On the eve

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. A day filled with heart-shaped everything. So, just because I didn't know what else to do, I googled "heart."

First up was the official band site for Heart. When I was a young woman, I really liked them. Still like their older stuff, because listening to it makes me feel young again.

Next was the Wikipedia entry for this myogenic muscular organ. Very romantic [insert sarcasm here]. I started thinking about my age, and before I knew it I was clicking on heart disease and starting to feel old again.

None of this is what I wanted to write about. I wanted to write about the heart in the metaphorical. A heart swollen with joy. A heart skipping a beat in fear. A heartache.

The metaphorical heart is a complicated beast. True only to itself.

Tomorrow there will be chocolate! It's good for the heart.

A few things to read

Today I'm just going to post some links to stuff I've read lately that either I enjoyed or got me thinking.

Just read a few minutes ago, so of course it's first: Every Time You Orgasm, An Angel Gets It's Wings by Heidi Anderson over at Good Vibrations Magazine. Thank you to Emerald, who linked to this in her wonderful Recommended Reading series (every Wednesday) at her blog The Green Light District.

This wonderful post, Brainstorming, over at Sharazade's blog.  How would you handle being outed as an erotica writer? Assuming you did not necessarily want to be outed.

A lovely rant from Janine Ashbless; Family Matters. I just loved this:

"spends his whole screen time submitting patiently to the impossible demands of her ridiculous tribe of relatives, because he loves her sooo much ... and I just thought, 'Oh, for fuck's sake grow a pair.' "

How men's and women's sexuality is alike. Emily Nagoski ::sex nerd:: both alike in dignity.

Another wonderful rant. The Vegetarian Cannibal watches a film and wonders 'when did "bisexuality" become such a dirty word?' Puccini for beginners (Rant).

Okay, that's probably enough to keep ya busy the rest of the night.

On a cold winter's night

This curtain of icicles has been dissolved some by the sun over the past few days. But while it lasted it was beautiful. I don't have much to say here tonight. I've been writing, but that work has ended up at another blog. I interviewed a poet and reviewed (sorta) his new poetry book. 

I promise tomorrow I'll try to return to some naughtiness. 

Tangled thoughts

Yesterday I read a piece in the The New York Times online, that really has my mind in a tangle. I can't decide how I feel about it. So, I'm contemplating writing something about it, maybe a short essay, as a way to sort things out.

The thing is, I can't decide where to post it. Here? I don't think so. It's a controversial topic, and while I'm not trying to avoid that here, this just doesn't seem like the venue. 

And it seems to me that writing this will further blur any lines that I've attempted to use to delineate my various different writing activities. When I was younger, I always tried very hard to color inside the lines perfectly. Now I don't like lines. 

Is that the wisdom or the folly that comes with age?

Down to the wire

It's been a crazy day, and I was just about to shut down my computer when I realized that I hadn't done a blog post! Oh no! So, here's a real quickie.

And Then There Was String ~ Randy Lagana

sometimes we can't see the connections

what ties us together

holds us down or holds us up

voice or typed words

these are what I believe in

Shocked

Today, a poem I wrote, stories eat me, was posted by Shanna Germain at her blog. It's a "cut up" poem, based on some of the search terms that land folks on my blog, specifically, one certain post. That post was the one I did for the Blow Hard Tour 2009, on April 2 of that year. It was titled Today's Lesson: Swallow one's sword and other euphemisms for sucking cock.

Yes, I used that word, cock, in my poem. I used a lot of other words too. None of them were my words, but rather folks looking for things like "cock sucking lessons" that I combined to make a poem that I hope also makes a statement.

I posted a link to some folks. I got a comment from one person that they were "shocked." And I understand how they could be shocked. They are acquainted with me "in real life" and I guess I don't seem to be that kind of person. But then I wondered, why was my poem shocking?

Is it because I used words like cock, dick, and penis? Is it because of the sucking? I also used the phrase eat me. Innocent enough words separately, but together? Is it because I didn't use any of the euphemisms?

I've written a fair share of "erotic" poetry. Some of it is all metaphor. Some not at all. Some more graphic than others. Those were finalists at the 2010 Seattle Erotic Art Festival's Literary Art Showcase. By now most people know I write this kind of stuff, even my kids.

So, I'm pondering this.

In the past, I was hesitant. I did not use my real name. Now I do. In the future, I'll be writing more about how sex figures in this writing thing. I want to write about stuff I'm interested in. And, I happen to be interested in sex.

Earlier today I was reading this article from last year; When Women Write About  Their Sex Lives. Some folks think it never should be done. That "that" is private and should be left that way. There's a lot of slut-shaming that goes on.

I'm wondering how I'll react when, not if, someone tries to slut-shame me.

In actuality

I love serendipity. I was re-reading an archived article at The Atlantic, thinking I'd talk about that here at my blog (I still will, but another day). At the bottom of the page are random "More at the Atlantic" links to other features. One of the links was to Ways of Showing/Ways of Seeing, the second in a series of guest blog posts by Tony Comstock of Comstock Films fame.

In Ways of Seeing/Ways of Showing, he writes about Actualities, "simple, direct, filmed accounts of an action or activity: a dancer dancing, a bustling city street, etc."




His first guest blog post introduced what he is planning to writing about from now through February 13:

"Between now and then what I'd like to do is expand on the concept of Climax Ecology as it applies to explicit sexuality in cinema."

This sounds fascinating to me, and I will definitely be reading each installment this week.

UPDATE: Here's a link to a post that has links to all his guest blog posts there.