Celebrate Independence Day with FREEDOM SEX

Even though the BBQs are over and the fireworks have already been lit, we're going to keep the fire going with some readings that will make you glad you have to ability to keep on celebrating your freedom. When I think of freedom I most definitely think of freedom of speech - one of our most important rights. I think our friends at Hustler would agree!

As you may have guessed, July's In The Flesh theme is Freedom Sex. Put your sparklers away and come on out to listen to our fantastic readers. Should be a liberating experience. This time we have three readers set to join us in the store, one phoning in for our "phone sex" segment and our monthly review from Erotica Revealed. Goodies to be provided by the Hustler Cafe. We'll see you Wednesday, July 8th at 8PM.

An interviewer once said of Dayle A. Dermatis, “She has so many aliases, you’d think she was a spy!” Tonight she’s with us as Andrea Dale, erotica author. (The cape and tights are invisible.) She also writes erotica and erotic romance with two different coauthors, as well as science fiction, fantasy, and media tie-in, under other names.

She has two novels available from Virgin Books and has sold about 90 short stories, which coincidentally is approximately the same number of Styx concerts she’s been to. In their most recent DVD, she’s visible so often in the front row that she could be her own drinking game.

Dayle has lived abroad and loves to travel (37 countries to date; she’s lost count of the states). She currently lives within scent of the ocean with her husband and two obligatory cats. When not writing, she can be found doing historic re-creation with the Society of Creative Anachronism, dancing at a Styx concert, or renovating a 1911 Craftsman-style bungalow.

Tonight she will be reading her story “Fanning the Flames” which appeared in the Playing With Fire anthology.

Alyson Mead is the bestselling author of Wake Up to Your Stories and Wake Up to Your Weight Loss. Her fiction, essays and articles have appeared in over thirty publications, and she has received the Columbine Award for Screenwriting, the Roy W. Dean Filmmaking Grant and awards from Writer’s Digest and USA Book News. She lives and works in Los Angeles.

She will be reading an excerpt from her forthcoming novel, Swallow.

Sam Saturday is the creator, writer and artist of all things from Load World Comics. He was born in Virginia, raised & educated in Florida, and later drove to California all by himself. As a child he was highly influenced by the Muppet Show, the Leisure Suit Larry computer games, musical theatre, comedy records and nonsense poetry.

Sam's comic strip "Load" has been seen in independent magazines published in places ranging from Texas to Germany. As an independent publisher, Sam has produced the "Load" collection "Why Do You Cry When I'm On Top?," the comic book "Pope & Pig," two books of "Tongue In Cheek" sex poetry, and more. Outside of his own work he has art-directed multiple feature films and shorts. His newest project is the video game website Explogamer, in which he serves as the creator and Editor-In-Chief.

Sam currently resides in Hollywood, California with his girlfriend, author Eden Bradley, and his two cats, Sasha & Xev.

He will be reading some erotic poetry (I believe of the anal variety).

Donna George Storey (www.DonnaGeorgeStorey.com) can’t seem to write anything that doesn’t have a lot of sex in it. Her adult-only tales have appeared in nearly a hundred journals and anthologies including Prairie Schooner, Gettysburg Review, Fourth Genre, Best American Erotica, the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica and X: The Erotic Treasury. Her work has been featured in magazines in the UK, translated into Italian and received special mention in Pushcart Prize Stories 2004. She is also the author of an erotic novel, Amorous Woman (Neon/Orion 2008), which was based on her own sensual experiences in Japan and was praised by American geisha, Liza Dalby, as “literary erotica at its best.” She currently writes two columns for the Erotica Readers and Writers Association, “Cooking up a Storey” about her favorite topics— delicious sex, well-crafted food, and mind-blowing writing—and “Shameless Self-Promotion,” which is pretty self-explanatory.

She’ll be reading (via phone) an excerpt from “Suit and Tie” (She’s on Top, Cleis Press) a story inspired by her summer office jobs in college, when she regularly sought freedom from the bureaucratic grind by taking masturbation breaks in the ladies’ room. She still has a fondness for seducing serious men in suits.

Hot Summer Sex at In The Flesh

Summer was in the air - and so was hot sex - at the last In The Flesh at Hustler Hollywood on June 10. The traditional LA overcast June glooms may have been clouding the skies and chilling the temperatures but at Hustler Hollywood it was Hot, Hot, and Hotter as Eden Bradley, Jolene Hui, Patrick Julian and Alison Tyler (giving darn good phone sex) gathered at the supermarket of sex on Sunset Boulevard where many celebs go to get their caffeine and sex fixes. In The LA Times Penn Jilette of the Penn & Teller weirdo magician show revealed that when in town he stays at the Four Seasons and likes to hang out late in the flesh at the Hustler cafe drinking decaf espresso. Now that's a good trick, and one you should do too, only do it when In The Flesh is in session - every second Wednesday of every month at 8pm! And could it be a coincidence that the next Showtime episode of the Penn & Teller is devoted to the orgasm.

And for my next trick I (Stan Kent) opened the evening with some hot summer sex-inspired spinning as the crowd gathered, of which there was a lively bunch thanks to our great authors getting the word out that they'd be getting their words out - In The Flesh.
I opened the readings with the Erotica Revealed review of the month - Boy Crazy - Coming Out Erotica and we had a great discussion about whether heterosexual people could/do get turned on by gay porn. It was thought-provoking in terms of what makes for good smut regardless of gender or sexual preferences and lead perfectly into the fist author reading from Eden Bradley, who'd shared that she likes to watch gay porn because you see so many more hard cocks than in regular hetero porn. She had quite a crew of supporters with her who along with the rest of us enjoyed the tasty nibbles and drinks courtesy of the Hustler Hollywood cafe. The Hustler cafe staff, lead by Alex, do a great job of hosting In The Flesh. It was cool to see the scrolling lighted announcement of our In The Flesh reading series flash across the wall above the register area. All the books were in place thanks to Hollie and Alex and the stage was set for some hot summer sex.
Eden treated her fans to a delightful story called Soul Strangers from the aptly titled Harlequin Spice Naughty Bits about sex with a tattooed stranger on a beach. Eden's delivery was captivating, all the more remarkable because she'd mysteriously thrown her back out of whack just a few days before. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm????

She apologized for not wearing stilettos as she is usually want to do - and we are usually wanting her to do - but the wedges she had on were still definitely sexy, especially when she revealed under pressure that she'd thrown her back out cooking an omelet. Yeah, right the crowd said, and Eden, who had already admitted that the story she'd read was inspired by true events (but just how much of it was real is left as an exercise for the audience) went on to clarify that her back was already acting up because of an amazing session with an industrial strength vibrator that her boyfriend had acquired to help with a stiff neck. The stiff part we bought but the neck bit a stretch right down to the cock more like... This was thrilling real life stuff that dovetailed perfectly from Eden's fictional story, and her frank honesty about how this plug-in vibrator had taken her from just plain horny to screaming, neck thrashing, leg melting, brain mushing, pussy soaking orgasm in about 60 seconds had us all wanting to join her. And Eden was ever so kind, accommodating and thoughtful and provides the link to where you can get one of these amazing machines and all that we at In The Flesh ask is that you tell us at an upcoming night how you made out with the masturbating monster of not just good but GREAT vibrations. And we provide this info with all disclaimers of liability if you too throw out your back, or your lover's back or lovers' backs as you launch yourself and them into permanent residency in happy land. No wonder Eden (and her boyfriend) had such smiles on their faces.

The beast beater is a Brookstone Theraspa Turbo-(it costs $50 and is also available on Amazon and the crafty horndogs at Brookstone/Amazon give you free shipping if you spend $100 so buy two and give one to someone you love and lust after). Eden says, and we believe her, boy, how we really believe her, that her trick is to use the side with the textured roller ball.

Next up was our own Jolene Hui, the always provocative and prolific co-host of In The Flesh-LA at Hustler Hollywood, and she continued the sex on the beach theme reading The Salsa Bar from the new Alison Tyler collection, Playing With Fire. And she also continued the true confessions theme revealing that her story was inspired by true events. The key word here is "inspired." Jolene was very inspired on a beach in Nice, but like Eden, she didn't reveal just how much of it was her very horny imagination at work and play. As with all of Jolene's writings (and readings) the imagery she uses is powerful erection or pussy wet producing. You should go out and get Playing With Fire just to read this story - all the others are amazing too - but The Salsa Bar is truly a delight featuring Jolene's hot mom - dare I say hot MILF - encouraging her to have sex on the beach during their Mom and Daughter buddy bonding summer sojourn on the French Riviera. Now that's what I calla great Mom. That Jolene, or rather Jolene's character had sex with not just one, but two guys on the tour is just plain poetic. And yeah, Mom did make sure that her daughter had a condom - or two...After those two stories it was hard to be the host, and it got even harder in our next segment where we had the pleasure of phone sex from the delightful "Erotica's Own Superwoman", the "Trollop with a Laptop", Ms. Alison Tyler who told us all what little she was wearing - "diaphanous" floated from the phone and around our ears - and our imaginations provide the images of her very high spiked heels digging into the floor as she gave us very good phone from so many miles away, but she could have been right in the room, sitting on our laps, grinding as way as she read from her Exposed collection.
Our last reader was Patrick Julian and he proved that dishing out hot summer sex isn't just the prerogative of hot sexy female authors. Patrick built upon the foreplay of Eden, Jolene and Alison with his yummy tale "32 Flavors" about how buying ice cream and a chance encounter at the Hollywood Ralph's grocery store lead to some hot melting sex later with taste treats galore. And yes, Patrick's reading was likewise inspired by true events, and judging by the smile on his face and the way he was on the edge of his seat as he read (and look closely at the picture for the strategically placed Hustler Cafe menu sign and the scrolling In The Flesh announcement ) this was more true events than imaginative flights of fucking fancy.

Thanks to Hustler Hollywood we gave away some great bags of Hustler merchandise including copies of the DVD of "The People versus Larry Flynt," condoms and Hustler coffee mugs, so the crowd could go home, watch the movie, have safe sex and have a great cup of coffee afterwards (or before).

The authors gathered in the magazine racks for a final shot of what was a night for of hot, true, sex stories and surprising revelations, but I gotta stop writing right now because I hear a buzzing and a screaming coming from the bedroom... Join us in July (July 8 - 8pm) for In The Flesh's night of Freedom Sex - fireworks guaranteed.

Sizzling Summer Sex at IN THE FLESH

What do I think of when I hear the word "summer?" The sun, of course! And what goes along with the sun? Sweaty bodies. Sweaty sex bodies jaunting around in very little clothing with rays of light reflecting off their glistening skin. Nearly naked bodies rubbing together in the heat of the night...

 It's June and it's time for Hot Summer Sex at Hustler! We have some spicy authors reading words hot enough to melt the icing off of the delicious dessert goodies supplied by the Hustler cafe. We've got three readers in the flesh, one phoning in for our "phone sex" segments and our monthly review by Kathleen Bradean from Erotica Revealed. Join us on Wednesday, June 10th at 8PM.

Eden Bradley is the author of six novels and a number of novellas, short stories, poetry and articles in both print and e-book format. She writes erotica and erotic romance for Bantam/Delta, Harlequin Spice, Berkley Heat, Samhain Publishing and Phaze Publishing. She appears regularly on Playboy Radio’s ‘Night Calls’ with porn superstars Christy Canyon & Niki Hunter, and conducts workshops on writing sex. Her most recent releases are A 21^ST CENTURY COURTESAN, a novel about a high-class call girl, available now in your local bookstores and through the usual online sources, and TEMPT ME TWICE, a ménage novella, available now at www.SamhainPublishing.com, at MyBookStoreand More and MobiPocket.

Eden loves shoes, tattoos, art, younger men, reading smutty books, chocolate and sex, of course, not necessarily in that order.

You can read more about her on her website: EdenBradley.com, on her MySpace page or her group blog, Smutketeers.com.

She will be reading from her story SOUL STRANGERS, which is part of the first Harlequin Spice anthology in print, NAUGHTY BITS. 

Jolene Hui (www.jolenehui.com) is a writer of literary and erotic fiction and about anything else her fingers feel like typing. She's been known to write a horror column for The Flesh Farm and a hockey column for Inside Hockey. One of Tonto Books' first authors, her literary fiction has been published in their Tonto Short Stories, Tonto Christmas Stories, and More Tonto Short Stories anthologies. She's also been published by a variety of newspapers, magazines, websites, Cleis Press, Pretty Things Press, Logical-Lust and Alyson Books. Her short play Addendum was produced as part of the Northpark Playwright Festival in 2003 and her short play Feather and Magazines premiered as part of the San Diego Actors Alliance Festival in 2004. Two of her erotic short stories were chosen for a juried Literary Showcase as part of the 2009 Seattle Erotic Art Festival. She still holds onto her dream that she will one day be the mother of a Standard Poodle and frequently daydreams about cheesecake. She is based in Los Angeles.

She will be reading from her story The Salsa Bar that is included in the book Playing With Fire, edited by Alison Tyler (please see below). 

Patrick Julian was born and raised in rural Concord, Michigan, the son of a factory worker father and librarian mother.  Ted Nugent lived one mile away, and his amplifiers could occasionally be heard ringing across the fields late at night.  On a Wednesday in the summer following his graduation from high school, Patrick simultaneously received first prize in the Michigan Republican Party essay contest (in absentia), and engaged in semi-public indecency (in person) backstage during a performance of the nation's last traveling tent show.

In the intervening years, Patrick has received a BA in Performance from Northern Michigan University, and an MA and Ph.D in Theater History from Bowling Green.  He taught briefly at a university near the Texas panhandle before having a mid-20s mid-life crisis and waking up to find himself living in Los Angeles.  As a writer, Patrick has published in both academic and pop media (and would like to thank Instinct magazine for that first shot in "Let the Breeder Speak").  His screenplays have won contest and festival awards, and a Bloods and Crips docudrama "The King of Watts" was produced in 2007.  Patrick also writes for the stage; his children's play "Shadow gets a Black Eye" was an American College Theater Festival award winner, and a one-woman show that he co-wrote, "Inconclusive Woman", is scheduled to appear off-Broadway in the Summer of 2009.  In addition to the script for "Inconclusive Woman", Patrick wrote the lyrics for two songs in the show- "Them Elmer and Geraldine Blues" and "The Vagina Song", and currently has a song on the 2009 release from electronica artist Bad Boy Bill.

When he's not locked in his head writing or blogging for the Independent Television Network Tomorrowpictures.TV, Patrick can be found listening to country music in ratty little bars around Los Angeles or camping and backpacking across the west.  His summer selection tonight is a story about ice cream and sex and all the infinite possibilities therein... 

He will be reading a piece called "32 Flavors."

Alison Tyler has been called "Erotica's Own Superwoman," a "Trollop with a Laptop," and a "literary siren." She is the editor of 50 racy anthologies including the upcoming Alison's Wonderland (Harlequin), the author of 25 naughty novels including Tiffany Twisted (Virgin), and the author of more than 1,000 short stories (for publishers ranging from HarperCollins to Plume). She can be found at Trollop With a Laptop and Bastard Life, often drinking shots in the dark. She’s currently working on a novel about ugly shirts. Or wife swapping. She’s not sure which. But she’d better figure out soon. At least, before people start going home with the wrong shirt. Or wife.

She will be reading from her book Playing With Fire which has one of the sexiest book covers I have ever seen...

All of these hot readers will be accompanied by Stan Kent who will be DJing and hosting for the evening. There will be giveaways of Hustler Merchandise and some goodie samples. Remember, there is free parking behind the store at 8920 W. Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069 (310)-860-9009 - See you there!

Feminist Sex Rocks Hustler Hollywood

Almost 31 years to the month since the infamous Hustler Meat Grinder cover rocked the feminist world, Feminist Sex rocked Hustler Hollywood with the largest crowd we've seen for an In The Flesh Event. Eager listeners crammed every available Relax It's Just Sex space, sitting on chairs and the stairs, standing, leaning, moving about as over 70 people packed the cafe to hear fabulous examples of why Feminism and Sex can be hot - very hot - and very thought provoking - which is why we do In The Flesh - and a very special thanks to Hustler Hollywood and all the staff for providing the forum for an open, uncensored exchange where "fuck" and "cunt" can be said with artistic impunity.

As the crowd filtered in I played some appropriate music drawing from the obvious No Doubt's "I'm Just A Girl" to Garbage's "Sex Is Not The Enemy" falling back to classics like The Nun's "Do You Want Me On My Knees" to more contemporary fare in line with the bold women of the Feminist Sex evening using Peaches' "Casanova" to lead us into the words.

I began with the Erotic Review of the Month from the bold reviewers at Erotica Revealed . This month's review marked the two year anniversary of the site - which is an amazing accomplishment of bringing monthly, critical updates about all that's new in the diverse world of sex writing. This month's review of Maxim Jakubowski's Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica (Volume 8) was a fitting collection of erotica that showed how the dynamic of erotica has changed with the increase of female writers, but did come in for some criticism for not including more GLBT offerings. Reviewer Jean Roberta summarized the state of erotica and this book when she wrote "Desire, hope, mortality, greed, generosity, deception and illusion all mix together seamlessly in these stories, as does the comedy of sex and the tragedy of human loneliness. This is a book to be dipped into again and again.

And so began our dipping into stories with the return of Jillian Lauren to In The Flesh reading from her upcoming memoir "Some Girls". Jillian read an amazing tale of how she almost became a slave girl, and we're not talking in a SM dungeon in San Francisco where safe words end the session. She was talking about becoming a harem girl to a Saudi prince which could easily have been construed, given the environment as slavery.

Jillian's tale was captivating (every pun intended) as she described waiting for her interview in a small room and how she feared for her life, thinking that she might become one of those stories we hear about and wonder, "how could that happen."

What was amazing to hear was how the dynamic between them worked and while there was an element of contempt and complacency from the Prince, Jillian worked it to the point that once her stint was over, and she had returned to the US, she went back for another round in the harem. Now that's Feminist Sex by any definition...


Our next reader was the delightful Michele Matheson who describes herself as a recovering child actor having had roles in Mr. Belvedere and Life Goes On. She is the author of the enticing "Saving Angelfish" and read from her upcoming novel, "The Failed Suicide of Cooper Tin." Michele was nervous but quickly found her stride in the classically gorgeous heels she wore for the evening. The excerpt she read demonstrated the same clever prose of Saving Angelfish with an otherworldly atmosphere that was part child-like fantasy tinged with a heavy dose of adolescent reality with dialog that zoomed off the page courtesy of Michele's skilled delivery. It was a beautiful read that teased the audience with the promise of a great book to soon read.

Next up was our phone sex segment. This is where we dial up and out of town author and have he or she talk dirty to us as a nod to that good old tradition of letting your voice do the talking so your fingers can do the walking. Our guest this month was Michelle Tea, who would have been at Hustler In The Flesh but a family obligation thing prevented her journeying south, so we and she jumped at the opportunity to use modern telecommunications so she could be a part of the event that her writing has pioneered. After answering the obligatory "what are you wearing?" question with the titillating answer "panties."

Michelle read from Valencia and all we can say is she held a room of 70 people transfixed to a small cellphone feeding her voice through the PA system.

It was sultry to the point of being smoldering hot, and I can tell you that with May as National Masturbation month there were more than a few people considering giving up an offering to the power of Michelle's sexy delivery.

Following such a titillating tale wasn't easy, but our next reader fed off Michelle's delivery and gave a live increase of the sexual energy and striking imagery filling the Hustler cafe. Jessica Pauline is an example of what makes In The Flesh special. She saw the announcement of events and noticed the subject was Feminist Sex and contacted me with a topic and an offer to speak. Even though we were quite full we squeezed her in because at In The Flesh we believe in giving writers the forum to speak and it is our experience that listeners don't mind a full program when the enthusiasm to perform exudes from every pore. And that was Jessica.

She read from an upcoming book about her experiences being a feminist stripper while working at Planned Parenthood. She took the stripping gig like so many others - because she needed the money and why wait tables when you can wait on lapdances. She told how she wrestled with her convictions, keeping secret her "night" job and how she evolved into the totally nude lapdance backroom side of the business. Having a personal knowledge of strippers and stripping I must say Jessica was spot on in her descriptions and delivery, including the priceless moment when she described rubbing her crotch on the outstretched leg of a patron, thinking that her mucous membranes were leaving their traces on his wool trousers for all the rest of Los Angeles to enjoy for free. It was in-your-face and in-your-crotch reading.

Jessica epitomized the take-charge sexuality of feminist sex when she then took what she learned from that experience and learned to hover a tantalizing short distance above the next lap, not giving it up while making it better for her and her audience. Jessica finished her reading to a thunderous applause and more than a few willing laps desiring her to come out of retirement.

Our final scheduled reader was the organizer of the event - Shira Tarrant. Shira teaches at California State University, Long Beach, and helped pull together the readers. Many in the audience were her students who were getting some credit for attending as well as a bit of a thrill.

Shira read from her varied essays about Men and Porn, challenging the audience to not get stuck in the porn rut. Her point was that sex in all of its forms doesn't have to be exclusive of quality of life - which can sometimes happen. It was a thought-provoking ending to a great evening - which didn't end there.

We had an impromptu reader - Bradford - who had been invited to the event by a guest and was so inspired he took the opportunity to read a piece of erotic poetry that came from a post-first date ode he sent to a well-know erotic poetess.

Bradford wrote the piece as an offering to his date after their first night together and it was full of adulation imagery and male worship of the goddess form that served as a fitting ending to an evening of celebrating all that is Feminist about sex.

I played some more music spinning out with Lily Allen's "Fear" and the Pussycat Dolls' "When I Grow Up" ending it with the Eurythmics' "Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves" while we took photos of all the authors and enjoyed some truly tasty sweets from the Hustler Cafe - those lemon tarts were to die for.

Here's Shira, Jessica, Michele, Stan and Jillian under the Hustler Hollywood sign, and then one of Stan, Jillian and Michele in the magazine racks.

Our next In The Flesh is Wednesday June 10 at 8pm where the subject is Hot Summer Sex with readers Jolene Hui giving us something from her book, Patrick Julian and Alison Tyler by phone wearing something very hot, summery and sexy, I'm sure.

On a related note to the subject of Feminist Sex - all In The Fleshers should come by the Hustler Cafe next Wednesday - May 20 where I'm hosting a special event called "How To Make Your Own Porno (and do it well!!!) with acclaimed feminist porn director Nica Noelle and director Kevin Moore with adult stars Elexis Monroe, Kylie Ireland and Satine Phoenix. The evening will show you - with hands on instruction, how to make your own erotic video. We'll get into details like lighting, camera angles, editing and of course, acting and how to look sex and your best in front of the camera. We'll act out a few scenes and invite audience member to participate with the stars (clothed of course...) And in addition to Hustler Merchandise giveaways we'll be giving away a grand prize of the opportunity to be an observer on the set of an adult video in production to whomever gives the best performance.

FEMINIST SEX AT HUSTLER HOLLYWOOD - You've Come A Long Way Baby ...

It is almost 31 years to the day that Hustler Magazine released it's June 1978 issue that was to cause such a stir. It was the infamous "Meat Grinder" cover on which Larry Flynt pronounced that Hustler would no longer hang women up as pieces of meat. Much controversy surrounded the issue and a lot of the satire and point of the cover was lost in the outrage of those times. Now, all these years later, thanks to the growing involvement of women taking charge of their portrayal in erotica, that pronouncement has come true with women dominating the industry and the marketplace. The porn paradigm shift will be celebrated at the next In The Flesh, Wednesday May 13 at 8pm at Hustler Hollywood, where the subject is Feminist Sex.

In The Flesh has assembled a stellar line-up of authors and performers to present a modern view of Feminist Sex that proves sexiness and feminism can go hand-in-hand and is empowering to men and women alike. Come and experience Shira Tarrant, Michele Matheson, Jillian Lauren, Jessica Pauline and Elan with a mystery phone sex event with Michelle Tea plus our regular Erotica Revealed Review of the month featuring Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica Vol. 8 edited by Maxim Jakubowski Reviewed by Jean Roberta - and while we're speaking of milestones in Feminist Sex let's congratulate Erotica Revealed on their second anniversary of opening our eyes and libidos to all that's new in the wonderful world of erotica.

Shira Tarrant will be reading a surprising excerpt about pornography from her newest book, Men and Feminism (Seal Press). She is also the editor of Men Speak Out: Views on Gender, Sex and Power and author of When Sex Became Gender. Shira is column editor of “The Man Files” at the blog Girl With Pen. She’s published in Bitch, off our backs, and more delicately titled magazines. Her next book is Fashion Talks: Undressing the Power of Style. Shira loves talking about sex, porn, masculinity, modesty, and other ideas with her students at California State University, Long Beach. She has a PhD in Political Science from UCLA. Read more about her work at http://shiratarrant.com/.

Michele Matheson, a Los Angeles native, is the author of Saving Angelfish, published by TinHouse Books and will be reading from Saving Angelfish. She is a recovering child actor, and is somewhat remembered for roles in Mr. Belvedere and Life Goes On. Michele plays in a band called The Black Tales. The EP can be found at Amoeba Records. Her second novel, The Failed Suicide of Cooper Tin, is in progress.

Jillian Lauren will be reading an excerpt from her upcoming memoir Some Girls which will be published by Plume/Penguin in the Spring of 2010. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from Antioch University. Her writing has appeared in Flaunt Magazine, Pindeldyboz Magazine, Opium Magazine,The Chiron Review, Society, Pale House: A Collective and in the anthology My First Time: A Collection of First Punk Show Stories. Jillian has read at spoken word events in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, including Tongue and Groove, Talk, Talk, Talk and Words like Sugar. She is also a performer and has recently worked with directors as diverse as Steve Balderson, Lynne Breedlove and Margaret Cho. She is married to Weezer bass player Scott Shriner. They live in Los Angeles.

Jessica Pauline is a freelance writer in Los Angeles, a former stripper and a permanent - if sometimes begrudging - feminist. An NYU graduate with a degree in music, her writing on sex and relationships, health and wellness has appeared in various local publications. She is the Health Editor for LAist, and can also be found online at ShadySadie.com. She is currently working on a book about her experiences as a feminist stripper.

Elan is a San Francisco-based performer, writer and lover living in a fantastical pit of hedonist dreams dubbed, "The Glorious Hole." With pleasure, she makes mayhem with several deviant troupes known variously asBangs of Hunger, Mazeltov Cocktail & Heticide.As a solo artist, she works primarily with images, themes and characters extracted from the underbelly of history and folklore. The method massages these ghosts and golems into horrifyingly sensual landscapes populated with contemporary queer longings and musculature.Past projects include "Peri Pascha on the Passover Presents: Museum of anExtinct Race OR On the Jews and Their Lies" and a role as Ursula the SeaWitch as Orpheus in Marc Arthur's, "The UnDead." Currently, Elan is gearing up to direct an experimental Oz-as-end-days themed queer porn.Elan has performed nationally and locally for the ivy-league, in the night-life, and of the seedy, pornographic and practically-regrettable moment. At present, she works a day job as the Lead Madam of the LustyLady.

Michelle Tea writes books and hosts readings for other people who write books, to be listened to by people who like reading books. Her last novel is called Rose of No Man's Land and is about a teenage genderqueer loner who gets mixed up with a speed freak mall rat and falls in love. Or something. Her last anthology is called It's So You and it's full of essays by stylish people about how they came to look so great, such as Eileen Myles, Kim Gordon, Jenny Shimizu, Kate Bornstein, Ali Liebegott, Tara Jepsen, Beth Lisick and other modern role models. She runs the Radar Reading + Salon series in San Francisco, and every so often piles a bunch of bitches in a van and sets off across the country under the guise of Sister Spit: The Next Generation. Billed as an all-girl spoken word road show, it's truly an excuse to sing karaoke at dive bars across America. She'll be performing a mystery phone sex piece for us.

Stan Kent will be hosting and DJing the evening with music before and after the event and there will be giveaways of Hustler Merchandise and tasty samples of sweet things from the Hustler Cafe. See you there - and remember - as always - there's free parking in the rear of the store at 8920 W Sunset Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90069, (310) 860-9009.

Taxing Sex at In The Flesh

A small, lively mix of writers and listeners put aside their tax chores to come to Hustler Hollywood for a night of Taxing Sex, and the themes that bounced around the Hustler "Relax It's Just Sex" walls certainly showed that everyone wants to do to the taxman what they've been doing to us. There were timid auditors being punished and getting their just desserts, as did the audience who was treated to some excellent free samples of decadent sweets from the Hustler Cafe's goodie case and music from me, Stan Kent, one of the hosts,DJ and lion-tamer of In The Flesh.

As part of our Erotica Review of the Month, the evening began with Kathleen Bradean from Erotica Revealed leading a discussion on what makes for good erotica. Instead of reading an entire review in its entirety, which you can do just by going to the Erotica Revealed website, Kathleen focused on the themes that the reviews uncovered and challenged the audience to agree or disagree.

It was thought-provoking, interesting and titillating to hear the responses, expecially from authors as to why they write erotica. Overwhelmingly there was a sense of giving life to fantasies that perhaps draw from some small experience that then gets embellished into fictional accounts and in that sense genre erotica writers have much in common with memoirists such as James Frey. I don't know how many times at readings I've been asked "Have you done all the things you write about?" and I respond with the standard "Well, do you think Agatha Christie killed all those people?" But Kathleen's discussion made me realize that for me the good erotica I like, and the good erotica I've written does have an element of truth, or real life to it. What about you? Come to In The Flesh and let us know what makes for good erotica for you. If you're interested in reading something send Stan Kent or Jolene Hui an email.

Our next reader was first-time erotica writer Tripp Mills who read, or should I say, performed a timely piece called "Stimulus Package" about an audit of a character named Bunny Pickle” (his pet name for his most favorite ex. Although this character is fictitious, her adventures were based on real life characters and experiences the author has sought in and out of the bedroom. He delivered the story with appropriate accents and emphasis indicating Tripp has much more to offer the erotica world, but he disappointed the audience by revealing he was not wearing his stylish leopard print underwear he had modeled for our upcoming events blog (see below to Writers' Gallery for April 8 - Taxing Sex)

Next up was our phone sex segment where we call an out-of-town author to talk dirty to us. The prolific Jeremy Edwards entertained us with "It Takes W-2 To Tango."

With microphone hovering phallic-like over my cellphone, carrying Jeremy's story of a long-simmering encounter from the yearly ritual of tax-season, the audience hung on every word. While you'd think it would be difficult to hold a room with something like this, it goes to show that you can let your fingers do the talking - and fucking - and reading.

Next up was Kathy Santineau who has appeared before at many Hustler-based reading events under many different nom de plumes, and it was a treat to have her back at our latest incarnation in hers. Kathy read a piece called "The Audit" that was in Best Transgender Erotica. It was told from the lucky point-of-view of a hapless IRS agent sent to audit the tax return of the infamous drag queen dominatrix, Mistress Sheila. As is expected from Kathy's gender-flexible writing, she captured the male-fantasy aspects of being dominated to perfection.

We wrapped up the evening with Hustler merchandise giveaways to our guests and listeners and I played some fitting music for everyone to hang around discussing the things that erotica writers and listeners do before heading over to the Rainbow for drinks.

Thanks to all the authors and participants for a great night that goes to prove the value of In The Flesh as a regular forum for authors and listeners to get together. Whether we have ten or a hundred people there isn't the point. It is to provide a regular salon for those brave souls who value an uncensored public environment for explicit writing, and in that regard Thanks to Hustler Hollywood for giving us a home, and a halo on Tripp's head as you can see in both of the group photos.

See you on May 13th for an outstanding night of Feminist Sex with Shira Tarrant, Michele Matheson, Jillian Lauren, Jessica Pauline and Elan.

Writers' Gallery for April 8 - Taxing Sex

IT'S TAX TIME - and what better way to celebrate getting screwed by the IRS than to come to In The Flesh for some sexual healing in the form of some amazing authors putting the erotic word and themselves out there for your eyes and ears at 8PM on Wednesday, April 8th.

This month includes great live pieces from Tripp Mills and Kate Satineau, a wonderful "phone sex" reading from Jeremy Edwards and a discussion about what's new in erotica from Erotica Revealed reviewer Kathleen Bradean. Erotica Revealed is a very cool site that features honest reviews of recently released erotica with links allowing you to click through and buy the book if you so want, but what's even more cool is it is a great way to stay on top of all the new stuff coming out, and trust us, there is a lot of erotica stuff coming out these days.


This April Erotica Revealed Reviews Five New Titles:

American Cool by Susan DiPlacido
Reviewed by Steven Hart

The Apprentice by Carrie Williams
Reviewed by Ashley Lister

Between Love and Lust by Nikko Lee
Reviewed by Jean Roberta

Bittersweet by Amber Hipple
Reviewed by Lisabet Sarai

Like a Wisp of Steam: Steampunk Erotica edited by Cecilia Tan and J Blackmore Reviewed by Kathleen Bradean

And then there's you - we have a word for you - the audience - and you are encouraged to get involved with your opinions about what makes good smut or read something you've slaved over or just make it up on the spot. We give away awesome free stuff from Hustler for the brave ones that open their mouths.

Tasty sugary nibbles will be provided by the Hustler Hollywood cafe. In The Flesh happens every second Wednesday of the month. If you know of anyone would be a good match for this series, be sure to direct them to either one of our hosts - Jolene Hui or Stan Kent.

For those of you new to all this, Hustler Hollywood is located at 8920 Sunset Blvd. West Hollywood, CA - Free parking behind the building for the duration of the event! And afterwards for those of you interested in doing the other thing writers do best - drink - we go out to one of the local Strip bars (as in Sunset Strip - puh-leaaze) like the Rainbow.

Now here's the bios and pictures of the authors who'll be telling us all about Taxing Sex - and we're sorry to say Eden Bradley won't be able to make it due to a family emergency. We wish her well and look forward to having her In The Flesh another time.

Tripp Mills will be reading "Stimulus Package" and is the kind of author we like in that he doesn't just talk-the-talk - he walks-the-walk - in his underwear - leopard print too! Ya gotta love him.

A newcomer to the “erotic literary” world, Tripp Mills, self-proclaimed weirdo and sexual warrior, has been published in the Advocate, Art & Understanding, and various rags such as SF Weekly, The Bay Area Reporter, and the first publication of the little known journal called “The Paper” in New York City back in the late 80’s. His short story, “Rita’s Red Sunglasses” was a finalist in the Creative Writing Series Competition at San Francisco State University, and he just completed a series of short stories entitled “Save The Robots”. Tripp is a graduate of the Trinity Rep Conservatory at Brown and for several years was a musician/singer song writer working with New York bands such as Action Faction, The Nads, Porky Darling, Wild Women of Borneo, Mermaids on Heroin, and other various underground projects until landing in California completely strung out on dope looking for redemption. After a number of stints in rehabs from San Francisco to Los Angles (where he met several celebrities), he had an epiphany that Hollywood was the only place left to reinvent oneself so he’s been writing ever since. He currently spends an inordinate amount of time on his online hook-up profiles but also on his first novel entitled “Mangina” as well as a stab at screenwriting – after all this is Hollywood “dahlings”.

Inspired by his friend and mentor porn director Gino Colbert, Tripp will debut his newest character tonight endearingly named “Bunny Pickle” (his pet name for his most favorite ex), in her first adventure entitled “Stimulus Package” (in honor of this taxing season) which serves as Tripp’s first venture into this genre. Although this character is fictitious, her adventures are based on real life characters and experiences the author has sought in and out of the bedroom. He continues to research the project in various places of smut and lust and wants to say thanks to Craigslist LA and Jolene for bringing him here tonight. Please don’t be afraid – he’s actually a really nice guy and believes we all deserve a rich erotic life no matter what the orientation, gender, or fetish may be. Tonight he will be wearing a new line of underwear under the designer name Milili. Viewings are at the discretion of the author. Like we said - ya gotta love him.

Now we're not sure what kind of print underwear the very prolific Kate Santineau will be wearing, if any at all, print or otherwise, because she promises to bring her purple flogger for the reading of an amazingly appropriate piece called "The Audit" that was in Best Transgender Erotica. It's told from the POV of the hapless IRS agent sent to audit the tax return of the infamous drag queen dominatrix, Mistress Sheila.

Kate Dominic is a former aerospace editor and technical writer who now writes about much more interesting ways to put a Tab A into Slot B (or C or D or many multiples thereof). She is the author of over 300 short stories, which have been published under many noms de porn in three solo books, a wide variety of anthologies, magazines, and websites, and in several languages. She writes as a man and a woman, sliding up and down the Kinsey scale in whatever orientation the piece calls for. Her book, Any Two People, Kissing, was a 2003 finalist for the Foreword Magazine Book of the year in the category of short stories. Under a deep, dark penname, she has also been a finalist for Penthouse Variations' Baudelaire Prize.A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, Kate is a transplant to Los Angeles, where she lives with her long-suffering husband/research assistant ("Does a man feel what -- when?! Hold on -- I need another beer!") and a menagerie of cats and a very spoiled dog. She spends way more time than she should playing in a historical re-enactment group where her 15th century compatriots have no idea how she and her wicked quills spend their modern world days. Kate is currently taking a break from short stories and finishing a heretical novel set in 15th century Italy -- complete with intrigue, kinky costumes, and fancy family jewels. She can be reached at KateDominicWriting@yahoo.com.

A very popular feature of our In The Flesh nights is our phone sex segment where we dial up an out-of-town author and have them talk dirty to us. We're in for a real treat on Wednesday when the extremely talented Jeremy Edwards will give us very good phone with a piece called "It Takes W-2 to Tango." Now that's a title ...

Jeremy Edwards is a pseudonymous sort of fellow whose efforts at spinning libido into literature have been widely published online (at Clean Sheets and other sites), as well as in more than twenty-five anthologies offered by Cleis Press, Phaze Books, and Xcite Books. His work was selected for the two most recent volumes in the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica series. He can be found periodically in periodicals (Scarlet and Forum [UK]), and, as regularly as the sun sets, in bed with his wife (so try there first). You can also drop in on him unannounced (and thereby catch him in his underwear) at http://jerotic.blogspot.com . Jeremy’s greatest goal in life is to be sexy and witty at the same moment—ideally in lighting that flatters his profile, And since it is phone sex he'll be dishing out you can ask him what he's wearing ...


Our resident Erotica reviewer, Kathleen Bradean’s stories can be found in Haunted Hearths, Garden of the Perverse, The Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica 6, The Best Women’s Erotica 2007, and She’s On Top in print. Clean Sheets and The Erotica Readers and Writer’s Association websites have also featured her work. Her reviews of erotic novels and anthologies can be found on EroticaRevealed.com and Erotica-Readers.com. Find out what she’s up to at KathleenBradean.Blogspot.com.