9/18/14

Years ago, while still a girl of sixty, I decided that the bigger the birthday the more celebration it required. Consequently, with September being my birth month and with my big day fast approaching, I’ve just returned from a weeklong vacation at a Palm Springs B&B, spent with my husband, sons and grandson, a dear family friend, and our dog. I’ve been there many times before, but the place — lush with Bougainvillea, dotted with fruit trees, and set near the base of a snowcapped mountain — still takes my breath away every time. This trip was a complete change of pace for me. I loved every minute of it, even when gasping from the heat and unaccustomed humidty. It reained on the third day of our visit. I haven’t experienced a storm in Palm Springs before. It was wonderfully dramatic, with a darkening sky, rumbles of thunder, and vivid pink Bougainvillea petals blowing in the wind. Erotic weather, I thought.

The family dynamic was remarkably mellow — attributable in part to the miracle of air-conditioning in our cool, comfortable suite, and to the exquisite pleasure of the swimming pool, not twelve steps from our door. Fully in relaxation mode, I didn’t write a word the whole time, but did formulate some thoughts on how I might best present my nearly completed book, PERFECT STRANGERS: One Woman’s Journey Though The Swinging Seventies, to a publisher.

And now, home again, my month-long celebration continues in a different vein — the long awaited book launch party for Sex Still Spoken Here, the newest anthology I’m in. This event will take place next Wed evening, 9/24, at San Francisco’s Center for Sex and Culture (CSC), at 1349 Mission Street, between 9th and 10th. A big shout-out to the book’s editors, Dr. Carol Queen, Jen Cross, and Amy Butcher, who have worked tirelessly to put together his eclectic collection of delghtfully smutty stores and poems from the Center’s monthly Erotic Reading Circle (ERC). Also included in the anthology is a discussion by our editors on how to establish similiar reading circles in other cities, thereby promoting more high quality smutty writing  in the world — a great idea, seems to me.   

I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing a new piece in print, and will be at the launch to read from my story, The Gambler. This one is a semi-autobiographical tale, based on my long ago meeting with a sexy man with a big cock and a sense of humor — a man among men, who managed to make me laugh and come, during the same hot encounter. I’ll be reading along with some talented writers and performers at CSC, and am honored to be among them.

Please come and listen to us. Buy a book. Join the celebration.

---