Eroticon 2013 Archives « Behind the Chintz Curtain

Mar 07

Since I attended Eroticon last weekend, I’ve been thinking. About lots of things. But, in particular, making more time to write. Not reviews, not articles, but erotica. More Five-minute stories. More serials.

Chintz went live approximately eight months ago and since then I’ve blogged nearly every week day. That’s a fair few posts! But while I’m tapping away furiously on my keyboard for a good few hours Monday to Friday, I’ve found that I’m devoting more and more time to reviews and less and less to writing stories. Continue reading →

Mar 06

If you’re a regular Chintz visitor, you’ll know that I was lucky enough to win one of three Xcite-sponsored tickets to Eroticon 2013, which was held in London last weekend. The conference ran for two full days and featured what can only be described as a truly mighty line-up of speakers, all there to encourage us, whatever our medium – blog or book – to write sex right.

I was so excited to be able to attend, although I must admit I was a little nervous about walking into a crowd of people I’d never met in person before. The very lovely Emma over at Dirty Little Whispers, who I speak to a fair bit online (and who also won a sponsored ticket) thankfully agreed to meet up with me during the initial registration session so I’d be a little less ‘island in the ocean’. However, while I was waiting for her to arrive, I happened to go and stand next to a woman who was busy perusing the weekend’s schedule. We got to chatting and what do you know? Her name was Tamsin Flowers and she was the winner of the third Xcite sponsorship. So in a room full of people, we’d somehow managed to gravitate towards each other. Spooky! (Is there such a thing as Xcite vibes?)

After listening to Ruby Kiddell’s lovely welcome and Rebecca Findlay’s talk about the XES: We Can’t Go Backwards campaign (did you know that on 1 April 2013 contraception and STI services will no longer be provided by the NHS but your local council?!) I said farewell to Tamsin, and Emma and I headed off to the first of many fabulous seminars, Molly Moore’s Myth Busting: the Submissive Woman. Continue reading →

Mar 04

In today’s Alert Me: Sixty-Two Shades of Papacy, Amazon’s ‘second-hand’ eBooks patent, and creepy sex toy security.

Who Said It: The Pope or Fifty Shades of Grey?
Source: Hollywood (Beta)

Who knew that Pope Benedict XVI and E.L. James had so much in common? As Aly Semigran points out in this article, the former’s new sixty-two page digital scrapbook features names and passages that are spookily similar to the great grey monolith.

We jokingly speculated during Remittance Girl’s Eroticon 2013 Creative Writing seminar that our conference was the final straw for the Pope, our debauchery the reason for him quitting his post (the chatter even spawned the awesome @HuggyPope Twitter account). But I’m beginning to think we were onto something. Except perhaps he’s, you know, really left to pursue his burgeoning erotic writing career under the pen name ‘E.L. James’ … Continue reading →

Feb 25

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to win a sponsored ticket to Eroticon 2013 (thank you so much Xcite Books!) and on Friday night will be travelling up to London for this outstanding event. Two days of discussions and workshops focussing on writing (and presenting) sex in the right way. Bloggers. Editors. Publishers. Photographers. It’s going to be amazing.

Anyway, before I jump on the train to this erotica nirvana, I thought I’d better take part in the pre-conference Meet and Greet. You know, give all the other poor unsuspecting attendees some idea of what’s about to be inflicted upon them …

Name: Jane

Twitter ID: @ChintzCurtain

Must attend Eroticon 2013 session: I can only pick one? Okay. The Anthologies session with Maxim Jakubowski, Lucy Felthouse, Victoria Blisse, and Rachel Kramer Bussel. I’m a huge fan of short-form erotica.

Bloggers you’d like to be trapped in the lift with: Dirty Little Whispers (she’d make me laugh), Being Blacksilk (she’d be able to tell some fabulous erotic stories to pass the time), Ruffled Sheets (I love Andy’s photographs) and Molly (who doesn’t want to be trapped in the lift with her?!).

Erotic writer you’d like to write dramatize your life story: Heck, I’d need to pick someone who wasn’t afraid to use heavy artistic license. My life just isn’t that dramatic. Do they have to be alive? No? Anaïs Nin, then.

Expected biggest fangirl/fanboy moment: Probably Rachel Kramer Bussel. Sex, editing, and red pen. That’s like my idea of pure bliss.

What keeps you awake at night? My husband’s snoring. It’s loud. Very, very loud.

Want to know who else is attending Eroticon 2013? Click here to find out.

Jan 31

Image: Diliff (Own work)

So, you may have seen my Alert Me post about the 2013 Eroticon schedule. There are some seriously good speakers on the list this year and, even though I don’t get to London very often these days, these guys really make me want to venture out from behind my floral drapes.

Who could pass up the opportunity to listen to Rachel Kramer Bussel, who puts together some of the best spanking anthologies out there? Editing erotica is something that I have a particular interest in and I’d love nothing more than to hear her speak about how she goes about pulling together her wonderful collections of red-cheeked tales. Continue reading →

Jan 17

Sexy fingers, sexy Brits, sexy writing. (Yes, this week I’m over-using sibilance in my Alert Me intro.)

Hello Touch May Be the Best Sex Toy Ever Invented
Source: Gizmondo

Behold. A tens machine for your hands.

I think most of us would agree that our fingers are one of the most satisfying masturbatory tools at our disposal. Something that hasn’t gone un-noticed by luxury sex toy brand Jimmyjane, who have taken the humble digit and turned it into a vibrator.

Looking at the pictures in this article, I have to say that, visually, the Hello Touch doesn’t do a lot for me (it looks a bit medical) but I do like fingers to play a significant role in sex, so I’m willing to be convinced. Continue reading →

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