Logan Levkoff on The Today Show

Logan Levkoff, who will be reading at In The Flesh's True Confessions Night on April 18th, will be on The Today Show on Wednesday, January 31st at 9 a.m. answering the question "Can Men and Women Really Be Friends?"

Check her out!

January In The Flesh recap

DSC_0790
Originally uploaded by brianvan.

Photo by Brian Van, see more at my site

L to R: Susan Shapiro, Virginia Vitzthum with her book I Love You, Let's Meet, me, Helen Boyd, Rachel Sarah (I tried to get everyone in for one photo but it didn't quite happen)

(if you wrote up your experiences and I missed them, email me at rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com and I'll add a link)

This is just a brief recap of last week's In The Flesh. I can't believe it's been over a week and I'm just posting now (sorry!). It was definitely one of the most, if not the most, well-attended of my readings yet. Mobile Libris sold lots of books, including selling out of Gael Greene's Insatiable, and I'll probably ask them back on May 16th when I've got lots of other great authors (Dana Vachon, Samara O'Shea, Jerry Rodriguez and Jackie Kessler).

Here's what some of the readers and attendees had to say. I was blown away by everyone and especially the diversity they all brought to the idea of an "erotic memoir." It wasn't just Toni Bentley-style blow-by-blows, but some really thoughtful, passionate, and, in some cases, lusty examinations of sex.

"In The Flesh 10-Reader Orgy, Ladies on Top," Virginia Vitzthum

"...if I can make it there...," Marty Beckerman

(and yes, I'm staying out of the comment wars on both of their blogs, not really my place or cup of tea but I do have to say, I'm not a huge fan of the anonymous comment)

"Sleeping With Elvis," Flora Fling (and Flora, In The Flesh's biggest fan and most enthusiastic supporter and all-around awesome woman, went out and dug up the Time magazine cover featuring both men Gael Greene slept with!)

Day 2 The Erotic Reading Series, Funky Brown Chick

Brothercyst

"A Review of In The Flesh Reading Series," mrbubs (for the reccord, I shushed people when I heard lots of noise coming from the crowd)

April 2007 True Sex Confessions Night lineup

March 2007 lineup coming soon!

Last year's True Sex Confessions night, with Dan Allen, Jessica Cutler, Miriam Datskovsky, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Judy McGuire, Audacia Ray and Felicia Sullivan drew the first really huge crowd for In The Flesh. We're back with more racy confessions from another equally talent group of writers, along with some much-anticipated audience participation!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
TRUE SEX CONFESSIONS NIGHT
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676

The second annual True Sex Confessions night features an all-star roster of artists, bloggers, and writers, including Chelseagirl (Pretty Dumb Things blog), Valerie Frankel (The Accidental Virgin, Hex and the Single Girl), Dan Goldman (“Kelly,” Shooting War), Peter Hyman (The Reluctant Metrosexual, “Group Therapy” show), Logan Levkoff (Third Base Ain’t What It Used To Be), and Courtney McLean (“Normal-C, “Super Glossy!”). Hosted by erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2). Audience members will have the chance to share their anonymous true confessions throughout the night. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Laura Antoniou, Andy Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Susan Wright, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from Escape (Hong Kong), The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com, and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have been published in over 80 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited 13 erotica anthologies, including Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2. Her latest kinky anthologies, He’s on Top and She’s on Top, will be published in February 2007 by Cleis Press. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Chelsea Girl began her blog, Pretty Dumb things, in March of 2005. Her writing has been featured in the UK magazines Scarlet and Modern Woman and on Audible.co.uk. While Chelsea Girl maintains that she is a writer of a blog with sex, not of it, the world seems to disagree. She, rather predictably, lives in Chelsea, where she is working on several long and overwhelming writing projects.
Prettydumbthings.typepad.com

Valerie Frankel has written thirteen novels, including The Accidental Virgin, The Girlfriend Curse, Hex and the Single Girl, and, for teens, the Fringe Girl series. She also writes a lot about sex and dieting (sometimes at the same time) for magazines such as Self, Glamour and Allure. She's lived in Brooklyn for nearly twenty years, has two daughters, three cats and one husband, the opera singer Stephen Quint.
www.valeriefrankel.com

Dan Goldman is a writer, illustrator and designer of mostly comics. The artist behind Shooting War, the upcoming graphic novel from Warner Books, Dan is also a founding member of the daily comics anthology ACT-I-VATE, where he writes and draws the damaged romance Craigslist thriller "KELLY", recently featured on Nerve.com. While known primarily for his work in the comics medium, writing prose is his first love. He lives in New York City.
www.dangoldman.net

Peter Hyman is an author and journalist who happens to do some comedic performing on occasion. He is a contributing writer for Radar magazine and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Details, New York Magazine and Slate.com, among others. He is the author of The Reluctant Metrosexual: Dispatches From An Almost Hip Life and is at work on a satiric novel about post-war Iraq.
www.pdhyman.com

Hoping to become the voice of the next generation of sexually healthy young women, Logan Levkoff began her career in sexology as a peer AIDS educator in high school and she hasn't stopped since…Today, Logan is the host of "The Lowdown", a love and sex show on IVillage.com. She frequently appears on television, including Oprah, VH1, Fox News Channel, and The Today Show. She has also served as the sexual advice columnist for many magazines and websites. Logan is the spokesperson for Elexa, a line of sexual health and intimacy products for women, by Trojan, and is the author of The Espresso Dating Guide, a project created by Starbucks and Yahoo!Personals. Her first book, Third Base Ain't What it Used to Be, will be published by NAL in October 2007.
www.loganlevkoff.com

Courtney McLean's solo performance work 'accomplishes the highest moral function of theater: to promote understanding' as well as totally nerding out on stage. Courtney's first show, "Normal-C" debuted in San Diego to sold-out houses in 2002 (after the discovery that auditioning for other people's stupid plays sucks) and was toured to Washington, DC and Minneapolis, MN last summer after a stint at the Triad in NYC. The new show, "Super Glossy!" a sci-fi satire on women's magazines, just debuted at the NYC Frigid Fest and is preparing for flight across the nation this summer. Courtney lives in East Harlem with her cat and her vibrator.
www.courtneymclean.com

Lianne Stokes has a really hard time with numbers. She was always awful at math. Which means that she's constantly overdrawn in her "WAMU" checking account. A budding quirky creative type, she’s been doing stand-up on the New York indie scene for five years. Known for her high-energy style, she appreciates that "Dudes think she's funny." Most recently Lianne's had the pleasure to write and workshop her solo show, "Stokes" around town. Oh! She's also got a blog. Yes! And, she's super proud that said blog is often linked by Gawker.
Liannestokes.blogspot.com

February 2007 lineup

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com

February means love, lust . . . and dirty words! Join Andrew Boyd (Billionaires for Bush, Life’s Little Deconstruction Book), Reen Guierre (Best Women’s Erotica 2007 contributor), D.L. King (The Dominant’s View), and Dahlia Schweitzer (Seduce Me), along with host and curator Rachel Kramer Bussel, who will be celebrating the publication of her kinky new erotica anthologies He’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission and She’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served and erotic books will be given away as door prizes.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Andy Horwitz, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Polly Frost, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Edith Layton, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from Escape (Hong Kong), The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Andrew Boyd is the co-founder of the satirical political campaign Billionaires for Bush and author of several ironically serious (or is it seriously ironic?) books: Daily Afflictions⎯The Agony of Being Connected to Everything in the Universe and Life's Little Deconstruction Book⎯Self-Help for the Post-Hip, both from W.W.Norton. He's at work on two others, from which he will read tonight.
andrewboyd.com

Rachel Kramer Bussel is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com, and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have been published in over 80 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited 13 erotica anthologies, including Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2. Her latest kinky anthologies, He’s on Top and She’s on Top, will be published in February 2007 by Cleis Press. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Reen Guierre (pronounced Gee, hard G + air, accent on air) is a typical MILF (look it up) whose story, “To Serge (soft g) With Love,” made it into Best Women’s Erotica 2007. If you want to preview the story, check out Amazon’s Look Inside feature⎯if it hasn’t been censored by the time you read this. Another couple of her stories can be found on the internet in their entirety. The weirdest thing about writing are these bios, which are traditionally in third person, so I’ll just say, “I’m looking forward to being in New York again where the people are so nice, they won’t hesitate to yell at you if they think it will help.”

D. L. King lives somewhere between The Big Wheel at Coney Island and The Chrysler Building and has a passion for roasted chestnuts sold on the street, as long as they aren’t burnt. When they are, she’d like to roast some nuts herself. Her first novel, The Melinoe Project, has just been accepted for publication. Find stories by D. L. King in print from Justus Roux, in e-book by Logical Lust and on line at The Dominant's View and Inky Blue Allusions.
www.dlkingerotica.com

Dahlia Schweitzer spent most of her life in New York and Tel Aviv, where she lived, loved, and worked as a writer, artist, and photographer. But it was in Berlin where she found fame, transforming herself into a singing, dancing, stripteasing queen of electrocabaret. Now Dahlia lives in Los Angeles, just in time to celebrate the publication of her first American publication, Seduce Me. These erotic short stories recount illicit affairs, intimate secrets, forbidden passions, and obsessive hungers⎯and the sad, funny, startling, revelatory places our sexual desires can take us.
www.thisisdahlia.com

Guess which hot Harvard sex blogger is coming to In The Flesh

Early Friday Morning , 1:07 a.m.
Originally uploaded by Elle C.

If you guessed Lena (aka Elle) of Sex and the Ivy, you'd be right. Yes, that's a photo of her accompanying this post, found on her lovely Flickr account.

You can also read about her at Radar Online. This girl is more plugged into the sex blogger scene than I am and is apparently staying with one of my favorite people I met through my Voice tenure, Miriam Datskovsky. I'm hoping I can convince them to let me hang out with them and eavesdrop.

Where to go after In The Flesh on 1/17

Where to go after In The Flesh on 1/17
Originally uploaded by rkb1.

The unofficial after-party (aka where I'll be!) for this week's In The Flesh - RSVP as per below and check out the awesome SMITH Magazine and Memoirville and SMITH Diaries

One Year

Telling Stories

Let's Party*
1.17.07

Sutra Lounge

16 First Ave.

(between 1st and 2nd Streets)

RSVP: party@smithmag.net



Bring your six-word memoir and win stuff



Toast the debut of the new
webcomic by Josh Neufeld

A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge

Erotic Memoir Night, January 17th

Thanks to Manhattan Users Guide and Time Out New York for listing this star-studded Erotic Memoir Night next Wednesday, January 17th. I'd advise getting there by 7:30 to ensure you get a seat, and bring your wallets because Mobile Libris is selling everyone's memoirs. I can't tell you how excited I am about this night and how special it will be and, having read most of these memoirs already (working on the others), I truly can't wait to hear everyone, especially Gael Greene, read.

Also, please vote for Happy Ending in AOL's Best Bars Contest!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
EROTIC MEMOIR NIGHT
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 17 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com

In The Flesh ushers in 2007 with true stories from erotic memoirists, who dish about everything from being a sex columnist to online dating, indulging in fine food and fine sex, BDSM relationships, loving a transgendered partner, dating as a single mom, and more. With Marty Beckerman (Generation S.L.U.T.), Helen Boyd (My Husband Betty, She’s Not the Man I Married), Ron Geraci (The Bachelor Chronicles), Gael Greene (Insatiable), Rachel Sarah (Single Mom Seeking), Susan Shapiro (Secrets of a Fix-Up Fanatic, Lighting Up, Five Men Who Broke My Heart), Grant Stoddard (Working Stiff), Virginia Vitzthum (I Love You, Let’s Meet), and Lauren Wissot (Under My Master’s Wings), along with host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Authors’ books will be available for sale from Mobile Libris. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Andy Horwitz, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Polly Frost, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Edith Layton, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from Escape (Hong Kong), The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Marty Beckerman is the 23-year-old Alaskan author of Generation S.L.U.T. (MTV Books) and America's Sexxxiest Young Journalist. He has written for Playboy and New York Press, and interviewed Hunter S. Thompson for Ain't It Cool News. Beckerman flirted with the Republican Party after a feminist broke his heart in college, but concluded that Puritanical fascism is incompatible with his status as a Luscious Sex Lord and Generational Voice of Freedom. He lives in Washington, D.C.
www.martybeckerman.com

Helen Boyd is the author of My Husband Betty, which was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Award. Her next book, She's Not the Man I Married, will be published by Seal Press in March. Her writes about gender and trans issue for her blog (en)gender which can be found online at www.myhusbandbetty.com. She lives with her partner Betty, in Brooklyn, New York.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice, and conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com. Her erotic stories have been published in over 80 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited or co-edited 13 erotica anthologies, most recently Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists and Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmo UK, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Ron Geraci is a writer living in New York. The Bachelor Chronicles is his first book. He writes on relationship topics for several magazines and conducts regular seminars on online dating.
www.rongeraci.com

Gael Greene was New York magazine's Insatiable Critic for 32 years and continues to write a weekly restaurant column. She is the author of seven books⎯her two erotic novels, Blue Skies, No Candy and Dr. Love were both NY Times best sellers. Delicious Sex was a guide for Women and Men Who Want to Love Them Better. Her memoir Insatiable: Tales from a Life of Delicious Excess tells how America fell in love with food, what she ate at the revolution and what she did between meals. With the great food guru James Beard, Greene co-founded Citymeals-on-Wheels to bring weekend and holiday meals to the city's homebound elderly. On its 25th birthday this Christmas, Citymeals delivered its 32nd millionth meal.

Rachel Sarah’s Single Mom Seeking: Play Dates, Blind Dates, and Other Dispatches from the Dating World, was published in November 2006. She is the romance columnist for San Francisco's j the Jewish news weekly of Northern California and her column "Single Mom Seeking," appears on Literary Mama. Rachel's writing has also appeared in Family Circle, Parenting, Tango, Ms., BabyCenter and Christian Science Monitor.
www.singlemomseeking.com

Susan Shapiro's work has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Los Angeles Times and Washington Post. She's the co-editor of Food for the Soul and author of Secrets of a Fix-Up Fanatic, Lighting Up and Five Men Who Broke My Heart, optioned for a movie by Paramount Pictures. Her book Only As Good As Your Word will be published in late 2007. She lives with her husband in Greenwich Village and has taught writing at N.Y.U., the New School and Mediabistro.
www.susanshapiro.net

At twenty-one, perennial virgin Grant Stoddard came to the United States in pursuit of true love. After eighteen months of couch-surfing and heartbreak, he stumbled into a job as New York's most intrepid sex columnist, despite having little experience in either sex or writing. His first book, Working Stiff: The Misadventures of an Accidental Sexpert, will be published in January 2007 and was optioned for film by Paramount Vantage. He lives in New York City.
www.grantstoddard.com

Virginia Vitzthum has written for salon.com, The Village Voice, Ms., Elle, and other publications. She has also written a play and a screenplay. Her first book, I Love You, Let's Meet: Adventures in Online Dating, will be published in February 2007.
http://virginiavitzthum.com

Lauren Wissot describes herself as an undercover agent in the mainstream world, a gay boy born into female form. She is a filmmaker, film journalist, screenwriter, and music and film critic living in Manhattan. Her sex memoir Under My Master’s Wings (Nexus Books) details her time spent as the personal slave to a gay-for-pay stripper.

Dahlia Schweitzer, reading at In The Flesh 2/21 at Happy Ending Lounge

Dahlia Schweitzer, reading at In The Flesh 2/21 at Happy Ending Lounge
Originally uploaded by rkb1.

This is Dahlia Schweitzer, author of the erotic short story collection Seduce Me. She is reading at my erotic reading series In The Flesh on Wednesday, February 21st at 8 pm at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street. Free! Rest of lineup TBA soon.