Susie Bright's Journal

Listen to the "Homewrecker," by Poppy Z. Brite

"My Uncle Edna killed hogs. He came home from the slaughterhouse every day, smelling of shit and pig blood, and if I didn't have his bath drawn with plenty of perfume and bubble stuff, he'd whip my ass until I felt his hard-on poking me in the leg.

"Like I said, he killed hogs. At night, though, you'd never have known it, to see him in his satin gown..."

Listen to the whole story

Get the whole audiobook: Link

In this excerpt, actor Richard Brewer reads "Homewrecker," a great Southern Gothic perv story by the legendary Poppy Z. Brite— who has a knack for writing stories that you can't put down.

This is but one of the delights from my audiobook version of Best American Erotica 2002, featuring other great writers like Francesca Lia Block, Nalo Hopkinson, Paula Bomer, Tsaurah Litzky, Lucy Taylor, and Anne Tourney. It's straight, gay, upsidedown cake, etc... I live for the unexpected!

The voice actors who took on these stories, ranging from sci-fi to horror to romantic and beatnik, were so talented. Isn't Richard just perfect?

"Homewrecker" is one of these stories I get in trouble with. I get hate mail. It's not "date" erotica— although my god, if someone read me this on a date, I would make a proposal on my knees, I'd be so impressed. But it's outrageous, it's queer and nasty and inbred on purpose, and it's just one helluva story. Stories like this don't fit in mainstream literature or notions of formulaic seduction.

I'll really miss publishing BAE because of stories like "Homewrecker," ones I wouldn't have been encouraged to publish anywhere else! The last edition is coming out next month, and I believe we'll publish the audiobook version for Valentine's Day.

Photo: from Tennesse Williams' film Babydoll, which I watched after I read Homewrecker, as a chaser!

A Mouth Like Mine

This week on my audio show, I premiere an excerpt from my new audiobook, The Best American Erotica 2007.

It was hard to pick which story to sample; they're all so good. I chose an excerpt from Daniel Duane's A Mouth Like Yours, read by the velvet Richard Brewer.

Yes, this is the same Daniel Duane who wrote one of the most compelling surf memoirs of all time, Caught Inside. This story is about a different, yet equally dedicated obsession!

A Mouth Like Yours: Listen

Next up, I talk with sexual historian and scholar Jeffery Escoffier about the beginnings of the gay porn-film industry, which in many respects defined modern American porn, period. Who knew... that Stonewall and Deep Throat were preceded by gay porn-makers who were unsatisfied with beefcake magazines and unrealistic portrayals of gay life?

Listen to my interview with Jeff: LINK

Listen to the whole show: LINK

Get a free month of my audio show: LINK

Jeff and I talk about perversity, porn chic, and straight guys who do gay porn. If you have any curiosity about the history of American porn, this is a must-listen. We'll do part two next week!

Finally, in the "Try This at Home" mailbag, I can't resist talking about another close shave— and I bet it won't be my last!

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, and requests for girly cards to susie@audible.com. (Episode 311, September 28, 2007)

Five Dimes

"You want me to do what?" I asked surprised, looking down at the silver coins on my naked stomach.

Patiently he explained again.

"Stand in the middle of the room, with your legs spread. Then put your hands together, over your head, palm to palm, with a dime beteen each pair of fingers and your thumbs."

Pulse beating fast, I thought, what interesting little game does he have in mind this time?

from "Five Dimes," by the late Anita Melissa Mashman, in Best American Erotica '93

Listen to the whole story, read by Saint Teresa Stone:

After you peel yourself off the floor, I think you'll want to hear the rest!

Best American Erotica '93 was my first collection in the BAE series, and it's so good sometimes I wonder how I had the nerve to try another.

Audible now has the whole original audiobook for you to download: Link

Other authors include: Blake Aarens, Greg Boyd, Pat Califia, the late great Bob Flanagan and Ronald Sukenick, Lisa Palac, Carol Queen, Trish Thomas, and Carter Wilson, among others. (Trish almost got taken away by Katrina but we're still holding onto her!)

The actors, like Miss Stone, who recorded these erotic stories, are veterans of audiobook recording. But this is a BIG departure for them. They would love to hear what you think! You can send any fan or feedback letters to me and I will respectfully forward it to them.

Yes, that's Miss MoneyPenny, from James Bond's early incarnations.

Three Obscene Phone Calls

My first conscious encounter with the police, in which I knew something "bad" had happened, was over an obscene phone call. I think I was three.

My mother got very upset while holding our heavy black AT&T receiver to her ear.

A few minutes later, there was a pounding at the door, and man in an incredibly pocketed and weighty uniform came in. I remember being curious how his pants stayed up on his waist. My mom got more agitated over his arrival than she had over the phone conversation.

I was eye-level with his long flashlight and gun holster. Could he shine the flashlight into the holes on the phone earpiece and see who was calling?

All of this came to mind as I read one of my favorite stories from Best American Erotica 1999, "Three Obscene Telephone Calls" by Marian Phillips.

In Bed with Susie Bright: "Three Obscene Telephone Calls"

Listen to an excerpt:

Listen to the whole show: Link

Get the whole Best American Erotica '99 Audiobook and Gorge Yourself: Link

 In the second half of my show I discuss a recent British documentary about jacking off elephants that is just so informative.

Finally, in the Try This at Home mailbag, I hear from a man who's starting to become sexually active at age 30, and wonders if what he desires at this point is completely crazy, or even "unmanly."

Don't forget, you can send your confidential questions, feedback about the show, or requests for Girly Cards (free "In Bed" shows for a month!) to susie@audible.com. (Episode 287, March 30, 2007)

Sex and Guts in High School

Very smart nerds, a threesome, with much at stake. In high school, with sex. It could get messy!

This is the territory that Veronica Mars and Buffyness still fear to tread. But not Marge Piercy, one of my favorite authors— who I started reading in high school! Piercy has never been shy of strong, complicated young women with sexual power on their minds.

I'd like to share one of my favorite stories from my new erotic audiobook, The Best American Erotica 2001. It's a chapter called "The New Kid" taken from Marge Piercy's novel Three Women.

It's read by Theo McKell, and is just one of the twenty-four memorable stories in this collection. Yes, the title is "two-thousand-and-one", but it's only this year been released on audio. I'd love to know what you think of it!

Listen to the "The New Kid" (14:24)

Listen to the whole book: Link

If you've never read Marge Piercy, check out her novel that changed sci-fi and feminism forever, Women on the Edge of Time. And, if you're an old fan who hasn't touched base in a while, I highly reommend her memoir, Sleeping with Cats!  Photo: The classic State Records of New South Wales.

Erotic Audio of the Week: The Letters

Last night I watched a ho-hum movie about a naughty, evil schoolgirl: The Hole. With a name like that, you have high hopes!

However, it reminded me that one of my favorite high-maintenance, cunt-tease schoolgirl stories is finally out on Best American Erotica audiobooks. What a relief.

It's called "The Letters," by Eric Albert, from Best American Erotica 1996.

Listen to The Letters:

Read by Theo McKell.

Get the whole Best American Erotica 96: Link

 

If you pin my braids to the wall, I'll confess to you that BAE 96 is my personal favorite anthology of all that I've edited. I don't know exactly why, it's just more of those stories got under Catholic collar. It says more about me than it does about the year!

Erotic Audio of the Week: Pearls of Wisdom

I have a couple of items in my jewelry box that make me feel lucky. There's something about pieces that close to your skin— your hands, your breasts, the tender part of your neck— that are weighted with erotic sentiment.

I always wanted to do that "Venus on a Half Shell "thing where I would walk out of the shorebreak in nothing but a lei of gems and golden strands.

My fantasies were further stoked when I heard Salome Wilde's story, "Granny Pearls." It's in my new audiobook, Best American Erotica 06.

She captivated me with her tale of a prissy little necklace who gets all mussed up and dragged through the gutter. Oh goodie!

Listen to "Granny Pearls": Link      read by Gabra Zackman

Check out the whole audiobook, Best American Erotica 2006: Link

 

For those of you who haven't listened to digital erotic audio before, here's my rap on what it's like, the price, the choices, the sexual deliberation!: Link

Photo: Why can't I have all the nipple jewelry by Hidden Delites?

White Moms on Dope

My guest this week on In Bed is Mike Males, the author of a recent Op-Ed titled This is Your Brain on Drugs, Dad, and several books on the way society demonizes and fears teenagers.

In Bed with Susie Bright 277:

Soccer Moms Gone Wild, with Mike Males

Listen to my whole interview with Mike: Link

In his Op-Ed, Males says that contrary to media stereotypes of drug-abusers, it's middle-aged, college-educated white people who have the highest rate of drug abuse today, with some of the most startling increases in the number of female addicts. Rush Limbaugh and his girlfriends are not the exception, they're the rule!

According to the CDC, the number of Americans dying from the abuse of illegal drugs has leaped by 400 percent in the last two decades, reaching a record 28,000 in 2004. The F.B.I. reported that drug arrests reached an all-time high of 1.8 million in 2005.

The Drug Abuse Warning Network, a federal agency that compiles statistics on hospital emergency cases caused by illicit drug abuse, says that number rose to 940,000 in 2004— a huge increase over the last quarter century.

Why are so few Americans aware of these troubling trends?

One reason is that today's drug abusers are simply the ''wrong'' group. As David Musto, a psychiatry professor at Yale and historian of drug abuse, points out, wars on drugs have traditionally depended on ''linkage between a drug and a feared or rejected group within society.''

Today, however, the fastest-growing population of drug abusers is white, middle-aged Americans. This is a powerful mainstream constituency, and unlike with teenagers or urban minorities, it is hard for the government or the news media to present these drug users as a grave threat to the nation.

Among Americans in their 40s and 50s, deaths from illicit-drug overdoses have risen by 800% since 1980, including 300% in the last decade. In 2004, American hospital emergency rooms treated 400,000 patients between the ages 35 and 64 for abusing heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, hallucinogens and ''club drugs'' like ecstasy.

Equally surprising, graying baby boomers have become America's fastest-growing crime scourge. The F.B.I. reports that last year the number of Americans over the age of 40 arrested for violent and property felonies rose to 420,000, up from 170,000 in 1980. Arrests for drug offenses among those over 40 rose to 360,000 last year, up from 22,000 in 1980. The Bureau of Justice Statistics found that 440,000 Americans ages 40 and older were incarcerated in 2005, triple the number in 1990.

...Few experts would have suspected that the biggest contributors to California's drug abuse, death and injury toll are educated, middle-aged women living in the Central Valley and rural areas, while the fastest-declining, lowest-risk populations are urban black and Latino teenagers. Yet the index found exactly that. These are the sorts of trends we need to understand if we are to design effective policies.

These numbers blow my over-40 mind!

It also caused me to have a personal reflection. In the past couple years, among my own circle, the two people I'm closest to who've had an unpleasant brush with the law are both women in their mid-50s. One was busted for her third DUI. Another became addicted to Oxy after a surgery, then got caught scoring it illegally.

Neither of my friends are "Ma Barker"— they're the salt of the earth, wonderful, giving, educated, and really hard on themselves. All their loved ones were "shocked"— but now I think, why? Apparently, my girlfriends are right in the bullseye of the fastest-growing trend ever.

The more intriguing question is: what do my friends, and other middle-aged women have in common that makes them so vulnerable to substance abuse?  —Or the cascading law and order disasters that follow in its wake?

Of course, I am speaking anecdotally, but I am fascinated to see my life fitting the statistics. Sure, I have teen friends who've gotten in trouble too, but it was crap like shoplifting, graffiti, and underage-whatever. A nineteen year old friend of mine suffered the worst violence of last summer because he was held up at his minimum wage donut-shop job, at gunpoint, by someone who was no doubt a middle-aged drug addict. Lock up Pop! Time out for Mom! Grandma is going down!

I phoned Mike the instant I read his op-ed, because I recognized that the way teens are fetishized as drug fiends, they are similarly targeted as sexual monsters or victims. It's the same propaganda, and in the case of sexuality, once again, it's women in their late-childbearing-years who are leading out-of-wedlock births, not teenagers. 

Why does there have to be a teenage bogeyman or mewling kitten-victim in every tree of media fear-climbing? Mike's got the facts at his fingertips that really put the sting on this thing.

Finally, in my Try This at Home mailbag, I gave Mike the option to stay and listen to me answer a letter from a man who wonders if he can use a dildo as a depth finder. Gee, the things senior criminal justice researchers have to listen to!

Don't forget, you can request Susie's Girly Cards, or send confidential sex questions and feedback about the show to susie@audible.com. (Episode 277, January 12, 2007)

 

Erotic Audio of the Week: Milky

In every brand new mommy's life, there is a night where she announces she is "going out on a date."

She has been shut in a poop/spit-up/drool-colored world for weeks— and yet despite her noblest maternal instincts, she still has an image of herself in a clean shirt, enjoying fine dining and maybe even finer sex.

That was me, many years ago, when my lover and I prepared for Valentine's Day by arranging to get me out of the house for a few hours, before my breasts started involuntarily turning into milky volcanoes and drowning the city in pent-up lactation lava.

It just so happens I wrote a story about this "My Big Night Out," and recorded it for an erotic audio album called Cyborgasm.  It's called: "Milky."

        Listen here to "Milky"  6:10 min

        Check out all of Cyborgasm 2- The Edge of the Bed

Audible is now carrying all my erotic audio works from Cyborgasm, to the Herotica series to the complete collection of Best American Erotica [2005, 2006, are the latest]. I know many of you have heard me talking about my audiobook quests for years— it was a tough nut to crack!— but it's all finally here in one place.

I've been working with dozens of actors to record the best in erotic storytelling. None of us have ever done this before... as you may have read in the Times recently. Recording erotic literary fiction is new territory in the publishing world, as odd as that may seem.

So, as part of the grand experiment, over the next months, I'm going to post an excerpt from one of our story collections each week. I hope to succeed in whetting your appetite!  I will be terribly interested in your reactions, so feel free to comment and email me in detail.

How much does this sort of thing cost? Audio downloads are cheaper than old-school audiobooks, but if you've never tried either, here's a tutorial:

Audible is the main company that sells digital audiobooks. They have a gajillion titles from hundreds of publishers. To seduce new listeners, they have a couple offers going on.

For starters, you can buy any audiobook a la carte, which range from $5 - $14.

It's always less than what you'd pay for a physical CD/cassette for the same title. (And no, I'm not counting garage sales and the used copy market).

One interesting thing about downloads is that there's a lot more variety. Traditionally publishers only made audiobooks out of huge bestsellers, because they didn't want to take a risk on stuff for smaller audiences, like erotica. Yes, you heard that right— erotica is considered a niche market with no proven track record. With downloadable audio, it's a lot cheaper for publishers to take the chance.

You can listen to the audiobooks on your computer, your iPod, (or any music player) or burn it to CDs yourself.

The other deal Audible offers is for you become a member, an "AudibleListener," like joining a book club.

AudibleListener gives you one free book a month, plus some other book freebies, and steep discounts on other audiobooks that you might want to gorge on. That starts at 7.50 a month for three months, and graduates to 14.95. You can cancel anytime.

So what's the best deal? I know it all sounds terribly involved.

If you love to be read aloud to— The New Yorker, the latest bestsellers, classic novels, politics, erotica, children's books— then being an AudibleListener is definitely worth it.

I know a lot of people for whom commuting, exercising— and just having quality listening time— has been revolutionized by this service. It's much easier than changing CDs or tapes, it always remembers your "bookmark," and the sound quality is fantastic.

If you are just into listening to erotic stories, then join for a little while and pig out. Or buy everything  a la carte.

Listening to a story, instead of reading it silently, is a different visceral experience. You connect with the actor, the voice, more than anything. The suspense builds in a different way— you can't skip ahead!  It feels like someone is addressing you, it's more in-your-face. In that sense, if you're aroused, it's going to rock your world, and if you're scared, apprehensive, or offended, that's amplified too.

The main reason I couldn't find  audio producers for erotica years ago was because of rationales like: "Someone will get hard listening to your stories while they're driving a car, and have a wreck."

Well, I don't think you'll be THAT out of control!

But perhaps the nervous audio-producers were speaking to their own sensitivities— that indeed, it's a different body experience to listen than to reading. I couldn't bear to live without either! Try listening to one title, and see what you think...

Feedback, on any of my erotic titles, is always, much appreciated! It's especially important to all of us who've worked on these projects (and it's about 50 people, in various roles!) because we knew were were making the first mark. Send your feedback to me, gently, at susie at susiebright dot com, with "Audio Erotica" in the subject line.