My Sultry Summer Experience

So last Sunday was my third ever Live Podcast.

M. Jane Colette contacted me about two months ago and asked me if I would be able to do something with this.  I have to admit there was a little part of me that felt like a fish out of water.  I’m not a romance guy.  Science Fiction, Fantasy, Young Adult, comics, are all my wheelhouse.  Erotica, Romance, naked girls, burlesque dancers – well, I’ve seen a burlesque dancer or two in my time – but you get the idea.

I feel I should celebrate the Emcee of the event a bit here.  I met M. Jane Colette at When Words Collide last year.  She tells most of the story here.   The long and short of it, I was very impressed by her after the podcast.  Not only is M. Jane Colette an amazing writer, but she’s an amazing person.  She is driven, passionate, bold, knows who she is as a writer and I admire her ambition.  (She’s sexy as hell too, but she knows that.) If anything, I need more people like her in my life.  She’s driven to excel, and therefore, it makes me want to as well.

And I didn’t know this community very well, besides Jilly Jax and Tammy Lyn Carbol.   That I feel even now was an error on my part.  One of the hardest things that every artist fights for with their work is the respect and validation of their peers.  I never looked down on the genre, but I feel I should have paid more attention to it sooner.

Sidenote: Jilly Jax played a big role in me getting the ball rolling in fixing my teeth.  I never have thanked her publicly for that.  I do so here.  Thanks Jill.  You really helped.

But I digress…

So this was an opportunity for me.  What better way to get to know a community I didn’t know than by doing something like this?  And I had a lot of fun, even if I was in the murder room.

I wish I had a good picture of it.  For the purposes of doing a live podcast, it was thought (wisely I may add) that a quiet space would serve the podcast well.  However the setting was a very quiet room filled with ice cream.  The door was creepy and silent.  Mel Vee was the first to call it the murder room, and it’s in my mind as just that.  In fact, I’m using it in a noir story…

So even before I met any guests this was already worth my visit.

There was one unexpected snag to the whole event.  Most malls have a wifi hotspot or a better connection that’s accessible.  It turns out, that this mall is the one mall in the city without a stable wifi connection.  So my plan to stream the event went to hell.  Next time I’ll have my own plan to stream the event with my own wireless should some kind of situation like this occur again.

Still, I got a lot of amazing interviews from this event.  Keely Kamikaze and I talked about the Naked Readers of Alberta and the whole idea of fighting against body shaming and why such a thing exists.  It was really fascinating, and Keely is someone I want to talk to again for a longer chat sometime.

Katie O’Conner and Shelley Kassian talked to me about the Women of Stampede series they are doing.  It’s cool to see an independent series get traction and talk about their love of farm life.  Not exactly what you expect from a steamy romance series.  They were great to talk to.

Danielle French is just awesome.  Talented musician.  We talked love, music, marijuana, and Jung.  She’s an amazing singer, intelligent, well spoken, articulate and someone I think I could have a drink with and talk about anything for hours.

Win Day was a hoot.  Ms. President and I talked about purpose, growth, her tenure on CARWA, and having fun.

Mel Vee has one of the most infectious laughs I have ever heard.  She’s also incredibly striking.  We talked her pursuit of greatness, and racism and where people go to protest that are of different colour.  Racism is not talked about as much in Canada.  The fact that Mel is willing to fight and express her feelings and experiences to the public is very brave.  She’s awesome.

Rayanne Haines and I talked about straddling the literary and genre lines.  An accomplished poet and novelist, it’s interesting to hear her take on this line and how she balances it, and uses one to help with the other.

Finally of course I talked to Sasha White and Elizabeth Kelly about talking dirty.  Sex is supposed to be fun above all things and those two made me blush quite a bit.  It was a blast.  Also, I now have a safe word.

This was a wonderful, diverse, engaging, intelligent, talented group of women that came together and did this event.  I feel that romance and erotica do not get the respect they deserve in literature.  Erotica especially should be mentioned in this category as while everyone I know has some imagination at least in this topic, it is very hard to write well.  Good writing is good writing.  It doesn’t matter the genre, the style, or the presentation, quality more than anything else should be respected.

So check out a book by any of the others here I mentioned.  Or check out others like Tina Griffith or Jenna Howard.  Or any of the other writers I haven’t mentioned here.  Check out the naked readers if you want to have a different take on nudity.  Check out Danielle French for her dark love songs and her amazing mad men behind her.

These interviews will air soon, and hopefully another event like this will come up.  I for one will go.  You should too.

I want to thank M. Jane Colette for the opportunity, the hard work.  It was fantastic to see and a great experience for me.

Now I’m closing up with a little bonus.  Sasha White filmed me for your VLOG, so here’s me making an ass out of myself pitching my books.

Thanks Sasha!