The subject was Fears and the five readers all dealt with it in their own perverse ways, pulling together a night where each story worked with the others in what can only be described as so good it was scary. You'd have thought we planned it. Oh yeah, we did.
Our fearsome fivesome of readers were Kathleen Bradean (She’s On Top), Saryn Chorney (New York Post), Jolene Hui (Open For Business), Jeff Leavell (Velvet Mafia), and me, special guest host Stan Kent (Shoe Leather series). It was cool to have a group of authors with so many books out there in print. Hustler put up a great display.
I DJed to set the mood with some appropriately Scary Monster music until Kathleen lead off with Chill a story about ice cubes boldly going where no ice cubes have (usually) gone before. The mood was definitely set. The ice was broken.
Next came Saryn who managed to captivate the room with a story that no doubt struck a fearful chord with many a person who've had nightmares about people in monkey suits wielding bananas. It's true; Saryn read such a tale and revealed it was based upon a true story. Now there's an author you'd want to have at your next party!
I read an excerpt from Violetta (Heel The Pain), the third book in the Shoe Leather series, which told how the main character, Violetta, who has the power in her feet to see, feel, and fully experience the sex people had in shoes just by putting on the fucked-in footwear, confronts her fear of why she has this power. While having the ability to peer into people's sexual exploits in shoes sounds great it also opens the door to a scary world of sex criminals and all the nasty things people do , which Violetta confronts in a shoe fetish nightclub called Spykes.
Jeff wrapped it up with an intense tale of young-male adolescent angst which tapped the fear all young males have of where the heck are all those hormones leading us and with whom.
I wrapped things up with raffled giveaways of some very full bags of Hustler swag, aided by Jolene and my backpocket ploy. I played some more tunes and people hung around to talk to the authors and munch on the last of the Schmerty's cupcakes. Jeff missed the group photo op, for which we're sorry. We all agreed that after those varied yet related readings, we were ready for some serious tricking and treating.See you on November 20th for Wild Card night with Antonia Crane (Adventures of a Sexual Outlaw), Tina Dupuy (Fishbowl L.A.), Jillian Lauren (Flaunt Magazine), Michael Lynn (E! Entertainment Television), and more TBA. I'd be hosting and DJing again, and remember...