Next month, on 3 July, it will be my second blogiversary. Flake that I am, I didn’t actually do anything to commemorate the first year of Behind the Chintz Curtain – mainly because I was preparing to move countries – but this year, I really do hope to mark the occasion in some way. With the two-year line looming, though, I thought it was a good time to take a look at the blog and how it’s evolved.

Scrolling through the various posts published over the past twenty-three months, it’s amazing to see how much Chintz has changed in content and emphasis. In the beginning, there was a much stronger focus on book and sex toy reviews but, as time has passed, I’ve found that I’ve taken things in a rather different direction and posted more and more commentary articles and more and more photographs. I like to babble much more than I thought I did – about censorship and portrayals of women’s wants and needs by large corporations, apparently! – and have discovered, thanks to Molly’s Sinful Sunday meme, just how curiously addictive photographing yourself in various states of undress can be. I never would have imagined that I’d find such freedom through self-portraiture (I’m one of those people who hated having their picture taken) but in this age of media-perfect bodies I feel its becoming more and more important to get images of real ones, like mine, out there.

What do I hope to do more of going forwards? Writing. Both long-form and short. I have actually been writing erotic fiction for various submission calls outside of my blog (there are some stories that I’m really pleased with waiting in the wings that will, fingers crossed, find a booky home before too long) and want to continue with that, but I’m also keen to get some more Five-minute Erotica pieces out there, too.

As for The Garden of Earthly Delights? Well, as some of you have already noticed – Hi Connie! – the serial is no longer on the site. I finally finished the story (huge 60,000 word achievement, the longest tale I’ve ever written) but, unfortunately, I’m not happy with how it turned out (probably because I wrote it over such a protracted period) and I know that I can pen a better, more cohesive story. The more I write, the more I realise that I’m better when I give myself permission to really let go. To give all those ideas in my head, no matter how odd or kinky they might seem at first glance, room to breathe and see how they work on paper. That said, if you were reading Garden and really want to find out how it ends, please email me via the contact page. If there’s enough interest, I’ll mark off some time to finish editing it and create an ePub for those who want it in its entirety.

So where to from here? More articles, more photographs, more erotic stories. I’m still going to review toys and books that interest me but beyond that? Well, that’s the joy of blogging. Whichever way the wind blows the curtains.

Oh, and I’m on a boat for the next seven days so things will be a little quiet around here. Feel free to listen to Mr Young in my absence.

See you all soon.

Jane xxx

The Times They Are A-Changin’

Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you
Is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’
Or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who
That it’s namin’
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside
And it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.

The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is
Rapidly fadin’
And the first one now
Will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’.

- Bob Dylan

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