What you get at In The Flesh

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Originally uploaded by brianvan.

In addition to hot readers and smut giveaways, you get sugar! Specifically, candy and cupcakes. Thanks to my friends at my table who made a Peeps-and-candy assembly line.

Photo by Brian Van

See the rest of Brian's latest In The Flesh Flickr set as well as Viviane's photos.

Someone was also filming - if that person wants to share their tape, email me at inthefleshreadingseries at gmail.com

Come hear Suzanne Portnoy read LIVE tonight - free!

Welcome Howard Stern listeners...you heard sexy Suzanne Portnoy on the radio, now come hear her read from her memoir LIVE tonight at Happy Ending Lounge, 302 Broome Street, 8 pm, Free!



I usually tell people to arrive by 7:30 to get a seat, but you might want to get there even earlier. And I'll have cupcakes, the usual candy, and Cadbury Creme Eggs to give away, plus He's on Top and She's on Top for sale. See you there!




IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 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

This month, join Cheri Crystal (Erotic Interludes 3, 4, 5), Joel A. Nichols (Dorm Porn 2, Travelrotica 2), Carol Novack (Mad Hatters’ Review), memoirist Suzanne Portnoy (The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker), who’s making an appearance all the way from London, and Claire Thompson (Golden Boy, Slave Castle), along with host erotica writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (He’s on Top, She’s on Top, Caught Looking) for hot stories from across the sexual spectrum. Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served and authors’ books will be available for sale.

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 and has been recommended by Dr. Ruth. 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, 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

Cheri Crystal enjoys reading, writing, reviewing, eating, working out, and having sex—not necessarily in that order. Since appearing in Erotic Interludes 3: Lessons in Love, Cheri has erotica in other Bold Strokes Books, Cleis Press, and Alyson anthologies. When she’s not busy raising a family or working in health care, Cheri is putting the finishing touches on her first novel, A Closet in Syosset.

Gwendolyn Joyce Mintz is a fiction writer and poet. Her work has appeared in various online and print journals as well as several anthologies. Though new to the erotic genre, Mintz has had work published in the online journal Clean Sheets as well as Down & Dirty 2 and Velvet Heat from Pretty Things Press. A very short work received an honorable mention in a contest at Katy Terrega's Sex-writers.com.

Joel A. Nichols was born and raised in Vermont. This year stories of his will appear in Dorm Porn 2, Travelrotica 2, Second Skin, Fast Balls, Distant Horizons: Queer Science Fiction (Haworth Positronic), C is for Co-ed (Cleis), Got A Minute (Cleis), and Sex by the Book: Gay Men's Tales of Lit and Lust (Green Candy Press), and have appeared in Alyson's Full Body Contact, Just the Sex, Ultimate Undies, and Sexiest Soles. An excerpt from his novel in progress won second place in the Brown Foundation Short Fiction Prize 2005. In 2002, he was a Fulbright Fellow in Berlin. Joel studied German at Wesleyan University and has a Creative Writing M.A. from Temple University. He lives in Philadelphia with his boyfriend and works for an internet porn company.
www.joelanichols.com

Carol Novack's writings can & will be found in many publications, including The Penguin Book of Australian Women Poets, American Letters & Commentary, Del Sol Review, Diagram, First Intensity, 5_Trope, La Petite Zine, LIT, & Notre Dame Review. She publishes the e-journal Mad Hatters' Review.
carolnovack.blogspot.com

Suzanne Portnoy has been an entertainment publicist for twelve years. Divorced and with two children, aged 13 and 15, she is formerly from New York and now lives in London. Attractive and finally a size 8 after twenty years of yo-yo dieting, she is happily single and spends her spare time writing, having sex and acting as a one-woman car pool service. Her first book, The Butcher, The Baker, The Candlestick Maker: An Erotic Memoir, is published by Virgin Books.
www.suzanneportnoy.com

Claire Thompson has written erotic fiction since 1995. Much of her work focuses on the romance of erotic submission, as well as the darker exploration of BDSM. Her most recent work focuses on the male/male romance and erotic submission. Claire has published numerous novels and short stories, both in print and ebook format. Says a reviewer for eCataRomance, “…Claire Thompson draws a compelling, graphic picture of a loving dominant/submissive relationship. Erotic and confronting, yet tender and intimate.” Visit her website for a listing of all Claire’s novels, upcoming releases, and more information.
www.clairethompson.net

April 12th, He's on Top and She's on Top book party

Not In The Flesh, but also free and fun and at Happy Ending:

P.F. Kozak on reading at In The Flesh

P.F. Kozak writes about reading at my reading series In The Flesh (separate post TK but next reading is next week, Wednesday, March 21st and then April 18th is True Sex Confessions with Veronica Vera and a whole lineup of awesome writers!):

Then it hit me. I had been asked to read my work OUT LOUD, in front of a room full of people! I picked up a copy of Sins and Secrets and silently read the first chapter. No problem. Then, I tried reading it aloud. Let me tell you, reading those words, and saying them aloud, are two very different experiences.

The first time through, I know I blushed. My face got hot as Hades. Then, I tried it again, reminding myself that I had written the darn book, for heaven’s sake! I did all right until I hit the explicit sex scenes. As I had before, I stalled. Forcing myself to continue, I read the entire first chapter aloud.

It never occurred to me that I would be inhibited about this. In fact, I accepted the invitation without even thinking about how I would react to the words. To overcome potentially stumbling when I hit a particularly explicit passage, I read the first chapter aloud enough times to desensitize myself to the language.

See "Saying Those Words Out Loud!" at Romantic Links

Lily Burana hearts In The Flesh

Photo of Lily reading at In The Flesh by Martha Burzynski

Strip City and Try author Lily Burana praises In The Flesh in her Suicide Girls interview:

DRE:I read that you were actually reading the sex scenes from Try at book readings.

Lily:Yeah. Rachel Kramer Bussel to me is one of the sweetest people. As far as the readings and the porno people of New York and the people want to make it more literary, she’s right there. She does the In the Flesh reading series and she asked me to come read at one of her readings. I decided to put my big girl panties on and do it. I don’t think I’ve ever been so afraid in my life. It was so bizarre. I was really astounded that I was as timid as I was but I guess it went okay. Nobody started snoring.


Photo of Lily and Molly Crabapple by Brian Van at In The Flesh

May 16th In The Flesh lineup

Mark your calendars cause this one's going to be amazing...also, we'll be going throughout the summer.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16TH 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

A diverse mix of authors and styles take erotica to a whole new level, from fiction to romance to letter-writing, mystery, and more. Featuring Sarah Iverson (Iris, Messenger), Jackie Kessler (Hell’s Belles), Min Jin Lee (Free Food for Millionaires), Samara O’Shea (For the Love of Letters, letterlover.net), Jerry Rodriguez (The Devil’s Mambo) and Dana Vachon (Mergers and Acquisitions), along with host and curator Rachel Kramer Bussel (She’s on Top, He’s on Top, Caught Looking). Free candy and mini cupcakes will be served. Authors’ books will be available for sale.

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 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited 13 erotica anthologies, most recently He’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Male dominance and Female Submission, She’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission, 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, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Sarah Iverson writes comic essays about vibrators, Buddhism, and duck confit. She also writes novels for children under the name Sarah Deming. Her first novel, Iris, Messenger, will be published in May by Harcourt. It tells the story of Iris, a twelve-year-old girl who meets the Greek gods in suburban Philadelphia. Before she was a writer, Sarah was a Golden Gloves boxing champion, a chef, and a yoga teacher. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband Ethan.

Jackie Kessler is the author of Hell’s Belles, a story about a succubus who runs away from Hell, hides on Earth as an exotic dancer, and learns the hard way about true love. Sex, strippers, and demons⎯what's not to like? Contrary to popular belief, Jackie did not work her way through college by stripping. She did, however, offer to buy her husband a lap dance, all in the name of research. Jackie lives in upstate New York with her husband, two sons, two cats, and 9,000 comic books.
www.jackiekessler.com



Min Jin Lee went to Yale College where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She then attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York before leaving to write full time. She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. Her work has also been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts and anthologized in To Be Real (Doubleday, 1995) and Breeder (Seal Press, 2001). She lives in New York with her husband and son. Free Food for Millionaires, her first novel, will be published by Warner Books on May 22, 2007.



Samara O'Shea has been writing letters since the restless age of seven. She launched LetterLover.net in April 2005 to save the art from extinction. The website led to her first book For the Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing from the Elegant to the Erotic (HarperCollins, May 2007). Her work has also appeared in Woman's Day, Country Living, All You, and Pittsburgh magazine as well as the online magazines HappenMag.com and Hackwriters.com. She has appeared on Today in New York and on National Public Radio's the Kojo Nnambi Show.
www.letterlover.net



Jerry A. Rodriguez is writer and director whose plays have been staged Off-Broadway at the Actor’s Studio, The Nuyorican Poet’s Café and The Village Gate, among others. Rodriguez’s groundbreaking short film, El Deseo/The Desire, was produced under the sponsorship of Columbia Pictures and premiered at the prestigious Film Society of Lincoln Center. Rodriguez has a three-book deal with Kensington Books. His debut novel The Devil’s Mambo, is the first in the Nicholas Esperanza crime thriller series. He also has short stories appearing in the upcoming anthologies Darker Mask and Bronx Biannual 2.
www.jerryarodriguez.com



Dana Vachon was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, and raised in Chappaqua, New York. His first novel, Mergers and Acquisitions, was published in April by Riverhead. He attended Duke University, graduating, as he claims, "cum nihilo" in 2002. Following graduation, Vachon landed a job at J. P. Morgan as an analyst and began work on this novel. His writing has appeared in the International Herald Tribune, Men's Vogue, The New York Times, and Salon.