he heard me read excerpts from “Yes” twice recently as part of Susie Bright’s Bay Area X tour, but it took me by surprise, because when I read it aloud, I always feel like I should be in drag--jeans, a black leather jacket and a strap-on!

Tomorrow, I’ll post a compare-contrast snippet from my story “The Blindfold,” which is in a slightly different second person, and the revised first-person version called “Blinded.” Hey, recycling’s good for the environment….

Without further ado, here’s a fairly tame excerpt from “Yes” that shows how the second person works in this particular story. If you’d like to share your own second person story, published or unpublished, let me know and I’ll post it here for our delectation!

From "Yes":

The next time her little surprise for you is to bake cookies, not from a mix, but special ones with white chocolate and raspberries and fancy liqueur. She says white, sweet, creamy things make her think of you.

You pretend to read the paper while she stirs up the batter and hums like some TV mom from the fifties. But she’s not wearing an apron and pearls. You can see her nipples through her shirt and she has on the same jeans she had on the night you met, with a wide leather belt that makes you think of a slave girl you saw in a history book in school. Back then you wanted to do all kinds of nasty things to the girl in the picture, things you didn’t have a name for.

You know what to call them now.

She waves you over, scoops up a swirl of batter on her finger, and licks it off slowly with the pointy tip of her tongue. She offers you a fingerful and you take it in your mouth. It’s sweet—all butter and sugar and a healthy dash of booze—but that’s not what makes you dizzy. It’s the taste of her underneath, her flesh and her spit, which has the same faintly musky taste as her pussy. She told you once she smells different to herself, tastes different, too, since she met you. As if you’ve marked her.

That’s the flavor you’re searching for on her skin.

You think of taking her right here, lifting her up on the counter. Or bending her over the kitchen table, perhaps, doggy-style. But that little voice, the one you’ve learned to listen to, whispers again.

Wait.

So you pull away and slap her ass and say, “No more fun until you clean up these dirty dishes.”
She pouts, but her eyes twinkle, and she gets right to work, humming her happy homemaker tune.

You walk to your bedroom. Already the plan is taking shape. You remember a story she told about her college boyfriend who begged and begged her to let him fuck her ass until she gave in, but it was lousy. He was too rough and it hurt and he was a real wuss about the mess afterward. She’d never done it since and wasn’t sure she ever wanted to again.

In your book, if a guy begs a woman to let him fuck her ass, he should at least be a gentleman about it. You promise yourself you won’t be like him.

You won’t beg.

Eroticafest Xtraordinaire: Martha Garvey and “Night Train”

Rachel Kramer Bussel’s monthly erotica reading series “In the Flesh,” at the Happy Ending Lounge at 302 Broome Street in NYC, is a beacon for our genre—not to mention a great place to get your date in the mood (see Marcelle Manhattan’s “Second Date” in X: The Erotic Treasury). However, this coming Thursday, February 19, the Happy Ending Lounge is going to be white-hot with star power. Here’s the official invitation:

The legendary author, editor, activist and sexual provocateur Susie Bright joins us from Santa Cruz, California to celebrate her beautiful new hardcover anthology X: The Erotic Treasury (Chronicle Books), which includes a story set at In The Flesh which you will hear! Joining Susie will be contributors Paula Bomer, Ernie Conrick, Martha Garvey, Nicholas Kaufmann, Tsaurah Litzky, Marcelle Manhattan, Lisa Montanarelli, Chelsea Summers and host/curator Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2008, Spanked). Special guest Maxim Jakubowski, editor of the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, also joins us from London. Note special start time (for February only): 7:30 pm. Doors open at 7. Arriving early is highly recommended. Books will be available for sale by Mobile Libris. There will be a Q&A with Susie and book signing after the reading.

I wish I could make it, although I’m expecting the place will be so packed, it’ll be like the Gion Festival in Kyoto where I was wedged in the crowd so tightly, my feet weren’t touching the ground, but I was still moving (a simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying experience).

One of the main reasons I wish I could be there is to meet up with the wonderful Martha Garvey again. Martha was one of the first people ever to write me a nice note about one of my stories—“The Cunt Book” when it appeared in Clean Sheets. Martha’s poignant and lovely story “Bottle” (which later appeared in Best American Erotica) was also up around the same time, and I was so flattered to earn the praise of such an accomplished writer, my feet didn’t touch the ground for days (and it wasn’t even the Gion Festival). Martha also paid me the great honor of coming to my Kinokuniya reading last October which I’ll discuss in my next installment of my New York City Book Tour Diary—coming soon! And, last but not least, she has a story in X called “Night Train," which is hot and gritty and very New York. A woman buzzed on lattes meets a younger tattooed stud and there’s chemistry aplenty beyond the caffeine. However, he refuses to give her his last name, so she refuses to take him home. But he comes up with an alternate arrangement for a memorable evening—and a trademark MG memorable story.

Here’s Martha’s interview for X about all the things she does besides write world-class erotica--with a little of that thrown in, too.

Susie Bright: Have you received any awards or condemnations in your career as a writer?

Martha Garvey: My short story about having sex with John Quincy Adams ("How to Fuck a President So It Means Something") won 1st prize in Clean Sheets’ Sex and Politics contest.

My short story about a Frankenstein dog won a fiction contest sponsored by a Frankenstein festival at Stevens Institute of Technology.

Condemnation? I was once accused of betraying feminism because of the very story we are publishing in X:The Erotic Treasury!

What's your publishing history, book-wise?

I have published two books about pet health, My Fat Dog and My Fat Cat: 10 Simple Steps to Help Your Pet Lose Weight.

Do you have a scandalous or noteworthy theater life?

Yes. My one-woman show about my mother’s obsession with the actor Brian Dennehy called “My Mother’s Imaginary Husband,” was at the Knitting Factory.

I have also worked as a literary manager and dramaturg, and once worked on play reading that featured David Strathairn and Kevin Bacon…so I am one degree away, baby.

A Noble Ending to the X Bay Area Tour

This Friday night is the final Bay Area Reading for X: The Erotic Treasury over at Book Passage in Corte Madera. Unfortunately, I can't make this event, but Susie, Greta Christina and Bill Noble, the editor of the fiction department at Clean Sheets will be reading from their work.

Since the last X reading, Susie has posted her book trailer, A Day in the Life of the Erotica Editor, which is a real treat and a must-see for all of us dirty-story-scribes. It's not on Youtube yet (and I can't figure out how to embed it), but I'm sure it will catch a lot of eyeballs.

I am especially sorry not to be able to make tonight's reading because I always love getting together with Bill. He was the first erotica editor to publish my work online and he's been a support and inspiration for me from the beginning, as well as a mentor to countless other writers, new and veteran.

He's also inspired me in a more direct way. The gorgeous and evocative portrait Emily and Bill (2001) which appears on the cover of Photo Sex: Fine Art Sexual Photography Comes of Age was the direct visual inspiration for my story "Portrait," which appears online at Fishnet. (The characters are purely fictional of course).

Bill's story in X, "Salt," is an intensely poetic, yet dramatic tale of a couple brought together by an adventure that brings them to the brink of death. And nothing sparks sensual intensity like a brush with mortality. The lush Hawaiian setting doesn't hurt either. Here's what Bill says in his interview for X:

Susie Bright: Have you ever won an award or condemnation for any of your talents?

Bill Noble: The National Looking Glass Award for Poetry (1999); Fiction Award, Southwest Writers Conference (1997); a couple of Pushcart nominations, reader selection as one of the “Erotic Stories of the Decade” in Susie Bright’s Best American Erotica; The Cable Car Associations award for public service advertising (about 1980

Tell me how you would cast the film version of your story that we're publishing in "X"... just for fun!

Neat question. Marilyn Chambers and Peter Fonda.

What's your history with the Hawaiian Islands?

My wife and I used to lead natural history and backpacking trips in the islands, and my wife’s grandfather was Te Rangi Hiroa’s (Peter Buck’s) biographer and friend.

Best swim? Far out to sea to find spinner dolphins off the Kona Coast, and (not swimming) an entire day kayaking far offshore with a pod of hungry, copulating humpback whales.

I think I’d want to go back and make love in a friend’s tiny little bamboo-and-thatch hut on the lava just above the surf line on the Big Island.

What other occupations do you hold, or have you held, besides being a writer?

Nova Scotian farmer, physics technician, museum curator of birds, gas station attendant, cab driver, school bus driver, “boiler-room” telephone salesman (repulsive job), teaching naturalist, wilderness and mountaineering leader, international drug runner, college administrator, ED and board chair of a variety of environmental nonprofits.

Are you now, or have you been a sex worker?

In every respect except the financial, I firmly believe that writers of erotica are sex workers.

How old are you? Where were you born and raised?

I just turned seventy this year. Born and raised in the Berkshires of Massachusetts, where my direct ancestors were the first European settlers.

My dad, who in his early years was a timber-topper and high-tension lineman. Or my great-great grandfather, an Ojibwa who died in Andersonville during the civil war as a lieutenant in a Massachusetts regiment.

As Sweet as a SeXy Box of Chocolates

Thursday, January 29 marked the second stop of a very Xciting book tour for X: The Erotic Treasury. This time the location was Books, Inc. on Market Street in the Castro district of the world’s premier tourist destination: San Francisco.

Although I’ve lived in the Bay Area for 23 years, I always feel like a tourist when I go to San Francisco, but in a good way. The city really does have a magic about it, a glow of exotic possibility, sexual, cultural and culinary. Perhaps that’s why Books, Inc. seemed to shimmer with a welcoming golden light as we walked inside and found our way to reading venue set up in a cozy corner of the store.

The place had a definite theatrical flavor, from the posters advertising the reading, to the funky stove pipe podium artfully decorated with copies of X—which are lovely and lush enough to serve as eye-pleasing stage props. Again all seats were filled and Susie began her introductions to a standing-room-only crowd.

Susie mentioned, with an eye to the advent of February no doubt, that she saw X as a box of chocolates, each story a different bonbon for the reader’s delectation. I’d agree this is an apt comparison. The boundary-testing “Must Bite” by Vicki Hendricks is chipotle-chocolate. My story, “Yes,” would be more like a sea salt caramel with a hint of macadamia brittle—classic with a noticeable crunch of the unusual. Or maybe Tahitian vanilla crème with roasted almond, but let me wipe the drool from my lips and get back on topic here. As I listened to the introduction, it occurred to me that readings, too, are like mixed hand-dipped chocolates in a box. You’re never sure quite what you’ll get, but each has its own character. While Diesel was bright, intellectual and airy, Books, Inc. started off warm and intimate and continued in that flavor throughout.

Next Susie mentioned the passing of the great John Updike, without question one of the twentieth century’s leading American male writers. There is no doubt he was a pioneer of intelligent, poetic writing about sex and has influenced American erotica profoundly. Susie added that she was honored to have included his work in Best American Erotica. To which I’ll add, when I received my contributor’s copy of Best American Erotica 2006, the thrill of holding this dream-come-true book in my hands was only surpassed by the discovery that my story was three pages away from John Updike’s excerpt from Villages. THREE pages—there must be some literary equivalent of six-degrees-of-separation, or perhaps it’s more like almost shaking hands with the Queen?

Okay, I have my feminist issues with some of Updike’s inarguably honest portrayals of twentieth century manhood, but I can't deny that his work has influenced me--and for the good. Couples (the top-selling “family saga” on Amazon now and sold out so it's good I still have my parents' decrepit copy from the 1960s!), the Rabbit books, the hypnotically lovely “Women and Museums,” countless other New Yorker stories and memoirs—I’ve read them all. Coincidentally, last fall I wrote a story about swinging that was a homage to Updike called “John Updike Made Me Do It” which will appear in Jolie du Pre’s Swing! this coming spring. So the talk of Updike’s death was bittersweet—sad of course that he will write no more, but admiring of his truly deathless prose (for most writers that, of course, is a joke, but not for Updike).

Next came the introductions of the readers and again I went first since it had worked out well enough the last time (note my new "lucky dress" for the new setting). However, there was no microphone, so instead of purring intimately through loudspeakers, I had to dust off my high school thespian auditorium voice and PROJECT. That tended to smooth out the nuances but gave the reading a certain rhythm and passion and maybe even a kind of pride. Standing there belting out dirty words at top volume is pretty liberating, as if I needed any more of that! Because of a longer roster of readers, I left my audience hanging, wondering what the narrator’s Secret Desire might be. Warm applause greeted me after my last line—and what brightens a writer’s heart more?
The next reader was Susie Hara, whose witty story of female empowerment, “Puffy Lips,” had delighted me when I first read it. Susie admitted this was her first time to read in a bookstore, but she clearly had a feel for performance (from earlier theatre work I learned later). Hearing Susie read the story aloud was even more of treat—the humor really shone and the audience was laughing and glowing by the sweet conclusion, all of us wishing we could toast the reading with our own Labia Majora cocktail.

Greta Christina went next with a somewhat shorter reading from “Deprogramming.” Like every good story, repeated readings yield new treasures, although it certainly adds even more to the experience that Greta’s rich voice is perfect for the topic, a troubling, complex tale of the strange roots of sexual desire. Greta mentioned my story and her support of its message—a woman saying “yes” to sex—then mentioned a blog she’d written about how men claim they want women who like sex, but are scared shitless when they meet one. Hear, hear, that observation is alas all too familiar and I think is part of the reason erotica is so threatening to the mainstream.

Rachel Kramer Bussel carried us to our grand finale. She began by reading a short passage from Marcelle Manhattan’s “Second Date” which is about a couple who has sex in the restroom at one of Rachel’s “In the Flesh” readings in New York. The author describes Rachel herself as “looking more like an Ivy League classmate of mine…than an erotic reading organizer.” Yet another familiar refrain ("you don't look like an erotica writer"), except of course, we actually are Ivy League classmates of someone or another, perhaps even people who’ve had sex in the bathroom at Happy Ending Lounge?

With these images whirling around in my happy little mind, Rachel began to read from her story, “A First Time for Everything,” the account of a woman who arranges her own bukkake party (where a group of men ejaculate on a woman) with the help of a gay male friend. On the page, it’s witty as well as hot, but with Rachel reading and providing the proper intonations, the story shimmered with laughter and sexiness. This was a case of story and voice being a perfect match, the two parts making a greater whole. Live readings are supposedly a dying entertainment, but I’d say any doubters in the audience were converted by hearing “A First Time” in the flesh. Again there were hearty claps of appreciation.

This time there was no question-and-answer period, but the audience was invited to come up and ask questions of us individually and/or get their books signed. Instead of the more formal “walk up to the panel” set-up of Diesel, everyone mingled, chatting as if we were at a friendly party. I’d brought along a few copies of Amorous Woman even though at the last event I hadn’t sold any. Perhaps because I was prepared, perhaps it was something in the air—although no one ever knows why these things happen—but I was suddenly taken over by the same shameless spirit that possessed me at the West Hollywood Book Fair last September. Innocent readers would approach me to sign their book and as I scribbled my note “I hope you find many chances to say ‘yes,’” I asked them if they were interested in Japan because I had my novel with me which is like a trip to Asia for $8, etc, etc. Two nice, intelligent and very cool women actually bought the book (smooch, I love you!) and a few men, no doubt put off by my upfront passion, demurred but took a bookmark. Still, it made me happy to have done something for my baby!
Besides chatting with a good many people with nice things to say about my story, I got to talk with my fellow readers a bit as well. Susie Hara was as warm and funny as her story and I got to ask Greta about her AWESOME tattoo of the Jabberwocky, pictured here. I could spend an hour just staring at the intricacy of this thing—a true work of art requiring patience and endurance from both parties, I’m sure.

Susie Bright was off early this time as she was leaving on a trip at dawn the next day, so we didn’t get a chance to try out her favorite San Francisco watering hole, The Bourbon and the Branch. But my husband and I have it on our date calendar. The bartenders at this former speakeasy will mix custom drinks, and I for one plan to order a Labia Majora. That’s mango juice, a touch of cherry, a touch of orange, soda water, swirls of cream, Grand Marnier and a twist—and we’ll definitely toast Susie Hara and all the authors of X: The Erotic Treasury, a perfect box of chocolates to warm and satisfy on a chilly winter evening.

An Xciting and Exotic Evening with Susie Bright

This has been quite a blogging week for me, and it’s been fun revisiting my New York book tour, but Thursday night’s reading for X: The Erotic Treasury at Diesel Books in Oakland, CA brought me right back to a very exciting here and now. It was a wonderful evening and while any account can’t do it full justice, I’ll try my best!

My expectations were already high after reading the stories and interviews of Pam Ward and Greta Christina, my fellow contributors to X. And of course, I knew from experience, beginning way back when I heard Susie read Anne Tourney's “Full Metal Corset” from Best American Erotica 1994 at the now defunct Cody’s Bookstore on Telegraph, that Susie’s events were always provocative and enlightening (This story also appears in X). I also knew I’d have six friendly and familiar faces in the audience to cheer me on, including Jane Black—she made my week with her generous comment posted below.

I’d practiced my excerpt several times—the narrator was male and I felt I needed a little extra work to approach a tenor range. And fortunately I managed to fit into my “lucky dress” as EllaRegina dubbed it, although it was still a wee bit tight from December’s cookie madness.

Because some of my friends needed to leave early, I asked to read first and Susie graciously obliged. All of the chairs were taken by the time we got started—say about 40-45 people seated and more standing around in the back. After a very nice introduction from the Diesel events coordinator, who affirmed his support of erotica and free speech (Yay!), Susie came to the podium to talk about the genesis of X and her vision of the book. Then it was on to the topic of yours truly and our first project together, Best American Erotica 2006, which included my first story on a Japanese theme, “Ukiyo” (still one of my favorite pieces!)

And then, I was on with my story “Yes”! I’d say my reading went pretty smoothly, except for a wee bit of nervousness about shuffling my pages in proper order. I decided to dive into the action with only minimum scene setting—within a few sentences the narrator was ordering his girlfriend to strip for his old college buddy and otherwise forcing her to push her limits in exactly the way she secretly desired. Although on the surface the story of a man “on top,” I drop plenty of hints that the woman is really in control. My excerpt lasted about 12 minutes, all the way to the final “Yes!” which I emphasized by closing my eyes in a timid—or maybe you’d say lightly suggestive—mimicry of an orgasm. (Oh, and don't my breasts look misleadingly HUGE in this photo?)

The audience was warmly appreciative and I returned to my seat, relieved, relaxed and ready to have fun. The next reader was Pam Ward, who lit up the stage with her positive energy and humor. She read the opening section of her porn noir story, “A Clean, Comfortable Room,” then took us right into the lustiest scene and then…left the poor audience hanging just moments from the shocking climax. I shared Susie’s sentiment that even though I’d already read the story, I craved more, more, more.

Greta Christina then read from her thought-provoking story “Deprogramming,” after warning us that the story dealt with a topic foreign to her—the eroticization of non-consensual sex. Greta read the first section of her story and her rich, resonant voice gave the piece even more power than it has on the page. By this time, I think the audience was totally blown away.

A question-and-answer period followed, and these can be excruciating, but the Diesel crowd was thoughtful and lively. I found it interesting that a number of people asked Susie basically the same question in different form—in your view, how have attitudes toward sexuality changed over the years since you first began editing and writing erotica? Susie gave some interesting answers as you might expect. As a writer, the one that intrigued me was the patterns in the types of stories she receives as submissions. Around the advent of AIDS awareness, she got a lot of vampire and blood-letting stories. During times of war, male submissive stories were more common. And in our new era of hope? Susie shared a dream she’d had where she was Barack Obama’s “comfort woman,” refilling his water glass while he met with dozens of church ladies.

I haven’t had any Barack Obama dreams yet, although I did have a Clinton dream in early 1993, so maybe it’s only a matter of time?

My fellow writers had some interesting things to say as well. I was impressed with Pam’s confidence as an erotica writer—she totally refuses to buy into the mainstream’s attempts to belittle what we do, and I’m going to remember her spirit the next time I deal with another snooty bookbuyer (which should be next week, unless I decide to give this up for good, which might be a different way of showing my pornographer's pride….)! Greta took a few questions about abuse and recovery, a complex and still taboo subject. I know we all left the event with some things to think about. And a very nice lady came around with homemade truffles for the panel, which I believe should become a tradition at such events.

All in all, it was a great reading. But the best was yet to come.

For those of us who could stay—me and Greta—Susie had a wonderful treat in store: a quick get-away to Polynesia, or rather Forbidden Island, a gourmet Tiki bar in Alameda. Wisely traveling by cab, we talked shop in the backseat, while the courteous driver switched on some mellow jazz. Greta made my evening by telling me how much she’d enjoyed “Yes,” and the positive portrayal of a woman who said “yes” to sex. That was pretty much the whole point of the story and it was gratifying to have someone capture it so perfectly. We also talked about the whole culture of “sex sells” where the kind of sex that sells is superficial, dishonest and unsatisfying.

Susie also mentioned that she often gets questions asking her to summarize changes in our sexual culture over the decades as she had that night, and while she has her own answers, she really wants to ask the questioner to weigh in as well because we all have our own view and our own truth. In my own less experienced way, I totally related to this—we are all encouraged to look outward to get validation about sex. To our partners, to the stupid magazine articles that supposedly give answers but really just try to sell us things, to experts. But to really be empowered, we have to make our own observations, draw our own conclusions, look within to figure out what sex means to us and how we’ve changed. I think erotica can be more than a way to get off—it can help you learn about your sexual desires. I didn’t say this then, I just got to thinking about it later, but I’m sure the cab driver’s mind was inspired to interesting conjectures as well after he dropped us off at our watering hole.

What can I say about Forbidden Island? First of all, I’m a Tiki girl from way back. My roommates and I had a Tiki god statue in our room junior year of college and we took a series of photos—me teaching “Zamboozo” from the Norton Anthology of English Literature, my chemical engineer roommate tutoring him in organic chemistry, and my peer sex counselor friend teaching him about condoms and foam. I also have several books on my shelf like Tiki Road Trip, plus The Enchanted Tiki Room is a must-visit attraction every time I go to Disneyland. Secondly, it struck me that in a figurative sense, Susie Bright has been whisking me away to Forbidden Islands since the mid-nineties with Best American Erotica. Suffice to say, I almost had to pinch myself to make sure this was real!

Susie had first heard about Forbidden Island from a book, Sippin' Safari: In Search of the Great "Lost" Tropical Drink Recipes... and the People Behind Them by Jeff “Beachbum” Berry (sorry, I just bought the last immediately available copy on Amazon). The décor was appropriately Tiki, although not overwhelmingly tacky—booths with thatched roofs, romantic lighting, carved wooden statues. But the real draw of the place was the cocktails, concocted with fresh juices and house-made cordials. The drink menu was as overwhelming as a tropical garden—too many delicious choices—but Susie pointed us to the Nui Nui made with the bar’s own allspice liqueur and cinnamon syrup, fresh citrus juice and of course rum. It was absolutely exquisite, the perfect balance of spice, sweet and tart—like Thanksgiving in Tahiti. Of course, Tiki drinks need the proper snacks as accompaniment, and we feasted on coconut shrimp (the perfect blend of sweet coconut, tender shrimp and crunchy coating), sweet potato fries (perfect for the Thanksgiving flavor theme and not greasy), and crab Rangoon (fried wonton with a fluffy crab-cream cheese filling). The food came in simple paper trays, the drinks in tall chilled glasses with fresh mint sprigs, which shows where the owner’s passions lie. As a chaser, Susie ordered a house specialty, the Sidewinder Fang with passionfruit juice and rum. A “hearty goblet” was promised and indeed the glass took up most of the table—rather like a slightly smaller version of a honeymooner’s champagne bathtub in the Poconos.

But what better way to lubricate our literary discussions? Susie told us about Chronicle Books' very positive attitude toward promoting X in creative ways and her upcoming book trailer, which sounds like lots of fun (I’ll let you know as soon as it is released). Although both Susie and Greta are long time veterans of publishing, they were very supportive about my newbie trials in the business. Both had gotten their start at On Our Backs and I loved hearing about the early days of the Erotica Revolution. Hanging out with them just proved what I’ve been discovering in this year of making connections: erotica writers are very witty, warm and generous people. I’m not sure which comes first—you have to be open-minded and creative to take the dare of writing erotica or exploring that edgy territory opens you up? Maybe both, suffice to say, there’s nobody I’d rather quaff tropical drinks with!

I could have lingered on and drunk myself into a South Sea Islands stupor but we all had places to be by midnight, so we cabbed back to Diesel Books and said our goodbyes. Parting is always bittersweet, like a bracing taste of grog, but I knew I’d be joining Susie, Greta, Susie Hara and Rachel Kramer Bussel next week at Books, Inc. in the Castro.

It’s bound to be another Xciting evening!

An X-Rated Evening with Greta Christina (and company)

Tonight’s the night of my first reading for X: The Erotic Treasury at Diesel Books in the trendy Rockridge neighborhood of Oakland. I’ve practiced my piece and tried my best to polish my tenor to do justice to the creative and very romantic dom in my story, “Yes.” And I’m so looking forward to meeting my fellow writers Greta Christina, Pam Ward, and of course, Susie Bright.

X: The Erotic Treasury continues to impress me with each new story. I don’t know when I’ve read such a consistently strong and powerful collection of erotica. No story is more powerful and thought-provoking for me than Greta Christina’s “Deprogramming.” My first taste of Greta Christina’s smart, humorous writing was “Are We Having Sex Now or What?” in Best American Erotica 2008. I think this is required reading for everyone 18 and over, and I’m planning on being a cool enough mom that my sons will be getting a copy with their gifts as I’m putting those eighteen candles on their homemade almond cake.

In her essay, Christina asks the questions about what “sex” means that most of us are too shy or otherwise repressed to express publicly. Even when such questions do surface in public, as they did with the Monica Lewinsky scandal, our society still doesn’t seem able to discuss it in an intelligent, nuanced way. I, too, started out in my early years keeping a tally of lovers as if this was somehow significant. Eventually, I, too, began to wonder why a really bad lay should qualify, while a much more satisfying make-out session did not. Over the years the territory I label “sex” also expanded, although different types of eroticism call for different moral parameters. The essay gives no easy answers, but it does get you thinking about these issues, which is my definition of a piece worth reading. For example, is an erotica writer’s connection with an anonymous reader “sex”? What do you think?

As you might expect, “Deprogramming” engages the intellect as well as the libido. Simultaneously disturbing and arousing, this story dares to explore the most complex workings of our imagination. The story is told from the point of view of a former cult member who is attempting to move on with her life by replaying a public punishment scene from her past. This is much more than your typical spanking story—it’s a head-on wrestling match with issues of the abuse of power, whether by a real parent or a surrogate one, and the fascinating way humiliation is often transformed into fuel for sexual fantasy. But don’t take my word for it, Greta Christina says it best in her interview below. I’ll be sharing the podium with her at two X readings over the next two weeks—and it’s a true honor!

And now, Greta Christina on “Deprogramming”

Susie Bright: Has any of your writing been produced in popular films or videos?

Greta Christina: Well, I wrote the narration for a video how-to guide on electrical sex toys, titled "Our Friend the Volt."


You were raised as an atheist, but when do you remember being fascinated with the "cult" experience?

I wouldn’t describe myself as fascinated by cults, although I do find religion in general to be a compelling subject.

But it sounds like what you want to know is what inspired me to write this piece. It's not a very nice story, but it is a true one, so I'll tell it.

I was watching a documentary about Jim Jones (of Jonestown fame) and his
People's Temple. At the point in the story where things were starting to go wrong in the church, it said that members of the church who disobeyed the rules were punished by being spanked.

It's a terrible story. They described the incidents, and what they called "spanked," I would call "badly beaten." But there's a deeply ingrained part of my mind and my libido that almost inevitably gets turned on when I hear the word "spank," and that starts to conjure erotic images and stories. So I found myself having sexual fantasies about this scenario... while at the same time being horrified by it, and feeling ashamed for being turned on by it.

That's where "Deprogramming" came from. I was trying to capture that feeling of being simultaneously horrified and turned on. I decided to have the survivors of the abuse in my story re-enact it in an erotic way: for the characters, this was a way for them to reclaim the experience and move past it... and for me, it was a way to give myself, and my readers, permission to be turned on by it.

My story isn't specifically about the People's Temple. It's about a fictional religious cult that I made up. But it's definitely influenced by real cults that I've read about...

Does your family know about your erotic writing? Have they read it?

I've asked my family not to, actually. My porn is like a window into my libido, and
it crosses a boundary for me to have my family looking through that window. I don't want my family to know what I think about when I jerk off. Call me old-fashioned.

Have you written any Manifestos?

Definitely. Many times. In my blog. Probably the best known and widest read is "Atheists and Anger"— an attempt to answer, in detail, the question, "Why are you atheists so angry?"


Has your work ever been "made an example of"?

Oh, yes.

The best example: I wrote a piece a few years back for The Skeptical Inquirer, called "Comforting Thoughts About Death That Have Nothing to Do With God."

The piece talks about how, although it might seem that an atheist philosophy has no comfort to offer in the face of death, in fact this is not the case. And it offers, as examples, some of my own atheist thoughts about death that I find comforting and hopeful. I started ego-Googling my name and the title of the piece... and found that several Christian ministers were quoting from the piece out of context, as an example of how even atheists admit that life without the promise of life after death is bleak and hopeless.

No, really. Here's how they did it.

They would quote the part at the beginning, where I talk about how atheism seems to offer no comfort in the face of death. And they would completely ignore the entire point of the piece... which is that, while that might seem on the surface to be the case, it most emphatically is not.

FYI, when I find that happening, I write to these ministers; point out that they're quoting me as saying the exact opposite of what I'm actually saying; and remind them about the commandment against bearing false witness against your neighbor.

Edgy, SeXy Pleasures

Just four days to go until my first reading for X: The Erotic Treasury at Diesel Books in Oakland. I continue to be enchanted and amazed at the quality of writing in this book. As Susie Bright writes in her brief, but spot-on introduction, X truly offers an “embarrassment of riches.”
One of the other authors reading with me this Thursday will be Pam Ward, whose story, “A Clean, Comfortable Room,” was absolutely riveting in its cinematic evocation of scene and detail. As you might expect, the room at the heart of the story is neither clean nor comfortable, but I was reminded how sensuality need not be all about the pretty and sweet. In fact, our senses are heightened in a different, but no less arousing, way by what keeps us on edge. In her interview below, Pam says she loves Hitchcock, which sounded right to me because her story gives us Hitchcock without censorship. And yep, it's good!

I’m looking forward to hearing this one read “in the flesh”!

And now, Pam Ward on "A Clean, Comfortable Room"

Susie Bright: What's your publishing history, book-wise?

Pam Ward: I wrote my first short story when this chick by the coffee machine at a place called The Women's Building in L.A.— she told me I should try and write.

I was gabbing my head off about one of my exploits while really trying to coax her to share her cream.

After that, I sat in Michelle Clinton's and Bob Flanagan's class at Beyond Baroque and found a flyer for this new 'zine called Caffeine which was looking for poets. Next thing I know I'm a published poet.

I wrote my first novel, WANT SOME GET SOME, during the L.A. riots. None of my design clients would come to my neighborhood so I had lots of free time. I could really see the haves and have-nots. Living near a cemetery aided in me writing book two, BAD GIRLS BURN SLOW which is my favorite. It’s about hidden identity. I’m a light skin black chick so I see and hear more than I should. If I was a guy I’d be a cross dresser.

Tell me how you would cast the film version of your story...

Okay, first off we have got to cast the fat-belly, banjo playing, road hick as Dennis Quaid. But homeboy has to agree to eat cinnamon rolls all day and mountains of baked beans with pork until he gets Raging Bull, huge.

The on-the-run-chick should be Halle Berry if she'll roadkill some of her beauty. She played a great crack head so she could pull it off if she summons up some of that Monster Ball.

What are you own inspirations for murder-loving authors who scare the daylights out of you?

I loved Henry Farrell, the dude who wrote "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte". I was blown away by those stories. He was so camp, so LA— and most of his stuff was done in Hancock Park which has a wonderful decaying history.

I love Hitchcock too. He was a true minimalist and got it right on. I'm a girl for a good psychological drama. I love ruthless woman or aging broads with knives who will stop to look in the mirror first before the kill.

It’s not that my female characters are unrepentant, they're usually leveling the playing field. They recognize the card they've been dealt and play it as it lays. My chicks win over abject cruelty or violence and only pull the trigger in self defense.

Did you attend college? If so, which one? What was your major?

I went to UCLA and graduated as a Political Science major. I loved reading court cases. Since I have both cops and robbers in my family I was very attracted to crime and hellbent on being an attorney. But I was an art major too and ended up getting a job as a graphic designer instead. I think I made the right choice. A friend of mine who did go the law school thing is rotting in a jail cell now because of a horrible scam that backfired. That could have easily been me.

How would you describe yourself in a phrase, school-wise?

I'm a nerd with a con artist heart. In elementary school I palmed candy from a liquor store and then sold it for profit.

I loved school so much I would do other people's homework, and ran a small homework business for money. I wrote term papers while I was a senior in high school for my college-educated boyfriends. I liked research and writing.

If you can write, school is a breeze. I did get stumped in a logic class that kicked my ass.

Are you now, or have you been a sex worker?

Of course! But not in the way most people think. My first job was at a firm in North Hollywood where I worked as a paste-up artist. My poor boss came in and announced sadly that he had to take porn clients in order to survive.

I was elated because he moved me up to designer. It was very exciting and I designed many logos and brochures. John Holmes was naked on my desk every damn day. Well, his picture was.

What comes to mind when you consider your ancestors, who they were...

My grandparents are from lynch-mob Mississippi. Maybe that's why they came here as kids. That's why I say third-generation, because my grandfather came to LA at four years old. My dad was an architect from Pasadena and my mom was from Watts. It was a great combination.

Do your children and/or parents know about your erotic writing?

My mom found my porn stash in the seventh grade. Instead of getting mad she kept it in a night stand by her bed. Need I say more...

Countdown to X: Celebrating Female Arousal

The X readings are getting closer. In a week and a day, I’ll be standing at the podium in Diesel Books in Oakland, reading from my steamy story, “Yes.” I think I’m going to go with the “two-and-a-half” scene with Sean. This really captures the essence of the story for me, plus it’s a special challenge to see if I can read it without blushing!

In a little over two weeks, I’ll be at Books, Inc. in the Castro. Among the readers joining me will be Rachel Kramer Bussel, who’s bukkake story I discussed below (how many of you already knew the proper pronunciation for bukkake?). I’ll also have the pleasure of reading with Susie Hara, whose story “Puffy Lips” is a luscious concoction of humor, erotic tension, and you-bet-it-passes-the-wet-test poetry. The story draws you right into horny land with the image of the aroused labia, lovingly, achingly described in all its plumped-up glory. It’s truly a luscious celebration of female arousal. Pause to laugh at the idea of a cocktail named “Labia majora” (see below), but then it’s on to a sultry hook-up in an alley—with a satisfying feminist twist. I hope I’m not giving too much away to say the lady has all the good lines.

I can’t wait to hear this one “in the flesh.” Here’s Susie Hara in her own words on performing in public, exotic cocktails and erotica versus reality.

By the way, any ideas for your own exotic cocktail to add to the menu? Labia minora? Aureola? Penis erectus? I might have to dream up a sake cocktail for our forthcoming blog dinner….

“Puffy Lips”

Susie Bright: Do you have a scandalous or noteworthy theater life? Plays, performance art?

Susie Hara: I performed as a solo theatre artist in San Francisco in the 80s and 90s. The closest I got to a striptease is when I was an actor in Teatro de la Esperanza's Real Women Have Curves, and we had to strip down to our underwear because the women characters in the play were working in a sweat shop in L.A. in the summer.

We wore boring underwear as a costume, though, white panties up to the waist and plain white bras. One night on tour I forgot to wear the costume underwear and when I stripped down I saw I was wearing lavender bikini panties. This did not cause a riot, however.

SB: Okay, if there was a killer cocktail called a Labia Majora... what would be the ingredients?

Mango juice, vodka, a touch of cherry syrup, some soda water, a delicate swirl of cream, and a dash of Grand Marnier. A tangerine twist.

SB: When you think of your recent writing, for "X," and then consider your recent sex life in reality, what comes to mind?

Writing erotica is great license.

DGS: Ain't it the truth?

It’s MY (Bukkake) Party…

My seXy series of interviews of X: The Erotic Treasury authors continues with a peek at the final and explosively climactic story in the anthology, Rachel Kramer Bussel’s “A First Time For Everything.” I was especially interested to note that Rachel’s provocative story deals with a sexual scenario that got its name from a place very dear to my heart--good old Japan.

Wikipedia defines bukkake (pronounced boo-kah-kay) as “a person being ejaculated on by multiple men,” and while the act is presumably as old as ejaculation itself, this particular nomiker originated in a Japanese porn film, Mascot Notes, made in 1986. As is often true in Japan, strict laws about the depiction of naked genitals—but not semen--forced the movie makers to come up with a new way to give us the money shot, arcs of disembodied spunk splattering (bukkakeru) all over a woman’s face and body. Bukkake joins manga and sushi as a popular Japanese import in this country as well. There are bukkake movies, bukkake clubs and informal bukkake parties, that is, if the internet can be trusted….

Now this might seem like the ultimate act of degradation for the recipient, whether male or female, but in sex--as in all human endeavors and I’m thinking particularly of S&M--the politics are more complicated. As Rachel’s story very clearly reveals, a woman who throws her own bukkake party for her own reasons is very much in control. In fact, as the story unfolded, sizzling with tension all the way, I was reminded of a sacred temple priestess receiving homage from a crew of well-muscled acolytes.

As is always true with an RKB story, there is as much to stoke your intellect as your libido. It’s a very arousing story in the carnal sense, of course, but I wanted to quote a part that excited me with its perfect description of an erotica writer’s mind:

“Sex has always been the starting point, never the end, to any inquiry about who I am. It’s the gateway drug to, well, more sex, to finding out more about how I operate, what buttons I like having pushed and which I set permanently to caution. This utterly carnal lifestyle is balanced by the hours-days-weeks-years’ worth of fantasies that must jumble together until I’m compelled to act. I’m not just an ethical slut, I’m a thoughtful one. The time I spend thinking about sex, pondering its every nuance and possibility, far exceeds the time I spend engaging in it, and I’m perfectly happy with that uneven ratio.”

Sound familiar?

“A First Time for Everything” is the perfect way to end a very strong anthology, and so I’ll end this post with words from the author herself:

Susie Bright: How did you get the idea for a female-driven bukkake party?

Rachel Kramer Bussel: I like to make my characters (and myself, to some extent) unnerved, thrown off course. In this story, the protagonist thinks she’s so blasé and over everything about sex, but she still has this one big fantasy, and to some extent, is nervous about it. I like the idea that she’s orchestrating it all, but there are still some elements she can’t orchestrate.

There are lots of things that I fantasize about that I doubt I’d ever do, or maybe only if the stars were aligned just so. I like fiction because I can make those stars align.

SB: Did you attend college? If so, which one? What was your major?

I graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, and studied political science and women’s studies. That was back when I was super anti-porn and pretty clueless about a lot of sexual matters in general.

SB: Has your work ever been "made an example of" by various people with an agenda?

I once wrote a column for The Village Voice called “I’m Pro-Choice and I Fuck,” and it was interesting to see the reactions it got from pro-life people. I knew it was a deliberately provocative title, but it was meant to point out the links between sexual and reproductive freedom, because they’re intimately intertwined. Sometimes people have written about my stories or books (or book covers) in ways that I don’t agree with, but that’s okay. One of the hugest writing lessons I’ve had to learn is that once I stop typing, I don’t control how my words get interpreted or used. They become other people’s to do with what they will. It was tough for me not to have the urge to fight (or rather, blog) back, but I realize I have to move on to the next piece of writing rather than wallow in something that’s already done.

SB: Any interesting felonies or misdemeanors you'd like to mention?

The closest I’ve come to that is during my animal rights days as a teenager when I did civil disobedience at a pigeon shoot in Hegins, Pennsylvania. It was a very heady experience, a very us against them environment. I was arrested but wasn’t held for very long, though they wound up releasing me to my friends, who drove me home to New Jersey. My parents, who had been divorced since I was 2, drove together to come get me, and I always say that was when I knew they really, truly loved me, to endure being together in such close quarters for that long!

SB: Do you have any noteworthy hobbies, regimes, pursuits, or collections?

My cupcake blog (http://cupcakestakethecake.blogspot.com) is my little pride and joy. It’s funny because while some people know me for my sex writing, in that world I’m “Rachel from Cupcakes Take the Cake” and it’s very cool. I’ve gotten to meet cupcake people from all over the world and have eaten cupcakes in London, LA, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Atlanta, and Washington, DC in this year alone!

SeX and the Sea

Today I feature an interview with another seXy author, Susan DiPlacido, who is a wonderful writer and amazingly generous, humorous and super-cool person. Her offering in X: The Erotic Treasury, “Beyond the Sea,” is a great example of erotica that transcends the genre—or what the general public seems to think the genre is! I first read this story in Susan’s short story collection, American Cool, which I hope to talk about a lot more with her in an interview here at Sex, Food and Writing in the new year. It’s one of the best “erotica” collections (because of course, it’s more) that I’ve ever read and plenty of critics and prize committees agree with me. I'm not a cruise kind of girl--I prefer vacations where I can walk a lot and not in circles--but my little ship trip with the tarnished silver-surfer Ray and the lovely, but sticky-fingered Isabella was pleasure all the way. Let me just say now, if you never thought a blow job could be a life-changing event (I’m talking to the women, most guys don’t need convincing), “Beyond the Sea” will change your view of the matter forever!



SB: Tell me how you would cast the film version of your story...

SD: Oh, so easy. Bobby Cannavale for the male lead. He's just so charming and good-looking but also really quite fun and funny. And Penelope Cruz for the female, because she's amazing and I don't think Hollywood has yet found a way to bring her to show her off the way that films from other countries do.

SB: What do you really know about larceny and pickpocketing?

The only experience I have with pickpocketing is from this one time when I was in San Francisco. I was riding the bus, cause I was broke and poor. And I saw this pickpocket coming for me. He wasn't smooth at at all, but I didn't even bother to stop him, because, like I said, I didn't have any cash. He got a handful of used tissues. He was clearly annoyed and called me a dirty hippy.

SB: Has your work ever been banned in a nation, or seized at Customs?
My work hasn't, but I have! I'm still not allowed to return to the Bahamas. That was such a fun trip!

Any interesting felonies or misdemeanors you'd like to mention?

Omerta.

When not writing, what are you likely to be doing?

Swimming, gambling, cooking, or watching a movie. And any of those things are often accompanied by cocktails.

When you think of your recent writing, for "X," and then consider your recent sex life in reality, what comes to mind?

That I really should reconsider and take a cruise!

It Gets Even Hotter at Dr. Dick's!

Forget Christmas, this is really what I’ve been waiting for: Part 2 of Dr. Dick’s interview with me is now available for your listening pleasure, and I mean pleasure! Maybe it’s because it always takes me just a little time to warm up properly. Or maybe it’s the lovely Malbec the doctor kept pouring into my glass while I sank deeper into that comfy beanbag chair. But the second half is probably my most intimate interview ever. I get naughty, I get bitchy, I even change genders for a brief time--and hey, it’s really interesting to be on the other side of the sex war! So, if you want to hear the real Donna George Storey (and her dirty-minded male alter-ego) let it all hang out, pop on over to Dr. Dick's right now! I guarantee you'll be moved ;-).