I’ve not had a news catch-up in a while on A Hopeful Romantic, so today’s the day. And it’s a good thing because there’s a lot of news! Hang on to your summer hats and sunshades. There are a couple of fun events coming up, so get out your diaries and write these down.
Grand Opening of La Boudoir Boutique
I’ve been asked to be a VIP for the grand opening of La Boudoir Boutique in Canterbury. And I’ll be in good company, reading a bit of smut with my colleague in naughtiness, the Queen of BDSM, Kay Jaybee. Canterbury may never be the same. If you’re in that neck of the woods around one next Friday the 23rd of August, stop in for loads of fun.
We’ll be celebrating La Boudoir Boutique’s grand opening with our fab friend, the Saucy Cara Sutra, award winning blogger, with Jo Hemmings, behavioural psychologist to the stars, and with award-winning DJ, Charlie Sloth and Victor Ebuwa, who was a housemate on Big Brother Five.
There’ll be toys for grown-ups, books, sexy lingerie, goodie bags, a free raffle and all kinds of fun stuff and naughtiness. Make sure to check the website for a listing of all the fun events and the schedule. It’ll all be happening from 1:30 onward in Canterbury. I can hardly wait to celebrate with Violet Hall and the gang at La Boudoir Boutique. And I hope I see you there.
Unit 26, 1 Sparrow Way, Canterbury, Kent, CT3 4AL
Sh! Reading and Poetry Slam
After celebrating in Canterbury, Kay Jaybee and I are heading back to London by fast train to party over at Sh! Women’s Store! Yes, that’s right, we are total party animals, and there’s a fantastic reading and poetry slam going on at Sh! Fun, fizz and filth for a fiver! That’s a great deal! If you’re in or near London, or if you aren’t but want to take a fast train, plane or bus, then do come join us. You can join us just to have a listen and a good squirm in your seat or you can join us and read your own filthiest to an appreciative crowd! Either way it promises to be a fabulous night of naughtiness.
Here are a few of the fab folks who’ll be reading besides yours truly: Kay Jaybee, Meg Phillip Lexie Bay and Victoria Blisse to tease and tempt you, as well as the amazing poets such as Ali Brumfitt, Lisa Davies and Jane Fae!
Here are the yummy details:
Erotic Poetry and Reading Slam
Friday 23rd August
6.30-8pm
£5 (includes bubbly and cupcakes)
If you’re interested in performing on the night, email Sh! on events@sh-womenstore.com with a saucy snippet, and the lovely Sh! Ladiez will do their upmost to accommodate you into the schedule. It’s first-come, first-serve, so don’t hesitate to send that email!
Booking in advance is advised. Sh! is an intimately-sized venue with limited ticket availability. Email events@sh-womenstore.com to book your tickets today and come party with us!
Pretty Pictures in the Paper
It’s been almost two years since the fantastic portrait photographer, David Woolfall contacted me with the idea for a photo shoot and an accompanying essay on erotica writers, the women behind the smut. I saw a similar piece he’d done in the Guardian several months before with photos and an essay about ghost writers, so the idea was intriguing. By the time the scheming and planning was done, David had a great group of erotica together – most of them women I know and respect, not only because they’re great people, but because they’re really ace story tellers as well. Over the course of the next few months, the photo shoots happened all across the UK. David booked a lot of miles in those months to photograph us all, and those of us involved compared notes on our photo-shoot experience via email and Skype. David was amazing to work with, quickly putting me at ease and shooting me in my jungle of a veg garden, back in the pre-allotment days.
Once all of the shoots were done and the photos finished, David put them up on his website. Several months later, the Independent ran an article that included a few of the shots, of a few of the authors, but David wasn’t satisfied. He wanted us all featured and he wanted the complete story shared. He promised us he’d keep working to get our photos, along with our interviews and even snippets of our work out to the world.
This week it happened in a big way, beginning with an article in Slate, followed the next day with an article in the Mail Online’s Femail section online and the next day in the Huffington Post online. All three had lots of David’s lovely photos from those shoots of us, as well as his observations, and the Slate and the Huff Post had our naughty little snippets as well. I couldn’t help but smile that when the actual print version of the Daily Mail came out the next day, they had replaced David’s story and pics of women who write erotica with a story about women who chose to be abstinent. Hmmm. I can tell you that of the two articles, the women erotica writers definitely had the biggest smiles on their faces. Make sure to check out the posts and all my lovely colleagues, Victoria Blisse, Lexie Bay, Lily Harlem, Kay Jaybee, Lucy Felthouse, Jacqueline Applebee, Liz Coldwell, Lavina Lewis, Janine Ashbless, and Louise Cross.
I’d like to thank David Woolfall once again, not only for the totally amazing photos and for all of his hard work, but for his persistence in getting his photos and his impressions and interviews with us out to the public. David, you’re amazing!
In Other News
These past few weeks, I’ve been scarce on social media. My head’s been down, and I’m hard at work on the final rewrite of the third novel of Grace Marshall’s Executive Decisions Trilogy, The Exhibition. Am I having fun? You betcha! I love the final rewrite of a novel. It’s all about seeing everything clearly and making sure everything is sharply focused so that the story is clear and demands the reader’s full attention. It’s in that final rewrite where I truly get enthusiastic about what I hope my readers will find as exciting to read as I have to write.
What can readers expect from The Exhibition? Well you can expect lots more romance and plenty of sex, but you can also expect plenty of dark, chilling twists and turns as old enemies show up again, and things are never quite what they appear to be. I hope to finish the final draft by the end of August or the first week in September, and after that Xcite will get it out to readers ASAP.
Summering On
In the meantime, we summer on! The allotment is overflowing with all kinds of wonderful fresh veg, including some truly inspirational phallic veg, and the great outdoors is where we’d rather be. I hope you are all enjoying whatever your version of summering on is and taking advantage of the long days and sunshine. Wishing you all fun and filth in the summer sizzle.
