Persona: Dreamgirls, Mister Rights & the Disappointment of the Real
Anyone who hasn’t read Big Ed’s post, “On hunger for connection and the ‘outing’ of Alexa” should go and read it, because it’s a very honest piece on the desire for connection and why, in virtual spaces, we are so often disappointed. In his post, he says: “men (or at least many men) crave authentic […]
Rough Justice & the Internet
First, I want to warn readers and commenters on my last Alexa post that I have gone through my post and the comments left and redacted the name of the person who has been accused of pretending to be Alexa. If it offends you that I have redacted his name on your comment and you […]
The Execution of a Virtual Call Girl
I’ve been giving a lot of thought to the ‘outing’ of the net and twitter persona known as Alexa di Carlo. For those of you who don’t follow twitter, and have never heard of the Real Princess Diaries, Alexa was a person claiming to be a high-class callgirl. She tweeted and blogged about being one, […]
Mining Emotions
I’ve been watching the coverage of the Chilean miners being rescued and it’s made me ponder something. I don’t think I’m the only person who has felt torn while watching this. I’m very glad to know they are being rescued. I’m glad that in 2010, 33 men’s lives matter enough to bring together the funding, […]
So You Want to Write Erotica
I’ve received a lot of emails asking me about becoming an erotica writer and so I decided to post a specific email and show my response, mostly so I can just refer people to this page instead of repeating myself. The email below is paraphrased Hello, I’m an aspiring erotica writer. I’d like to know […]
Cafes & Graveyards
Recently, I’ve been spending a lot of time watching the living and the dead. London is an excellent place to observe either, or both. Like all very old cities, it’s more graveyard than metropolitan centre, since more people have died and been buried here than are currently living in the place. In graveyards and on […]
Sex Positive – A NSFW Rant
Upfront, I’ll admit it – I’m not all that visually oriented. I find language infinitely more erotic than images – probably because there is space in language for me to create my own mental imagery that suits me better. That said, there is certainly some visual porn that turns me on. And there’s a whole […]
Your Persona – Twitter Culture and Creativity
I’m slowly but surely honing down my area of interest for my PhD. I know it’s going to involve a creative project aspect and a critical piece. I’m incredibly intrigued by the possibilities of creating fiction for and on twitter. The challenge of writing on the fly, the performance art aspect of doing it real […]
The Erotica of Cruelty & Stories of the Body Without Organs
Recently, I’ve been reading a quite a lot of stuff by two French thinkers: Antonin Artaud and Gilles Deleuze. Admittedly, reading the French can be a chore (if you’re not French) not only because I get the feeling that often their translators had one hell of a time trying to translate the ideas and concepts […]
Writer as Reader & the Art of Critiquing
I get a lot of people sending me stories and asking me to read them and give them feedback. This is something I used to do frequently when I was an active member on the ERWA storytime list. It’s been more than a year since I’ve really participated and, although I do miss the give […]