Happy Bloody Halloween From GDP! (Plus, Some Gentle Reminders)

Photo courtesy of horrorbid.com

The idea was to post for all of you some sexy horror pictures to warm you up and get you through the creepy-crawlies of tonight’s festivities. The day has finally arrived! So shake the dust from your old Elvira dress or Riff Raff inspired top hat and enjoy today with all your might. And you know what? There are actually tons of sexy horror pictures available on the Interweb, so this endeavor of mine, I realized early enough, would take…oh…a good part of my day (this one’s a nice, gory place to start, however, courtesy of Cokacola151’s Photobucket page, or , um, “bucket,” maybe). But as minutes passed on to many minutes, and then to pushing an hour, I found this gem from TotallyNerdcore.com. Looks like Nerdcore’s sexy, horror-movie-themed calendars stopped back in 2010 (Why, nerds? Why?), but the good folks at horrorbid.com have forever captured some of the photos for us out of the kindness of their black hearts. Enjoy, won’t you, “Carol Anne” from Poltergeist all grown up, but still striking her famous hands-on-TV pose, albeit in a much more visually enthralling way. Or Psycho’s “Marion” bringing her new, modern-day heat in the shower, but with the same scary knife looming in the shadows.

Lana and I wish you high numbers of tricks and treats tonight. Enjoy the dark side.

Reminders about the Go Deeper Press calls for submission and our contest ending tonight at midnight E.S.T.: Our call for the upcoming Femme Fatale anthology and our Bishop and the Actress Twitter contest are ending tonight. Check out our submissions guidelines, you evil procrastinators, you! Don’t forget to hit “send” to submissions [at] godeeperpress dot com before you turn into a pumpkin.

Erotica for Horses

Jilly Cooper’s “Riders” was one of the first sexy novels that Lana ever read.

This morning, Angela and I were laughing at a ridiculous idea: a GDP anthology entitled Erotica for Horses.  Once we thought about this notion, however, it became just slightly less ludicrous.  After all, horses have often crossed paths with the erotic.  The  image of a naked woman riding bareback and feeling aroused by the horse between her legs has become a stock image — then there’s the sexual term “riding bareback,” which finds its roots in this very act.  What’s more, you can ride a lover “cowgirl style” or “whinny” when you’re aroused, or refer to someone being “hung like a horse.”

But why do horses and their riders so often inspire sexual terminology?  I wonder if it’s to do with the sheer power of horses — a power we attempt to tame, rein in, mount, and make our own.  Where there’s sexual fantasy, there’s usually power, and what contains more power play than the horse-human relationship?  In fact, we need only encounter kinky “pony play” to see how erotic this dynamic can be!  (If you’d like to know more about pony play, check out this very approachable post by blogger Lex at On a Magic Carpet Ride).  What’s more, in the day-to-day language of sex, we might “ride” one another, or appreciate the surge of “the inner beast,” or use a riding crop or stirrups during sexual play.  Plus, what looks freer and more empowered than galloping steed?  (As a writer, I did once compare the strength of a climax to the thundering of hooves. Mea culpa!).

But in spite of all this, Erotica for Horses isn’t likely to grace our shelves.  That said, we’re very open to pony play stories between kinky adults (why not?), and we humbly thank all horses for their linguistic contribution to our rich, erotic language.

Ride on.

Gay Stars, Femme Fatales, and One Big Hurricane

“Paper Stars” by Kate Ter Haar (Cedarville, MI)

At the Boston Book Festival this weekend, the Drum, a smashing audio magazine, published a string stories from local writers.  Mine, which is about a teenager who is made homeless when he comes out gay, is available in audio here — scroll down until you find “Stars” by Lana Fox.  (These pieces originally formed part of an audio tour at the festival, so it’s actually fun if you listen to them in order — but you don’t have to).

In other news, our Femme Fatale deadline is this Wednesday.  We’ve been hungrily shortlisting stories already and have many diamonds thus far, but there’s room for a few more gems if we find them.  (All we ask is that you remember our press is an erotic press, so we’re only looking for sexy reads).

And if you’re on the East Coast of America, our thoughts are with you as the storm rages.  In fiction, storms can be wonderful — nights in dark houses with only candlelight, and lovers who screw against walls that rattle while trees crash to the ground outside — but fiction and reality don’t always mesh.  In fiction, high stakes are fantastic.  In life, we often wish they were lowered…

Be safe, be sexy, dear readers.

Healing Erotica (Or Smut That Changed My Life)

I wrote a post for Spirituality & Health recently entitled “Healing Erotica,” in which I argue that erotic writing can be  therapeutic.  As a survivor of sexual trauma, I first took back my power when I started reading and writing erotica.  What many have dismissed as “smut” (and I’m thrilled to see us taking back that term!) has actually helped to heal my life.

The post speaks for itself, but I will add this:  You don’t have to have experienced sexual trauma in order to feel broken by sex.  In our society, lies about sex are used to shut us up, thwart our creativity, push us into powerlessness, silence who we are.  And as anyone who has suffered sexual difficulties will know, the social silence surrounding sex can make it hard to come out about sexual pain and receive the support we need.  After all, if you can’t talk about ecstatic sex, how on earth do you talk about sexual assault?

Erotica can give voice to us sexually, while also embracing us all as sexual beings.  Yet it has a reputation for being “frothy” and “superficial.”  Well, we’re not enemies of “frothy” at Go Deeper.  Frothy can be transformative too, and a helluva lot of fun.  But we also know how deep erotica can be.  Wanna explore how tying someone up can transform you?  Then you’ll adore Alison Tyler‘s novelette Those Girls.  Wanna consider how sexual longing can threaten to destroy us?  Then you’ll fall in love with Zoe More‘s paranormal Hunger.  And that’s not to mention the sublime talents of Georgia E. Jones, Abyssinia Grey, Maricia Verma, and a host of others who are publishing with GDP.

These stories are hot.  These stories are deep.

And that ain’t no contradiction.

Connecting With Your Darkness: A Musical Primer

The time is nearly upon us. It’s the one night, in the U.S., anyway, when most folks show their darker, scarier sides, without any apologies or disclaimers. Halloween, as far as I’m concerned, doesn’t come frequently enough. Why can’t there be four nights for streets to crawl with vampires and witches and Freddy Kruegers. Why can’t there be four nights for little neighborhood bastards to hide behind overgrown bushes in front yards, waiting to make little girls—their one night to be princesses in pink or purple, their one night to wear lipstick and a tiara—run screaming back into the arms of a parent.

Go Deeper Press is a fan of fear and darkness in erotica, in film, in everything. What’s more embracing than tapping in and connecting to what we hold back, what we keep down and hide? In honor of this, and in preparation of the Big Night, we decided to celebrate with a little music video darkness, in all its forms—from flat-out eerie to haunting and terrorized.

Did we miss one of your favorites? Well then, go on and include it in a comment!

Die Antwoord Fok Julle Naaiers

Aphex Twin Come to Daddy

The Knife Silent Shout

Tyler The Creator Yonkers

Fever Ray If I Had a Heart

Chelsea Wolfe Sunstorm

The Cure Lullaby

Sex with Candy

Halloween is approaching and, as a Brit, I am still getting used to American candy.  Thanks to Angela, I have now sampled an Almond Joy and a U.S. Milky Way (which, it seems, is almost identical to a British Mars Bar.  Who knew?).  So Angela has invested in a huge bag of Halloween candy for the local kids, while I’ve been browsing the internet for sex and candy.  You know.  As one does.  Occasionally.

Anyhoo.

Here’s what I found:  Cosmopolitan have an online feature suggesting imaginative ways of using candy during sex.  Given their readership, their language is rather heterocentric, but their great tips can easily be adapted no matter who you’re with or how you identify.  (Candy necklaces, yes!).  What’s more, if you’ve never read Steve Almond’s Candyfreak, please go and do so now.  You can find an interview with Steve about the book at 3am Magazine.  Here’s a snippet:

3AM: Your descriptions of eating candy and witnessing it being made border on sexual. Do you see a correlation between candy and sex?

Steve Almond: I certainly try to. After all, both are very primal sensual pleasures. They’re also frequently treated as forbidden pleasures. Part of this is basic: your folks don’t want you getting cavities, or, a little later on, getting pregnant. But a lot of this is really about how frightened we are, as a culture, of pleasure. We always have to make it something dirty and hidden. So one agenda of the book, in that sense, is to allow other freaks out of the closet.

Well said, Steve!

Do any of you have intriguing stories about sex and candy?  Or enticing ways of using candy in the bedroom?  For my part, I’m rather a fan of boxes of chocolates.  Praline kisses and warm, chocolatey fingers?  Dear goddess, please.

-L

Nudes by the Demarcheliers

Lui Wen photographed by the Demarcheliers

Browsing through Treats Magazine (which I found via TinyNibbles) I was enchanted by some of their beautiful, sexy photographs. For instance, Patrick and Victor Demarchelier, who captured the image to the left, show a poignant appreciation of the female nude.  Were they aroused by their models?  I don’t know, but I would imagine yes.  As I often say to my erotic writing students, it’s hard to create great erotic works if you don’t have the guts to turn yourself on.

Do check out the Demarcheliers’ other photographs in the current edition of Treats.

Modern Day Mermaid No. 3: Sexual Fantasy

Hey, everyone.  My next “Modern Day Mermaid” video takes a look at why sexual fantasies — including the darker ones — are so important for our health and wellbeing.

-Lana

The Natural Sex of Mapplethorpe (And One Big Bravo)

By Robert Mapplethorpe

This morning, Angela emailed me a gem from the New York Times.  For all LGBTQ folks and our wonderful supporters, the sun is beginning to shine more brightly in the U.S. of A.  This, from the NYT article by John Schwartz:

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that gay Americans are a class of people who deserve the same kinds of constitutional protections as many other victims of discrimination. 

The 2-to-1 ruling, by the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York, came as the panel struck down the federal law prohibiting federal recognition of same-sex marriage. It is the first time that a federal appeals court has applied this level of constitutional protection — known as heightened scrutiny — to those unions. The case is now considered by some legal scholars to be the leading candidate for a Supreme Court review of the same-sex marriage issue.

Well, what better way to celebrate this good news than with a tribute to legendary gay photographer and artist, Robert Mapplethorpe (1946-1989). As you can see from the photos we’ve posted here, this man saw profound beauty in sex and the body, and shared it with the world.  The light he casts on the human form, and the grace he recognized in all kinds of sexualities and genders, lives on well beyond his death.  And then, of course, he “did it with flowers” too — a true reminder that our own physiques are no less natural or valuable than that of the lily or tulip.  Mapplethorpe’s photos of unashamed BDSM go hand in hand with his shots of flowers in all their petals, stamens, and pollen-clad glory.

After all, erotic love, be it pleather-clad or naked, is as natural as stamen and stem.

Polymer Pussies Galore: Sex and Fantasy With a Fleshlight

Stoya with her two pussies. Photo courtesy of fleshlight.com

First I found Stoya, and then Tera Patrick, and then Asa Akira. There’s Nina Hartley, too. (Nina Hartley!) But the list doesn’t end here. There’s far more porn-star-famous, “Feel Real Superskin” for us all to consider, evaluate, and then select. When faced with the decision, which fantasy would you choose, courtesy of all of Fleshlight’s different available models?

It’s a fascinating business plan: a whole line of different cunts to fuck. Famous cunts, no less. Cunts and mouths and assholes. You can pick your poison! And unless you think this is just gross objectification in which those with penises can partake (I guess, non-penised folks, we could enjoy this, too, but I am thinking not nearly as much? Oh, maybe just as much!), consider Fleshlight’s proposal: Choose Your Fantasy. And what really warms me about this is that the focus moves from the parts—the polymer pussy and flesh cock, for instance—to the head. The way I see it, Fleshlight is encouraging the best part of masturbation: our imaginations. How and where would you fuck Tera Patrick? (In a bathroom stall at the AVN awards ceremony, after I walked by, her bent over at the sink, and she held my gaze in the mirror for just a moment too long.) How about Kayden Kross or—for gents who enjoy gents—any of the tasty twinks from the Bel Ami Boys line at Fleshjack?

Could the Fleshlight allow for other, non-solo-sex fantasies to be fulfilled? Absolutely. Why not have a threesome, a foursome with your partner. Okay, for some of you, this might sound insane, but why not? Visit the site and consider all the possibilities, the emotionally and physically safe encounters you could share together. We’re talking about sharing fantasies in ways that you may or may not have before. Since we’re fans of anything that helps sexual growth or healing, Go Deeper Press gives two thumbs up to this.