FIRST by Jacob Louder – available soon! Click image for excerpt.
Jake Louder’s FIRST is to be launched this April — and here’s the cover reveal. The cover, by the way, is by our talented Angela Tavares, who will soon be available for indie cover design services via our Here Booky Booky one-stop publishing shop (website soon!)
Read the opening of Jake’s FIRST here. FIRST is a porn novella, so, depending on your workplace, may be NSFW. It’s hot and daring from line 1.
Nabbed from the Sex Workers’ Opera blog – First Meeting Results (click image to get there).
Congrats to porn star Belle Knox for coming out! Knox, who paid for her Duke University education by taking part in erotic movies, wants to help sex workers—possibly by starting a foundation. This is such great activism that it makes us do whirlwind Snoopy dances. (And if you’ve never seen Angela doing a Snoopy dance, believe me, you are missing out.)
In the NY Daily News, Knox says, “I really enjoy sex, and I’ve always loved watching porn, so it just seemed like I could pay my way through college doing something I really love doing.” Awesome, hm? Read more here.
And what a great time to mention the Sex Workers’ Opera—a new and exciting project in London, that will give voice to sex workers via operatic performance. Talk about great activism that smashes cultural stereotypes!
Also, if you’d like to read our activist erotic collection Shameless Behavior: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame, starring fabulous writers such as Laila Blake, Sommer Marsden, Zoe More, and Stella Harris, among talented others, pop over to Amazon Kindle and purchase a copy. You’ll tickle us pink, if you do!
Bravo to all.
By Stephanie Diani
Thanks for checking in, folks, in spite of our recent silence. If you’re interested in what we’ve been up to, we’ve been publicizing our next sexual-spiritual, self-love Mermaid Voyage, which will be FREE to all women and women-identified folks, starting on Valentine’s Day. Pop on over to our website to check it out.
But here’s what we want to share today. Beautiful Aging Burlesque Stars Sit for Striking Portrait Series – a collection of gorgeous photographs by Stephanie Diani, via Bust Magazine. Anyone who is fed up with the tripe we hear about age and beauty will definitely enjoy these!
Be well, folks.
Photos by Gracie Hagen at Bust Magazine (click image for more)
Please go and check out Gracie Hagen’s nude photos at Bust Magazine. (We’ve raved about Hagen before — she’s such a hit with us.) Just from the two that are pictured here, you can see how Hagen is showing realistic beauty with stances that don’t feel “posed.” We need to see more of this kind of art in order to enjoy variety and truth in body and sexuality, and Hagen does it just beautifully. Let us know what you think!
Thanks for reading! Guzzle up our sexy reads at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Go Deeper Press (for all e-readers), and we’ll love you forever. You can also receive a free erotic e-book when you join our super-sensitive, sex-positive, freebie-gifting email list. Hearts.
LGBTQ Russia has powerful support right now. And Art is showing Putin exactly where to put it. (Also, is it an accident that Putin looks so good in make-up? We don’t think so…)
Poster from LGBTQ Pride in Russia 2012. (2013 is nowhere near the beginning of this fight.) Nabbed from UCL blog – click image for link.
Poster by Karol and Kate at brighton-pride.org (download the poster at the website – click pic!)
London Downing Street protest demanding that Pussy Riot members be freed, shows support for LGBTQ Russia. (Click pic for link.)
Outside Russian Embassy, Sweden. (Pic by Street Art Utopia. Nabbed from Salon.com – click pic for article.)
Found in front it the Russian consulate in Mariehamn, Åland.
Once again, we’re getting excited about erotic cover art. And this time, our culprit is Susie Bright‘s Best American Erotica 2004. Sadly, Best American Erotica doesn’t run any more, but will you look at those gorgeous buttocks? It’s clever that this photo is hot without being exceptionally explicit. I’m imagining that it would be displayed in many bookstores without much of a problem (famous last words from Ms. Fox!). And as you may know, if you’ve seen our cover for Zoe More’s Hunger (see below), we’re all about sexy body parts — the mouth included. Enjoy!
And here’s the cover to Zoe More’s Hunger — deep, hungry erotica coming soon from GDP:
More’s “Hunger” will be available in Dec, 2012
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.
By Rae Threat
I am a texture queen. No, really. What’s more sexy than the sensation of long silk gloves, or the bite of lace trimmings, or the tension of satiny rope? Fortunately, I’m not alone. Whether wet or dry, clasping or loose, old or shiny new, Rae Threat is making it hot in her photography. If you’re inspired by the photos we’ve posted here, please take a look at her tumblr and feast your eyes on more artistic gems.
Maybe my love of texture has inspired a love of burlesque. When I learned the art of burlesque dance with the ladies of Rogue Burlesque, one of the most intriguing things that they taught us was how to communicate texture — or, more specifically, our own textures. Running your fingers over your skin (or indeed your silky gloves) with relish quietly implies that you’re gorgeous to touch, plus if you hold your audience’s gaze as you do this, you easily suggest that they’d love to touch you.
And of course, when there’s a nipple involved, texture becomes even hotter. (Check out the images, my friends!).
By Rae Threat
Art by Nicholas Noisenest from noisenest.tumblr.com
Lana’s post on the importance of kissing in erotica and porn–and her mention of Zöe More’s soon-to-come short story “Possession,” especially–got me thinking. There was an artist I had come across not too long ago, and I don’t remember how or when. What I do remember is, for the first time in, I think, ever, I found myself scrolling down through a tumblr blog at such an amazingly slow pace just so that I didn’t miss one moment of Nicholas Noisenest’s amazing work. Like Zöe’s short, his art is dark, edgy, and challenging. It’s also sexy beyond compare.
I like art of all types that makes me just a little uncomfortable (that said, I also like art that makes me a whole lot uncomfortable). Whether it’s in the tone or composition, the subject matter, the captured motion or the implication, I like my brain set on high alert. I like an element of danger, a rough seduction. For me, Noisenest’s art captures all of this. For you, More’s short story will likely do the same.
Check out Noisenest’s tumblr blog, We Eat Our Young. You can also check out his Etsy store to bring some of his beauty and darkness right into your living room.
About nine or ten years ago, when I was still living in Britain, Jack Vettriano‘s prints were everywhere. The classic of his is the Singing Butler. It’s beautiful, but his sexier pieces draw me in more powerfully. There are few who communicate desire like Vettriano, or reveal such eloquence in terms of a kinky aesthetic. And with his sexier work, the viewer is usually peeping — a spy in the bedroom. Pretty kinky in itself.
Do you think he’d give Go Deeper Press some cover art? Oh come on, there’s no harm in dreaming, right?
A friend once reminded me that Vettriano was considered a “popular” artist. I asked him why this was important. “He’s scoffed at by ‘real’ artists,” said my friend, “but he’s laughing all the way to the bank.” I reminded him that I didn’t care about whether a piece was “popular” or “high art.” I’m a sex activist who not only loves erotica, but is pro-porn when everyone is consenting. In other words, I try to give classism the finger, focusing instead on craft and effect. Some say that erotica is higher class than porn, but of course there is some beautifully shot porn around and some pretty soulless erotica. Everything varies. Simple really.
As I said to my erotic writing class the other night, “Sometimes, I feel that ‘erotica’ is just a fancy way of saying ‘I’m a sex artist.'” But that doesn’t mean that someone who crafts porn isn’t just as committed a creator. When we hear that someone makes “porn” or “erotica,” we can respond: “The term that you choose doesn’t bother me. Just let me see your aesthetic.” Only after we’ve seen the work for ourselves do we have the right to rate it.
For folks who are using the terms “porn” and “erotica” in exciting and original ways, take a look at Blue Artichoke Films (their movie, Headshot, shows a man being given oral sex…yet we only see his body from the waist up). Also, I’ve recently heard of Natty Soltesz — I’ve yet to read his work, but when I researched him, I heard him refer to his work as porn. And according to a reader who I trust with my whole being, Soltesz crafts powerfully hot stories with great skill. I look forward to reading his work.
In the meantime, here’s some more Vettriano. Enjoy…
Post by Lana Fox
Go Deeper Press 