The July readers

This photo was taken by Stacie Joy, who has a set from the July 17th reading. There will be more soon, but wanted to get this adorable one up (Jeremy Edwards not pictured).


Back row: Scott D. Pomfret, Rachel Shukert, Samara O'Shea, Susan Wright.
Front row: D.L. King, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Anna David

Scroll down for their bios and links.

July 17th is the next In The Flesh

There are some serious snacks too, including chocolate peanut butter pretzels, dark chocolate covered pretzels, tortilla chips (blue corn and spicy), mini cupcakes, mini brownies, and lots more!

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
July 17th 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

In The Flesh features a range of authors, from erotic writers D.L. King, editor of Erotica Revealed, and Susan Wright (A Pound of Flesh) to letter lover Samara O’Shea (Note to Self, For the Lover of Letters), memoirist Scott Pomfret (Since My Last Confession), Jeremy Edwards, (Clean Sheets, F is for Fetish), novelist Anna David (Party Girl) and playwright/memoirist Rachel Shukert (Have You No Shame?). Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Spanked, Rubber Sex, Dirty Girls). 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, Tracie Egan, Stephen Elliott, Valerie Frankel, Polly Frost, Gael Greene, HoneyB, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Edith Layton, Logan Levkoff, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Dana Vachon, Veronica Vera, Susan Wright, Zane 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 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 Spanked, Rubber Sex, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma’am, Dirty Girls, and Best Sex Writing 2008. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmopolitan, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com



HarperCollins released Anna David's novel, Party Girl, in 2007, the same year that an essay of hers appeared in the Dutton anthology Girls Who Like Boys Who Like Boys. Harper Perennial will release Anna's second novel, Kept Waiting, in March of 2009. Anna is also the sex and relationship expert on G4’s Attack of the Show, appears every month on the Fox News cult favorite Red Eye as a cultural commentator, has been featured regularly on The Today Show, Hannity & Colmes, and Showbiz Tonight, and occasionally pops up on MTV News, VH1 and E. Her Sirius radio show on the Maxim channel, "Sex Files," is the network's number-one specialty show. A former magazine writer, Anna is now the dating columnist for the Women's Entertainment Network's website, wetv.com, as well as the Editor-in-Chief of musician will.i.am's political blog, Dipdive. She's written celebrity cover stories, first-person essays, and reported pieces for The New York Times, The LA Times, Vanity Fair, Cosmo, Redbook, Self, Stuff, TV Guide, Movieline, Women’s Health, Ocean Drive, Vegas, The Saturday Telegraph, Esquire UK, Teen Vogue, Variety, LA Confidential, Tatler (Hong Kong), Emmy, msn.com and Maxim, among others.
www.annadavid.com

Jeremy Edwards is a pseudonymous sort of fellow whose efforts at spinning libido into literature have been widely published online (at Clean Sheets, Good Vibrations, Erotic Woman, and other sites). Some of his many anthology trysts have occurred within the pages of A Is for Amour; F Is for Fetish; Got a Minute?; J Is for Jealousy; K Is for Kinky; Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 7; Open for Business; and Rubber Sex. Out on the newsstand, his lascivious prose has been seen in Scarlet. Jeremy's greatest goal in life is to be sexy and witty at the same moment—ideally in lighting that flatters his profile. Drop in on him unannounced (and thereby catch him in his underwear) at http://jerotic.blogspot.com

D. L. King is the founder and editor of the critical review site, Erotica Revealed. Her second novel, The Art of Melinoe, was published by Renaissance E Books last October. Her short stories can be found in several anthologies, some of the most recent being Best Lesbian Erotica 2008, Yes, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission and Yes, Ma'am: Erotic Stories of Male Submission. She is currently editing a new anthology for Cleis Press.
www.dlkingerotica.com



Samara O'Shea is an outspoken advocate on behalf of the written word. She is the author of the forthcoming Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits (July 2008) and For the Love of Letters: A 21st-Century Guide to the Art of Letter Writing. For more information or to order a letter that Samara will gladly write on your behalf, visit LetterLover.net.



Scott D. Pomfret is author of Since My Last Confession, an irreverent and lighthearted memoir in the style of Michael Moore’s Roger & Me describing three years of stalking the Archbishop of Boston during the Massachusetts same-sex marriage debate. Pomfret’s other works include Romentics gay romance novels, The Q Guide to Wine and Cocktails, and dozens of short stories.
www.scottpomfret.com www.sincemylastconfession.com



Rachel Shukert is an author, playwright, and performer. Her first book, Have You No Shame? And Other Regrettable Stories, was published in April 2008 by Random House/Villard. Rachel's plays include Bloody Mary, Johnny Applefucker, The Worshipped, The Red Beard of Esau, and Sequins for Satan have been produced and developed extensively throughout New York City, Massachusetts, and the Netherlands. She is currently starring in the live soap opera "Wasp Cove" which she co-creates and writes with Julie Klausner. She is also a co-founder of the theater group the Bushwick Hotel. Her writing has appeared in Nerve, Heeb, McSweeney's, and Babble, and featured in Best Sex Writing 2008 (Rachel Kramer Bussel, ed.), Best American Erotic Poems: 1800-present (ed. David Lehman) and The Future of Misbehavior (Chronicle Books) alongside Rick Moody, Douglas Rushkoff, and Will Self. She was born in raised in Omaha, Nebraska, and now lives in NYC with her husband and her cat.
www.rachelshukert.com



Susan Wright's latest erotic fantasy novel is A Pound of Flesh, the sequel to To Serve and Submit, published by Penguin Books. Susan is also the founder and spokesperson for the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom. She's written over 25 novels and nonfiction books on art and popular culture.
www.susanwright.info

My Spanked book trailer

This isn't directly related to In The Flesh, but I'm too excited not to sharethis. And on August 21st I'll be reading alongside several contributors to Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica, and will have copies available for sale July 17th and August 21st.

Update - Vimeo took it down (as did Flickr) so here's the YouTube version:



I'm so proud of this book trailer, I can't even tell you. Thank you to everyone who helped, especially Heidi for lending me her apartment and What That Noise Productions for your stellar camera and editing work. Many of the paddles used are by Leather Thorn Paddles. If you have a blog, I'd love it if you'd repost it. Below is the Vimeo version; we've also got it up on YouTube, Blip, Flickr, and MySpace. Thanks to Tubemogul for ease of distribution.


Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotic Book Trailer from Rachel Kramer Bussel on Vimeo.

Great writeup in New York Press

In The Flesh got a great writeup in the New York Press blog by Ashna Ali, who came to cover June's event...on her birthday:

Last month, I realized that I have by now lost the heeby-jeebies associated with pervy little boys. The time had come to dig my hands into the wide world of New York erotica that awaited spread-eagle at the appropriately named Happy Ending lounge at Rachel Kramer Bussel's "In the Flesh Erotica Series: LGBT Night." The next one takes place tomorrow (with free candy and cupcakes), and although it won't highlight girl-on-girl action in particular, it's sure to expose plenty of kinky secrets.

The small basement lounge was packed for the previous event with amorous gay and lesbian couples lining the bar, cliques composed of various gender and sexual identities and a group of nervously pacing men, obviously tourists to things overtly sexual and LGBT. No pervy little boys in sight. To celebrate the happy, healthy, slippery sex that was about to be described in loin-tingling detail, the tables offered free candy and delicious chocolate cupcakes...

I left with a tingle in my spine I simply couldn't shake, seeds planted for a flurry of possibilities. Isabel Allende wrote in Aphrodite, her memoir about food and sex, "For women, the best aphrodisiacs are words. The G-spot is in the ears. He who looks for it below there is wasting his time." A friend who accompanied me asked, "So, is it time for this little Catholic school girl to head to a bookstore?" Oh yes. And make a phone call or two perhaps.

Read the whole thing

Samara O'Shea's must-watch Note to Self book trailer

I've had the wonderful Samara O'Shea at In The Flesh twice now, both times to rousing applause as she read naughty letters (watch one appearance here).



In this book trailer (via Galleycat) for her wonderful new book Note to Self: On Keeping a Journal and Other Dangerous Pursuits, she dishes about an ex and why journaling is so important. Comedy fans, be sure to watch for a standup cameo. And please come out July 17th to hear Samara tell us something dirty about journaling.

August 21st lineup and book trailers

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
AUGUST 21st 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

Summer heats up as In The Flesh celebrates the release of host Rachel Kramer Bussel’s latest anthology Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica, with readings from contributors M. David Hornbuckle, Andy Horwitz, and Madlyn March. Also featured are novelist Jessica Anya Blau (The Summer of Naked Swim Parties), comedian and playwright Julie Klausner (Wasp Cove), erotic poet Monica Day (host of A Taste of Sex) and filmmaker Tony Comstock. Copies of Spanked will be available for sale and the book trailer will be shown. Hosted and curated by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Spanked, Rubber Sex, Dirty Girls). Free candy and cupcakes will be served.



Jessica Anya Blau's debut novel, The Summer of Naked Swim Parties, was recommended summer reading in The New York Post, New York Magazine, and The Today Show. She has published over twenty-five short stories and optioned a screenplay. Currently, she is teaching at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore where she graduated from The Writing Seminars.
www.jessicaanyablau.com/



Rachel Kramer Bussel’s most recent edited anthologies include Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica, Rubber Sex, Dirty Girls, Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma’am and Best Sex Writing 2008. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and wrote the popular Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Cosmopolitan, Gothamist, Mediabistro, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out New York and Velvetpark. She also co-edits the cupcake blog Cupcakes Take the Cake.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Tony Comstock came to New York City in the early 90’s as a journeyman commercial photographer and advertising copywriter. In short order, New York City decided his talents were better suited to film and video, and over the course of the next dozen or so years he directed films for Fortune 500 companies, international relief agencies, and circled the world several times on both commissioned and self-financed documentary projects. In 1995 he and his wife Peggy began shooting experimental erotic shorts that were to become the conceptual and technical foundation for Comstock Films. When not shooting or editing he enjoys spending time with his family and splashing in the sea. His sixth erotic documentary feature, Bill and Desiree: Love is Timeless, is slated for release in early Winter '08.
http://www.comstockfilms.com

Monica Day wears many hats: entrepreneur, mother, writer and poet, performer, coach, trainer, and community leader. Her new online publication, The Sensual Life, features erotic writing and ideas about how to infuse your day-to-day life with more intimacy, sensuality – and yes, raw, hardcore sex. She is a sensuality coach who works with both couples and individuals. She also hosts “A Taste of Sex,” an erotic poetry open mic night at the OneTaste Urban Retreat Center in New York on the first Wednesday of every month.



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 was 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

Andy Horwitz is a writer/performer/producer in NYC. He has performed his comic monologues and spoken word pieces to sold out houses all over New York in such venues as P.S.122, Dixon Place and Here Arts Center. His writing has appeared frequently at Nerve.com, Heeb Magazine and other outlets. In 2005 he ran for Mayor of NYC, a campaign which is documented in the film The Promise of New York. He is the founder and editor of Culturebot.org.

Julie Klausner is a comedian, writer and actor whose writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Magazine.com, and Salon. Her TV credits include TV Funhouse on Saturday Night Live and The Big Gay Sketch Show on LOGO, and, with Rachel Shukert, she's the creator and co-star of Wasp Cove, the monthly live soap opera, Season Two of which returns in October. She recently sold a memoir, I Don't Care About Your Band, to Penguin, scheduled for release in Spring 2010. Her website is, predictably, julieklausner.com.


Madlyn March is the pseudonym of a writer whose work has appeared in the anthology First-Timers, Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica, Black Table, AfterEllen, AfterElton, Complete Woman, The New York Post, Time Out New York, and others.

And a bonus - book trailers for The Summer of Naked Swim Parties and The Salvation of Billy Wayne Carter respectively.