Author: editrixjen

Excerpt: Smooth

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A lot of the erotica/smut I write has a theme. I like it that way. The focus of a particular topic (oral sex, S&M, kink, MILFs, etc.) always makes it easier to reign in my inner rambler and bang out a sexy story. Sometimes, though, the theme is open to interpretation. Such was the case with Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Smooth. The call asked for stories from a woman’s perspective, and the only theme we were given was “naked.” Since I tend to make my characters strip at least a little before they get it on, that left it pretty vague. I chose to define “naked” as “vulnerable,” and I wrote about a young woman who feels most vulnerable when she’s showing off her tattoos.

A friend of mine has an intense tattoo fetish, and when I told him what I was working on, he was excited. I’d asked him for advice when writing tattoo fetish pieces in the past, but I decided to tackle this one solo. When it was done, I asked him to give it a once-over for me, tell me if it worked for him. His response? “HOT!!!” (I have the saved text message to prove it.) An excerpt from my story, “Ink,” is below. Tell me if you agree with his assessment:

The drive to my house was a blur, and I honestly don’t remember the ride. Maybe he sped all the way there, or maybe it just felt that way, but one minute I was sliding into the cramped seat of the small black coupe and in what felt like seconds his hand was reaching into the open door to pull me back out. For the first time, I got the key into the lock and swung the door wide without fumbling, and the stairs to my second-floor apartment went by in a flash. We weren’t running; Jason was politely taking his time, looking around and saying ridiculously mundane things about my decorating. Then he turned back to me, standing in the doorway to the living room, pushed me back against the door frame and started to ravage me. He took control of this kiss the way I had our earlier lip-lock against his car, and I moaned into his mouth, loving his sudden show of sexual aggression.

Hands and lips wandered as we kissed, and I waited for the inevitable clothing removal. It took longer than expected—-such a gentleman, he was—-but eventually his fingers were under my cardigan, my skin tingling with the first gentle touches.

Jason pushed my sweater off my shoulders, leaving me in only a tank top—-and baring my arms for the first time. He didn’t notice my tattoos at first, my three-quarter sleeves hard to make out in the dim light. It wasn’t until he moved to kiss the now-bare skin at the base of my neck that he caught sight of the ink inching up my shoulder. He stilled, his lips pausing only millimeters above my skin, his warm breath tickling me. He lifted the hand that was gripping my forearm and lightly trailed his fingertips along the designs decorating my flesh.

“Beautiful,” he mumbled, his lips brushing my shoulder. “Absolutely beautiful.”

The Torch: Glory Days?

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While I was a student at St. John’s University, our basketball team went through a lot of, for lack of a better term, shit. There was the drug bust, the alleged rape of a hooker, the rumored involvement in the rape of a student, the banning from NCAA play, the sudden search for a new coach… They were busy fellas. But once they’d found Norm Roberts and things started to look up a bit, well, that’s when everyone else started to have issues.

At a game against Duke in early 2007, some SJU (or STJ if you insist on using the new abbreviation) fans caused the Red Storm to receive a technical foul by tossing t-shirts onto the court. The game that day was being broadcast to millions on CBS, and the fans’ behavior brought a lot of shame upon the university. Everyone had something to say about the lack of class the students and fans displayed.

Now, with a new coach leading the team, and the Red Storm kicking ass all over the place, it’s hard to believe there was a time when fans were anything less than enamored of the team. But for a big chunk of my college career, calling them “fans” would’ve been less than accurate.

Glory Days?

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My dad (above, circa 1975) is my biggest supporter. He subscribes to Penthouse to read my articles, gets copies of every anthology I have a story in, and reads every news item about sex and porn so that he can send me things he thinks I might be interested in. He’s read AVN, and knows who all my porn friends are—both by their porn names and their real ones. He’s pretty cool, as far as dads go. So I wasn’t surprised when he sent me a link to an article about porn star Dave Cummings, a septuagenarian sex worker.

“It mentions the current Penthouse cover model,” he told me. “Thought you’d want to check it out when you have time.”

After I read the article, I was on the phone with my dad and we were discussing how Cummings reminds me of someone’s grandfather (not because he’s old enough to be one, but because he has a friendly grandfather face) and how it’s nice to see how much the girls in the industry like him. And then my dad told me he and Cummings may have crossed paths.

Cummings was an Army unit commander with the 4th Infantry during the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. My dad, a Vietnam vet himself, was in the 4th at the same time. Dad doesn’t remember Cummings, and says they probably didn’t know each other, but they likely crossed paths during their tours. “It’s a small world,” we agreed.

This has nothing to do with my writing, but I thought it was kind of neat. Also, if someone from my dad’s infantry unit had to go into porn, I’m glad it was Cummings and not my father. I like that he’s knowledgeable about the industry, but I don’t want him to have that kind of knowledge….

Warrior Wire: War Songs

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Sometimes I write things that have nothing to do with porn or sex. Recently I wrote an article about Tricare and the Veterans Affairs health care system. That won’t be out for a while, but it reminded me of this article that ran in the March 2009 issue of Penthouse. It was supposed to be a short blurb, at most, but it grew into a two-page article that I think tells a pretty cool story about the everyday lives of our soldiers. It was such a great topic to immerse myself in for a few weeks, and it’s a piece I’m extremely proud to have in my clip book.

While researching and interviewing, I got to talk to a lot of really great people. Paul Rieckhoff of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America was a wonderful resource and such an enjoyable interview. It’s always nice to interview people who are not only brilliant, but who you want to talk to after the interview is over. Paul is definitely both, and I’m thrilled every time we get to chat. (I’ve also read his book, Chasing Ghosts, more than a few times. It’s an amazing story and so well written. Everyone should check it out.)

Another guy I interviewed for the story was David Ratcliff, a soldier I found on MySpace. I messaged him through the site and got a phone call the next day. He didn’t believe I really worked at Penthouse, and he couldn’t understand why I would want to get in touch with him. Once I sent him my credentials, though, he was a really fun guy to talk to. He was smart and had good taste in music (key for the piece, obviously), and he gave me more than a few good quotes.

All the soldiers were great, and I can’t say enough about them. There were some I didn’t get to use in the article, and some who I didn’t expect to use but who ended up surprising me. One of the surprises was Joe DeRidder, who happens to be my cousin. Joe’s a really smart guy, and I love hanging out with him and talking to him when he’s home. But he’s not the most verbose person. I didn’t think he’d give me much material to work with. He surprised me, though, and had a lot to say. (My dad, who swears he’s “never heard the kid say more than three words at a time” thought maybe there was another Joe DeRidder. He was impressed.) The article made for a fun show-and-tell at our next family get-together.

One of the coolest things, though, was interviewing the musicians who were involved. Bryan from the Bouncing Souls was awesome, and the band’s publicist/manager was really cool. We didn’t get to do the interview in person, because the band was on tour, but Bryan’s emails were great, and he cracked me up when we discussed doing the interview via BlackBerry.

Serj Tankian was another great interview. His manager called me within five minutes of my sending an email requesting an interview, and said she’d already spoken to him and he was very interested in talking to me. I was blown away, and we set up a phoner for later that day. I don’t think I’ve ever set up an interview so quickly, even with my friends! I didn’t get to use his quotes in the story (they just didn’t fit with the tone of the article), but we chatted for 45 minutes, and he was super cool. He told me a great Sarah Palin joke, and then made my day (probably my entire year) by telling me that the story I was writing mattered, and he thought that I was a smart, savvy journalist, which, in his book, made me the cool one. I saved the recording and listen to it every now and then when I want to feel like a rock star.

I’ve been fortunate in that I only have to write the stories I want to write, and I work with people who are as excited about the topics I cover as I am. It means my clip book is full of great stories that double as really great memories.