Archive for Sex+ Art
The Erotic Literary Salon 12th Anniversary Party (Online)!
Longtime readers of this blog may remember several previous appearances I have made at the remarkable Philadelphia Erotic Literary Salon founded and curated by Susana Mayer. It is indeed a venue I have truly appreciated, both on my own behalf as a place Susana has graciously offered me to promote my own work, and also as a space to offer attendees to write, read, and/or take in erotic words spoken out loud. Susana had a beautiful—and obviously accurate—notion that such a space seemed to be largely missing in our culture, as well as desired, whether overtly or on an underlying level.
And here we are twelve years later…with the Erotic Literary Salon still meeting the third Tuesday of each month and going stronger than ever! Under the current circumstances, the Salon has moved online and, as it was in April, will be held via Zoom this month. Tuesday, May 19, will mark—as well as celebrate—the twelfth anniversary of the Salon’s existence!
In addition to this celebration, I am honored that Susana has offered me the opportunity to read from my brand new short story collection, Initiative: Tales of Erotic Boldness. I don’t know which story I will read from yet, but I am so appreciative, as usual, to have the opportunity to do so for her audience. While the reasons for the move online are obviously sobering, the Zoom setting also offers the opportunity for attendance from those for whom travel to Philadelphia has been untenable.
Given this new online setting, Susana is only charging $5 (half the usual price of admission) to attend the Salon while the event and its audience adjust to its new virtual environment. Ticket sales will stop Monday, May 18, so this weekend is the time to procure yours!
For more information about the Salon or how to sign up to read at it, as well as a link to a basic Zoom tutorial, please visit the Salon website. Thank you, and we would love for you to virtually join us on Tuesday!
Love,
Emerald
“We light it up, we won’t come down, and the walls can’t stop us now…” –The Greatest Showman Original Motion Picture Soundtrack “The Greatest Show”
Guiding Into Creativity
I recall with certainty that when I was in grade school, A Wrinkle in Time was one of the books a teacher chose to read out loud to our class (a chapter a day). I don’t remember whether it was in fourth or fifth grade, but I remember that that book was read to me.
In what seems to me both a strange and simultaneously typical circumstance, I have remembered exactly one specific scene and line from the book. That line I could quote almost verbatim. The rest of the book was entirely gone from my conscious memory, including the general plot, characters, beginning, and ending. I can say with confidence this is not likely due to anything about the book itself, since I have experienced such circumstances with numerous books and movies I know I read/saw as a child: frequently, I remember almost nothing about them except one specific line or several-second scene, which I can often quote exactly and/or describe in minute visual detail.
I’ll be at the Philadelphia Erotic Literary Salon on Tuesday!
In case you’ve missed my announcements on social media, I want to share here that I am delighted to be scheduled as the featured reader at the forthcoming November Erotic Literary Salon in Philadelphia! This will be my third time as the featured reader at the Salon, and I am honored to be invited as such.
You can find all the details about attending at the press release, but the quick and dirty is that it will be on Tuesday, November 18 (the Salon is regularly held the third Tuesday of every month) at TIME (The Bohemian Absinthe Lounge) in Philadelphia. If you’re unfamiliar with the Salon, much of the evening is comprised of open-mic readers offered five-minute increments during which to read. Anyone is welcome to read at the Salon as long as you sign up in advance.
As far as my time slot, I’m not sure yet exactly what I’ll be reading aloud, but I’m leaning toward dividing my segment in half in order to read an excerpt from both If… Then and Safe. I’m really looking forward to being there!
If you find yourself in the area, please feel welcome to join us! :)
Love,
Emerald
-Sugarland “Stand Up”
Playing a Little Catch-Up!
You may have noticed that things look a little different here at The Green Light District. I’ve recently completed a bit of an update to the site, offering more prominent access to my new single-author short story collections, Safe (erotica) and If… Then (erotic romance). Though the blog is no longer the entry/landing page from the splash page, it is always accessible via the “Blog” tab above. :) (The direct link to the blog has not changed, so no need to update bookmarks, links, etc. Thank you!)
I’m a little bit behind on announcing a few things, so this post is going to serve multiple purposes! First, today I am honored to return to the Romance Lives Forever (RLF) blog with an interview about my erotic romance collection, If… Then! I am delighted to be back at RLF (I first appeared there last year with an interview about Lustfully Ever After), and I so appreciate the generosity of Kayelle Allen, proprietor of the RLF blog. An extract from “Shattered Angels,” one of the stories in If… Then, is included in the post.
In addition, last week the fabulous K D Grace invited me to come to her blog to talk about my erotica short story collection, Safe. It was a pleasure to be back at A Hopeful Romantic, and I so appreciate K D’s inviting me! In this post I ruminate a bit about story endings (happy, not-so-happy, otherwise…) and share an excerpt from one of the stories in Safe, “To Make It That Way.”
This Friday, November 14, I’ll be participating in the virtual book tour for Rachel Kramer Bussel‘s new single-author essay collection, Sex and Cupcakes. Watch this space!
Lastly, I’m quite excited to share that I am scheduled to be the featured reader at the November Erotic Literary Salon in Philadelphia! I have attended the Salon a number of times (twice as a featured reader), and I am so flattered that Susana Mayer, founder and proprietor of the Salon, invited me to come back in November to celebrate the release of my books. The Salon will be held the evening of Tuesday, November 18, and I will probably split up my featured reader time and read a bit from both Safe and If… Then. :) Please see the Salon’s press release and website for any details about attending!
Thanks so much, as usual, for being here, and be well.
Love,
Emerald
-Pink Floyd “Time”
Talking About Labels at Adriana Kraft’s
Some labels are more helpful than others. :)
I’m really delighted to be appearing as a guest today on the blog of Adriana Kraft, the husband-and-wife writing team with whom I’ve been acquainted online for years (Adriana and I both had stories in 2010’s The Cougar Book) but actually got to meet in person a few weeks ago at the inaugural Hot Mojave Knights! For my guest spot, entitled “What’s in a Label?: Subjectivity in Art and Life,” I wrote a bit about my experience at the event, as well as a not-so-new question we were asked on the erotica panel and an unexpected insight that resulted later.
I’d love it if you’d stop by, and big thanks to Adriana for hosting me!
Love,
Emerald
To be sure, there are requirements that writing labeled romance must fulfill in order to take on that label. And my work sometimes doesn’t. For one thing, rather than the happily-ever-after ending imperative in romance, many of my stories do end up with happy characters, but it has much more to do with sex that just occurred than with any purported ongoing relationship between them. In some stories, the ending might even seem more ambiguous than happy. But I have also written stories that seem to fit the general erotic romance delineation, and perhaps my own wariness about whether I’m doing that “right” is less significant than how readers experience it.
-from “What’s in a Label?”
