Just One Kiss

From the Art Nouveau tarot deck

Kisses are sexy, aren't they?  Yet long, powerful kisses are often lacking in the porn world.  Sigh.  Thankfully, in erotica--art and stories included--there are many delightful smooches.  Lilian Ann Slugocki's "Marilyn Monroe" from the Erotica Project is a prime example.  here's an excerpt:

"That’s what I want: a crushing, crushing kiss.  Milk the sadness from my bones, baby.  On a bed of dandelions, baby.  On a bed of milkweed and gooseberries in the dry dirt of summer."

*fans self*.  Did it get steamy in here, people?

I also really like to see a good, smoldering kiss on a tarot card, especially when it's the Lovers card.  I was particularly taken by the one on the left.

Incidentally, I often say to students in my erotic writing classes that a story that just contains one steamy kiss, and not much else, can absolutely be classed as erotica--as long as that kiss is hot.  Part of this is because of the promise the kiss brings with it: the longing, the heat of bodies, the clear message that both parties are turned on by one another.  And red hot desire is often as sexy as sex itself.

Anyway, if you enjoy writing and are looking to craft some sexy erotica, check out my upcoming Saturday course at Grub Street.  It's going to be such a fun time.  Perhaps I'll see you there.

Fifty Shades: A Pro-Abuse Novel?

Fifty Shades of Grey is still in the news.  In fact, I was impressed to see that E. L. James's BDSM trilogy has already sold more copies than J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter!  Of course, Fifty Shades shows one story of sex between two characters...and we must be careful not to treat stories as if they're models for reality.  As with all good novels, Fifty Shades involves a descent into a dark place in order for the resolution of the story to emerge.  This doesn't make it an immoral book.  In fact, when writers like Alison Flood argue that Fifty Shades is pro-abuse, I wonder why they aren't arguing that Nabakov's Lolita is pro-child molestation, Chaucer's Miller's Tale is pro-objectification, and Shakespeare's Othello is a violent, racist, misogynistic read.

But then, Fifty Shades isn't "high culture" which means the "erudite" critics love to say it's immoral and desperately avoid parallels in Shakespeare.

The problem is that when sex is at the heart of a novel, it stops being a story and starts being dangerous.  But fiction is always dangerous!  If we take fiction and model ourselves on it, we're always in for problems.  The essence of a story is conflict.  And conflict is rarely 100% good.

Anyhoo, I'm thrilled to see that more and more people are talking about sex and trying new things in the boudoir, thanks to Fifty Shades.  And do check out Angela's fantastic article on the new Fifty Shades lifestyle magazine (no, really!) at the Go Deeper blog.

Modern-Day Mermaid No. 2: Breasts

Please love your breasts, folks.  Here's a great way to start...

With thanks to Louise Hay, Susan Jeffers, Susie Bright, Dave Eggers.  To view Modern-Day Mermaid No. 1, you can look here.

Oh and by the way, the story I quoted from Dave Eggers' How We Are Hungry is "The Only Meaning of the Oil-Wet Water."

The Femme Fatale (And Some Hot Submission Guidelines)

Our forthcoming erotic anthology

Femme fatales are hot.  Find out why...and how to submit to our new erotic anthology...at the Go Deeper blog.

Happy weekend, everyone!

Girls Watch Porn Too

Of course we girls watch porn!  Many of us, despite social folklore.  (I only wish 70% of porn wasn't so terrible!).  Please enjoy this delightful video, courtesy of my good friend S:

Daniela Uhlig Gets Erotic with Tentacles

Beautiful art, isn't it?  This is Daniela Uhlig.  And at the Go Deeper blog today, I babble on (in an erotically charged way, I promise) about why I find her work so tantalizing.

*swoon*

Todd Atkins: The Man Who Believes in Legitimate Rape

Yup, he exists.  Here's what he has to say (taken from Amy Davidson's post at the New Yorker):

Well you know, people always want to try to make that as one of those things, well how do you, how do you slice this particularly tough sort of ethical question.  First of all, from what I understand from doctors, that's really rare.  If it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down.  

But let's assume that maybe that didn't work or something.  I think there should be some punishment, but the punishment ought to be on the rapist and not attacking the child.

That's Todd Atkins and his very fucked up fantasy about rape.  You know.  The fantasy that rape can be legitimate or illegitimate.  (I could write volumes about this terrifying notion).  The fantasy that women's bodies "shut down" when they're being raped, so that they don't become pregnant if rape is "legitimate"..and thus the fucked up extension, which is, presumably, that you can work out whether a rape really occurred by seeing whether the victim gets pregnant.  An attempt at sexist control that makes Rosemary's Baby look frothy.

Of course, this is all about control.  It's such a giveaway that the final line of the above speech ends with the rapist and the child receiving mention, while the woman who was raped is kept invisible.  ("Lack of empathy" is too soft a phrase).  Atkins acknowledges that a rapist can be punished, and he constructs abortion as an attack on an infant.  But he fails to give women any power here at all.  He objectifies women's bodies as being able to "shut down" and then suggests that if the woman becomes pregnant because of the rape, that her "system" is faulty.

Well, there's bags more to say here, of course, and there are (thank god) repercussions for Atkins.  It's like a devastating dystopia that this man is a Republican nominee for the Missouri Senate.

Let's hope this dystopia ends.

Thanks to my Angela for the link.

Going Deeper with Patrick Califia

Over at the Go Deeper blog, Angela explains why Patrick Califia's book, Macho Sluts, was and still is so important for her.  It's a beautiful, powerful post.

Also, Go Deeper Press now has a real homepage over at GoDeeperPress.com where you can sign up for our newsletter if you'd like offers and news from Go Deeper...and of course, we'd love to hear any of your thoughts about our logo, our look (which is still under construction!) and our promotions.  Is there an erotic writer you love and/or know who is writing hot, compelling, cutting-edge work?  Feel free to email us and let us know.

Happy Saturday, folks.

Now That's What We Call Art

Eros Blog gives us a video of a woman getting an anal tattoo.  She ain't half proud, folks.  And she seems to be totally loving it.

Also, we love the Art of Faceless, so we've blogged about his fetish art at the Go Deeper Press blog. 

Happy Thursday, everyone.

Fifty Shades of Erotic Writing

Good morning, everyone!  I want to let you know about an erotic writing course I'll be teaching at Grub Street, Boston, this September.  I'm majorly excited about it and I hope to see you there.  Here's the description:

Fifty Shades of Erotic Writing

Saturday, September 15th, 10:30am-5:30pm at Grub Street headquarters.

Thanks to the roaring success of E.L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey, erotica is now planted firmly in the mainstream. So no wonder many readers are looking for the next hot story! Join erotic author Lana Fox, co-founder and senior editor of Go Deeper Press, for a day of sex writing in a safe, fun and open environment. In class, you will either write short sex scenes or flash fictions...or indeed a mix of both. Literary and popular styles will be equally respected and Lana warmly welcomes all sexual/gender identities. Students should be willing to treat sex as important, powerful, and creative. And of course, to have fun!

You can sign up or find out more info here.

More from me soon, folks...

Proudly Pansexual

Bravo to Mary Gonzales, pictured left, who is apparently "America's first ever pansexual elected representative."  But perhaps she is actually the first ever openly or known-about pansexual elected representative.  That's an important distinction, I think.  You can read more in this post by Matthew Jenkin at Gay Star News.  And for a definition of pansexual, look here.

Sexy Women's Soccer Players and Bras for Three-Year-Olds

German Women's Soccer Team in Playboy

It always saddens me when I hear about young girls -- as young as three years old -- being told they should start wearing a bra.  But over at Stylist, blogger Erica Cheung reminds us that attitude is everything.  Cheung writes:

According to the news, teens across America are using shape wear for the same reasons their moms do: to hide those so-called imperfections.  Apart from the fact that this new trend is physically damaging to kids and can cause all kinds of problems from bladder infections to nerve damage, what is just as frightening is summed up in this comment from a teen:  "You get the training bra and then you get the Spanx."

Do take a look at the piece.

Now, this reminds me...  Not so long ago, I was standing in the supermarket line unable to stop staring at the gossip mags, when what did I see?  A photo of someone famous -- I forget who.  To be specific: a photo of their breasts.  The story?  A rant about how "awful" this person's breasts look since she'd given birth.  It was a totally ridiculous and nonsensical point that basically attacked all of us who are not Pamela Anderson, god love her.  And what scares me is when young girls are handed a load of fears about what society will think of our own, natural breasts.

Anyhoo, Cheung's piece is a lovely one.

I also want to link to Angela's Faster Ones blog where she mentions that the German Women's Soccer team recently appeared, scantily clad, in a Playboy shoot.  The team say they want to dispel the notion that all women's soccer players are butch (did we ever think this, even for a moment, dear reader?)...and it's certainly great that many women seem keener than ever to take off their clothes for the camera, not least to assert their identities.

Have a sexy day, everyone.

Modern Day Mermaid: No. 1

Folks, I'm starting a vlog in which I get excitable about sexuality, gender, mermaids, and, most importantly, being ourselves...

The Problem with Gay-for-Pay

The amount of "gay for pay" performers in queer porn is problematic, says Devon Hunter, a professional porn performer who recently started his own ethical porn production company, Anteros Media. (By the way, these guys do audio and written porn stories as well as vids.  Fantastic!).

Do read Hunter's interview with Tracy Clark-Flory at Salon.  A taster:

Clark-Flory: I knew gay-for-pay was a big phenomenon, but can you talk a bit more about how pervasive straight guys in gay porn is? I didn’t have an awareness that it was so pervasive.

Hunter: It’s extraordinarily pervasive. And it’s not just porn, it’s throughout gay adult entertainment in general. I was a club dancer for 12 years and there would be many nights where I’d be the only gay dancer. During Gay Pride in 2008 there were 75 dancers and only three of us were gay — for gay pride at a gay bar. When you look at porn, I would say it’s somewhere between half and three-quarters of the models are not gay.

Thanks to C for the tip.

A "Strange" Sex Life

An aide to the Mayor of London has been in court because of porn found on his laptop.  "Barrister Simon Walsh is charged with five counts of possessing extreme porn images and one of possessing an indecent picture of an underage boy," says Matthew Jenkin of Gay Star News.  Walsh claims that his "strange sex life" harms no one, and because I haven't seen the evidence, I'm withholding judgment entirely.

But I like the way he owns "strange."  Our question is, did his "strange" cause harm.  I'll follow this case with interest.

Tweet Your Tie Off

Over at the Go Deeper blog today, I take a look at some of Joe Schuster's erotic art...and why it's so darn sexy.  Also, we at Go Deeper Press are having an August Erotic Tweet Contest.  Enter for a chance to win some Good Vibrations goodies.

I also want to mention that my partner, Angela Tavares, blogs about soccer, for those sports fans among us.  Take a look.  I love her blog.

And by the by, courtesy of TinyNibbles, here is how to tie a perfect Windsor Knot.  (And if you find ties on the ladies as sexy as I do, you'll surely admit that the model-come-tutor is quite delectable!).

Queer Kisses Ain't Chicken

Pic from Huff Post: Kim Harrell and Paula Tyer

The last time I smooched my partner in a public place was, I believe, on the subway.  Think: two women kissing opposite a row a gawking men.  A little strange having an audience, sometimes.  But bravo to the folks who have been holding "kiss-ins" at Chick-Fil-A restaurants to protest against the company president's objections to same-sex marriage.  Now that's what I call the power of pride.

Steve Almond and Queer Youth

Pic from the Advocate

Good afternoon, everyone!  Are you having a fabulously sex-positive day?

Well, at the Go Deeper blog, we have an erotic quote from the wonderful Steve Almond.  And politically, support for anti-bullying legislation that would protect LGBTQ youth is on the rise.

Spin Your Head with Women in Bowler Hats

This morning, two things:

Firstly, how can I post a quote from Tipping the Velvet on the Go Deeper blog and not show you a clip or two from the BBC version, which stars (*swoon*) Rachel Stirling and Keeley Hawes, among other greats?  So here, all mixed up by Debelah Morgan, is a string of chopped up clips from the adaptation. I like the vid.  It's fun and head-spinny, and does justice to Sarah Waters' brilliant vision in the novel.


Secondly (I mean, how can you even think straight after that, people?), for UK women readers, Harper Collins are offering fifty British pounds to owners of an e-book reader who are willing to take part in a study.  Contact Suzanne Noble asap if you're interested.

Be well, my lovely readers.