masochism

Say Please: Lesbian BDSM EroticaAlthough it’s April Fools, I get to kick off the virtual book tour for Sinclair Sexsmith’s Say Please: Lesbian BDSM erotica anthology (Cleis Press), and that’s no joke! I got a copy when I saw Sinclair at Lesbian Sex Mafia’s workshop with KD, 2011 International Ms. Bootblack. There’s also going to be a book launch party in NYC and I’ll post that next.

With contributing authors Miriam Zoila Pérez, Wendi Kali, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Gigi Frost, BB Rydell, Amelia Thornton, Vie La Guerre, Sassafras Lowrey, Dusty Horn, Kiki DeLovely, Elaine Miller, Shawna Elizabeth, Sossity Chiricuzio, Meridith Guy, August InFlux, Maria See, D.L. King, Anna Watson, Dilo Keith, Sinclair Sexsmith, Alysia Angel, Xan West, and Elizabeth Thorne, there’s a little bit of everything in this luscious anthology: leather, whips and chains, dungeons, sensation play, discipline and power, topping and bottoming, submission and surrender, sadism and masochism, fetish:

. . . But when I began sorting through the stories, reading nearly a hundred submissions, I started questioning what constituted BDSM in this specific context of lesbian erotica.

It is an acronym, multilayered, as sorne of its letters have multiple meanings: the BD is for bondage and discipline, the SM is for sadism and masochism, and the DS in the middle is also for domination and submission.
But it is more than that. As my definition widened, I started to see it as including all kinds of kink in general, the dozens of fetishes that get us hot and get our engines revving, our blood pumping.

I’m thrilled to have immersed myself in the kinky BDSM lesbian erotica submissions that came through my in-box and to have emerged with twenty-three stories with a huge range of sensation, discipline, bondage, topping, bottoming, submission,power, sadism, masochism, surrender, and fetish. This collection includes writers whose names you will probably recognize, writers who are new to publishing erotica, and quite a few who have never been published before. As with many things, the more I look closely at BDSM, rhe harder it is for me to bring my flogger down on it and define precisely what I think it means. But I do think this anthology begins to explore the depth and breadth of experiences that this kinky queer world has to offer.

I’m especially looking forward to the stories which queer some classic domination and submission dynamics and gender play. It’s nice to see some of the writers I’m familiar with, such as D.L. King, Xan West and Sassafras Lowery, and some new voices I’m unfamliar with such as Elizabeth Thorne and Kiki DeLovely. Congratulations  to Sinclair Sexsmith and all the authors!

Virtual Book Tour Stops
http://saypleasebook.wordpress.com

April 1      Say Please release party in SF
April 1 Viviane http://www.thesexcarnival.com
April 3 Rachel Kramer Bussel http://lustylady.blogspot.com

April 4 Giselle Renard http://donutsdesires.blogspot.com
April 5 Evoe Throw http://www.wholesexlife.com
April 6 Liz http://AlphaHarlot.com
April 9 Roma Mafia http://www.romamafia.com
April 9 Daniela http://www.thecsph.org

April 10 Official release date! Sinclair http://www.sugarbutch.net
April 11 Dede / deviantdyke http://deviantdyke.blogspot.com/
April 12 Helena Swann http://www.cuntext.com

April 13 Kim Herbel http://www.butchlesque.com
April 13   Say Please release party in NYC
April 14 Lily Lloyd http://theblackleatherbelt.com
April 15 Kelli Dunham http://www.kellidunham.com

April 16 Lyzanne http://sexpositive.tumblr.com/
April 17 Lula Lisbon http://www.lulalisbon.com
April 18 Ali Oh http://www.madeofwords.com
April 19 Jameson http://www.ftmbutchdude.com

April 21 Charlie Ninja http://charlieninja.tumblr.com/
April 22    Say Please release party in Boston
April 22 Meredith Guy http://meridithguy.tumblr.com
April 23 Wendi Kali http://astrangerinthisplace.blogspot.com

April 24 Lolita Wolf http://leatheryenta.com
April 25 Audrey at Babeland http://babeland.com/blog
April 26 Seth B http://smokebellyscorner.wordpress.com

April 27 Danika http://www.lesbrary.com
April 28 DL King http://www.dlkingerotica.com
April 29 Kiki http://kikidelovely.wordpress.com
April 30 Dilo Keith http://dilokeith.wordpress.com/blog-2/
April 30 Xan West http://tgstonebutch.livejournal.com/
May 2 Say Please release party in Seattle

I saw David Ives’  brilliant play based on the erotic novel, “Venus in Fur” when it played at the Classic Stage Company last year. The demand for the play was so intense, the run was extended twice.  What starts out as an audition for the play about the kinky lovers, slowly and relentlessly evolves as fantasy gradually becomes reality. It also introduced us to the amazing new actor, Tony Award nominee Nina Arianda, who went on to win several awards for this role and also for her work in “Born Yesterday.”

Now it’s opening on Broadway, at the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC), and will have a limited run until December 18th. British  actor Hugh Dancy will be playing the role of the director originally played by Wes Bentley. Hugh Dancy can also be seen treating women for hysteria with vibrators in Hysteria.

I’m curious to see what the chemistry between Dancy and Arianda will be like. Whether you love theater, or kink, or both, you should really try and see it.  The video is from the photoshoot for the new play.

  • Venus in Fur on Broadway
  • PHOTO CALL: Venus In Fur, Starring Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy, Meets the Press (Playbill.com)
  • Tickets for Broadway’s Venus in Fur Now On Sale; Opening Night Is Nov. 8  (Playbill.com)
  • Interview: Nina Arianda and Hugh Dancy – Venus in Fur  (Time Out New York)

 

This sexual roundelay about power and powerlessness, about the imagination butting up against so-called “reality,” is played out by two contemporary characters. As it begins, we sit facing Thomas (Wes Bentley), a playwright who has written an adaptation of “Venus in Furs.” He’s in a rehearsal studio—a grayish, minimal, anonymous space with fluorescent track lighting. He is talking on the phone to his fiancée, at the end of a long day of auditions for his play; he wants to get home. We can hear thunder and rain outside. But no sooner has Thomas put down the phone than Vanda (the phenomenal Nina Arianda) enters, dressed in a trenchcoat and carrying a broken umbrella. Vanda is like the weather: a force of nature that drenches whoever gets caught up in its sway. She wants to know if she can audition for Thomas. He tries to brush her off, but the brassy Vanda sets about to convince him that she’s the only woman who can play the part. Sometimes she throws him a compliment; sometimes she tries to appear helpless, which she is not at all. She’s simply testing Thomas’s “maleness”—that is, his desire to be counted on, to be admired, to be “Daddy.” Would he like her to wear a white dress for the audition? she asks. (Thomas is too shocked or timid to mention the bondage-like gear that Vanda has on under her coat when she arrives.) Donning the white dress, she asks is it “real 1870”? She wants to know what kind of accent she should use to play Wanda, the dominating woman whom Severin eventually meets at the spa. When Thomas still doesn’t know how to respond, Vanda just does her thing. And, as soon as she starts to read, she’s no longer Vanda but Wanda, a measured woman with impeccable Continental diction. The transformation is subtle and not so subtle—acting is Vanda’s bag, and it becomes ours, too, as we watch Thomas become more and more powerless in the presence of her unconquerable vitality, her seductive energy.

-Hilton Als, writing in the New Yorker

I ventured out in during the snow day to see it, and it was totally worth the messy trip.  CSC is a small theater and this play is performed in 90 minutes with no intermission. The chemistry and power exchange that develops between the actors, both in the play and the play-within-a play, are riveting.. I’ve been telling everyone to see it. I found out from my pal Thor that the run has been extended until March 28rd. If you hunt around the internet, you may be able to get discounted tickets. If you’ve never read the book, you can find it at the Gutenberg Project.