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Lusty Lady

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Watch my first and favorite book trailer for Spanked: Red-Cheeked Erotica. Get Spanked in print and ebook

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Tonight's love letter workshop at Babeland and recent press

Very busy around here so another quick update - more this week about the incredible Ida show I went to the other night. You can listen to their new song "Lovers Prayers" off the new album, also called Lovers Prayers, on MySpace. Beautiful.

There is a LOT going on; tonight's workshop is being covered by a local magazine and other media nibbles are in the works. I'm wrapping up two big articles and am at the tail end of my novel. I am still, believe it or not, getting over my evil cold, thanks to Cold-Eeze lozenges and lots of water and sleep. I had a pretty rough week last week mentally/emotionally but feel a lot better about the week ahead.

Tonight is the love letter workshop at Babeland! If you haven't registered but want to come, I'm pretty sure you can just show up tonight, but call them at 212-966-2120 to check. And if you missed my lover letter example, there it is.

Babeland logo

Sunday, January 27, 8 pm - 10 pm
Love Letter Writing Workshop
$20
U R HOT. Want to express your feelings to your Valentine, but just can’t find the words? Spend the evening with Rachel Kramer Bussel penning romantic notes and sweet nothings for your special someone. Rachel is a novelist, editor, and columnist; editor of more than a dozen erotic anthologies, including "He’s on Top", "She’s on Top", and "Hide and Seek". Pen and paper will be provided, and a handout with suggested readings will be passed out. You will have the opportunity to read your work aloud (but are not required to), and will leave with a letter you could send to a lover (real or imaginary).
Babeland, 43 Mercer Street, NYC
Call 212-966-2120 to register or visit the store

And some recent press:

I'm interviewed by Em & Lo at Conde Nast's sex blog Daily Bedpost

E&L: What if you're afraid that your love letter will be totally cheesy, how can you avoid that?

RKB: First of all, I think some cheesiness is okay, but then again, I'm a big dork. But to combat that, make it personal. Include private memories or inside jokes and really highlight why they're so special. It can be something silly that only you find charming about the person--in fact, all the better. Most of all, be honest. I think the most heartfelt, moving love letters are perhaps the toughest to write, because you lay bare all your real emotions, sometimes ones you might be too nervous to tell someone in person.

Also, it doesn't all have to be about how perfect the person is; loving someone's flaws, or seeing them in all their complexity, good and bad, is ultimately what loving someone is all about, and I think at the end of the day, while it's nice to get compliments, more than that we want to be known and loved for who we are, not who we might be. So by showing that you know that person inside and out, that you are there for them through thick and thin, that you appreciate things about them that they may not appreciate about themselves, you make the letter into something they will treasure. I'm not saying to make it all dark and depressing, but if you make someone cry (tears of joy), they're gonna want to hold onto your letter.


Miriam Datskovsky reading "Absolut Nude" at Best Sex Writing 2008 reading

The Columbia Spectator looks at Best Sex Writing 2008 and Barnard alum and contributor Miriam Datskovsky

That’s the thing about sexuality, this book, and its authors at large: they’re all hard to pin down. Even the collaborators managed to gain just as much wisdom as they imparted through each other. “I certainly learned a lot,” Bussel confided. “I found so much out there that truly expanded my vision of what sexuality is and means to people.” This was especially shocking considering her hometown: “I live in New York and I think it’s very easy to assume that we’re more open-minded or liberal or kinky or whatever, and that’s not necessarily true at all,” she said. “So I hope people who want to learn about sex will check out the book and that it might start some conversations in their lives about their own fantasies, desires, and outlooks around sex.”

Best Sex Writing is, in the end, a misnomer, because the word sex means so much more than just intercourse. One gets a sense, as Bussel puts it, of “the breadth of human sexuality ... and how sex changes people over time.” It’s not the easiest ride for white-bread America—as Datskovsky admitted, “If I wanted to be honest, I had to be completely unafraid.” This fearless and exultant look at the spectrum of human eroticism is thrilling and enlightening, an excellent return by a gutsy alumna—way to make us proud.


And also at the Columbia Spectator site, catch up on Miriam's old columns

Manleez.com also wrote about BSW and soon should have video interviews of us up

And check out the February issue of Zink - I'm quoted in Jamye Waxman's article on bisexuality, and the fabulous Hitha Prabhakar also has an article there.

And in cupcake news, you can check out my Flickr set from January's cupcake meetup at Out of the Kitchen and Jacques Torres. I'm about two weeks behind on all things photo and still figuring out my camera/Olympus Master/Flickr Uploader, but getting the hang of it. And rkb1 on Flickr is slowly dying (will probably not be adding many new photos to it) and being replaced by new accounts, like rkbcupcakes, that anyone can see.

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