Sassafras Patterdale's Blog, page 16

January updates: books, Disney, books, books, BOOKS!!!!!!!!!

I’ve been a little bit quiet here in the blog world since the beginning of the year but I’ve definitely been keeping busy.  Over at the blog for Leather Ever After I’ve been posting interviews with the contributors – there’s a new one going up every few days so you should be sure to check it out! The anthology brings together some brilliant contributors and in the interviews you’ll get to see what they have to say about a variety of topics from writing to inspiration and of course fairy tales. Leather Ever After has been such a fun anthology to put together and really is with some of my favorite kink writers I’m excited to be able to bring you more of them on the blog! If you’re a blogger and interested in reviewing the book please please get in touch with me and I can get a review copy emailed off to you ASAP!

Last night I got home to a box and knew immediately what it was – BOOKS!!!!  Leather Ever After books to be precise. There really is nothing at all in the world like holding your own book for the very first time! Leather Ever After really is here and out in the world. The ebook is for sale on amazon kindle and from the publisher in every format imaginable, and now is also available in print. It’s really unreal to me how this book came to be (I talk a bit about the magic of that in the introduction – so I won’t give too much away). We’ll be having a big bash for the book here in NYC on Feburary 13th at Bluestockings Books featuring readings from – Mollena Williams, Lee Harrington, Karen Taylor, and the amazing Laura Antoniou who wrote our forward will be part of the evening as well!!!!

 

Last weekend we went on what is probably my dream vacation – a trip to Disney World!   We flew home early on Tuesday morning and since getting back to New York I’ve been working to bring together the words to talk about not only how magical and special the trip was but also what it meant to me on the deepest levels. Being in Disney World really was everything the little boy like me could possibly want. I knew that we were going to have fun, but I had no idea that being in the Magic Kingdom would feel so well…. Magical and intense. There was a way in which I feel like I was able to be more of my(little)self outwardly and openly in the world than I normally get to experience which on top of all the magic that is Disney in general really sent me over the top and into a whole different rhelm. I want to do more writing about the experience of being there once I’m through the #DisneyDrop

 

I was realizing yesterday that Roving Pack has been out in the world for over four months now! Its been humbling and amazing to watch it go out into the world. I truly feel that Roving Pack is the best thing that I have ever written, and I’m thrilled to see the community connecting with it. An announcement that came right at the very very end of 2012 (and so I think a few people might have understandably missed it) is that Roving Pack now available as an ebook! I had many readers excitedly awaiting that so I was thrilled to make that happen. You can of course also get your very own copy of the print edition signed, dedicated, and sent directly to you!

A little plea for support: If you already have a copy and read it, please consider taking a few minutes and writing a review of it on amazon or goodreads, or you own blog if you’re a blogger!  This kind of support makes a HUGE difference to indie authors like me and can really help to get our books into peoples hands who might not otherwise have known about it. I’m always telling my author buddies (and anyone else who will listen) that I’ve truly been blessed to have the very best readers in the world – you guys are the reason I’m able to do this work, and I’m so grateful to everyone whose ever read my stories.

This week I’ve been making some pretty solid process on my new novel, Lost Boi – a queer gutterpunk retelling of Peter Pan. I’m working my way through fun and gritty chapter outlines at the moment, LONG. WAY. TO. GO.  But it feels really good to be writing on this scale again. Lost Boi is really feeling like the right big project to sink my teeth into after Roving Pack.

 

Leather Ever After – now in PRINT!

Order Leather Ever After Today! 

Now available as print and ebook! 

check it out! Leather Ever After is now available as a print book for all of us who prefer our books paper! In Leather Ever After, celebrated queer author Sassafras Lowrey brings together some of the most beloved leather writers in an enchanting collection published by Ravenous Romance with a foreword by Laura Antoniou!

  The kinkiest writers in the land were summoned to pervert your favorite fairy tales with stories of dominance, submission, bondage and surrender. In these stories twisted princesses take control of submissive princes, witches play with power and fairy tales come to life in our homes and dungeons…

the power of community: where should i donate Roving Pack?

One of my biggest goals with all of my books is to get them into the hands of the folks who most need the stories.  I talk to homeless queer youth everyday, but this summer right as I was finalizing the proofs for Roving Pack I had an experience that really haunted me: “I’ve lost my pack, trying to build a new one” said the cardboard sign with jagged sharpie handwriting. Next to the sign sitting on a Manhattan Street was a young trans kid, a sweet pitbull puppy resting its head on their lap. More than anything I wanted to give this kid a copy of Roving Pack — which at its core is all about the packs/families we build.

Shaken by how close to home this experience hit to me and this book, and how I hoped that one day I would be in a position to give my books to everyone who needed these stories. I wrote about it on my facebook and twitter and was shocked (am still shocked) when not long after I received an incredibly generous gift from a reader – a check to cover the costs of me donating several copies of Roving Pack to people who need the stories but wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford a copy. I broke into tears when I opened the mail to that check. I’m humbled and honored by the way the community has backed this novel. For someone to make it possible for me to have the  opportunity to donate copies of Roving Pack means so much to me.

After much thought I have made a decision to gift these copies to community centers/groups in order to increase the number of people who will have access to the stories. This is where you come in! I’m looking for suggestions of community groups you are involved with or know wouldn’t be able to afford to include Roving Pack  in their library AND most importantly won’t be scared away by the somewhat edgy content of the novel. The last thing I want is for the book to get left on a staff person’s desk because it’s seen as inappropriate (this is something I will obviously be verifying before sending).  Feel free to comment here – or email me directly at sassafraslowrey@gmail.com with suggestions for  where I should send books (no NYC suggestions please). I have 8 more copies to give away—tell me where they should go!!!!

Recapturing Stolen Dreams….

 

this blog post is via Tricky Tails where most of my dog focused blogging is moving

I hadn’t realized that January was ‘National Train Your Dog Month’ but evidently it is, and that feels pretty darned fitting, especially as I have ben pretty clear about how in 2013 I was hopefully going to involve more intentional dog work. I’m thrilled to be able to say that one week into the year, my goals for the year are already materializing!

I’ve been working more intentionally around trick training with Charlotte- as I’ve been talking about all over my social networking, and of course was a big part of starting the blog.  This first weekend of 2013 I’m spending a lot of time at home with the pups relaxing and Charlotte has been learning some new tricks (more on that in another post). Connected to that, something I’ve been a little bit less public about is that I’ve been investigating doing more training beyond work with our dogs. I’ve been out of the dog world for a long time, was convinced everyone would think I’d lost my mind — but much to my amazement everyone who matters in my life has been nothing but supportive, and thanks to some community connections really exciting things happened.

The amazing Holly Hughes and I met a few years ago when she was in NYC performing her “The Dog and Pony Show” which amongst other things is about dog agility.  I couldn’t resist showing her my agility tattoo in the theater lobby, and after teh show went home and wrote her about how much it had meant to me to see a famously out queer person doing dog sports- and how unimaginable that had seemed would ever be the case when I as ababy dyke dog agility competitor lost my dogs, home, community for coming out in that world.  Holly and I had lunch together a few days later, talked dogs and then kept in touch via facebook.

In late December I very quietly began reaching out to dog people I knew to see if anyone had a contact in NYC that might be willing to let me shadow them and get my feet wet in the training world. Much to my complete shock a couple of weeks ago, knowing my desires around training Holly connected me with her friend Frankie Joiris who is literally a world class dog trainer and who happens to teach pet level agility classes one day a week here in NYC.

Honestly the whole thing sounded to good to be true, except it wasn’t. this is a real opportunity, and one I’m so grateful to take advantage of.  I was utterly in shock when Frankie emailed me back and gave me the opportunity to come observe her class this week, with the intention of if I liked it that I could return weekly to assist!  On Wednesday night I met Frankie and a couple of her dogs (including her sinfully cute 8 week old Border Collie puppy!)  and for the first time in over a decade was in an agility class. I’ll admit that walking to meet her I was more than a little bit nervous. I didn’t know what it would be like to be back in that world, to talk about Snickers and Flash (my dogs that I lost) and who I used to be, the life as a dog trainer that I had dreamed I would have as an adult. There was a little place in the back of my mind that worried that it was silly to try to get back into dogs in this new way (I don’t have an interest in competing, instead I’m interested in lower stakes games between people and their dogs). My fears were unfounded. The minute I got to the space and met Frankie and helped her to set up the equipment and watching her work with the dog/handler teams – I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else, and I can’t wait until I get to go back next week.

2013 is a big year for me for a lot of non-dog reasons- coming off the release of my novel and an anthology releasing this month, and starting writing on my new novel- but it’s also big for me with dogs. I can’t put words to how gratifying it is to play and work with the dogs we share our home with, and now feel like I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to recapture some stolen dreams, and transform them into something that fits into the magical life I’ve been lucky enough to build. My hope is that this path I’m walking will give me the  chance in the longterm to share my love of dogs and passion for helping people have more fun and a better relationship with their dogs.

‘LEATHER EVER AFTER’ IS HERE!!!!!!!!!

Once upon a time, in a dungeon far, far away the kinkiest writers in the land were summoned to pervert beloved fairy tales with tales of dominance, submission, bondage and surrender. In these stories twisted princesses take control of submissive princes, witches play with power and fairy tales come to life in our homes and dungeons…

In Leather Ever After, celebrated queer author Sassafras Lowrey brings together some of the most beloved leather writers in an enchanting collection published by Ravenous Romance with a foreword by Laura Antoniou!  Leather Ever After is currently available as an ebook, with print books to be released February 2013. Learn more about about Leather Ever After at www.LeatherEverAfter.wordpress.com and to get more information about Sassafras and hir work visit www.SassafrasLowrey.com

Table of Contents:

Foreword- Laura Antoniou

Introduction – Sassafras Lowrey

Each Step For Him – Lee Harrington

Blue Beards Ghost – Ariel Dalziel

House of Sweets – Miss Lola Sunshine

The Suitor – Miel Rose

Hair Like Gold – Nalu Kalani

The Mistress and the Pea – Cynthia Hamilton

The Red Shoes – Hosha

The Seven Swan Princes– DL King

The Good Witch – Ali Oh

Snow Fight – Rob Rosen

Down Under – Raven Kaldera

Golden Twink and the Three Bears – Elizabeth “Jake” Hart

Iron Henry – Karen Taylor

The Wolf and little red – Alysia Angel

Not Enough Storms – Goldie Dartmouth

Cinderfella – Sossity Chiricuzio

Lady Leporine – Mollena Williams

The Little Boot Black – Sassafras Lowrey

Happy New Year!

It’s hard for me to believe that 2012 is coming to a close. It’s been an incredible year –that has brought about huge growth and change for me as an author and as a person! I just reread the blog I wrote as last year was ending and it’s remarkable to me to see how much has changed in 12 short months. Last year at this time I’d just finalized the decision to publish Roving Pack through my own imprint, but I hadn’t yet shared that news with all of you (I announced those plans in January).  It seems unreal to me that now a year later the book has been out in the world for three months, and not only that but has connected to readers in ways that I never would have imagined.

This year much of my time was spent on the planning the production and then release of the novel. I’ve been humbled and overwhelmed by the incredible response from reviewers, publications, fellow authors and of course readers!  The pre-orders alone were far beyond my expectation and the excitement about the book has not slowed.  I’m so excited for 2013. Roving Pack has been nominated for a few different awards and my fingers are crossed really really tightly for all of those and to continue having the opportunity to correspond with readers all over the world who have been in someway touched and impacted by this story.

I’ve kept busy this year continuing to write my monthly column with Curve and guest articles and appearances places like The Bark and have had the chance to continue regularly contributing to Lambda Literary online.  Not only have I gotten the chance to read a number of incredible books before they released, I even had the chance to interview one of my literary heroes Jeanette Winterson and talk about our shared experiences of queer teen homelessness!

It’s been an incredible year of connecting with readers. Of course there was the magical Roving Pack national release at Bluestockings Bookstores here in NYC in October.  I also had the honor of organizing some wonderful literary events here in NYC – guest curating two Queer Memoir’s “Pets”  (click to see writeup in The Bark) in January and Queer Memoir:  “Leather” ( click to see writeup in Leatherati ) in March which was a fundraiser for Toni Amato’s Write Here, Write Now. (they are now doing an end of year donation appeal- donate if you can!) I also curated  s a “Dangerous Stories” reading event at the Rainbow Book Fair.  I’ve visited colleges, and then of course there was the 10 day, 5 cities Europe Tour that Kestryl and I organized this fall.  Touring with Roving Pack to Europe (my first time leaving North America) remains at the top of both the best career moments, and personal adventures I’ve ever had.  I think in a lot of ways I’m still processing everything that happened, all the connections that were made, and I’m so grateful for how well Roving Pack and I were received and how smoothly everything went.

In the final days of the year I’ve also been able to get Roving Pack available as an ebook – something I’m very excited about and feels like a great way to bring what has been an incredible year with this book to both a close, and opening a new chapter of the places this book will go next year.

In the midst of a year that was very much about Roving Pack I was approached to edit an anthology, a collection of BDSM fairy tales that became “Leather Ever After.”  This anthology pushed me in ways I hadn’t realized I needed to be pushed.  “Roving Pack” brought leather into the forefront of much of my work, and Leather Ever After (click to see our very new, and still under construction blog) really cemented its place in my writing and professional trajectory. Leather Ever After has been an incredibly fun anthology, and a year ago I never would have believed that something like this would fall into my lap! I’m ridiculously proud of how well the book came together, and with the quality and scope of the stories in this book.  It brings together a group of stellar Leather writers and I’m so honored to have my name listed as the editor.  The book will be releasing from Ravenous Romance very very early in 2013, and we will be having a big NYC release event at Bluestockings on February 13th with other events across the country organized by contributors to be announced soon.

One of the things that’s really come to the surface this years has been a profound rekindling of my passion for working with dogs.  I’ve talked on the blog about how adopting Charlotte last year really brought this, my oldest passion to the surface in a way that feels new and exciting and really inspiring. I’m working trick dog titling with Charlotte and exploring other ways to expand some of that work in my life.  I realize that this isn’t something that is necessarily of interest to some of you who are here because of my queer/leather/writing work. With that in mind I’ve started a new blog here called Tricky Tails: stories of a boy & hir dogs.  Where I’m posting training updates, videos, stories, and little ruminations on my life loving and training our dogs. Please check it out!

In the midst (and in so many ways because of) all the creative work I’ve been doing this year 2012 has also been quite the year for personal growth. I’ve challenged myself, and been challenged to really continue on the path of becoming the very best version of Sassafras that I can be, and the best boy I can be for my Daddy. I’ve had my challenges with whale legs (a term I’ve often used here on the blog to talk about fear/growth) and from those challenges is where the deepest growth comes from I believe.  On the whole 2012 has been a year where I felt like things have really clicked into place, where I’ve understood the work that I’m doing and where that is taking me. It’s also been a time of pushing through the kind of fears that previously literally ruled the ways in which I’ve understood myself in the world and comprehended my life, created family, relationships etc.

I’m so grateful as I realize that now the “normal” in my life truly has become a place of centeredness and integration where I feel as though I’m able to hold at the surface all the work that I do, not just a piece of it. I think that’s been one of the greatest blessings of having been able to bring Roving Pack into the world.  A year ago I was that queer that talked about queer youth homelessness, and in some ways only queer youth homelessness.  A sophomore book is always complicated, and I worried greatly how this noel would exist in the shadow of Kicked Out, and now looking back at the last year I realize that it is truly a separate entity that exists in its own right, and has given me the opportunity to do the same, to do work that is much more diverse and gives me the springboard to continue to grow and develop personally and artistically.

I’m so excited to be sitting here on the edge of the New Year and have an array of projects that are in the works.  Of course the release of Leather Ever After is nearly upon me, and I can’t wait to share this fun new book with all of you. I’m still finalizing bits and pieces of my touring schedule but I’ll for sure be at Florida State University in Tallahassee in the late spring, and then in New Orleans for the 10th annual Saints & Sinners Literary Festival!  I’m so thrilled to be part of the programming for S&S- it’s a lit event I’ve heard incredible things about and to be there presenting and reading is a tremendous honor.  While at the conference I’m going to have a chance to take a master level course from Dorothy Allison who is my biggest literary hero.

January 1st I’m also free to begin working on my next book – another novel titled Lost Boi. I’m a bit of a workaholic and unless I set hard rules (lets be real – unless those are set *for * me – one of the ways that leather and D/s makes me a better artists) about giving myself a defined break between finishing a book and starting the next one I’m prone to working myself into burnout exhaustion.  I have so many ideas it can sometimes pace myself. waiting to begin this book has been a challenge.  However, I know the break in significant writing (since I finished writing Roving Pack a year ago) strengthens the writing, hones the characters, and tightens the story(ies) that I want to tell. I know without the enforced break after completing Kicked Out (when I was incredibly burned out and exhausted) I never would have been able to write a book like Roving Pack. Ultimately, I believe it’s important to take breaks, to enjoy the special moments (did I mention I get to go to Disney World in two weeks?!), and to not push myself too hard as I begin work on new projects. That is a skill that definitely doesn’t come naturally to me but with a lot of support I’ve been able to develop the boundaries I need to give myself space to rejuvenate creatively, and to plan timelines for big projects (like a new book).

Roving Pack as my debut novel was in some ways an experiment. I wasn’t sure if I could write a book length manuscript. What I hadn’t expected when I began working on that book was to fall in love, not only with it but with fiction writing.  As I was finishing the writing of Roving Pack the idea for my next book came and I’ve been marinating ideas in back corners of my brain since then.  When the clock hits midnight tonight I’ll officially begin working on Lost Boi –  a modern gutterpunk Peter Pan retelling where readers are swept away into the world of lost bois living on societies fringes in squats and on the street. The orphaned/abandoned/runaway lost bois have banded together with the fairies against their sworn enemies – culturally appropriative urban primitives, and gentrifying pirates. The bois fight, fuck and have adventure in a world of kinky created family and hierarchy as they struggle to survive and resist the forces of their biggest enemy of all – grownups.

2012 has been a year that far exceeded my plans and expectations. I’ve been given the opportunity to do incredibly exciting work and share it with you, my community. I am so looking forward to 2013 and diving into new projects, and creative adventures and sharing it with all of you!

 

xoxo

Sassafras

 

Roving Pack available as an Ebook!!!

 

I’m a bit of a dinosaur in lots of ways, and my love of physical books is part of that. I am a profound lover of physical books- for christmas I even got perfume that is “paperback” scented! HOT! Regardless, I don’t live under a rock and  I also know that more and more people are reading books digitally via any number of ereaders. While not my preferred way to read (though I was somewhat tempted by it while on tour in Europe- books are heavy and I was hauling around enough of my own!) I have always intended for Roving Pack to be accessible to folks who read ebooks either out of preference or for accessibility reasons.

With that in mind, I’m thrilled to announce that you can now purchase your own ebook copy of Roving Pack. For $7.99 You will receive a PDF ebook copy of Roving Pack and it will be emailed directly to you within 48 hours (often much much sooner)!!!  Please help spread the word about the new way to read the book Lambda Literary calls  “Political, raucous, dark, and totally engrossing” and the Huffington Post says  is “a guiding light in the darkness of the false binary illusion of gender we’ve been too lazy to address”

Curve Magazine interview

“Lowrey shines a light on the queer punk scene and shows the audience that she means business as a debut novelist.” – Curve Magazine

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Check out my interview in Curve Magazine where I talk about inspiration, reviews, books that have inspired me, and why I needed to write Roving Pack!

Read the full interview here

Charlotte earned her NOVICE TRICK DOG TITLE!!!!

 

Ok that probably doesn’t mean much to most of my blog followers – also I haven’t actually been talking about dog stuff here on the blog so it also probably comes a bit out of nowhere for most of y’all.  Needless to say, I’m thinking about starting to do more dog focused blogging –possibly on a new site in order to keep that somewhat separate – especially because I imagine (and completely understand that) many of my readers of my books and leather followers are less interested in my dog focused posts.

me and Snickers when I was in high school

Dogs have always played a really important role in my life. Growing up as a small child they were the only things that mattered to me –t he most intimate and important relationships in my life.   As a teenager, before I came out, before I was homeless, before I was a queer activist I was a “dog kid.” I loved dog sports- connecting and having my brain working together with my dogs.  My story in Kicked Out is all about loosing my dogs when I became homeless, and remains one of the most difficult things I’ve ever written. My oldest dog Snickers and I were elite level dog agility competitors and I had an eye on qualifying for the USDAA nationals the next year.  In an instant it was gone.

In a year later I tried to get back into dog sports, when Mercury was just a tiny puppy. It was too hard, and someone I was involved with at the time convinced me that working with dogs was actually bad for my anxiety, my social skills, for me in general.  In reality?  This person never had my best interest at heart. In a fit of pain and longing in one of the 14 apartments/houses/basements/shacks I would live in over the next two years I threw out every trophy, ribbon except one, the very first little read second place strip ribbon we ever won.

Almost a year and a half ago Kestryl and I went grocery shopping and came home with Charlotte- a high needs rescue.  Charlotte had a hard start to life she was found at seven months old with a litter of puppies living on the street of a town in the South. She and the pups were taken to high-kill shelter and thankfully pulled from the gas chamber by a rescue and transported north to NYC.

It sounds really woo woo, but I truly believe that we were brought together by Snickers, the dog who kept me going through my teen years.  The day we brought Charlotte home I received a letter in the mail from my Grandmother who I’ve maintained a mostly estranged but superficial relationship with all these years. When I became homeless she had taken Snickers, Flash my younger dog had stayed with my dog trainer who’d I had been living with after things with my mother became too violent (my trainer of course being who kicked me out of her home for being queer).   The letter was to tell me that Snickers who by this point was very old, mostly deaf and without many teeth had peacefully died.  I was sitting on the couch crying as I read the letter with Mercury in my lap and Charlotte at my feet. As I looked into her eyes and I saw Snickers looking back at me. I believe that Snickers brought Charlotte to our family, that he knew I needed her as much as she needed us.

Charlotte has taught me so many things as I’ve watched her blossom from a scared dog who seemingly had never seen a toy before coming to our home, to a loyal fun and playful pup we lovingly call our wild thing. She’s a special needs dog and much of my work with her in the last year and a half since she came home has been around her dog/dog reactivity. Living in NYC working with that has been a number one priority.   She still struggles with dog/dog activation on the sidewalks of our Brooklyn neighborhood, but we’ve been able to even start doing work with her during the prospect park off leash hours where under very controlled circumstances (she’s on leash) she’s able to meet and interact with dogs (other than Mercury who she’s brilliant with). Sidewalks are still touch and go, but even there we’ve seen dramatic improvement in the last year.

Since getting Charlotte one of my main focuses has been on building her confidence, and using her brain. She’s taken to clicker training brilliantly, and a month or so ago an old dog buddy of mine helped me to do some preliminary starts on K9 Nosework with her.  What we’ve also been spending a lot of time doing which I haven’t been super public about is trick work.  She’s amassed a pretty impressive vocabulary of tricks- spinning (left/right), shake, wave, roll over, bow, targeting to hand, jumping over my legs etc. etc. etc.  Mostly we’ve been doing trick work for fun, but I’ve also had a little plan- I was working towards a trick dog title with her.

Even as dogs haven’t been the focal point of my writing or teaching work, they have in their own sneaky way remained a focal point in my life. During my punk years no one saw me in public without Mercury. I’ve written for canine press, and of course  I have multiple highly visible dog tattoos- a memorial for the dogs lost, a portrait of both Mercury and Charlotte, as well as a large calf piece of a dog agility course map.  In the past few years I’ve done a lot of work to dismantle my own trauma responses to the dog world, and thanks to the queer presence of amazing folks like Holly Hughes and other dog buddies of mine that there could be a place for me in that world, again, Charlotte earning this title is the first step of this and I’m ready to come out and say that I’m training again.

It feels so appropriate and fitting that Charlotte is the first dog that I’ve earned a title with since Snickers. I believe that part of why he

brought her into my life was in order to realign me with working with dogs, my oldest passion. Next training steps for Charlotte – other than continued work on her dog/dog reactivity is to work towards her Intermediate Trick Dog Title, at which point, I’ll also be working on something of my own – becoming a Certified Trick Dog Instructor. Then I plan to begin offering some fun, bond with your dog trick dog classes here in the NYC area! I’m so excited about the future of helping people to be more bonded, and to have better relationships with their dogs. It’s one of the things I’d felt called to do from a very early age- but then was snatched away from me. To be able to in someway revisit that dream as I move out of my Saturn Return feels like one more pieces of my life and work falling into place.

I’d been really nervous about telling friends about my intentions to return to dog training, fearing they would think it silly which clearly was my own insecurities talking. I have received nothing but excited support from everyone I’ve shared my plans with – dog people as well as other friends. It’s part of why I feel ready to share it with all of my blog readers. Last week my horoscope said: “”The Star-Spangled Banner” is America’s national anthem. It features the lyrics of a patriotic poem written by Francis Scott Key. But the melody itself is entirely lifted from a bawdy old song that celebrates Bacchus, the ancient god of wine and ecstatic dancing. I love it when things are repurposed as dramatically as that. Do you? The coming weeks will be prime time to repurpose stuff with creative abandoned. Make the past useful for the future, Taurus. Turn good old ideas into fantastic new ones. Don’t just recycle; transform” How fitting as I move towards bringing my work with dogs intentionally back into focus in my life.

Watching Charlotte blossom here in her forever home, to discover the joys of toys and carpet, to learn to trust, and to begin to work through all of the emotional and behavioral scars of an early life on the street has been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever witnessed, and the work with a dog I’m most proud of. She’s taught me so much, and brought me back to one of my deepest passions. I know we’re not done growing and learning together. Most of all though today I’m just so proud of my girl-  Charlotte NTD

 

 

 

NYC- Leather Ever After SAVE THE DATE

Once upon a time, in a dungeon far, far away the kinkiest writers in the land were summoned to pervert beloved fairy tales with tales of dominance, submission, bondage and surrender. In these stories twisted princesses take control of submissive princes, witches play with power and fairy tales come to life in our homes and dungeons

Join NYC contributors and editor Sassafras Lowrey to celebrate the release of Leather Ever After published by Ravenous Romance

Wednesday, February 13th 7pm

Bluestockings Bookstore: 172 Allen St. NYC

Readings by: 

Laura Antoniou

Lee Harrington

Hosha

D.L. King

Sassafras Lowrey

Karen Taylor

Mollena Williams

Sassafras Lowrey is an internationally award-winning storyteller, author and educator who has been active in leather community for over a decade. Sassafras is the editor of the two time American Library Association honored, and Lambda Literary Finalist Kicked Out anthology. Hir debut leather focused novel Roving Pack (www.RovingPack.com), was released in autumn 2012. Sassafras lives in Brooklyn with hir Daddy two dogs of vastly different size and two kitties that keep everyone in line. To learn more about Sassafras and hir work visit www.SassafrasLowrey.com

Lee Harrington is an internationally known spiritual and erotic educator, gender explorer, eclectic artist and award-winning author and editor on human sexuality and sacred experience. He is a nice guy with a disarmingly down to earth approach to the fact that we are each beautifully complex ecosystems, and we deserve to examine the human experience from that lens. He’s been traveling the globe (from Seattle to Sydney, Berlin to Boston), teaching and talking about sexuality, psychology, faith, desire and more, and has no intention to stop any time soon. He has been an academic and an adult film performer, a world class sexual adventurer, an outspoken philosopher, is a kink/bondage expert, and has been blogging about sex and spirituality since 1998. Read more about Lee at PassionAndSoul.com.

Hosha lives in Westchester County, NY with her wonderful wife, their amazing son, and their ornery rescue dog. As a family they enjoy stories of magic and all things fairy tale.

D.L King’s (http://dlkingerotica.blogspot.com/) short stories have appeared in titles

such as Best Women’s Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Hurts So Good, One Night Only,

Please, Ma’am and many others. She is the editor of Seductress, The Harder She Comes,

Spankalicious, Carnal Machines, Spank!, The Sweetest Kiss, and Where the Girls Are

Karen Taylor is the author of several of the short stories embedded in BDSM novelist Laura Antoniou’s fourth Marketplace book, “The Academy.” Other recent work includes stories in “Bondage By The Bay,” “Pirate Booty” and “The Love That Never Dies: Affairs with the Undead,” all from Sizzler Editions.

Mollena Williams: This “Delicate, Trembling Flower of Submission” © is a NYC born and raised writer, actress, BDSM Educator, Storyteller and an Award-Winning Executive Pervert. She is proud to have served as International Ms Leather 2010 and Ms. San Francisco Leather 2009. She is honored and humbled to have been selected to receive the 2012 Jack McGeorge Award for Excellence in Education by Black Rose, and is thrilled to have won the the National Leather Association’s 2012 Cynthia Slater Non-Fiction Article Award. Along with Lee Harrington, she co-authored “Playing Well With Others: Your Guide to Discovering, Exploring and Navigating the Kink, Leather and BDSM Communities” She is the author of the “Toybag Guide: Taboo Play, and her essays appear in 2 anthologies curated by Rachel Kramer Bussel, as well as Lee Harrington. Not one but two essays commissioned by Tristan Taormino appear in the groundbreaking anthology “The Ultimate Guide to Kinky Sex.” Mollena is delighted to be a featured educator with The Kink Academy and columnist for SexIs Magazine. She is a regular featured storyteller with Bawdy Storytelling, has taken the stage for Porchlight Storytelling and has been featured on the “RISK!” podcast, as well as NPRs “Snap Judgement”. Her short, experimental BDSM film “IMPACT.” debuted at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in September 2012 and was also screened for Nuit Blanche 2012 in Vancouver, BC