It was a “holiday in other people’s misery.” (at least when outside the sanctuary of London Boy’s house). And back, I seem to be busy as usual, but it’s not the kind of busy that’s resulting in income, which is something I’m going to have to give more serious thought (especially when the credit card bill from my uber-costly UK trip shows up). And the way I’m feeling about the sex book biz, I’m looking at going back to working in a cafe with romance in my eyes, even if in the past two days I’ve done interviews with the Chicago Tribune, Wired, the Wall Street Journal… Starbucks *does* have benefits for part-time workers… I mean seriously — I’m shopping for an agent right now, and with as many books as I’ve sold, and top ten sales lists my books live on, I got this response from a mainstream agent today:
“I’m going to be frank with you and let you know that personally, I love this kind of stuff, but I know that it would never fly with the particular agency I work for … I wish I could recommend an agency that is hipper and more open to what you do, and if I can come up with one, I’ll let you know.”
In other words, welcome to the insanely popular sex writing ghetto. I have six contracts waiting to be signed and more offers. What the fuck do these lit business people think is going on in sex writing these days? That attitude is so dead.
More stuff on my mind:
* Tomorrow night I’ll be on a bloggers’ rights panel for the EFF here in San Francisco (7pm).
* New podcast: Open Source Sex 14, where I rant about iTunes and sex podcasts, talk about London and read erotica.
* Don’t miss my last two columns for SFist, Fantastic Foreskin and Porn by the Bay (the latter I wrote on my laptop in SFO).
* While I was gone, stuff kept happening at home. Which totally ruins my theories about reality only happening when you notice it. The big thing that happened was that iTunes yanked a bunch of adult podcasts (mine included; you can get all the details in my latest podcast). They relisted it fairly quickly, only because friends and colleagues made noise about it in blogs, which is awesome and amazing. And I know that iTunes would never have responded to any of our complaints, nor would they ever consider adult podcasts a viable, respectable medium that anyone might want to actually listen to. I mean, they’ve got most of us in the “health” ghetto, as sex could *never* have its own “entertainment” category, because sex is either dirty and evil or clinical and medical. Right? Again with the outdated attitudes about sex. Anyway, these posts got my (according to my podcast host 280,000 subscribers and growing) podcast re-listed in iTunes: iTunes Prudery: The iTipper, Flap over adult podcasts and iTunes, Sexy Podcasts on iTunes. Still dropped from iTunes are: Gay Sexcapades, MXL: Spice Up Your Sex Life and Rubber Canada.
* I’ll be in New York on the last weekend of this month — for fun! I’m determined to have a good getaway this summer, and the delightful Tony Comstock is letting me crash in his apartment so my budget won’t get crushed; even more exciting is that I’m going to NY with Extra Action, and they have lots of crazy/fun gigs planned. It’ll be a trip chock full of rubber panties, sock garters and huge eyelashes — I’ll also be doing an in-studio appearance on the Derek and Romaine Show on the 29th; I’ll post details when they’re final if you want to listen in and hear me try to get spanked on the air…
I have to blog about the wonderfulness of San Francisco for a minute. Coming home has been full of perspective and release. I actually cried in my yoga class on Friday, which sounds really yuppie and lame, but felt really fucking good, like a total release and appreciation for everything I have, however fleeting, and the beauty I’m finding in moments that are so great they just can’t be held onto. The art of release, just like archery (I do shoot a bow and arrow though haven’t in a while). I’m even glad for all the difficulties I’ve been dealing with lately, as they seem to be showing me where I need to stretch a little bit more. On saturday Hornboy and I woke up and went to the Farmer’s Market, where we got coffee and croissants and sat on the pier, looking around the bay and back at the “Port of San Francisco” letters above the Ferry Building. We spent hours snacking and buying fruits and vegetables from local farmers.
Then we meandered home, where we made afternoon cocktails and put all the produce and fresh bread into a picnic basket and headed off to Golden Gate Park. We spread out a packing blanket I stole a few SRL shows ago and sat in the trees, on grass and little tiny white flowers, along a secluded stretch of winding duck pond. For a few minutes a couple and a photographer wandered through out little corner of bliss, taking their engagement photos. We sipped Campari and soda with lemon, and nibbled on everything in and out of the picnic basket. At one point, I even took dessert in the form of a quick and nasty blowjob while Hornboy writhed on the blanket — a very daring thing for me, to do this in public. A first. Such a huge turn-on, too; but how can a girl resist seeing a nice hard knob in a pair of pants and not want to take a sample? A girl just can’t.
That evening we went to see my friends at the Fire Arts Festival, which is a great and lame thing all rolled into one experience. The fire art sculptures are incredible, but sadly the festival and Burning Man are the same thing, so you see really cool fire art but have to deal with snotty boho hippies and clowns. Plus, you know they’re all these rich posers because it’s like $75 to get in. We snuck in, and it was as easy as being totally ignored by staff and security at the door. So rude; we stood for several minutes (I thought I might be on the guest list, was planning to talk my way in, I don’t have that kind of money to *burn*) and waited, and waited… and just blended into the crowd, split up for a minute, then found each other again. Highlight: meeting Monochrom, who I’ll go see do their Dorkbot on wednesday night. Highlight 2: seeing my friend Rosanna’s incredible fire and metal sculptures in real life (she’s also an SRL grrrl).
Anyway, my friend’s pictures are cool.
