When I credited Hanne Blank with stirring the pot of media interest in chic lit? Well, I had a chance to attend her reading at Wesleyan University (where progressive thinking reigns) and it was wonderful. What a fine author she is and her work is so compelling that it’s re-energized my own writing — at [...]

Author/pornographer John Preston passed away. A one-time Advocate editor and creator of the uber-leather master Mr. Benson, Preston left us before protease inhibitors rendered HIV a chronic condition. His collection of essays, My Life as a Pornographer and Other Indecent Acts, was pretty seminal to my interest in writing pornography.* He was among those authors [...]

Quite a while ago, I had acquaintances who scoffed at the idea that Roe v. Wade wasn’t safe from a right-wing assault. I told them then that the ruling didn’t have to be overturned to be rendered weak, that there lots of ways existed to completely undermine the ruling. And now that’s coming to pass, [...]

A letter from editor/author Alison Tyler telling me that Heat Wave: Sizzling Sex Stories is hitting the stores is ample motivation for me to blog about my latest findings in the lit smut arena. But before I get on with it, let me just say that I’m pleased to be part of this anthology. I [...]

I assume you know not to attribute that quote to me, but I also thought it was aptly suited to the current state of the adult industry. Best of times? It’s still celebrating under a relatively unbridled free enterprise system. Worst of times? Ashcroft looming with, of course, the recent HIV blip giving religious fundies [...]

Interesting. Here I sit on a rainy spring day, listening to Ashcroft’s 9/11 testimony when this appreciation of the dirty joke crosses my radar. While the essay covers the gamut of dirty joke history, it leads in and out of that history by focusing on Gershon Legman, a lay scholar whose exceptional bibliographic knowledge of [...]

I’m encouraged that Ashcroft’s renewal of the porn wars has re-entered the notice of the mainstream — this time via blogs — but I’m also frustrated. Why? Because I’ve been saying since the inception of this blog that pornography’s legitimacy has always been tenuous. And that we were only one Republican Administration step away from [...]

But first an apology for blogging mid-week and not before. Certain sports broadcasts have commanded my time and attention over the last few days, namely those involving my alma mater. It went down in the history books last night and we’re waiting for what I hope will be a combined victory parade. Know what I [...]

Forget the latest incantation of a vibrator, lotion, or strap-on. My newest sex toys are upholstered and yesterday they got put to the test. The sofa’s great for your more typical positions, shared napping, and “oral lounging” — you figure it out — while the loveseat’s perfect for getting upended over its back. So how [...]