In the Flesh is a monthly reading series held the third Thursday of every month at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by erotic writer/editor Rachel Kramer Bussel (Best Sex Writing series, Do Not Disturb, Spanked, Dirty Girls, etc.). From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Themed nights have included True Sex Confessions, Revenge of the Sex Columnists, GLBT Night, and Comedy Sex. Readers have included Laura Antoniou, Mo Beasley, Susie Bright, Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Stephen Elliott, Martha Garvey, Gael Greene, Andy Horwitz, Debra Hyde, Maxim Jakubowski, Josh Kilmer-Purcell, Tsaurah Litzky, Suzanne Portnoy, Sofia Quintero, M.J. Rose, Danyel Smith, Grant Stoddard, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, Veronica Vera, Zane and others. In The Flesh debuted in October 2005. Contact rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com for bookings, press, or questions. Click here In The Flesh: Los Angeles. “…writer and host Rachel Kramer Bussel welcomes eroticism of all stripes, spots and textures to the Happy Ending lounge on the Lower East Side.,” New York Times UrbanEye newsletter, August 15, 2007 email rachelkramerbussel at gmail.com for booking or other information or interview requests

Friday, January 27, 2006

Next In The Flesh is February 15th

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 15 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com

Bask in the post-Valentine’s Day afterglow with the hottest, sexiest words in the city! February welcomes a stunning mix of performers, including M.J. Rose (Lip Service, The Delilah Complex), Carol Taylor (Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales, Brown Sugar series), Lauren Sanders (With or Without You, Kamikaze Lust), and two contributors to Wanderlust, Melvin E. Lewis and SékouWrites, along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Copies of The Delilah Complex and Wanderlust will be given away throughout the evening along with a signed poster of The Delilah Complex. Free refreshments will be served.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Future themed nights include fetishes, true confessions, GLBT stories and erotic memoirs.
Reader Bios:

Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York City-based author and editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a Contributing Editor and columnist for Penthouse and writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have appeared in over 50 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004, and she’s edited her own collections, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark. http://www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Melvin E. Lewis has a forthcoming short story, “La Linea Negra” about Puerto Rico in Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales, edited by Carol Taylor (2006). In 2005 his poetry appeared in Obsidian III and Gargoyle magazines in the United States of America. He published poetry about Tanzania, “We Are Always Close To the Sea” in the summer 2003 issue of Wasafiri in London. Recently his work has appeared in the anthologies Beyond the Frontier: African-American Poetry for the 21st Century, editor E. Ethelbert Miller, Black Classic Press, Baltimore 2002, and The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, editor Charles A. Jones, Black Classic Press, 1998. Lewis lives with his son in southeastern North Carolina. Currently, he is writing articles on popular culture, music reviews, and a novel.

M.J. Rose is the author of half a dozen novels, Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music, The Halo Effect and The Delilah Complex. She also is a contributor to Poets and Writers, Oprah Magazine, The Writer Magazine, Pages Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in Pages Magazine, The Vestal Review and several anthologies including Best American Erotica and The Auntie's Book. She also runs the book blog Buzz, Balls & Hype, has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, and The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and has written for USA Today, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly. http://www.mjrose.com

Lauren Sanders is the author of the recent novel With or Without You (Akashic, 2005). Her highly acclaimed debut novel, Kamikaze Lust (Akashic, 2000), won a 2000 Lambda Literary Award. Her short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in many publications. She lives in Brooklyn.

Carol Taylor, a former Random House book editor, has been in book publishing for over ten years and has worked with many of today's top black writers. She is the editor of the best-selling, Brown Sugar series: Brown Sugar, Brown Sugar 2: Great One Night Stands, Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract and Brown Sugar 4 and, most recently, Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in many publications. She writes a relationship column for Flirt.com. She lives in New York City and is at work on a collection of her own stories. She is the CEO of Brown Sugar Productions, LTD. http://www.brownsugarbooks.com

SékouWrites is the editor of When Butterflies Kiss (Silver Lion Press, 2001), a serial novel in which ten co-authors each wrote one chapter of the same story. Sékou also writes a monthly online relationship column that responds to queries from women by offering multiple male opinions. Sékou’s fiction has been most recently published in Intimacy: Erotic Stories of Love, Lust and Marriage by Black Men (Plume, 2004) and Carol Taylor’s Wanderlust. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing/Fiction and serves as Managing Editor of UPTOWN magazine. http://www.sekouwrites.com

Friday, January 20, 2006

How awesome is Edith Layton?

(I do promise a rundown of Wednesday's reading, complete with photos, but that'll have to wait.) For now, go check out Edith Layton's awesome post about reading at In The Flesh:

I sat there and listened to passages from erotic novels, and forthcoming novels and stories.

And I didn't blush. Or even widen my eyes. Or titter in embarrassment. Truth is, I wasn't shocked. And it wasn't any weirder than sitting next to my daughter at any one a dozen new movies we've seen together. That could be because of the uninhibited nature of the movies and TV shows we're inundated with these days. It could be because some of the authors were really good writers!

And it could be because of what I said when I began this: a woman's attitude towards sex ripens and matures as she does - if she's been listening all the while.

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

In The Flesh is TONIGHT! Don't miss it!

Hope to see you tonight - there will be free candy on every table and at least 5 naughty books (probably more) given away to lucky attendees. And I know - if it's my reading series, it must be raining. But it'll be worth braving the rain for. Also: FIRST THREE PEOPLE TO ASK ME FOR ONE GET A DRINK TICKET!



IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18th at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey,
www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free

Stay warm this winter with the hottest and juiciest words in the city! January welcomes a stunning mix of performers, including romance novelist Edith Layton (Gypsy Lover), fiction writer Danyel Smith (Bliss), and erotic storytellers Iris N. Schwartz (Stirring Up a Storm) and Rob Stephenson (Best Gay Erotica), along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Also: free candy and erotic book door prizes!

In the Flesh is a new monthly reading series held the third Wednesday of every month at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Future themed nights include fetishes, GLBT stories, true confessions and erotic memoirs.

And to whet your appetite, so to speak, here's a little teaser from "Most Unexpected" by Marina Saint, which was read last month at In The Flesh, and will be featured in my anthology Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 2, coming out in September.

His hands continue to rain down on my fleshy asscheeks, beaming up at him, encased in my new underwear, black with pink bows chasing the seam, new, just for him. He lifts the edge of one side, pushing the fabric into my asscrack as his hand connects directly with my skin. We don’t speak, haven’t even kissed on the lips yet, but I want him with a passion that is all real, perhaps stronger than anything I’ve ever felt. He fingers me, fondling my wet slit through the sheerness until he decides I need more spankings. He bunches the rest of my panties in my crack, so they burrow in there, tight and arousing, while he continues to spank me. Now, each smack not only stings my ass, sends arrows of arousal to my cunt, but also creeps along my asscrack.

And stay for the open bar at 10:

Happy Ending 4 Year Anniversary Party

Wednesday, January 18, 2006
10:00 PM
Happy Ending
Lower Level
302 Broome Street (between Forsyth and Eldridge streets)
Open bar courtesy of Sparks

Please join us to help celebrate our 4 Year Anniversary party.
Music by The Banger

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

Molly Crabapple's hot In The Flesh flyer!

Artwork for the series courtesy of the lovely and talented Molly Crabapple.

Erotica Teaser - In The Flesh is tomorrow night!

I wanted to give a little teaser from my story "Taking It All" in the new anthology Aqua Erotica 2. I'll be reading it or something equally naughty at In The Flesh tomorrow night - please brave the cold and come out! There will be free candy, book giveaways, and HOT stories!

Best Bondage Erotica

Aqua Erotica 2



Kim was amazed at how everything suddenly shifted as soon as she stuck the cock down her pants. She’d worn a strap-on before, but always during the context of sex, right before she was about to fuck someone, a hurried heat-of-the-moment action intimately tied to sticking her dick into some girl’s eager hole. That she could possess a cock without another girl around was a new and exciting thing for her, like every girl she saw could be the one to discover Kim’s new secret. This time, she wore her cock proudly, letting its weight mark and change her. She’d always wondered what it’d be like to have a cock, and now she knew; she felt strong and powerful, capable of conquering heroic tasks along with bedding the hottest girls around, a boost to her natural inner confidence. She didn’t analyze this feeling too much, simply took it for granted.

Monday, January 16, 2006

My essay at Buzz, Balls & Hype

The fabulous M.J. Rose, who's on tour right now for her latest novel The Delilah Complex and will be reading at In The Flesh on February 15th, has published my essay about running an erotic reading series at her publishing blog Buzz, Balls & Hype.

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

February 15th In The Flesh lineup

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 15 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, www.happyendinglounge.com
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676

Bask in the post-Valentine’s Day afterglow with the hottest, sexiest words in the city! February welcomes a stunning mix of performers, including M.J. Rose (Lip Service, The Delilah Complex), Carol Taylor (Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales, Brown Sugar series), Lauren Sanders (With or Without You, Kamikaze Lust), and two contributors to Wanderlust, Melvin E. Lewis and Sekou Writes, along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Rose and Taylor will have books available for sale and signing. You'll also have a chance to win books, including M.J. Rose's The Delilah Complex and Carol Taylor's anthology Wanderlust! Free refreshments will be available.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Future themed nights include fetishes, true confessions, GLBT stories and erotic memoirs.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York City-based author and editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a Contributing Editor and columnist for Penthouse and writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have appeared in over 50 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004, and she’s edited her own collections, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark. www.rachelkramerbussel.com

Melvin E. Lewis has a forthcoming short story, “La Linea Negra” about Puerto Rico in Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales, edited by Carol Taylor (2006). In 2005 his poetry appeared in Obsidian III and Gargoyle magazines in the United States of America. He published poetry about Tanzania, “We Are Always Close To the Sea” in the summer 2003 issue of Wasafiri in London. Recently his work has appeared in the anthologies Beyond the Frontier: African-American Poetry for the 21st Century, editor E. Ethelbert Miller, Black Classic Press, Baltimore 2002, and The Black Panther Party Reconsidered, editor Charles A. Jones, Black Classic Press, 1998. Lewis lives with his son in southeastern North Carolina. Currently, he is writing articles on popular culture, music reviews, and a novel.

M.J. Rose is the author of half a dozen novels, Lip Service, In Fidelity, Flesh Tones, Sheet Music The Halo Effect and The Delilah Complex. She also is a contributor to Poets and Writers, Oprah Magazine, The Writer Magazine, Pages Magazine. Her short fiction has appeared in Pages Magazine, The Vestal Review and several anthologies including Best American Erotica and The Auntie's Book. She also runs the book blog Buzz, Balls & Hype, has appeared on The Today Show, Fox News, and The Jim Lehrer NewsHour, and has written for USA Today, Poets and Writers and Publishers Weekly. www.mjrose.com

Lauren Sanders is the author of the recent novel With or Without You (Akashic, 2005). Her highly acclaimed debut novel, Kamikaze Lust (Akashic, 2000), won a 2000 Lambda Literary Award. Her short fiction and nonfiction has appeared in many publications. She lives in Brooklyn.

Carol Taylor, a former Random House book editor, has been in book publishing for over ten years and has worked with many of today's top black writers. She is the editor of the best-selling, Brown Sugar series: Brown Sugar, Brown Sugar 2: Great One Night Stands, Brown Sugar 3: When Opposites Attract and Brown Sugar 4 and, most recently, Wanderlust: Erotic Travel Tales. Her fiction and non-fiction have appeared in many publications. She writes a relationship column for Flirt.com. She lives in New York City and is at work on a collection of her own stories. She is the CEO of Brown Sugar Productions, LTD. www.brownsugarbooks.com

SékouWrites is a celebrated New York-based writer, performer and
relationship columnist. He is the editor of When Butterflies Kiss (Silver Lion Press, 2001), a serial novel in which ten co-authors each wrote one chapter of a single narrative. His fiction has been most recently published in the anthologies Wanderlust: 14 Erotic Travel Tales and Intimacy: Erotic Stories of Love, Lust and Marriage by Black Men. During the 7th Annual New York International Fringe Festival, SékouWrites co-authored and co-starred in a spoken word theatrical performance that enjoyed a run at the prestigious Cherry Lane Theater. SékouWrites also authors two online relationship columns ("Heart 2 Heart" and "Black Men on Black Love") that are posted on several websites. He holds an MFA in Creative Writing from New School University and currently serves as the Managing Editor of UPTOWN magazine. www.sekouwrites.com

Monday, January 02, 2006

January 18th In The Flesh lineup info

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 18th at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey,
www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free

Stay warm this winter with the hottest and juiciest words in the city! January welcomes a stunning mix of performers, including romance novelist Edith Layton (Gypsy Lover), fiction writer Danyel Smith (Bliss), and erotic storytellers Iris N. Schwartz (Stirring Up a Storm) and Rob Stephenson (Best Gay Erotica), along with a naughty tale from host Rachel Kramer Bussel. Also: free candy and erotic book door prizes!

In the Flesh is a new monthly reading series held the third Wednesday of every month at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Future themed nights include fetishes, GLBT stories, true confessions and erotic memoirs.

Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York City-based author and editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations and a Contributing Editor and columnist for Penthouse and writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice. Her erotic stories have appeared in over 50 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited her own collections, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Mediabistro.com, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.

Edith Layton is the author of over 30 novels, including Alas, My Love, The Return of the Earl, To Tempt a Bride, The Devil’s Bargain, and her latest, Gypsy Lover. She has received she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from Romantic Times, and excellent reviews, awards and commendations from Library Journal, Romance Readers Anonymous and The Romance Writers of America.

Iris N. Schwartz is a fiction writer, poet, and editor whose story, "Hedonics," is included in the anthology Stirring Up A Storm: Tales of the Sensual, the Sexual, and the Erotic. Her novella, The Fruits of Her Labors, is in That’s Amore! Her erotic fiction has also been anthologized in The Big Book of Hot Women’s Erotica 2004, Down and Dirty 2003, and elsewhere. She’s had poetry anthologized in An Eye For an Eye Makes the Whole World Blind: Poets on 9/11, and in the U.K.-based Listening to the Birth of Crystals. In addition, her writing has appeared in on-line and print publications such as Ducts Magazine, Erbacce, Ludlow Press, Pikeville Review, and Vernacular. Iris is Articles Editor for the Web site Littleviews.com. She has performed her work at many venues, including Bowery Poetry Club, Collective Unconscious, KGB Bar, and The Knitting Factory, as well as on WBAI, WBAR, WNYE, and WSTR radio stations, on-line, interactive TV, and cable TV.

Danyel Smith is a former ed-at-large for Time Inc. and a former ed-in-chief of Vibe. She writes around for Elle, Cosmo, Essence, wrote once (!) for the New Yorker, will show up in Rolling Stone sometimes, still reps in spirit for the San Francisco Bay Guardian, and wrote concert/album reviews for the New York Times back in the day. Smith is the author of the San Francisco Chronicle-bestselling novel, More Like Wrestling, and she wrote the introduction for the New York Times-bestseller Tupac Shakur. Her second novel, Bliss, was published in July 2005.

Rob Stephenson's writing appears over fifty publications Rob Stephenson's writing appears in over 50 publications online and in print including: Skin and Ink, Between the Palms, Blithe House Quarterly, BUTT, Dangerous Families, Problem Child, Best Gay Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Tough Guys, and Perspectives on Evil and Human Wickedness. He is co-founder of the Erotic Authors Association.

Those interested in reading at In The Flesh should email me at rachelkb at gmail.com with a bio and an erotic writing sample and your availability - June is GLBT month, July and onward I'm booking now.