Why What I Write is Not Erotica

IMG_3463A few weeks ago I submitted my story ‘For a Few Dollars More’ to Ether Books. The story tells of a young prostitute’s interactions with two very different customers, and deals with a very intense non-consensual scenario. Filling out my submissions form I automatically ticked the ‘Erotica’ box. Due to the fact that my story depicts graphic, explicit sexual interaction, this decision was made by default: I assumed that because of the content the ‘Erotica’ genre would not only represent the sex in the story, but also stand as something of a warning for those who did not want to stumble across explicit passages by mistake. However, later that day I received an email from Helen Fleming at Ether Books asking Continue reading

Posted in Ether Books, Literary Forms, Personal Experiences, Published fiction, Writing/Writing Exercises | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Abercrombie & Fitch, Burlington Gardens, Saturday 30th March 2013, 2.00pm

If it wasn’t for the hoards of people pouring in and out of the front doors of Abercrombie & Fitch on Burlington Gardens, clutching their monochrome paper bags in their gleeful hands, the building would have appeared fairly inconspicuous. Grand, beige stone, it fit in well with the master tailors whose shops looked almost closed just around the corner. But the young adults on the street outside gave the place away.

My curiosity piqued, I followed my friends through the double doors and even smirked a little as two beautiful young things greeted us. Too slight to be security, the entirety of their job was, apparently, to welcome the thousands of consumers who made it through those doors each day. I lowered my eyes, uncomfortable with the smiles they shone at us. Directly ahead was that ever famous torso, twenty feet high, evidently all the store needed in the way of logos. I even laughed as I noticed, standing before this giant image, a young man – perhaps my own age – the front of his grey hoody and red checkered shirt open to display his own ripped chest and stomach. At his side, safe in the casually slung crescent of his arm, was a plain looking girl, grinning at the camera whilst he smoldered above her. Continue reading

Posted in Kink, Fetish, BDSM & Other Transgressive Sexualities, Life Lessons, Personal Experiences, Philosophy, Politics, & Society | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

e[lust] #44

pea

Photo courtesy of Plumptious Pea

Welcome to e[lust] - The only place where the smartest and hottest sex bloggers are featured under one roof every month. Whether you’re looking for sex journalism, erotic writing, relationship advice or kinky discussions it’ll be here at e[lust]. Want to be included in e[lust] #45? Start with the newly updated rules, come back April 1st to submit something and subscribe to the RSS feed for updates! Continue reading

Posted in e[lust] | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Published by Sweetmeats Press: Strummed

Strummed - coverAbout a year ago I met Kojo Black. In fact, he was introduced to me in the ‘salubrious confines’ of the Green Carnation in Soho, at Erotic Meet. If memory serves, he bought me a G&T, and listened to me talk. He was looking for voices to read the stories in his collection, Sun Strokes. A month or so later, I was in a small recording studio in Stoke Newington, reading The Chalet, and discussing the possibility of writing for a forthcoming anthology with a musical theme.

I don’t remember much of what I did during the Summer of 2012, but it would seem that I spent quite some time writing ten thousands words of a rather salacious story about sex and jazz in midnight London.

Strummed, the new collection from Sweetmeats Press, contains five stories written by five different authors – Amélie Hope, B.Z.R Vukovina, Percy Quirk, Stella Harris, and Harper Eliot – which all contain, in some way or another, a musical theme. Continue reading

Posted in News, Published fiction, Writing/Writing Exercises | Tagged , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Dirty thoughts from the back of the room

Dirty thoughts from the back of the roomThe Eroticon 2012 Anthology, titled ‘Dirty thoughts from the back of the room’ is now available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

It is a collection of micro-fiction, edited by Ruby Kiddell, and featuring the work of Lori Smith, Aisling Weaver, Heather Day, Kay Jaybee, Blacksilk, Janine Ashbless, Mina Lamieux, Molly Moore, and myself. It’s just a little thing, but full of teasing fantasies, and lascivious thoughts to keep close at hand.

My story – Neat Little Rows – is extremely atypical for me, but hopefully it will still tickle you in the right ways. A very interesting piece for my first published story, if you ask me.

Posted in Eroticon, News, Published fiction | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Aural Sex, in review

Aural Sex at Eroticon 2013A few months ago Ruby asked me to organise a reading event for Eroticon 2013. It was something a few of us sorely missed at Eroticon 2012 – since it seemed appropriate that a writers’ conference should showcase the writing of some delegates! – and since Eroticon 2013 was run over the course of two days, this afforded us the perfect opportunity to provide some evening’s entertainment. I was also thrilled to be asked to take on so much responsibility, to be trusted with the care of such great words, and to get to work with such wonderful people.

The evening itself was not without it’s hiccups, and I’ll admit that as the event went on and on, I did wonder if I had tried to pack just a little too much into one evening. But truth be told, I was very selective when I chose the readers, and I really feel that every one of them needed the space to voice their words, because they were all brilliant. Furthermore, whilst I have organised events before, I had never organised a reading night like this; so there was bound to be a little trial and error. Next time, I’m sure, I will pull it off with significantly more finesse. Continue reading

Posted in Eroticon, Performance, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Eroticon 2013, in review

Molly and I are planning to spend a little time in the next episode of the (It Girl. Rag Doll) podcast reviewing Eroticon 2013, and we want to hear from YOU. If you have a mini (30 seconds or less, ideally) review of Eroticon you’d like us to include, please record something and send it to us as an audio file! If you don’t want your voice aired but still have something to say, feel free to email us a few lines and we’ll read them.

Please send audio files and written reviews to harper (at) itgirlragdoll dot com. Thank you!

My Eroticon lanyard

Posts about and reviews of Eroticon 2013 are already springing up everywhere and I think it’s safe to say that even if it wasn’t all your cup of tea, everyone had a spectacularly inspiring and thought-provoking weekend. With a year’s build-up, this second round at Eroticon had a lot to live up to, and I’m happy to say it surpassed 2012 in almost every way. Continue reading

Posted in Eroticon, Personal Experiences, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Review: ‘Beautiful Losers’ (Remittance Girl)

'Beautiful Losers' by Remittance GirlBeing, as Molly Moore put it, “a fully paid up member of the Remittance Girl fan-club” I was excited from the moment I heard that there would be another of her novels in the world come December 2012. But when I linked up the title, ‘Beautiful Losers’, with a series of podcasts I listened to the year before, I have to admit I was surprised. The unfinished serial that I heard in 2011 was something of a departure for Remittance Girl, and I had always assumed it was for this reason that the project hadn’t been finished. So learning that it was not only being completed but also published in one Kindle-bound edition was highly unexpected.

And really, for those of us who have nurtured our love for Remittance Girl through novellas such as ‘Gaijin’ and ‘The Waiting Room’, and on short stories like ‘Click’ and ‘Pleasure’s Apprentice’ (the first story of hers I ever read), there is no denying that ‘Beautiful Losers’ is a departure. She has written pieces before that may be comparable in tone – the quickly written series ‘The Lepidopterists’ springs to mind – but really ‘Beautiful Losers’ seems to deal with a far less, for lack of a better word, mature Continue reading

Posted in Literary Forms, Reviews, Writing/Writing Exercises | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Perfect Ecosystem: a Pussy Pride Piece

IMG_0383Over the course of my twenty-three years I have received a very slow trickle of information about keeping my vagina healthy; but I’ve never really been informed, point blank, of how best to maintain a clean cunt. Continue reading

Posted in Health, Life Lessons, Personal Experiences, Pussy Pride Project | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 17 Comments