Sexting with Jake

FIRST by Jacob Louder – available 4/4/14! Click image for excerpt.

Jacob Louder’s literary porn novella, FIRST, launches tomorrow. Jake’s book is a radical porn utopia, and you shouldn’t read it unless you’re comfortable with young folks who are under the “legal age of consent” having powerful and connected sex with one another–sex that helps them to be and discover who they are. (Hats off here to Nabakov, who we pretty much idolize at GDP.) Anyhoo, I asked Jake to send me five texts–or “sexts,” if you will–explaining why he decided to write about kids having sex, in First. Here’s what he sent:

1. I’m continually impressed with kids who can identify who they are as sexual beings at such an early age. Even if they can’t identify who they are just yet, it seems like they’re more open to exploration and less consumed with labels. In First, I romanticized this idea. Everyone does what they want with people who want it, with no thought on the past or present. They all live in the moment. There is no shame. These kids are ideal human beings. If they were real, and if there were more of them–lots, lots more–the world could have the most loving, compassionate future.

2. I think I wrote First for me and for everyone else who came out young-ish in the early 90s. It was a completely different climate, with the HIV/AIDS crisis completely snubbed by the U.S. government, very full “closets” in almost every industry, city, and suburb, and not nearly as much representation in the media as there is today. There was no marriage equality. (I have to note, though, that in almost every way, my generation had it much better than the generations before me. I have to thank the love and fight in every single person, in every single activist, who ensured that my coming out and my young existence as queer wasn’t nearly as fucked up as theirs may have been.) At Nico’s age, I never thought I’d be happy with who I was. I thought that I’d have to figure out how to be heterosexual one way or another. I thought I was the only kid who felt the way I did. I had no role models (until I turned about 17 or so). So, Nico is the boy I wish I had been, living a very different life in a very different climate, and fully recognizing that love can be with anyone, as long as there’s honesty and respect. I’m living a bit vicariously.

3. Kids watch porn. Kids have sex. I’m sorry, Moms and Dads, but they do.

4. I think it was easy to write this young utopia because I see kids as being “romantically unblemished.” This isn’t to say that those of us over the age of 18 can’t live or don’t live like the characters in First. But when I think of wide-eyed openness and trust, I think of young humans, of anyone who hasn’t had their hearts ripped out of their chests, like most of us have, one way or another. It was important for me to have every heart on a sleeve. (Except for the case of Rory and John, but their “relationship” is another slice of life that I find kind of interesting to explore.)

5. I wanted to show young people as smart, grounded, and capable of significant amounts of kindness and intimacy. I wanted to show them as nonjudgmental and open and accepting of everyone and everything, as long as that everyone-and-everything are from places of love. I wanted to show them as better than us.

Thanks a million, Jake. I was so moved by your sexts. And folks, FIRST will be available on Friday 4/4/14. Can’t wait!

Shameless Behavior: Erotica Review from Mia Hopkins

We woke up to a delightful tweet this morning from Go Deeper author Mia Hopkins of Dirty Little Numbers fame, who has reviewed our erotic anthology, Shameless Behavior: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame. Her fabulous review opens like this:

“Sometimes kink feels like sex distilled, the depth of sexuality packed into a word, a gesture, a mood.”

With this line, contributing author Laurel Isaac distills the flavor of Shameless Behavior, a fantastic collection of short stories edited by Lana Fox and published by Go Deeper Press.    

Indeed, kink abounds.  In “Cutter” by Beth Wyatt, a Tom Hardy-esque MMA fighter with a penchant for domination meets a meek shopgirl who regularly retreats into the restroom with a packet of razors. “Stay” by Rion Woolf is a hot trans story about giving and receiving, big secrets and big surprises.  Isaac’s “Holding” is a tribute to watersports that ends in a fun crescendo… [read the full review.]

Incidentally, Mia also has a story coming out in Delilah Devlin’s Cowboy Heat (Cleis Press). Looks like a really fun anthology! Watch that space…

• Buy Shameless Behavior on Amazon.
• Buy Shameless Behavior on B&N.
• Buy Shameless Behavior from Go Deeper Press.

Sneak Preview of Laurel Isaac’s Holding

Coming this September!

This post is for adult eyes only.

Folks, it’s time for another quick preview of an erotic story from Shameless Behavior: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame. In Laurel Isaac’s “Holding,” two queer boys discuss watersports for the first time. As they talk, the narrator feels a wealth of emotions, including deep excitement and vulnerability. Here, she’s ardent about piss play, yet also remembers how she was once shamed:

I had a very kinky lover who was so disgusted by watersports that she would go into an exaggerated paroxysm of gagging every time it came up around kinky friends. She didn’t know about me, though I stopped thinking about it while I was with her.

But the desire always comes back. It’s so sharp, so immediate. I’m turned on before I know it, and I’m like, Is this okay? But then there’s the pleasure, blushing outward pleasure, and I’m like, This is good, very good. I think about women peeing while I’m inside them, gushing into my lap; a dyke being paddled by a ferocious top, so excited she just pees everywhere. Watching piss porn, it’s like my body was just meant to come. The excitement is so close to the surface. I barely have to do anything. I’m a magician floating her hand over the table and pulling the magnetic prop right along…

Thank you, Laurel. Now, this excerpt reminds me of the following:  I recently decided to stop browsing an erotic magazine because of the language they use when they state that they don’t accept watersports submissions. They say, in their guidelines, that they take such “violations” very “seriously.” That really pissed me off. (Pun intended.) But then, I thought of Laurel Isaac’s “Holding,” and I felt much better. And also pleasantly flushed. 

Because what sex activism is more delightful than art that turns us on?

Shameless Behavior: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame will be launched on Amazon on Monday September 30th, 2013, and will probably appear even sooner on the GDP site. To get the latest updates about the anthology, as well as freebies and deals, do sign up for our occasional newsletter (which comes with a free mini erotic e-book by Lana Fox!).

An Interview with Erotic Writer Beth Wyatt

Beth Wyatt, author of Cutter

You’re going to be really proud that you know who Beth Wyatt is. She isn’t new to publishiing her work, but she is new to publishing her erotic writing–and it’s quite beautiful. Look forward to her powerful, steamy “Cutter” in “Shameless Behavior: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame.” Now enjoy her interview, won’t you?

1. We’re thrilled that you have joined us at Go Deeper Press.  Your story, Cutter, is beautiful, not to mention steamy.  Anyway, why did you become an erotic writer? We’d love to know…

Back in high school, I used to write “erotic thrillers” and share them with my friends. They were all the same–some female journalist stumbles across some secret that threatens her life and has lots of sex with the handsome cop assigned to protect her. They were awful, but I had fun writing them. It was a naughty thing to do, and it was something that set me apart from my classmates. In short, I was a teenage pornographer! But for some reason, I drifted away from erotica and focused on other genres as I got older. I’ve only recently found my way back thanks to my good friend and erotica writer, A.D.R. Forte. She gave me a lot of feedback on my story “Cutter” and encouraged me to submit it to GDP.

2. Can you give us an idea of what your story in “Shameless Behavior” is about?

It’s about an unhappy young woman who uses physical pain to ease her own emotional suffering. That need embarrasses her, and she tries to keep it hidden until she has a chance encounter with an equally wounded young man who needs to hurt someone as badly as she needs to be hurt. It’s a bit dark and sexy, but I think sex is always better with a bit of darkness. I hope readers will think so, too.

3. Is erotic writing something you enjoy? If so, why?

“Cutter” is the first piece of true erotica I’ve written as an adult, and it virtually wrote itself, which is a rare thing for me. I tend to write more “mainstream” stories, but there’s usually a strong sexual component to them. I think sex is such an integral part of the human experience that you can’t avoid it, no matter what genre you write in.

As far as enjoying the experience of writing erotica goes, I think that will come in time for me. Right now I’m a little too self conscious and keep getting in my own way.

4. How do you think our world would be different if there was less sexual shame and more sexual pride?

Coming this September!

I think people would be happier in general. We externalize our shame and judge and punish other people who represent to us the parts of ourselves that we hate. By learning to love and accept ourselves, we learn to love and accept others. And if we’re no longer repressing our true sexual selves, we can have more and better sex. Who wouldn’t want that?

5. How do people respond when you tell them you’re an erotic writer? Do you have any stories about that?

Outside of my circle of writing friends, only my big sister knows. She’s a big fan of erotica, and she’s excited about my upcoming appearance in “Shameless Behavior.” I’m nervous about her reading my story for some reason, but I’ll get over it.

6. What advice might you give to a writer who wants to pen a great sex scene?

I really hate sex scenes where the writer just gives you a laundry list of actions the characters are performing without developing any emotional connection to the action. Sure, sex is a primal, physical act, but there’s a psychological component as well. For me, a well-written sex scene involves the brains and the hearts of the characters, not just their naughty bits.

Another thing, avoid weird euphemisms for sexual organs. Please no “love wands” or “squish mittens” or other weird phrases–unless they are in keeping with your character’s voice. If you’re free enough to write about sex, you should be brave enough to write about it clearly and plainly. Words like “pussy,” “dick,” “cunt” and “cock” are your friends.

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“Shameless Behavior: Brazen Stories of Overcoming Shame” will launch in September 2013. To keep up to date with the launch, and also receive a free erotic e-book by Lana Fox, join our mailing list! (We never share your email and we don’t bombard.)

Beth Wyatt still lives in the same small Virginia town where she was born and raised. She pens her stories late at night, surrounded by cats and death metal music. She is currently working on her first novel.