Susie Bright's Journal

Let the Erotic Treasury Book Parties Begin!

Goody, goody gumdrops— it's time for another book-signing/reading/rubbing party. It's been too long.

I'm hosting three events in the Bay Area this month, and looking forward to New York in February.

Please come meet me and the other wickedly talented and fascinating authors from X: The Erotic Treasury.

We'll be reading excerpts from the book, talking about writing and erotic fiction, and the sexual zeitgeist of the new year!

Diesel, A Bookstore
Oakland

January 22
7pm

Greta Christina
Donna George Storey
Pam Ward
Susie Bright

Books Inc.
16th and Market St.,  San Francisco

January 29
7:30pm

Rachel Kramer Bussel
Greta Christina
Donna George Storey
Susie Hara
Susie Bright

Book Passage
Corte Madera, Marin County

February 6
7:00pm

Greta Christina
Bill Noble
Susie Bright

Susie at Tulane on April 8th!

SUSIE BRIGHT

Beyond the Vagina:
Sexual Lives and the Body Politic

7:30 pm, Tuesday April 8, 2008

McAlister Auditorium, Tulane University

New Orleans, Louisiana

There is no charge for admission.

Doors open at 6:45 pm.

This event is part of the Katrina Warriors Festival. And the big V-Day Fest this coming week in New Orleans.

I'm honored to be  the "Salzer Lecturer" at Tulane this year. Adele Ramos Salzer, Newcomb alumnus of 1940, was a great and active friend of Newcomb College Center for Research on Women, and this lecture series honors her generous, inquisitive spirit. Past Salzer Lecturers have included Lisa Ling, Beverly Guy-Sheftall, Helen Caldicott, and Jil Ker Conway.

Painting: Jon Bailiff

My Little Activist Romp Through New England

The weather is frigid, and many of our year's resolutions are already laid to waste, but this is still the best day ever to contemplate, "what a long strange trip it's been."

I'm uncommonly excited this week because I'm going to be in Boston in two days, to celebrate the anniversary of one of my favorite social justice groups: GLAD (Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders).

If you've ever smiled upon a righteous court decision supporting gay parents' relationships with their kids, or defending queer students who wanted to go to their high school prom, or legalizing wedding bells for same-sex couples— or getting the police out of your bathroom and bedroom, or defending disability rights for those living with HIV+—  well, GLAD was very likely in the thick of it. They have a talent for pressing the law at the most critical times, in the most critical places, every time you wish someone would stand up for what's right.

I'm speaking at GLAD's 30th Birthday party:

Sex on the Margins: The More Things Change...
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
6:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Old South Meeting House
310 Washington Street
Boston, MA

Reception to follow
RSVP to this Free Event

Joining me will be my brilliant pal, sexual politics genius Michael Bronski (listen to our interview here), plus the indefatigable and charsimatic GLAD Founder John Ward, and GLAD Legal Director Gary Buseck.

I rarely get a chance to be on a mike with this many brilliant minds at once, and I'd love to see you there. We want to give our own take on "The Sexual State of the Union," and then open up the floor to see where our audience thinks the body politic is moving next.

On Thursday, I'll be toasting The Best (and Last!) of Best American Erotica, my handkerchief waving in the wind, at Brookline Booksmith, one of my favorite bookshops in the area. I'll be introducing some of my favorite authors too— because truth be told, I may have published more people from New England than any other area besides San Francisco. What does THAT say? It must be the spirit of those witch trials, they just get under people's skin!

Thursday, January 24, 7:00 PM
Brookline Booksmith
279 Harvard St., Brookline, MA, 02446

If you have any drinking/eating/sightseeing experiences I should cram into my Boston visit, please tell me. Is there anything cool going on at the Fine Art Museum? I had a wonderful time there on my last visit.

A reporter from the Boston Globe has been assigned  to follow me around for a couple hours. What kind of trouble can I get her into? She said she's done this kind of feature before, on Kitty Dukakis— and Vince Neil of Motley Crue!  I love being their third act.

On Friday, I'll be in Portland, Maine for the very first time. What shall I do; where should I go? Can I snowmobile my way to a lobster shack? I'm sure you're already laughing at me. Jon, my partner, is bringing his SURF MAT, and swears he's going to catch a wave.  Help me remind him what temperature it is.

I'm doing a BAE event Friday night at Longfellow Books, who've been so gracious to me in organizing this all at the last moment:

Friday, January 25, 7:00 PM
Longfellow Books
1 Monument Way, Portland, ME

See you there!

I love my bloggy homage to Martin Luther King I composed last year, and if you missed it, it's still timely as ever... read here.

Susie Bright Reads from New Novel

Click to Enlarge the Above Invite

I've been working on my M.F.A. in Creative Writing the past two years— and this month I've finished my thesis. It's a novel inspired by my teenage years in The Red Tide— and later, the International Socialists— which culminated in my inglorious expulsion at the ripe old age of 18.

The Red Tide was the world's longest-running, and certainly most outrageous, high school underground newspaper, which was well-known in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and Detroit. But perhaps the best way to describe The Red Tide to you is to reprint our masthead:

It came— flooding the schools, crushing everything that stood in its way, leaving in its wake a trial of destruction, havoc, rebellion. It razed classrooms, flinging textbooks to the winds, screaming out of turn, leaving foul stains on the desks, ripping the flags from their poles.

It caught scores of students, sweeping them onward in its headlong course, trapping them in the whirlpool of its frenzy. Administrators reeled, choking on its noxious reek as it tore their offices asunder. Cut slips, tardy slips, suspension notices, bad conduct notices, report cards— all were swept away in its churning mist.

It was… the RED TIDE.

This month, it's my pleasure, (and also my thesis requirement!) to share selections from my new manuscript in a public reading, on Friday, August 17, at 7PM at Modern Times Bookstore in San Francisco.

I'll also be reading some of my father Bill Bright's poetry that it especially apt at this occasion.

Bill died last October, but August is his birthday month. He was the first person who took me to poetry readings, and introduced me to my greatest influences. He was as active in his poetry as I was in revolutionary politics in the 1970s, and I think you'll enjoy hearing them both together. I know he would've!

Modern Times is my "touchstone" bookstore in San Francisco, which has been the vanguard literary hot spot for both progressive and sexual politics since 1971, the same year The Red Tide was founded. I'm honored to have them host this event, and they have a nice reading room to gather in.

Location and directions: Link.

I imagine we'll have a pretty intimate affair, as this is short notice and there'll be no publicity other than my blog notice here, and my personal invitations. I look forward to seeing you!

Come to the Spelling Bee Smackdown!

Please join me for a Celebutante Spelling Bee to support Small Press Distribution, the nation's only remaining non-profit distributor of literary small press books.

Not only is SPD worthy... I need you to cheer me on and pass me cheat sheets— I may not be able to bamboozle the judges like I did in my Wet T-Shirt competition!

Tickets are selling out fast... seriously. Everyone knows this going to be a thrilling evening of watching your favorite stoned author freaks make fools of themselves. What could be more laffs?

The Bee-In
Monday, May 14th
Crown Point Gallery, 20 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco
Doors Open @ 6:30

 

MC:  Laura Sydell, All Things Considered

Judge:  Ruthless SF Chronicle Book Editor Oscar Villalon

Spelling Competitors — With More to Come:

Mollie "Tuna on Toast" Katzen

Former Child Spelling Bee Champion Susie Bright

Tobias "Utterly Lucid" Wolff

Ex-Stripper Stephen Elliott

New York State Spelling Bee Champion Emeritus & BAE Erotic Superstar Kevin Killian (the one to beat!)

George Lakoff (Don't Think of An Eight-Letter Word!)

Still Adored Ex-San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez

Writers with Drinks Baddass Pussycat Charlie Anders

Raging Lounge Act Beth Lisick

North Beach Madam To You! Michelle Tea

Poet and Brilliant BAE Contributor Maxine Chernoff  (Could cream everyone!)

Penny "Take No Prisoners" Cooper

General Admission Tickets: $50
Patron Tickets: $250

Get Your Tickets Now!

And seriously, if any of you have spelling bee experience, give me your tips! Maybe I could wear a wire. I saw that movie, Spellbound, which blew my mind, as I realized that I a mere bimbette in this arena. Will sobriety or heavy drinking push me through the final rounds?
 

Bar Brawl or Literary Crawl?

I've been waiting all year to do this one: The Litquake Lit Crawl

Saturday, October 14, 6–9:30 p.m.

The Lit Crawl is for those who like their literature served neat, on the rocks, or with a water back. It is a bona fide night out on the town.

Instead of being confined to night tables, Oprah, or book club discussion groups, books take to the streets as folks gather up their friends and head out the door for their serving of authors and literature.

Thirty-one venues will host over 150 writers in genres as varied as travel, poetry, noir & mystery, literary fiction, music, erotica, science fiction, spirituality, Latino, queer, young adult, and more will clamber onto bar counters in cocktail lounges, recline in chaise lounges, or, in one case, take over a Laundromat in order to read.

All Lit Crawl events are FREE

PHASE I, 6–7 p.m.

Intersection for the Arts
446 Valencia Street

The Anxiety Chronicles: How Fear Shapes Politics, Sex, and Language

Lineup includes: Susie Bright, Mark Hertsgaard, and Geoffrey Nunberg. Emcee: Jack Boulware.

For the rest of the drunken and word-soaked evening, click here.

Susie Teaches Erotic Writing Class

I am teaching an online erotic writing course at New College in San Francisco this fall. We start this Monday, October 2! The course is called The Erotic Word: Sexual Authenticity and Creative Erotica.

You can download the course description here.  It's a M/S Word doc.

Originally, I was going to teach the class on the New College San Francisco campus, but unexpected events required that we convert to an online format.

I've taught writing courses online before, and I love it. The flexibility is marvelous, and the work and writing spirit is superb.

If you are NOT an enrolled student at New College, you can still enroll and take the course by extension— $500 for a ten week course. The class runs from Oct. 2 to Dec. 14.

Call New College administrator Kris Brandenberger to enroll by this MONDAY afternoon:  415-740-4662. Or, email her at:  krisbrandenburger at sbcglobal dot net . 

Take a look at the Course Description for details. It will require a few hours of your reading and writing time each week... I'd say 4-6 on average for healthy class participation. Plus, there is an original story and a literary critique required as final projects.

The unfortunate note is that I am informing you of this course at the last minute. I regret that. For next semester, I'll give plenty of notice. I plan to teach regularly at New College over the next few semesters.

However, if you are ready to get inky this week and start writing, reading, and working with me in our class, I'd be happy to have you.  Put on your school uniform, beanie, and see me there!

Meet Me Before The Rapture

I do realize that with Motherfucking World War III and all, it's a little iffy to be making travel plans.

Yet the Blogher conference in San Jose is only days away, and it is my deepest wish to meet some of my favorite bloggers who may be attending.

Are you going to be there? Wanna get together?

Tell Bush that Armageddon is not your style, and come hold my hand!

I am doing a panel about women bloggers and sex on Saturday afternoon. I'm speaking with Melissa Gira, Logan Levkoff, and Halley Suitt.

Afterward, I thought maybe we could go get a Shirley Temple or something. I very much want to meet you! Yes, I am bringing my bathing suit, and I want to have a pool party.

UPDATE: Please email me if you are going to be there!

Valentine Appearances

I'm actually leaving the house this month. You can find me, kiss me, and love me up at:

Bookshop Santa Cruz

Tuesday, February 7, 2006 7:30 PM
"Local author returns to Bookshop to share her new anthology, The Best American Erotica 2006." Free.

Writers With Drinks

Saturday February 11, 2006, from 7:30 PM.

Starring:

Patty Lin — Desperate Housewives
Susie Bright  — BAE
Brent Weinbach  — Punchline Comedy Club
Danny O'Brien  — London Sunday Times
J*me and Carolyn Walker  — Cantab Slam Team
Kyra Davis  — Sex, Murder and a Double Latte

At The Make-Out Room, 3225 22nd. St., San Francisco. $3-$5 sliding scale. All proceeds benefit Other Magazine. Charlie Anders MCs and vamps.

Porchlight Storytellers

Monday, February 27, 8 pm
Downstairs at the Cafe du Nord, 2170 Market Street, San Francisco

"Your mother told you not to talk to them, but sometimes the most alluring people of all are the ones you've never met.

"Storytellers include sex guru Susie Bright; San Francisco cab driver Lee Vilensky; poet and waiter Horehound Stillpoint, Alice Radio movie critic Hooman, and former rock road manager Stuart Henry.

"Our musical guest will be cult icon Biff Rose. Biff will play a special set after the stories."

TICKETS: $12 available at Cafe, or at www.ticketweb.com. A ticket does not guarantee a seat, but plenty of standing room with sightlines are always available.

Jilly in Tight Pants

Jill Soloway has been such a little minx this year... making us all take bong hits on Six Feet Under,  publishing "JODI K.", her fictional teenage girl-on-the-verge diary with me— and now,  the final outrage— the publication of  Tiny Ladies In Shiny Pants, her memoir of growing up in Chicago with entirely too much time on her hands! 

What can I say about Jill that I haven't said before... maybe that she has known since she was a  just a wee thing that she was Young, Gifted, and Black. Read and ye shall be informed.

Jill is touring her new book this month, and will visting  my neck of the woods this week:

Wednesday, September 21
7:00
BOOK PASSAGE
1 Ferry Plaza, #46
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-835-1020

Thursday, September 22, 2005
CODY'S BOOKS
Fourth Street Store
1730 Fourth Street
Berkeley, CA 94710

Hope to see you there!

Susie Rocky Top

Once I had a girl on Rocky Top,
Half-bear, other half-cat,
Wild as a mink,
But sweet as soda pop,
I still dream about that.
                                                     Tennessee Rocky Top

I'm coming to Murfreesboro, Tennessee this month, and I'm going to be as sweet as soda pop, too! 

"Susie Bright, on Feminism and the Erotic"
September 29th
4:30-6 PM
Room LRC, 221
MTSU (Middle Tennessee State University)
Book-signing and reception to follow

Free and open to the public
Sponsored by the National Women's History Month Committee and the Distinguished Lecturers Committee

I would love to see you there!

Writers With Drinks and Maybe Milkshakes, Too

I'm on the road again, with some of my favorite authors from Three Kinds of Asking For It:

San Francisco:

July 7th                        
A Different Light, 7:00pm
with Susie Bright and Greta Christina

July 9th                        
Writers With Drinks , 7:30 pm, doors open at 7
A literary series held at the Make Out Room
with Susie Bright, Judy Grahn, (yes, the Judy Grahn, who I worship), Andre The Urban Hermitt & Lisa Geduldig

Santa Cruz:

August 3rd   
Capitola Book Cafe, 7:30pm 
with Susie Bright and Greta Christina

Los Angeles:

July 16th   
Skylight Books, 7:30pm
with Jill Soloway, Susie Bright, and Greta Christina

New York:

July 19th               
Bluestocking Bookstore, 7:00pm
Greta Christina holds court on her own with "Bending" .... I will  be there in spirit!

Boston:

September 25th
Grand Opening! Sexuality Boutique, 6:30 pm
308A Harvard Street, Brookline
Eric Albert, solo, reading from "Charmed I'm Sure"

Susie Does The Tennessee Waltz

I am in the middle of planning a trip to Murfreesboro, Tennessee, at the end of September, to give a couple talks at the MIddle Tennessee State University.

I fly in and out of Nashville, and I'm wondering if I should extend my trip a little bit do some things in Nashville while I'm out there. This is a first for me; I've never been to Tennessee, and I'm looking forward to it.

Often, with university engagements like this, I come and go from Campus without seeing any sights or meeting any "townies," but I want to become acquainted with Nashville a little while I'm there.

Should I go to any particular bookstores? Clubs? Cafes? Great food spots? Shall I record my very own original country hit somewhere, I'm Glad You're Sorry ( You Made Me Make You Cry)?

Is there anyone I should contact to organize an event in the city before or after Murfreesboro? Or maybe I should just make a date somewhere to meet fans.  Please email me, or comment below, if you have any ideas. I'll be there the end of September...

Thanks!

Susie "Tennessee Waltz" Bright

Meet Me at the Left Bank

Several of you have written me about my upcoming visit to St. Louis, begging me to break out from the Romance Convention I'm attending and meet you someplace... uh.... "less romantic," shall we say.

I perfectly understand. How about a Marxist bookstore?

I'm just kidding, but actually, I have cooked up something for those of you who would rather retch than meet Fabio.

I'll be coming over to Left Bank Books, in St. Louis, at 1:00 pm on April 29th, to sign some stock and just hang out with whoever shows up. I'm sure we can get something to drink, and I would love to just hang out with you for a little bit.

Anyone who can meet me there, would you please email me ASAP? I'd like to know who and how many I'm looking for when I get to the bookshop.

xo, Susie

Meet Me in St. Louis... or a Few Miles West!

This April, I'm coming to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Lawrence, Kansas: The Sexual State of the Tornado Tour.

I got two very different invitations to the area:  to be a keynote speaker at Kansas University's gay pride week, and then, from St. Louis, to come lead an erotic writing workshop and panel at a Romance writer's convention!  I wish I could get them both in the same room together.

My literary agents happen to live in Kansas City, so we had to cook up something in their hometown too: a reading and get-together at Rainy Day Bookstore.

The first time I ever went to Kansas, I was 19 years old and I was a student representative from California at a Women Studies' convention. In 1977, I was the biggest Women's Studies booster you ever met, but the conference was a crashing bore. I was ready for the revolution, but the faculty participants were simply trying to acquire or hang on to their jobs.  I left in the middle of a session to go pout in my sleeping bag, which was laid out on the floor of a local Lutheran church co-hosting the event.

On my way to church back door,  I found a wounded German Shepherd curled up in the rhododendrens. I ran to pastor's office to call the SPCA.  Who should come to the rescue, but a brown-eyed dyke dog catcher!  She let me help her, and when I looked through her driver's side window I gave a yelp.  She had Patti Smith's poetry book, "Babel," my bible, on the front seat.

My savoir proceeded to tell me that Patti was playing that night at a KC biker bar, and asked me if I'd like to go.

"Let the real Study of Women begin!" I said. I had a great time for the rest of my visit, and would highly recommend any night with Patti or the dogcatcher as a primer in women's mysteries and intelligence.

I've never been to St. Louis, and I've never been to anything like a Romance Convention. My previous impressions of that the Romance trade can be summed up in this story:  In the mid-80s, I went every year to the American Booksellers Assoc. Convention, (ABA) which at the time, hosted hundreds of independent booksellers, and every publisher in business. Most of those stores are out of business now.

The best ABA of all, we held the convention in New Orleans, and it was the finest four-day party of my life. One night, I was in a garden Victorian barroom, where everything was white wicker, dripping in ferns and smelling like absinthe. I was dancing with— oh, who can remember?— when this woman with a white fedora cut in, and grabbed me by the waist.

She dipped me. "I'm a vice-president of Harlequin [Romance]," she said, "And we would never publish you in a million, million years!" She pressed her thigh between my legs.

My, how things have changed. Romance, which was never shy of sexual steam or tension, now publishes explicit varities, and is quite diverse in its genre. Writer Robin Schone singlehandedly brought the word clitoris to the business, and it's just never been the same. Some of my formerly hardcore S/M erotic writer friends are now very busy with an erotic/romance following. Of course, some people always said Romance was the original S/M, and that metaphor could go a long way.

I'm very excited about meeting all these new people and getting some new perspectives. I've been told the parties will make my New Orleans memories turn pale. Well, we shall see...

April 22
Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas
Pride Week 2005: The Politics of Sexual Representation
7:30pm
            Big 12 Room, Kansas Union
Discussion and Booksigning to follow

April 26 
Rainy Day Books, Kansas City, MO
Susie Bright, lecture, discussion, booksigning
Unity Temple on The Plaza, Chapel
7 pm, tickets are free but must be obtained in advance at Rainy Day

April 27 - May 1 
St. Louis, MO
Romantic Times Convention
The Millennium Hotel
Pre-registration required.
Erotic Writing Workshop and discussions, including Pam Rosenthal, Robin Schone, and MK Rose.

San Francisco Wake for Hunter

Dangerous Talent and The Edinburgh Castle present:

Vicious Bullshit:
A Hallucinatory Wake in Honor of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

9:00 pm, Thursday, March 10, 2005

Edinburgh Castle, 950 Geary Street San Francisco, 415.885.4074

Readings, remembrances with Susie Bright, Phil Bronstein, Stephen Elliott, Ianthe Brautigan, John Marr, Bucky Sinister, Michelle Tea, Kate Braverman— hosted by Jack Boulware with other very special guests.

CONTACT: Patrick Hughes
                 (415) 786-6767
                 patrickhughes@yahoo.com

Susie Guest Stars on "Six Feet Under"

Bereavement has taken a very odd turn for me. Two months have passed since my mother died. I'm planning a San Francisco wake for Hunter Thompson this month. My partner, who does Marine Rescue, recovered his first corpse from the ocean, a sorrowful and surreal affair. When I arrived at my first Hospice support group meeting, I  was carrying a lot of baggage...

Then, out of the blue, I got a call from Jill Soloway, a writer for the TV show, Six Feet Under.  She asked me to be a guest star!  I play myself, Susie Bright, the "feminist sex writer."  I appear as mourner and friend to a dear character on the show who has just passed away.  I'm in quite the mood for it!

A dear character ALWAYS passes away at the beginning of a 6FU story; that's the theme. The audience follows the circumstances and aftermath of the death as the script unfolds.

I am in LA right now, shooting the scenes, which is a new experience for me. I've never been on television before, other than a dozen or so inane talk shows. It's fascinating for me to see what's involved in putting something like this together— what a massive collaboration.  It requires the patience and forebearance of a roster of saints.  Maybe that is the definition of true professionalism: patience and will.

I'll have plenty of stories to tell when it's all done, but for the moment, I wanted to tell you the news, and that the show will be debuting sometime in July. Details TK, of course...

My secret pride in my  role is that I am wearing clothes that I made myself. It's my own dress, embroidered jacket, and knitted shawl. For all you amateur sewers out there, lemme tell ya, the thrill is palpable.

Especially in this town, where people are so fashion-conscious, I get asked several times a day, "Where did you get that dress/jacket/pants?"  Their mouths fall open when I  answer them.  They think I am some kind of master tailor, and my protests that this kind of dressmaking is "easy" are not believed. I'm getting a kind of respect I absolutely don't deserve, and it is so much fun!

Interviews Where I Might Have Said Too Much

I did a number of interviews last week, to help promote Best American Erotica 2005, and a couple of them appeared in print that I enjoyed reading afterwards... because I always forget what I said so spontaneously!

Here's a couple excerpts, and the URLs where you can read the rest:

The Boston Phoenix

Q:  Are there ever writers who don’t want to be included in BAE?

A:  At the very beginning. I remember asking John Nichols if I could reprint a story of his that I liked very much, and he said, "You want to reprint it in what? Best American what?" It was like I had just invited him to join me in my trash-trailer-park cheese-ball orgy or something. I sent him a copy and he said, "Okay, it’s not as bad as I thought, but people just don’t realize what you’re doing. It’s a very valiant effort, but no thank you." Then a couple of years later he sent me a note that said, "That was so dumb. I really wish I’d been in your book."

Nowadays, no. I almost wish somebody would get upset! It’s much more commercial. It’s like, "Well, how much are you paying?" Believe me, I’m all for writers getting paid, because I certainly include myself among them. It’s just interesting that there’s not a sense of putting yourself in danger or ruining yourself.

It used to be erotic writers were kind of presenting sexual lifestyles and behavior that maybe you hadn’t heard about before. It was like— "Wow, fisting? You’re kidding. Jell-O orgies? Never heard of them! Transgender — what’s that?" There was this sense of opening the curtain and showing things. Now, you’re not going to surprise people with sexual behavior, you really have to go deeper into the character and suprises of human nature....

The SFist

Q.  You've been writing, editing and critiquing erotica for years now.  Would you mind introducing our readers to some classics of the genre?

A.  I think everyone has their own personal history of the books they first read that they realized were "hot." I remember a copy of The Godfather that was being passed around my seventh grade classroom with the "dirty parts" marked in turned-down pages. When I got older, I went back to look at what was so "dirty' and I just had to laugh-- it was Mario Puzo's version of The Farmer's Daughter, a bawdy story with no shortage of purple prose.

I also remember the first time I read erotic stories that I realized were being told with a degree of insight and depth that took them into another dimension. They were "hot," but they also were profound on other levels. I remember John Updike's  "Couples" and Charles Bukowski's "Notes of a Dirty Old Man." I remember taking "Story of O" on my first major backpacking trip into the Sierras for  a month of bushwacking. I remember how spooked I was that the two books I packed:  "O" and "Gravity's Rainbow," Both ended with unfinished sentences.

My introduction to "plain brown wrappers" came much later. I picked up a hitchhiker on Valencia St., which much have been the last of his kind in the 1980s, and he left a brown-bag covered paperback in the back seat when he left, titled: "Dueling Lesbians in Bondage." What a treasure...

Susie On Tour with New Book, & Valentine Trivia Contest

The new Best American Erotica 2005 has just come out, and this year’s edition is remarkable.

This year's edition features stories from Jane Smiley, Nelson George, Mary Gaitskill, and Steve Almond— just for openers. 

I’ll be giving some readings at a few bookstores to celebrate— you’ll find my tour schedule below.

Other authors to salivate over this year include:

Greta Christina, Martha Garvey, Alicia Gifford, Robert Gluck, Bert Hart, P.S. Haven, Maria Dahvana Headley, Shu-Huei Henrickson, Karl Iagnemma, Bernice McFadden, Lisa Montanarelli, Bill Noble, Mistress Morgana, Andy Quan, Carol Queen, Thomas Roche, Simon Sheppard, Cecilia Tan, Lana Gail Taylor, and Sharon Wachsler.

Here’s the table of contents.

My favorite sheer names for the stories were: “Experimental Writer Gets Sucked Off in Field,” “Robots of the World, Unite,” “The Ugly Cock Dance,” "Surviving Darwin,”— and the highly understated “It’s Never Too Late In New York.”

I always have my little moments of pride when BAE comes out, but when I first saw this book in galleys, I got goose bumps.  I am certain that this books is one of the best collections of short stories— sexy or not— that will be published this year. For those of you who are ready to keel over from the commercial mudflow of Erotica-Lite, Erotica-Banal, and All-Hype-No-Substance, your prayers have been answered! 

Some of you know that each year I write an introduction to BAE . This edition, I decided to  address the notion that erotic literature is "washed up," an idea that was suggested to me by a couple editors who work in the “Laddie” magazine scene. “Isn't it easier to just pop in a X-rated DVD?”  they asked.

Here’s my answer... I’ve posted the whole story for your preview!

A couple words about the upcoming book signings... some of you will be bummed that they are all in the Bay Area. Hey, we’re having great weather out here, this could be your great escape! 
(I am planning a few gigs later this year, in the Midwest and Rockies, but I don’t have all the details yet.  If you have notions of organizing a gig for me in your area, please do email me, and I’ll put you in touch with my booking manager).

In the meantime...

February 3rd, 7:30pm.
Books Inc.
2275 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94114
Featuring special guests: Bob Gluck, Simon Sheppard, Lisa Montanarelli, and
Greta Christina

February 10th, 7:30pm
Diesel, A Bookstore
5433 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618
Featuring special guests: Carol Queen, Bill Noble, and Mistress Morgana

February 11th, 7:30pm
Bookshop Santa Cruz
1520 Pacific Ave
Santa Cruz, CA 95060

February 24th, 12:30pm, Lunchtime in the Financial District!
Stacey's Bookstore
581 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94105
Featuring special guest Shu-Huei Henrickson

My Little BAE Valentine's Contest

Okay, I'm going to ask two questions about Best American Erotica 2005 that will  mightily test your trivia and literary  knowledge!

The first two people who answer each of these questions correctly, will win a passionately autographed copy of Best American Erotica 2005 delivered by a  perplexed and jealous mailman.

Send your guesses/answers to my email address: susie at susiebright dot com.

I will post the winning answers, (and any entertaining wrong answers) in the Comments below!

I know I can’t enforce this rule, but please act as if this is a real game of Trivia where you can’t just leap from the table and consult your search engine. Give your best shot based on what exists in your own mind, at the moment.

—In other words, no cheating!

Question Number 1: 
One of the stories in BAE 05 is called “Charles Sykes’ Spirit of Ecstasy” Who was Charles Sykes?

Question Number 2:
This year’s edition of BAE is dedicated to Ronald Sukenick. Who is Ronald Sukenick?

Start your engines!