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Below are the 2 most recent journal entries recorded in
KV Taylor's InsaneJournal:
| Friday, January 20th, 2012 | |
| 8:25 pm | Red Pennies and Excitement I know, I’ve been a bad blogger again. BUT! I’ve been a very busy little bee getting some awesome stuff in line for The Red Penny Papers. Now we’ve pulled of a full year (and more!) of fiction both short and serial, I’m starting to get a feel for how much we can reasonably do. I will admit that a lot of this is also a money thing, as the RPP has always been about free web fiction — but authors should get paid. Katey Hawthorne doesn’t make a lot, but over the last few months she’s proven that she can at least support RPP in the manner to which it has grown accustomed. And so we forge ahead! (And yes, I just talked about myself in third person. I think Namor is rubbing off on me. I’ll stop that now.) What it adds up to is a few new experiments and a few continuations of current experiments. Things we have planned for the near future… 1. Moar, longer-lasting eBooks. Alan Baxter, author of our upcoming winter serial, The Darkest Shade of Grey, has kindly offered to be the first The serial will always remain free in the archives, but we’ve had loads of requests for eBook versions from people who wouldn’t mind dropping a few bucks for a good pulpy read on their Kindle. Should be good fun! We may also change our contracts to allow for longer-lasting quarterly issues. Currently the eBook versions expire when a new one is published, and until we can afford to pay authors more (in order to keep the right to make their story available in our issues for longer), that will stay the same. But it’s a goal. 2. Plans for a print/ebook anthology. John and I have been talking about doing a Red Penny antho for months and months now, and the time feels right. The plan is that we’ll come up with a new theme annually and invite the authors who’ve been with us between fall-summer of that publishing year to submit stories. We’re really committed to the writers we work with and love having them back for other issues, so this seems like a great way to celebrate that spirit of… well, good pulpy togetherness. The only difference is that, given the cost of producing such a thing, we can’t afford to give it away. But we think it’ll be worth it. We’re hoping to have the first one sorted out in time for our second anniversary this fall. More on that later! 3. More staff. We already outsource our eBook creation (thanks, Aaron!), and since John has come on as a slush wrangler, my life has been much simpler. There are some tasks I really want, need, insist on doing myself, but there are just some that I will put off til the end of time. The best way to focus on the stuff I like doing, then, would seem to be to outsource more. We hope to get the staff roster updated shortly. Because of all this stuff going on, we’re not going to have another open reading period until June 1, 2012. But that will be worth it, too. We’ll be open for serials and shorts at the same time, which we didn’t do last time and made us a little bit sad. So, um, there’s my maniacal plan for world domination or whatever — and the reason I’ve been a bad blogger. But so much goodness! |
| Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 | |
| 9:49 pm | Guest Blog: L. Bohmer Talks Porn Today I’m lucky enough to have Louise Bohmer stop by to discuss porn. Porn and women, even. Which is, of course, something in which I have a great interest and many opinions of my own. Please enjoy! Ahem. Misconceptions About Women and Porn (Or, Why I Heart Nina Hartley) by L. Bohmer Yes, I am a feminist, and, yes, I watch porn. There tends to be a school of thought among some feminists that states women can never, ever enjoy porn. Porn is exclusively for males, and the women acting in said films are always faking it. Porn always marginalizes and sexualizes the woman in a negative light. Porn is always abusive to the female, and no right-minded woman would willingly act in it. They must be coerced into it or need the money. With all due respect to those who hold this view, I simply cannot agree with it. For starters, I have a problem with broad stroke approaches to any argument. Rarely in life have I found any accurate black-and-white answers. Life is simply far more complex than that. Secondly, research into today’s porn industry, and the history of pornographic film, will reveal this argument is simply not true. While, yes, the adult film industry is not lily-white, many women within it have gained not only sexual empowerment through the medium, but also creative and financial empowerment. Nina Hartley is a prime example of this female empowerment. At 52, Nina still acts in and directs pornography. She has also taken on the role of sexual educator, and identifies herself as a sex-positive feminist. Here is a great quote from Nina, and I think it sums up what I’m trying to say perfectly: “Sex isn’t something men do to you. It isn’t something men get out of you. Sex is something you dive into with gusto and like it every bit as much as he does.” In fact, the first adult film Nina ever starred in was directed by a female porn star, Juliet Anderson. Since her debut, she’s appeared in over 600 adult films, and now directs and stars in her own line of sex instruction videos. She’s been a strong pro-advocate of the adult entertainment industry for almost thirty years, and she vehemently speaks out against the use of illegal drugs in the adult film business. As well, Ms. Hartley is a registered nurse, and graduated magna cum laude. She was also the first adult film star to cross over into mainstream acting, landing a role in Boogie Nights, and appearing in a Canadian film called Bubbles Galore. Nina has rebutted antipornography feminists for close to two decades. Instead of telling women what kind of sexuality is ‘right’ for them, Nina takes an educational approach that is open and positive. Her instructional videos take an enthusiastic and all inclusive look at sex. To me, and for me, hers is an ideal that empowers women sexually. It doesn’t inhibit them or tell them sex can only be one way. It encourages exploration, education, and respect for the female. Today, thanks to direct-to-video proliferation, the Internet, and women like Nina Hartley, the adult film industry doesn’t have nearly as harsh a social stigma as it once did. At the end of the 90s, adult film sales and rentals comprised about one-third of video revenue, and those numbers continue to grow. And as more women watch porn, and more women take on active, powerful roles in the industry, the face of adult entertainment continues to morph. The key to demystifying the industry is not to demonize it, but rather for women to make it their own, just as Ms. Hartley and many other women have done. For a great summation of the sex-positive feminist, please read this article “Feminist for Porn” by Nina Hartley: http://www.counterpunch.org/2005/02/02/f
Links to quotes and other articles referenced: Nina Hartley’s Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Hartle Nina’s website (NWS!): http://www.nina.com/ninahartleybio.php Globe and Mail – The thinking woman’s porn star speaks out: http://www.walnet.org/csis/news/toronto_ *** L. Bohmer was the pen name under which Louise Bohmer once wrote erotic fiction. Today, she writes erotic fiction under other pen names, Isabel Dyakov being one. She lives in New Brunswick, Canada, with a tattooed giant and assorted fur children. To learn more about Louise and her alter egos, visit: www.louisebohmer.com Her erotic romance collection, Passion Plays, will be released February 14. A free teaser ebook will be released January 15, and both will be available on Kindle and Smashwords. To keep up with release news for the collection, bookmark: http://www.louisebohmer.com/site/passion-p Just for the record, Louise was kind enough to ask me to write the intro for that upcoming teaser. And, I mean, check the cover:
Yeeeeeah. You know you want some porn. (It’s better than porn, though. It’s erotica. Maybe that’d make for a good post, too…) |
