Archive for April, 2009
The Response I Got from Amazon
This is the email response I received from Amazon after I emailed them yesterday:
Hello,
Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.
This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.
It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles – in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon’s main product search.
Many books have now been fixed and we’re in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.
Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.
Sincerely,
Customer Service Department
Amazon.com
I don’t know any more than that at this time, but I wanted to post this response (verbatim and in its completion).
Love,
Emerald
Thank you, Surprise Final Guests, and the Winner!
I want to thank everyone that came by for the Blow Hard Tour 2009. I so enjoyed hosting my day as such and appreciate everyone who came by and read and/or commented. Though the original schedule indicated April 11 as the final day of the tour, Sommer has arranged for two surprise guests, the first of whom may be found on Sommer’s blog and the second of which is hosting on her own blog today.
Love,
Emerald
-Sugarland “Happy Ending”
Not Cool, Amazon
So it seems Amazon.com is changing or has changed their search and listing features for “adult” books — though only some. I first heard (read) about the issue on Jeremy Edwards‘s blog, and I followed the links to verify it and then did some searching and found that indeed some of my favorite books were not as easily found as they had previously been on Amazon.
Thus began my boycott of Amazon, which I emailed them to alert them to. (I did so by going to their help page from my account and clicking on the yellow “Contact Us” button to the lower right. Note: I had to put in my most recent order number to do this.) I do feel that they may make the rules they want. They are a business, and this culture operates within an obsession with a structure of capitalism. That has tended to mean that businesses may do what they want for the most part within their own rule structures and systems, ostensibly as long as they adhere to the law.
That said, it seems to me it can feel very frustrating to see a company that knows that it has a huge influence on society at large doing something that thus obviously impacts the masses as such that has a questionable basis. It occurs to me that a company obviously having this kind of huge impact, which seems beyond the general “business” reach, yet still being able to operate as they wish because of the “business” label may be what leads some to refer to this kind of thing as censorship, which seems along the lines of what Jeremy Edwards mentioned on his blog along with his explanation as such. I can understand that. Though it doesn’t strike me as technically censorship and I do not consider it such, it does seem like it would fall into some category other than just “a business making new rules” and could use a distinctive description as such.
Descriptions aside, it seems to me that given the circumstances above, the only/best thing I can do in response is simply not patronize that business. I am perfectly happy to buy books, etc., elsewhere if Amazon is going to present itself this way.
I have changed the links in the right sidebar here to link to the respective purchase pages on Barnes & Noble‘s website. They may all be purchased from their respective publishers as well (all but one of the print books are from Cleis Press) as well as online at Books-A-Million (for even cheaper it looks like) and other online booksellers, of course. And if you live somewhere with the selection/availability, you may be able to find such books at your local real live bookstores. :)
I myself have not signed the online petition circulating on the subject at this time because it read to me as though this was a LGBT literature verses heterosexual literature issue, and I have the impression at this point that that is not the case — that it is a sexually oriented literature issue and that much contemporary erotic or sexually explicit reading material in general has been removed from similar listing and ranking features. (Not that the LGBT issue isn’t a big part of it — Donna George Storey posted a cringe-worthy screen shot on her blog of what comes up now if one searches the topic of “homosexuality” on Amazon.com.) There has also been a google bomb set up by Smart Bitches Trashy Books in which a google search of the term “Amazon Rank” lists the site of that link.
So given what I’ve seen of the situation, that’s where I am now. I will post updates if/as I get them. Thanks again to Jeremy for the heads up.
Love,
Emerald
[Note: Update here]
“Did I say something true?, oops, I didn’t know we couldn’t talk about sex…and I’m not sorry, it’s human nature…”
-Madonna “Human Nature”
Come All Over My Face, Baby
Welcome to my day of the Blow Hard Tour 2009! I am delighted that you’re here. :)
When Sommer Marsden told us about her friend who said women don’t like giving blow jobs, it wasn’t the first time I’d heard that. As I said in Sommer’s comments section that day (which led me to here!), what seems unbelievable about that to me is the idea that any one sexual act would be presumed to be liked or disliked by an entire group of people based on their sharing of a biological characteristic. Could one really believe that all women or all men like or dislike any particular sexual act simply by virtue of their sex? The idea is mind-blowing to me. This tour, actually, has ironically demonstrated the individuality of sexual preference and attraction in myriad ways, which is one of the things I have loved about it.
So one of the things that hasn’t come up too overtly during the tour that happens to be one of my favorite things about blow jobs is the facial. I don’t know how I could talk about how much I love blow jobs without mentioning how much I love it when a man comes all over my face. I’m not sure why I find it so breathtakingly sexy, but I feel like I can’t get enough of it. According to my vote over at EllaRegina’s on Monday, I do swallow sometimes, but generally only if the circumstances request not making a mess. If I have my way, I love to make a mess. I like come all over my face, on my tits, in my hair, almost anywhere (steering clear of the eyes, of course).
Most of the blow job scenes I have written involve come ending up all over some part of the giver’s body if the blow job ends in orgasm (which of course it doesn’t always). The scene that follows is excerpted from a story that I just finished a few weeks ago. It is not published, so I can’t refer you to the rest of it, but this scene seemed to fit the subject, as it were. :)
I was still breathing heavily when the door scraped open again and Jake stepped out, smiling faintly as he met my eyes.
“You look like you’re ready to go.” He seemed just the way he had while working on my computer — straightforward, focused, businesslike. Even under the present circumstances the polish was still there.
It made me just as hot as I’d thought it would.
I chuckled breathlessly and found that I was too aroused and out of breath to formulate words. Jake’s focused expression took on a lustful tenor as he reached down and unbuckled his belt. He undid his pants and pulled his cock out; without instruction, I knew what part of me he had chosen to penetrate.
I smiled and gave him a wink as I dropped to my knees, taking his cock in my mouth and looking up at him as he drew in a quick breath. Knowing I only had a few minutes, I sucked hard and fast, taking his cock all the way in, growing wetter with every pump. Momentarily I drew back, saliva joining my lips and his cock as I looked up at him.
“I like this a little rough,” I whispered. “So if you have no objections, I would love it if you would grab my hair and push my head onto your cock when you come.”
Jake’s cool demeanor almost slipped as his mouth opened slightly and his eyes half closed. I resumed sucking his dick, and he snaked a hand around to the back of my neck. He grunted quietly as he acquiesced, gripping my hair with both hands and shoving my head forward rhythmically as his hot come started to spurt into my mouth. I looked up at him and gripped the base of his cock, stroking as he finished coming, letting it run across my lips and down my chin.
When he was done, I smiled. He did too, coolly, and backed up as he tucked his cock back into his pants.
“Thank you,” he said, reaching down to help me to my feet. He met my eyes. “You suck one hell of a cock.” For the first time, his voice was rough, and I thought I might come at the sound. With a nod, he turned toward the door. “See you inside.”
Of course, it’s not as though I don’t appreciate giving head that doesn’t end in a facial. On the contrary. An example is the following excerpt, a short one that starts off one of my stories published at Good Vibrations Magazine called “Play for Me.” These are its opening lines, and this time the story may be read in its entirety if you’d like here:
Grace knelt in front of him, topless, jeans unbuttoned, unzipped, as James sat on the couch in his basement. Languidly she leaned forward and brushed her tits over his erection. Looking up at him, she lowered her head and touched the tip of his cock with the tip of her tongue. Almost as quickly, she flicked it back into her mouth; James caught his breath, his hard cock throbbing inches from her face.
Gracefully she wrapped her manicured fingers around the base of his cock, lowering her mouth to it again. His head went back as she sucked slowly, fingertips brushing his balls as she sucked him almost lazily, obviously in no hurry for him to get off.
She pulled back. Dropping onto her heels, she scooted several inches away and gave him an innocent smile.
“Play for me,” she said.
(continue reading)
And now for a little bit of humor, Kevin Smith-style:
(When he says, “You sucked that guy’s dick?!” I laugh out loud every time. While I admittedly find his big baby antics in this context amusing, I certainly appreciate the way she tells him off in the midst of them. ;))
It has been my pleasure to host you today, and thank you so much for stopping by. Please feel free to comment if you would like — as you may know, Sommer (the Dirty Cocksucking Instigator) will be drawing a name from the commentors throughout the tour to win this fabulous prize package! Thanks to all the participants who came before me and to those still to come. (Heh heh.) A big thanks especially to Sommer Marsden for instigating this blog tour and getting us all organized (on our knees in a nice little row…).
Last but not least, please join us again tomorrow as the Blow Hard Tour 2009 continues at the blog of the lovely Kristina Wright!
Xoxoxo,
Emerald
-Madonna “Like a Prayer”
Just for Fun
It’s opening day of baseball season today, my hands-down favorite sport and one of the highlights of summer for me.
It is also a game I find enormously sexy. So just for grins I thought I’d post an excerpt of my story “Who’s on Top?” which appears in Alison Tyler‘s G is for Games:
Turning to the TV screen, I took in the scene of the familiar stadium where I’d seen the same match-up in person many times. Instantly I felt the familiar energy of my disdain for the opposing Red Sox. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the same tension enveloping Corey — in regard to the opposite team, of course.He turned to me again. “Interested in making a little bet on this game?”
When I looked at him, the gleam in his eye made me have to actively hold back from jumping on top of him. “What kind of bet?”
He leaned in a little closer. “Winner gets to have his — or her — way with the loser, so to speak.”
I looked at him. “Excuse me?”
“Winner gets to dominate,” he explained.
I blinked. After that instant of surprise, I smiled as I realized immediately what a twist that would present for me, though he was not aware of it. I wondered briefly if any of the same conflict was stirring in him as I glanced down at his hand, extended toward me to shake on the deal. After a moment I slipped mine into it. We each grasped firmly, our eyes hardened on each other’s.
Born and raised in New York, I came from a family of unswerving, die-hard Yankee fans; I’d lived and breathed the Yankees ever since I was old enough to know what they were. It went without saying that I wanted my team to win. Always. And especially when they were playing the Red Sox.
But I also loved to be dominated.
*** . . . .Corey hitched my denim skirt up to my waist. I had nothing on underneath, which he knew since I’d been half naked by the end of the game and he had watched me pull my skirt back on without bothering with my thong. I was sure he could see how wet I was just by looking, and he did seem pleased when he stared between my legs.“Do you like this? You like what I’m doing to you, baby?” he taunted, brushing his fingers between my legs. I gasped and couldn’t keep from crying out just a little. Immediately I bit my lip and gave him a look of apology.
“I didn’t think I’d have to tell you to be quiet here, Paige. Are you going to be a good girl, or do you need a gag?”
I shook my head. “No. I’ll be good.”
“You’d better.”
Corey leaned in and ran his tongue across my lips, pulling back slightly whenever I tried to meet his mouth and kiss him. I squirmed in frustration.
Abruptly I felt his finger enter me; I hadn’t known it was anywhere near me. I shrieked quietly, wincing as I realized I’d just broken the rules.
“Mm-hmm,” Corey said shortly, backing off and returning to the bag. “I see you’re having some trouble following the rules tonight.” He wasn’t smiling as he pulled a ball gag from the bag.
“I didn’t mean to. I won’t do it again,” I pleaded as he advanced toward me with the gag. I submitted sorrowfully as he installed it in my mouth, reminding me in a murmur of our safe symbol we’d agreed to use in lieu of the ability to say the safe word.
Then he was back in character instantly as he ripped open the buttons on my shirt and popped the front clasp on my bra. The warm night breeze graced my breasts while he watched my nipples get hard. I shivered. Then he grabbed them roughly, pushing his body up against mine and kissing me hard. My pussy went into overdrive and begged for release as he squeezed my tits in his fists.
He pulled back and fumbled with his jeans, freeing his cock and putting on a condom as he looked at me. His eyes were hard, forming mine into soft pools of submission seemingly by force. I breathed heavily, my tits exposed to the night, my skirt at my waist, my wrists bound above me and ropes around my ankles holding my legs spread wide. Corey advanced back toward me and reached up to grasp my throat solidly . . . .
Happy baseball season all! (Go Yankees!!)
Before I go, a reminder that today is EllaRegina‘s day for the Blow Hard Tour 2009, and Alicia Night Orchid‘s blog is today’s stop for the Swing! anthology blog tour. Please feel free to stop by!
Xoxoxo,
Emerald
-Alabama “Cheap Seats”
Reverence Where Reverence Is Due
I received a link this week to an editorial published in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Sunday that concerns abstinence-only sex education. The article’s author, Stacie Murphy, decided to see what it took to become a Certified Abstinence Educator. Her article describes her experience taking — and passing — the online Certification Exam of the Abstinence Clearinghouse.
Among other things, the article reiterates information to which I have already been exposed as a longtime reproductive rights activist from studies that have concluded that abstinence-only sex education appears not only ineffective but can decrease safer sex practices among young people who have sex because of abstinence-only programs’ propensity to emphasize the failure rates (often inaccurately) of contraceptive methods. As Ms. Murphy writes:
It seems like it would take charts for me to comprehensively explain the things I find dismaying about government-sponsored abstinence-only sex education. Beyond the medical inaccuracies, blatant ideological and/or religious beliefs are also part of some of the curricula as well as gender stereotypes that are presented as casual understanding. And I’m going to stop there for now because I don’t have charts at the moment and want to address another specific aspect of this in this post.
“It makes sense. The assertion that premarital sex will condemn them to a life of poverty, degradation and disease does not align with their experience of a country where more than 95 percent of people have sex before they get married. And condoms? If they don’t work, why use them?”
Because beyond all the (numerous and significant) practical implications I find so disturbing about abstinence-only sex education, philosophically speaking there is a basic premise of the perspective and rhetoric that profoundly doesn’t resonate with me.
Frequently the focus/discussion is on “sex before you get married.” For quite a while I’ve found the “before you get married” part of this rhetoric notable. Before you get married — because, of course, you’re going to get married.
Um…what if you don’t get married (or legally can’t where you choose to live)? What if you don’t want to get married? What if that doesn’t feel like a prominent focus in your life at this time, and you’re not sure it ever will? Does that mean sex is just out of the question for you?
The assertion that these two things are exclusively connected actually makes me feel a bit queasy. The idea of taking something as fundamental, inherent, and personal as sexuality and forcing it into a rigid, in some ways arguably arbitrary as far as sex is concerned, social standard seems appalling to me. I am not arguing against marriage. I am not saying people shouldn’t get married, or that marriage is irrelevant, or aiming to denigrate it in any way. I am lamenting the idea that marriage, the social construct, should or would be the predecessor or controller of sexuality, an inextricable, wholly individualized, absolutely fundamental aspect of life itself.
The idea has long seemed comparable to me to an assertion that we may only eat during mealtimes. Do not pay attention to when you are hungry or develop any kind of intimacy or relationship with your body that attunes you to your appetite and guides you in a way that serves you — these are the mealtimes, and they are when you eat. That is what we have decided, and that is the way everyone is to do it.
I am not speaking snarkily or sarcastically; this conflation truly does disturb me. It feels viscerally inappropriate, intrusive, and misguided to me, and once again it seems to denigrate something that appears to me so obviously beautiful, luminous, awe-inspiring, and unspeakably sacred, which is sexuality. Seeing it undermined by simple virtue of not being recognized and appreciated as such — or only being appreciated within certain social and externally controlling confines — has been known to feel heartbreaking to me, and that is how it feels right now as I type this.
However, it occurs to me that part of “heartbreaking” is “heart,” and I just noticed I am feeling there right now. The joy, beauty, light, glory, love of all of us, that we all are, that is life, that sexuality is purely and luminously within.
…Whew. That all being said, today is a bustling day in erotica blogland — Erobintica is up on the Blow Hard Tour 2009, and today is Donna George Storey’s stop on the Swing! anthology blog tour!
Namaste and love to all.
Love,
Emerald
-Shawn Mullins “Shimmer”
The Swing! Anthology Blog Tour Starts Today!
The Swing! anthology, edited by Jolie du Pre, will be officially released as an e-book by Logical-Lust on April 24! In the meantime, the Swing! blog tour will be going on throughout the month of April. It kicks off today at the Swing! website with editor Jolie du Pre!
Here is the schedule:Please join us throughout the month for author interviews and excerpts of the stories from Swing!. Hope to see you back here on the 17th! :)April 1 Jolie du Pre
April 2 Ashley Lister
April 3 Donna George Storey
April 6 Alicia Night Orchid
April 7 Amanda Earl
April 8 Lara Zielinsky
April 9 TreSart L.Sioux
April 10 M. Millswan
April 13 Rick R. Reed
April 14 D. L. King
April 15 M. Christian
April 16 Tawanna Sullivan
April 17 Emerald (Me!)
April 18 Karmen Red
April 19 Rowan Elizabeth
April 20 Jolene Hui
April 21 Michael Hemmingson
April 22 Keeb Knight
April 23 Beth Wylde
April 24 Neve Black
April 28 Jacqueline Applebee
April 29 Randall Lang
April 30 Jeremy Edwards
May 1 Claudia Moss
Love,
Emerald
-Def Leppard “Pour Some Sugar on Me”
