Erotic writing panel this Saturday 12/1 at noon

This is not related to my reading series directly, but it does share the same name and features me moderating, and 3 panelists who have all read at In The Flesh. And it's free! Part of the New York Center for Independent Publishing's 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair. Click here for the full two-day schedule.



12:00pm-12:50pm
In the Flesh: Writing and Publishing Erotica
Learn how to break into the rapidly growing erotica genre, including short stories, novellas, and how to incorporate sex scenes into longer works of fiction. Learn what makes for quality erotica, where to submit your work, joining online critique groups and professional sites, and about the various subgenres of erotica, including erotic romance. Moderated by editor and writer Rachel Kramer Bussel, with authors Polly Frost, Tsaurah Litzky, and Sofia Quintero.

The 20th Annual Independent and Small Press Book Fair takes place on Saturday, December 1st and Sunday, December 2nd, at the New York Center for Independent Publishing (an educational program of The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen), at 20 West 44th Street in New York City. With over 100 cutting-edge presses from the U.S. and abroad, exhibiting some of the most innovative books in contemporary literature, the Book Fair is classified amongst the most notable independent publishing events of the year. Admission to the Fair is FREE and open to the public, although a suggested donation of $1 is encouraged.

Group photo

From November 15th's True Sex Confessions NIght at In The Flesh.



L to R: Isobella Jade, Lux Nightmare, Kimberlee Auerbach, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Anna David. Rachael Parenta.

Not pictured: Selina Fire.

Photo by Brian Van

More True Sex Confessions on YouTube

Photos from November's In The Flesh are coming soon, too. Now, in addition to the video of Lux Nightmare below, we have more, all shot by Richard Blakeley. Below, in order, is me (Rachel Kramer Bussel), Anna David (reading from her novel-in-progress), Kimberlee Auerbach (reading from her memoir The Devil, The Lovers and Me: My Life in Tarot), Isobella Jade (Coming soon! I'm trying to figure out the problem with this one - on being a nude model), and comedian Rachael Parenta (on blowjobs and figuring out what it means when a guy asks you to come over for "tea"). For those who are wondering, Selina Fire asked not to be filmed. Enjoy! And if you like them, please favorite and rate them well.

Next In The Flesh: December 20th

There are also some other special events coming up, including December 29th's Crossdressing: Erotic Stories book party, my December 1st panel on writing erotica, and the December 14th book party for Sex and Candy: 22 Succulent Stories (with free cupcakes!). Stay tuned for details.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 20th at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey or F/V to 2nd Avenue, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676

Celebrate the sexy holiday spirit with erotic writing from Judy McGuire (How Not to Date), Abiola Abrams (Dare), M. David Hornbuckle (The Salvation of Billy Wayne Carter), Marcelle Manhattan (Sexegesis), Topaz (Prometheus magazine), and Molly X reading erotic haiku. Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2008, He’s on Top, She’s on Top). Door prizes include copies of Alison Tyler’s Naughty or Nice: Christmas Erotica Stories. Free candy canes and 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, Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne PortnoySofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised by Dr. Ruth. This is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.

Abiola Abrams is the host of BET’S The Best Shorts. A writer and filmmaker who gives motivational talks, her artistic films, ranging from edgy 'chick flicks' to socially conscious docs, investigate the themes of gender, race and empowerment. The goal of all of Abiola's work is to use pop culture entertainment to inspire: politically, emotionally and sexually. Abiola's writing is featured in the anthology A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer by Eve Ensler. Her first novel, Dare, was recently published by Simon & Schuster. Abiola has BFA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
www.thegoddessfactory.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 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited numerous anthologies, most recently Best Sex Writing 2008, Hide and Seek, Crossdressing, He’s on Top and She’s on Top. 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

M. David Hornbuckle is a full-time writer and musician, originally from Birmingham, Alabama. His fiction has been published in McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Isms, Peek, Air in the Paragraph Line and Astarte. His novella The Salvation of Billy Wayne Carter will be published as an e-book by Cantarabooks in October 2007. Hornbuckle now lives in NYC where he is finishing up a novel and is the leader of the M. David Hornbuckle Dixieland Space Orchestra.
www.mdhornbuckle.net

Marcelle Manhattan is the author of the popular new blog Sexegesis, which combines fetish erotica and sexual politics. Since starting her blogging career in September, Marcelle has received both critical acclaim and media attention. She will publish her first short story, "Second Date," in an upcoming anthology edited by Susie Bright. Marcelle holds a Master's degree in literature and almost received her Ph.D., but was saved by a desire to write smut in New York City and run around wearing a lot of vinyl.
sexegesis.blogspot.com

Judy McGuire writes a sex and love advice column called Dategirl for the Seattle Weekly. She recently had an essay entitled “Cohabitatiion Hesitation” published in the anthology, Single State of the Union, and is ecstatic to announce that her new book, How Not to Date, is being published this January. Remarkably, though she interviewed scads of people, nobody has yet to come close to beating her tale of the worst date ever.
www.dategirl.net



Topaz is multi-talented, being primarily a cabaret singer/performance artist, who recently ventured into performing as a serious (yet comedic) actress. She is also a writer, proof-reader/editor, and sex educator. In her "spare time" Topaz works at Miss Vera's Finishing School for Boys Who Want to be Girls, as the first Dean of Night Life. She recently had a short story published in Prometheus, the magazine of The Eulenspiegel Society, which won Third Prize in their submissive literary contest. The title is “Stranger Than Fiction,” and she will read it at In The Flesh.

Molly X is a writer and editor who lives in the swinging borough of Queens. For the past year, Molly X has been writing reviews of the latest tech products. In haiku form. Since then, she has found the 5-7-5 rhythm slowly taking hold of her daily life. A recent In the Flesh reading awakened the erotic haikuista struggling to free herself from the straitlaced journalist, and inspired a number of very sexy, minimalist poems, which we'll hear tonight.

Lux Nightmare on play piercing at True Sex Confessions Night

I'll have more videos and photos from last night's awesome True Sex Confessions Night at In The Flesh, but wanted to put this up for now. Shot by Richard Blakely of Lux Nightmare talking about play piercing. Lux is also the co-author of a piece, "The Pink Ghetto (A Four-Part Series)," which I'm publishing in Best Sex Writing 2008, out in early December.



Here's what blogger Tess D of Urban Gypsy had to say about Lux's piece:

Damn Lux Nightmare.

I don’t really know this woman, nor, to my shame, have I kept up with her site, Boinkology.com, but after her reading last night at In the Flesh, I fear she has planted an evil seed in my brain. Now, the way my mind works is once an idea gets in there, I can’t rest until I follow it through. What idea did she make sound so fucking super hot, intimate and arousing? Oy vey. Get ready. Needles. Piercing. Play piercing. I am so fucked.

Filled with erotic imagery, Lux read a piece that hypnotized me with its passion and beauty. Her delivery made it clear she was transported back to that first time as she read and she took me along with her. She talked about the needle piercing her flesh, penetrating her, how it hurt - but not so much, how it aroused her and made her feel connected to her lover. Damn, damn, damn. Writing this is making me hot. This feels so wrong, and yet, so insanely right. I’m lucky though, I guess. I don’t know a soul (well I know one, but he’s sadly unavailable to my debauched desires) who I’d trust to stick a needle in my tit.

Previous True Sex Confessions on YouTube

To get you psyched for Thursday's True Sex Confessions, where we have a fabulous lineup (see post below), lots of snacks and candy, and some leftover copies of Colette Gale's debut novel Unmasqued: An Erotic Novel of the Phantom of the Opera, here are some previous clips from True Sex Confessions Nights. We'll also be taping this one and I'll have it up on YouTube, and here, ASAP. Below are me reading from my essay "Where Sluts Fear to Tread," then Lianne Stokes on losing her virginity at the age of 30 and Courtney McLean.

Next In The Flesh: Thursday, November 15th!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
TRUE SEX CONFESSIONS NIGHT
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 15th 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

True Sex Confessions are back, with a wild mix of memoirists, sex bloggers, and comedy. Audience members will have the chance to anonymously share their own confessions as well. With Anna David (Party Girl), Kimberlee Auerbach (The Devil, The Lovers & Me: My Life in Tarot), Selina Fire (author of the blog The Real Sex in the City), nude model and memoirist Isobella Jade (Almost 5’4”), altporn pioneer Lux Nightmare (Boinkology.com), and comedian Rachael Parenta (Chicks and Giggles). Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing 2008, He’s on Top, She’s on Top). Free candy and 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, Mo Beasley, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne PortnoySofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from the New York Times’s UrbanEye, Escape (Hong Kong), Flavorpill, The L Magazine, New York Magazine, Philadelphia City Paper, Time Out New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette, and has been praised 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 100 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited numerous erotica anthologies, most recently Hide & Seek, Crossdressing, He’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Male Dominance and Female Submission, She’s on Top: Erotic Stories of Female Dominance and Male Submission, and the non-fiction collection Best Sex Writing 2008. 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



Kimberlee Auerbach is a writer and storyteller who has performed her comedic monologues throughout New York City at venues such as The Original Improv, The Kraine Theater, and The Bitter End. Her one-woman show played to sold-out houses at the New York International Fringe Festival, and she has competed in several Moth GrandSLAM Championships. Her memoir, The Devil, The Lovers & Me: My Life in Tarot, was released by Dutton on August 2, 2007. Get more information or become her friend at www.myspace.com/kimberleeauerbach.
www.kimmiland.com



Anna David has written celebrity cover stories, first-person essays, and reported pieces for The New York Times, The LA Times, Vanity Fair, Playboy, Cosmo, Premiere, Parenting, Us Weekly, Razor, Redbook, Self, Details, Stuff, TV Guide, Women’s Health, Teen Vogue, Variety, The New York Post, LA Confidential and Maxim, among others. She’s been quoted in newspapers and magazines across the country. In addition to answering viewers’ sex and relationship questions on G4’s Attack of the Show, Anna appears regularly on Today, Hannity & Colmes and Showbiz Tonight (CNN). She has also been featured on various other shows on Fox, NBC, MSNBC, ESPN, MTV News, CNN, E!, and VH1. An essay of hers appeared in this summer's Dutton anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys and she produced the reality television pilot of her Playboy story "Sex and Two Cities" for TBS. Party Girl, which was released in May, 2007 from HarperCollins, is her first novel. The book is being translated into Russian and Italian and Sony Television has bought the television film rights. Anna's second novel, Kept, is in the process of being sold now.
www.annadavid.com



Selina Fire is a lifelong New Yorker whose passion is sex. She is a writer, sex-positive activist and organizer. She writes for Penthouse Forum, and blogs her purely prurient Sex in the City: The Real Version, at selinafire.blogspot.com.

Isobella Jade started off as a muddy sneaker-wearing, upstate Cross Country runner and became a nude model by age nineteen, and then grabbed her bootstraps posing for magazines and ad campaigns such as Conde Nast, Stuff magazine, Women's World, Univision, MTV, Braun Razor and Marshalls, and then became an author regardless of grammar in her memoir Almost 5'4": Confessions of an Unconventional Model, all before she was 25 years old. She has been featured on Gawker, Media Bistro, Mac Life magazine, Page Six, Advertising Age and Yahoo!, and is a wizard of self promotion and yet she is always the girl next door with coffee stained jeans and wobbling in her highest heels no matter the weather, and always gives the homeless singers on the 2 train a dime or dollar when she has one.
www.isobelladreams.com



Lux Nightmare has been obsessed with the Internet since 1994, obsessed with computers since 1987, and obsessed with sex since 1982. Career highlights include founding and running That Strange Girl (the first altporn site to feature both male and female models), interning at Nerve (back when it was cool), and keeping the masses educated about sex for the past ten years. She currently serves as editor of Boinkology.com, a blog about sex and culture.
www.boinkology.com



Rachael Parenta recorded her cell phone voice mail message in the third person. Some people say that is crazy. However no one has complained about her bio being composed in the 3rd person. Apparently that is perfectly socially acceptable. A number of people have suggested that Ms. Parenta found the courage to challenge social norms at Emerson College where she earned a B.F.A. in Performing Arts. Others feel that’s just the way stand-up comedians, such as Rachael, behave. Who knows? But, the third person seems to work for Rachael Parenta as she has performed her stand-up all over the country, contributed Gawker.com, had several plays produced, and appeared on the Richard Simmons Show in 1983.
rparenta.blogspot.com

Michelle Mulligan and Elisha Miranda from August's In The Flesh

More video, this time from August (I know we're on a bit of a delay), this time I've got Juicy Mangos editor Michelle Herrera Mulligan reading along with Elisha Miranda, who's reading from her super hot story "A Kiss from Lares." Each are in 2 parts and were shot by Jasmine Colon of Sister Outsider Entertainment.