Parisian Phoenix Publishing

As the days pass here in Atlanta, I am genuinely sad that I cannot stay for the entire Sex Down South: Atlanta conference. I have to leave early tomorrow to make my long drive home in order to make commitments on Monday.

Sigh.

Sex Down South (in general)

I will be missing some events like the Big Bang with a performance by key note Perle Noire (though I do hope to attend her workshop today). I might not get a chance to visit the dungeon and play. The environment here is so rich, comfortable and empowering that even though I haven’t had a chance to participate in as many things as I’d like to, that the experiences I have had have had a profound effect on me.

Perle Noire summed it up nicely in her address last night: TRUST YOUR MISSION. And in addition, recognize that there will be trade-offs and sacrifices to attain your goals. But, and here is something that many of us need to hear, if you KNOW YOUR WORTH and set your goals accordingly you can achieve more than the status quo.

Does this sound like the kind of advice one might expect from a sex conference?

In this environment there is an aura of freedom and safety where you don’t have to follow norms. You can take off your shoes and your shirt; I haven’t worn a bra since Wednesday afternoon! And as you explore activities, attend workshops, and negotiate deep-seated consent, you learn about yourself.

My erotic fiction workshop

About 30 people attended my workshop, at least based on the 27 people who signed up for my Substack newsletter. I held a raffle for a big bag of books and told people they could sign up for the newsletter or just write a name so I could identify them for the raffle.

Everyone who signed up for the raffle left me their email address.

People did not bring many tools, and they didn’t ask many writing questions, so I breezed through my prepared notes. And then they had questions– questions about their projects, about publishing, about erotica. And we even discussed the possibility of proposing a SexDownSouth erotica anthology for next year’s conference.

I encouraged people to find me and talk to me about their projects and ideas during conference meal breaks. So we’ll see if anyone approaches me today. I sold about $100 worth of books, and I plan on swinging by Charis Books’ table to see how their sales are going. I brought books they didn’t order because I didn’t want to compete with them.