Archive for December, 2013

December 6th, 2013

xoxo Is Out Early and Here Now!

XOXOEditor Kristina Wright announced this morning that xoxo: Sweet and Sexy Romance is unexpectedly available now! I wasn’t expecting it to come out until at least January, so this is a pleasant pre-holiday surprise. :)

I feel particularly excited about my contribution to xoxo because it is the first time a story of mine has been first in the table of contents of a Cleis Press book. Putting a story first means different things to different editors, undoubtedly, but it’s just one of those things I found exciting when I saw it. ;)

Speaking of the table of contents, I don’t think it’s available to see online anywhere yet, so I will tell you I’m in luscious company in this anthology: names like Sacchi Green, Saskia Walker, Jeremy Edwards, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Nikki Magennis, Annabeth Leong, Neve Black, and Sommer Marsden are just a few of those that comprise the abundance of fabulousness in this anthology!

xoxo is available now at Amazon, B&N, or straight from the publisher. I suspect it would make a great gift. ;)

Love,
Emerald

Sometimes he’s inside me. Sometimes my mouth is on his cock. Sometimes his tongue is against my clit or my nipple or whatever square inch of skin he’s found that lights up that fire that’s somehow inside me and outside me and everywhere else all at once.

It’s different each time. But whatever form it’s taking, sex is what we’re doing. The timing is the important thing.
-from “Midnight”

December 4th, 2013

Recommended Reading #178: Sex(uality) as Labor, Pt. III



      This Facebook note by Sabrina Morgan (Sex Work, Sex and Culture, Sex Education) 12/3/13

This seems to me to wrap up the relevance of the relatedness of all sexually-focused work and why, despite maddening and unhelpful legal limitations and stigmas, support for consensual sexuality-focused labor is not a pick-and-choose issue. Nicely said.

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      “Porn, Feminist Labor Practices, and The Condom Debate” by Tristan Taormino (Sex Work, Health and Body, Pornography) 9/20/13

I appreciate this for a number of reasons. For one thing, I tend to respect a careful and considered change of position. Appreciating and accepting fluidity and the openness to examine one’s perspective in light of the moment seems a helpful and strong tendency to me, regardless of the content of the perspectives in question. I also support condom use in general (though I agree with Tristan in not supporting last year’s legislative measure Plan B, for the reasons she outlines at that link). I invariably and non-negotiably used and insisted on condom use for all vaginal and anal penetration when I worked in porn, and what one’s test results were or when a fellow performer was last tested would not have influenced that insistence at all. Anyway, I appreciate Tristan’s position, and I appreciate her explanation of it here.

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      “What I’ve Learned From…Talking to College Students about Sexuality” by Megan Andelloux (Youth, Sex Education) 11/1/13

To be frank, this piece just elicits a serious “Fuck yeah!” from me. I so appreciate the work Megan Andelloux does.

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Recommended Reading posted every Wednesday

December 3rd, 2013

The Big Book of Orgasms Virtual Book Tour and the Origin of “Payback”

BBO

Welcome to my stop on the virtual book tour for The Big Book of Orgasms! This smoking-hot anthology came out in October and has 69 flash stories that all clock in at 1,200 words or fewer. It also includes my story “Payback.”

I have invariably found it an honor when someone has appreciated my work enough to publish it. The Big Book of Orgasms is certainly no exception, and I will admit that seeing editor Rachel Kramer Bussel proclaim that it is her favorite anthology of the many she’s edited elicited a special delight in me that one of my stories is a part of it. As has also been common, it is downright flattering to have a story alongside the other work in the volume. In this case, I’m especially thrilled to share pages with several new authors being published for the first time, such as Lady Cheeky, Andreas Amsterdam (both of whom I know and love in person!), and Jade A. Waters. I’m excited for all of them and delighted to have a story amidst their virgin forays into erotica publication!

I had read a number of reviews of The Big Book of Orgasms before I actually started reading it myself, and it has been a real delight to discover that they are not exaggerating. I have been struck by the exceptional range and diversity of this collection, as well as the sharp writing and ingenuity of the authors in composing these beautiful, fascinating, sizzling slices of orgasmic life.

My own story in the collection, “Payback,” was partially inspired by an online piece I read a few years ago by the lovely Lana Fox. (I do wish I could link to the piece, but if I recall correctly, it was on the former Good Vibrations Magazine site, many of whose archives disappeared after the site was infected with malware and relaunched last year.) As I recall, I interpreted Lana’s lamenting the phenomenon of young (or perhaps any) women not understanding their own sexual desires and/or how to express them and rather focusing almost solely on how to please the other. (I’m sure I’m not doing justice to the eloquence and depth with which she actually wrote!)

When I read it, it reminded me of something. That something, I feel somewhat sorry to say, was myself. Myself many years before, when I had fit that mold, which seems so sadly common as to almost be a cliche, rather cleanly.

“Payback” is not entirely autobiographical, but it has definite autobiographical strains. It is about a particular relationship I experienced at a time before I understood or felt confident enough about my own sexual desires for it to even occur to me to express them. In the midst of that experience, there was actually a parking lot where I gave a number of nonreciprocal blow jobs one summer (though I will note the narrator’s love of giving blow jobs both then and now is also autobiographical :)). I was still living in the area when I saw the construction start for the new hotel that now covers it.

The story diverges from literal autobiographical experience in its reunion and correlative, more cerebral reminiscences and revelations. The narrator’s recognition of her own growth is, naturally, front and center, but one of the things I particularly appreciate about the story is the reminder she receives at the end of Phillip’s humanity, too. The reminder or recognition of humanity—everyone’s—is something it has often felt compelling to me to express in fiction, and in this case my personal experience, the particular opportunity to showcase personal growth, and that reminder came together to create this story. It was one of those that was in my consciousness for some time before it actually came out in words, and I’m so glad it did just in time for me to submit it to this sublime volume (and that Rachel and Cleis accepted it!).

The Big Book of Orgasms is on sale in print and e-book formats now at the following retailers:

If you feel so inclined to pick it up, I hope you enjoy it as much as I have! Thanks so much for visiting my stop on the virtual tour, and be sure to check out the rest of the tour here. You may also follow the book on Twitter to keep up on all news, updates, and tour stop links. Happy reading!

Love,
Emerald

I felt a strange relief standing near Phillip, an absence of the needy pull I had experienced back then that had made me feel powerless whenever someone wanted something from me—even if it was something I was willing to give. I tossed the question back at him and noticed as he adjusted the crotch of his jeans. I couldn’t help a tiny smile as I wondered if it was because of me.
-from “Payback”