Tag Archives: ruby kiddell

Eroticon 2014 – What a Weekend! #eroticon2014 @writesexright

**warning, epic blog post ahead**

badgesFirst, I apologise in advance for any typos or anything that doesn’t quite make sense in this post. I am still totally knackered as I write this post, but it was utterly worth it.

This year, Eroticon took place in Bristol. Even before arriving it promised to be an awesome weekend as seven of the eight Brit Babes (me, K D Grace, Kay Jaybee, Lily Harlem, Victoria Blisse, Lexie Bay and Tabitha Rayne) were in attendance, as well as lots of other good writing buddies, respected colleagues and all-round fun and interesting folk. I shall skip over the journeys as nothing of interest happened except for two very chatty taxi drivers and me very nearly throwing a wobbly on a crowded train. *ahem*

Lucy and VicOn arrival in Bristol, it was a quick check in, a dash to the room where Lexie Bay had already turned it into a branch of Boots – such was the number of cosmetics and hair care products. After a freshen up and a change of clothes, I headed to Lily Harlem‘s room where everyone else was gathered nibbling goodies and drinking bubbles. Hugs and catching up ensued, before we headed to a restaurant called Browns to eat delicious food, drink delicious drink and earn sidelong looks from fellow diners and staff as we discussed everything from anal fisting to golden showers. We even left a Brit Babes business card on the little plate along with the payment for our bill, adding cheeky to our list of misdemeanours!

Next, a gathering in the hotel bar, where we continued to traumatise other folk, I suspect. By this point we were so engrossed in our conversations that we didn’t care. The night wore on, though, as it is wont to do, until there were three. Finally, Lily, Lexie and I admitted defeat and headed to bed, where Lexie and I chatted about all sorts of rubbish until the wee hours.

Lucy and booksSaturday dawned bright and way too early. I met Victoria and Kev Blisse for breakfast, then we headed to the venue to get the book stall set up and organised. I’m not much of a morning person so it allowed me to be busy without having to provide stimulating conversation. As time went on, more folk arrived, hugs and kisses were given, new introductions were made and then Eroticon started officially with the first session. I stayed on the book stall for a while, not venturing into a session until good buddies Victoria and K D Grace gave their talk on sex and spirituality in the afternoon, by which point I was awake enough to venture some opinions and even got a laugh. Not bad.

VictoriaThen it was back out into the thick of things, grabbing conversations here and there, learning new things and taking frantic notes. I always find at these events that the networking and the random chats are just as informative and useful as the official talks and workshops. This was definitely no exception. I always like learning new things, and given how many awesome brains were around for me to pick, I came away very enriched.

BB tableSaturday evening and night is a little bit of a blur. Not because of alcohol, I hasten to add (it takes a lot more than a single vodka and coke to render me drunk!), but because tiredness hit big style. I readily admit I’m not the most fun person when tired, so I stayed quiet, especially for me, and hid with Victoria and Kev Blisse who know what I’m like and (hopefully) don’t think any less of me for it! Bed was a necessity, given the two talks I was taking part in were on Sunday. And sleep…

Another yummy breakfast was had on Sunday (many thanks to Molly’s Daily Kiss for the tip!) and we scuttled to the venue, getting uber organised as Victoria, Kev and I had to dash off as soon as our last talk was finished to start our journeys home. I still managed chats with lots of people, including Fran and Paul from House of Erotica, where we discussed devious future plans and awesome stuff. Watch this space.

stepuptalkIt was soon time for mine and Kay Jaybee’s talk on making the move from short stories to novels (as soon as I get chance, I’ll collate our notes and make them available, either here or on the Eroticon site). We were a tad paranoid nobody would turn up as we were in the same time slot as the awesome Kristina Lloyd. Much to our relief and delight we had plenty of bums on seats. What’s more, they were very interested in what we had to say, asked lots of questions, volunteered opinions and were a bunch of very engaged and awesome folk. We didn’t get through everything we’d planned to, but we’ve had very positive feedback from the attendees, saying we’ve inspired and helped them. Naturally, this makes me very happy and I’m really glad we gave the talk. If you’re reading this, thank you very much for joining in with us, and get writing those novels! 😉

The day flew past, and there was more talking, even more plans made, including lots from The Brit Babes. Between us, it’s going to be a very exciting year and beyond. I can’t wait. World domination is within our grasp.

smutigosNext up was the Blisse Guide to Smut. This comprised of myself, Victoria Blisse, Kev Blisse, Kay Jaybee and K D Grace. We were the last two hour session so folk (including us) were winding down and energy was waning, but it didn’t matter. We still had a great session, covering everything from bad cover letters to upcoming anthologies. Kay Jaybee gave a great mini-presentation on inspiration, where she headed around the room with a Paddington Bear bag (I kid you not!) asking folk to pull items out and come up with an idea based on that item. Some ideas were better than others, but it’s very hard when you’re put on the spot! Again, this was another successful session as I’ve had tweets and messages from folk who were inspired and are looking to submit to future anthologies – I look forward to reading the smutty tales!

kayinspirationIt literally was a case of closing the last session and running out as our taxi was waiting outside, so goodbyes were either super brief or non-existent. But this is why social media is so fantastic. The conference carried on for hours after I’d left on the Twitter hashtag so it kind of felt like I was still there for a while.

As is always the way with these events, the time goes incredibly quickly, there’s never enough time to talk to everyone you want to talk to, and if you do talk to them, it’s not for long enough. But I managed to put some faces to names, catch up with folk I don’t see very often, hatch plans with friends new and old, learn new things and even impart some knowledge of my own. All in all, another fantastic Eroticon event put together by Ruby Kiddell – well done, that woman! There’s no Eroticon in the UK in 2015, but based on the conversations I’ve had over the past few days, I think there are going to be other events that will make up for it. Starting with Smut by the Sea on the 14th June. Now one conference is done, I can start thinking about the next. I can’t wait!

Happy Reading,

Lucy x

P.S. Fantastic news today. Stately Pleasures is in the February Read of the Month poll on the Smile, Somebody Loves You website. Would LOVE your votes if you’re so inclined, as the competition is FIERCE! http://sslyblog.wordpress.com/2014/03/10/february-read-of-the-month-poll/ – thank you! x

I’m Speaking at Eroticon 2014!

I’m delighted to announce that I’m part of the speaker line up Eroticon 2014 and will be running a session/workshop on making the move from short stories to novels, along with good friend and fellow writer, Kay Jaybee.

With erotic writing workshops, editorial panels, blogging and social media workshops as well as tips on getting published, working as a freelance sex writer and making money from sex toy reviews, there is something for anyone wanting to write sex right and get involved in the erotica industry.

The conference is the brain child of erotica author Ruby Kiddell, who explains;

“Eroticon 2014 is going to be bigger and better than ever; we’ve writing workshops that everyone can attend and erotic reading events as well as the core conference days.  I’m delighted to be back in Bristol for 2014 and so glad that we’re keeping the South West Sexy!”

With social events on the Friday and Saturday night as well as an afternoon of erotica reading and high tea, Eroticon 2014 is a must attend event for aspiring erotica writers as well as experienced writers and bloggers.

To find out more about Eroticon 2014 or to book tickets please visit http://www.writesexright.com/eroticon-2014/

Are You Going To Eroticon 2013?

Eroticon 2013Did you know? I’ll be helping sex bloggers and erotica writers write sex right at Eroticon 2013

I’ll be speaking at Eroticon 2013, the UK’s only sex blogger and erotica writer’s conference.  The conference, on 2nd and 3rd March at London’s Southbank will bring together the best in the UK erotica and sex blogging scene to learn, discuss and network.

I’m on a panel discussing anthologies, alongside Victoria Blisse, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Maxim Jakubowski. I’m looking forward to that – and the rest of the conference of course – very much.

Ruby Kiddell, founder of Eroticon explained more about the conference:

“The success of Eroticon 2012 was amazing and so when the delegates told me they wanted a bigger event I couldn’t say no.  For 2013 there is more of everything; more creative workshops, discussion sessions, sex education and activism sessions.  Eroticon 2013 will be amazing!”

Eroticon 2012 was the first event of its kind and at least three unpublished writers walked away with publishing contracts from the event which makes Eroticon 2013’s the must attend event for aspiring and experienced erotica writers and sex bloggers.

To find out more about Eroticon 2013 or to book tickets please visit http://www.writesexright.com

Eroticon 2013, the UK’s only sex blogger and erotica writers’ conference is on 2nd and 3rd of March, Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, Coin Street, Southbank, London.

Eroticon 2013 Speakers include:

  • Meg Barker
  • Victoria Blisse
  • Dr. Petra Boynton
  • Brook charity
  • Les Browne
  • Ruth Browne
  • Matt Christie
  • Hazel Cushion
  • Cressida Downing
  • Emily Dubberly
  • Marissa Elliott
  • Lucy Felthouse
  • Cindy Gallop
  • Remittance Girl
  • Ruby Goodnight
  • K D Grace
  • Justin Hancock
  • High Tea Cast
  • Maxim Jakubowski
  • Ruby Kiddell
  • Michael Knight
  • Rachel Kramer Bussel
  • Ashley Lister
  • Kristina Lloyd
  • Zoe Margolis
  • Molly Moore
  • Indigo Moore
  • Nymphomaniac Ness
  • Vena Ramphal
  • Violet Rose
  • Maureen Scott
  • Lori Smith
  • John Tisbury
  • Indigo Moore

Hopefully I’ll see you there! 🙂

Eroticon 2012 – What Really Happened

Eroticon2012

It was 5.30am when my alarm went off, resulting in a “Uhhhnnnerrr!” type noise from me. I am sooo not a morning person. However, I was getting up early for a good reason – it was time for Eroticon 2012! It seemed like it had been in my diary for ages and that the date would never arrive – but it did. So off I went to the train station for my 6.59am train, convinced I’d forgotten something, and terrified that I’d fall asleep on the first train and miss my connection, which would have left me stranded in Reading. However, I needn’t have worried. Fear kept me awake, and I successfully changed trains at Birmingham New Street, where I found Victoria Blisse and we settled in and nattered the entire way to Bristol Temple Meads train station (which, if you’re interested in that kind of thing, is a beautiful building). A quick taxi ride took us to Armada House, and then it was time for the day to begin!

We got there without too much time to spare before the first panel, and so after dumping our bags and grabbing our name tags and goodie bags, there was only time for quick hellos to Paul and Matt from House of Erotica, Kay Jaybee, K D Grace, Hazel Cushion and some others I’m sure I’ve forgotten before heading into the main room for the official conference welcome.  Then it was time to check out the day’s schedule (which I’m glad I did, because it had been updated since I’d last printed it out!) and decide where to go, and when. Here’s a rundown of the panels/sessions I attended:

Going indie, self-publishing by MK Elliott

Although I’ve already self-published some titles, I certainly don’t profess to know everything, and so happily attended this session to find out what MK Elliott had to say. I’m very glad I did. Naturally there was information that I knew already, but there were some things I didn’t, and of course it’s always useful to hear other  people’s experiences of things. MK Elliott was confident, knowledgeable and highlighted the main points of her talk with a PowerPoint presentation. She also happily answered questions and I came away feeling as though I’d learned something – and conversations with other attendees confirmed that they did, too.

Writing Workshop by Maxim Jakubowski

From the title of this session, I was expecting that we’d be doing something interactive and hands on, and so had my notebook and pen at the ready. Instead, this was a discussion led by Maxim which covered his career, the different genres he writes in, censorship and many more topics which affect the erotica and erotic romance writing genre. There were many questions from the audience, which he answered fully and usefully, and although as I said, the session wasn’t what I expected, it was certainly informative and interesting.

Convincingly Queer with Aisling Weaver and Josephine Myles

This was probably my favourite session of the day (with the exception of mine, of course!). Aisling and Josephine ran a session on how to write stories about things that you don’t necessarily have any experience of. For example, if you’re a different gender, sexuality or have different kinks. This included tying up and blindfolding members of the audience, discussing research methods and books, figuring out if certain pieces of writing were penned by men or women, and much more! It was a fun, laid back session and I came away with plenty of food for thought!

Publishers’ Panel with Maxim Jakubowski, Hazel Cushion, Monique Roffey, Paul Andrews and Richard Eadie

This was a lively panel with publishers and published authors – as well as people who have stradded both sides of that particular fence. Ruby started with asking some questions that had previously been sent to her, then it was opened up to the floor. Topics covered included what publishers would like to see more of (Victorian spanking, unusual fetishes), some chat on the PayPal debacle and how they’re censoring what people can read, whether you should write for the market or write what you want to write, whether erotica writers should use pseudonyms and more. There were some varying opinions, which made for interesting viewing, and again, I came away with lots to think about.

Marketing your Work with Lucy Felthouse and Victoria Blisse

Ah… yes. That would be me. Victoria and I dashed upstairs after the Publishers’ Panel to get set up for our session, desperately hoping that we’d get a good turn out, particularly as we were at the same time as two other sessions. Much to our relief, by the time we’d sorted out the laptop and projector, got our presentation up on screen and marvelled at the fact it had a remote control, the room was filling rapidly. That worry over, we waited patiently for any stragglers, then began. As marketing and promotion is such a huge topic, we couldn’t cover everything, so we centred in on blog tours, with me providing the “marketer” side of things, and Victoria filling in from the “author” perspective. There was lots of nodding and taking notes from the audience, then we opened up questions. The audience didn’t want to talk at first, but once they started, they didn’t want to stop! Luckily, Victoria and I were well equipped to handle the questions and there was some interesting discussion before we had to wrap it up. Not, however, before we gave a pimp to the Smut by the Sea anthology and encouraged people to come and grab some business cards! I had a few people express interest in my services (don’t be rude, I’m talking PR & Marketing here), as well as meeting some people that I’d chatted to via email and even worked for without ever having met them! I felt it was a really positive session and would definitely do it again. So, Ruby, if you want a similar session for Eroticon 2013, you know where I am! 😉 Also, special thanks go to Victoria Blisse for being my partner in crime. You rock.

Sacred Kink with London Fairie and Lori Smith

This was a spanking demonstration set to music. Honestly, I’m not sure what else to say about it. It was an eye-opening, new experience which resulted in Lori Smith getting a very red bottom, and sparked lots of questions and comments from the audience. I came away having seen something new.

Drinks Party

Much to my disappointment, the author readings were cancelled due to timing, but the raffle draw went ahead. Attendees won sex furniture, sex toys, vouchers, and lots of lots of books. Ruby then closed with a heartfelt thank you to the sponsors, speakers and attendees. Unfortunately for me, the only alcohol on hand was wine, so I was ready by this point to go out and eat and nab myself some vodka, which was soon remedied.

The After Party

Ah, the “after parties” are often my favourite parts of such get togethers. It means we all get to chat about things in general and get to know one another. Sadly, as we left the venue a couple of the original party dropped out due to illness or having to get home, but myself, Victoria Blisse, Lily Harlem, K D Grace, Jacqueline Brocker, Josephine Myles and Maxim Jakubowski soldiered on and ended up in Gourmet Burger Kitchen where we ate a delicious meal and probably had people listening to our conversation. I don’t blame them. We were talking about all facets of erotic fiction, sex furniture, reviews, publishers, pseudonyms, the difference in the US and UK markets, and much more.

On leaving the restaurant, myself, Victoria Blisse, K D Grace, Lily Harlem and Josephine Myles headed back to our hotel – where we’d been told there was a 24 hour bar. This wasn’t strictly true (apparently only soft drinks were 24 hour), but we managed to get in a few swift drinks before Josephine had to leave. And then there were four. Since we were all staying in the same place, we didn’t have to worry about getting anywhere other than to our rooms, so when a very loud, drunk moron started singing at the top of his voice in the bar, we went up to mine and Victoria’s room and continued the conversation. I won’t divulge all of our girly chat, but needless to say we talked lots about writing, the industry, future plans, and more. So beware – we’re planning to take over the world! 😉

We finally fell into bed around 2.30am (separate beds, before you get all excited), and due to more loud, drunk morons I couldn’t sleep right away, but I finally dozed off until around 8am when it was time to have breakfast and hit the road. I had a lonely train journey this time, so I plotted a novella on the train up to Birmingham New Street, where my beloved picked me up (though not before me dashing into WHSmith’s and seeing K D Grace’s The Initiation of Ms Holly and Explicit Encounters, which contains one of my stories, on sale) and took me home.

I fell into bed very early and slept like a log. Today, though, I find the events and information swirling around my head, and keep grinning when I remember certain things – particularly some of the late night girly conversation and plans for the future. I met so many new people (and spent more time with people I already knew) that I can’t possibly name them all, but if you’re reading this and we met and chatted – hello! 😀 I hope you had as good a time as I did.

It was a fab weekend – and I can’t wait until the next one! 😉 Thanks and well done to Ruby Kiddell for pulling it all together!

P.S. I was so busy that I didn’t end up taking any photos, but the professional photographer will be supplying them to Ruby very soon, so check out the official website or Twitter feed for more information.

Eroticon 2012 – It’ll Soon Be Here!

With Erotica 2011 being over for another year, it’s now time to start looking forward to the next event, which for me is Eroticon, in March. You may have noticed the button in my sidebar, which you can click for more info.

Here’s the skinny on Eroticon:

Lucy Felthouse will be helping sex bloggers and erotica writers write sex right at Eroticon 2012.

Lucy Felthouse is on the speaker line up for the UK’s very first sex blogger and erotica writer’s conference, Eroticon 2012.  The conference, on March 3rd in Bristol, will be helping experienced and aspiring writers to right sex write with discussions, workshops and inspiration sessions.

The schedule is packed with inspirational sessions and speakers, including writing and photography workshops, a publishers’ question time panel, tech sessions and discussion panels on sex in the media and identity and ethics.

Lucy Felthouse, who will be a part of the marketing your work session and publishers’ panel says;

“I was really excited when Ruby asked me to be a part of the first Eroticon. We don’t have enough events like this in the UK and many of us can’t keep skipping over to the US all the time, so it’s brilliant to have something in the UK for sex bloggers and erotic writers. I’m looking forward to it.”

The conference is the brain child of erotica author Ruby Kiddell, who explains;

“Having attended other blogging and writing conferences this year I felt there was a need for a safe and inspiring event wherein sex bloggers and erotica writers could meet, learn and talk about their genre and all to do with it.”

Speakers and sessions confirmed so far include:

  • Maxim Jakubowski : Writing workshop, Publishers’ panel
  • Zoe Margolis : Identity, ethics and sex blogging panel, Sex and the media panel
  • Hazel Cushion of Xcite books : Publishers’ panel
  • Lucy Felthouse : Marketing your work, publishers’ panel
  • John Tisbury :  Photography workshop

The conference will close with a cocktail party which promises to be an evening of sublime sauciness with readings from the UK’s most exciting emerging writers.

With such a fantastic line up Eroticon will be 2012’s must attend event for aspiring and experienced erotica writers and sex bloggers.

To find out more about Eroticon 2012 or to book tickets please visit http://conference.eroticnotebook.co.uk