Today is the tenth anniversary of a dear friend losing the love of his life.

He wrote a lament after she'd left and read it to me last night after we'd made love.

We both wept.

Thought I'd like to share it with you.

When you left me
Smiling sweetly
When the tears
And darkness came
While the plane
Stood by for somewhere
And you softly
Said my name
Kissed me gently
Held the red rose
Smiling bravely
Took the blame
 
I turned my head away
So you could not see the anguish
In my eyes.
 
Through the darkness
And the dying
Through the deadness
And the pain
Other women
Came to hold me
Came to love me
Sooth the pain
Called me darling
In the darkness
Said I love you
Made their claim
And I hoped
‘Twas not the same
 
And I turned my head away
So they could not see the fear
In my eyes
 
Other women
Came to hold me
Held me close
And spoke my name
Loved my body
Sensed my longing
Filled my need
And played my game
But the holding
Didn’t last long
And I shrugged
When leaving came
 
And I turned my head away
So they could not see the nothing
In my eyes.

One gave me moments
In the darkness
In the deadness
And the pain
When she loved me
Chased me laughing
Through the sunlight
And the rain
But the laughter
Didn’t last long
Sunlight died
When evening came
 
And I turned my head away
So she could not see the hunger
In my eyes.
 
Then the one
The one who’d left me
Asked to meet
And talk again
Kissed me softly
In my darkness
Lips that burned me
Christ, the pain
And she told me
Of the other
And she softly
Spoke his name
 
And I turned my head away
So she could not see the love
Still in my eyes.
 
From the darkness
Through the healing
Came a letter
In my name
How are you dear
How’s it going
How's your life dear
Bloody shame
But no word of you love
Are you well love
Are you happy
Is he worth it
There's no blame
 
Please don’t turn your head away
I want to see the blueness
I need to see the blueness
I'd love to see the blueness
Of your eyes

Just one more time.


(Samantha Jones is a Canadian journalist publishing her erotic memoir at www.lulu.com)

The salacious erotic/romance sensation that everyone's talking about, I Kissed a Girl: A Virgin Lesbian Anthology, has finally been released.

Already, its Ravenous Romance's number one seller and has a rave review and highest rating from You Gotta Read Reviews:

"This book is what erotic writing is all about! I highly recommend it for all avid readers of erotica or for those willing to explore a new genre."

My Overstuffed Bookshelf has another rave:

"WOW! If you don’t have a fan blowing on you before you start to read this, be sure to break it out! This book breaks the wall down on sexual relations and the people who are afraid to admit their sexual fantasies."

And Dark Diva Reviews suggests the anthology as appropriately sensual bedtime reading:

"The I Kissed a Girl anthology is a collection of twelve short, erotic stories about women’s first same-sex experience. Each story is very erotic and well-written. I would recommend this book to be kept handy, say on your nightstand, for those nights that you need a quick story to get your motor running."

(In the interests of shameless self-promotion I confess that "I Kissed a Girl" includes one of my own stories adapted from my erotic memoir, My Life In the Great Sexual Window).

Here's the all-star lineup:

Freckles by C. Margery Kempe
Two’s Company by Louisa Bacio
Champagne by Inara LaVey
Get Thee to the Nunnery by Samantha Jones
Lady’s Maid by K. Ann Karlsson
The Tiger’s Tale by Kilt Kilpatrick
Passions, Like Storms by Nola Erus
When I Taste Like a Waste I Breathe by Farrah J. Phoenix
My New Roommate by Jen Bluekissed
The End of the World by L.A. Mistral
Show Me Yours by Lucy Felthouse
Defining Lines by Regina Perry

I Kissed a Girl is edited by the lovely and talented Regina Perry who describes it thusly:

"You’ve heard Katy Perry’s hit song, now read enticing stories of heterosexual women exploring new boundaries. 

"College dormitories become breeding grounds of inquisitive minds and libidos with roommates discovering desire for each other as they relate past experiences, undress in each other’s presence, seek refuge from a storm, discover a dildo or share men.

"Continuing life’s path, ingenious women find ways to enhance marriage or the workplace. Champagne cellars, riding stables, tanning salons, even historical English bedchambers become hotbeds of lesbian experiments. Converting or not, all embrace the journey of sexual exploration.

"Warning: Stories contained within this anthology may elicit arousal, regardless of sexual persuasion."

I Kissed a Girl is available  through Ravenous Romance (http://ravenousromance.com), Amazon, Fictionwise, Audio.com and All Romance.


(Samantha Jones is a Canadian journalist publishing her erotic memoir at www.lulu.com)

To: America
From: Sam
Subject: Cool it

Dear Cousins,

What is it with all this hatred that’s venting in your country ever since you elected a new president?

Most of the rest of us around the world were hugely impressed that you’d finally broken through your troubled racial past, abandoned politics as usual, and elected an intelligent, relatively young, obviously sincere agent of change who happens to have a better tan than a lot of us.

In fact, we were jealous. Very jealous. The rest of the world had to put up with more of the same-same political hacks (see Canada’s Stephen Harper, Britain’s Gordon Brown etc.) while you went for a superstar, by far the most promising American leader since Bobby Kennedy and a breath of fresh air to the nations.

And then it turned to ratshit! First, the man inherited the mother of all wars and the father of all recessions from Bush the Younger, then he tried to fix your healthcare system which everyone except your rich agrees is an international disgrace.

Now people are yelling and screaming and venting scary hatred at these “Town Halls” that have suddenly appeared on the scene and the media really have no choice but to report on them, effectively displacing the necessary sober discussion of your country’s very real and basic problems.

My point is that under Barack Obama we rather thought you’d moved away from the Ugly American caricature and were embarking on a new America where your history of democracy and decency and hope would prevail and your history of violence would be just that — history.

But it isn’t happening that way at all. And those of us who want to admire you and look to Barack Obama to lead us to a new and more honourable world order hear the screams, threats and lies pouring out from the haters and greatly fear for you and your democracy.

The promise of "a more perfect union" that you made 222 years ago is not being kept and our world is a far more dangerous place because of that.

Sadly, but with lots of love,

Sam


(Samantha Jones is a Canadian journalist publishing her erotic memoir at www.lulu.com)

Name: Samantha Jones
Sex: Female
Occupation: TV journalist, erotic writer, lover
 
1.) Are you a feminist?
Yes. How could I be anything else?

2.) What does feminism mean to you?
Being a feminist is being pro-life and I don’t mean it in the silly way the anti-abortionists do. Being a feminist is like being anti-racist or anti-homophobic. To me, it’s simply a movement which works for equality and legal protection for  all people, female and male. It’s anchored in liberal democracy and human rights and decency and honour. I can’t imagine not being a feminist.

3.) Who is one female (other than your mother) you admire, and why?
Oh, the list is long and fairly predictable. Sojourner Truth, of course. Gloria Steinem, Berry Friedan, Angela Davis, Simone de Beauvoir and Germaine Greer come to mind. They were the women to led us into a shining new country which we’re still trying to settle.

4.) Are there enough women in leadership positions in your field?
Erotic writing seems to be run by women. At least, the groups I’ve come across are. Maybe men do pornography and women do erotica? I don’t know. But in my other life, TV journalism, women are doing very well on-camera and in middle management in both Canada and the U.S., but not so well at the top yet. We’ll get there.

5.) Are men and women being paid fair and equally in your field?
Don’t be silly. No writers, whatever our plumbing, are ever paid fairly or equally although we’re probably equally underpaid. In journalism, it’s probably pretty close except for the big boys who take all the cream in any profession.

6.) How do media generally portray women? What is a good example of this?
I hate to be positive in this, but I think over the twenty years or so I’ve been a broadcast journalist, media depiction of women has improved so much there’s hardly a discernible, significant difference left. Now, don’t get me wrong, the ridiculous right still thinks we should be confined to kitchen and bed but even that’s dying out. Anyway, there’s really no such thing as “the media”. The various outlets range from fascist left to fascist right with every shade in between.

7.) What can men and women do to reduce violence against women?
Abuse of power is to me one of the most awful of all crimes. Most women don’t have the same upper-body strength as most men and never will. Which makes us terribly vulnerable to male violence all our lives. It should be the sworn duty of every woman and man to educate children — our own and everyone else’s — to abhor violence against women and to make sure that it gets to be seen as a repulsive, despicable crime punishable by very harsh sentences.

8.) How do you achieve balance between work and personal/home life?
I don’t. It just happens. I have a lover — well, a few lovers — but no husband at the moment, don’t have kids so that leaves me lots of time to do the TV thing and write and party when I want to. I think the art is to balance the person so everything else falls into place.

9.) What is the one thing you’d like to see happen for women in the next 5 – 10 years?
I’d like our daughters to understand that their freedom now is because other women over the centuries fought and sacrificed so we could be free. Feminism is like the civil rights movement — when it’s not front and centre and obvious, people tend to forget it exists. We owe an incredible amount to feminism and we must, must pay it the respect it deserves so that it thrives and doesn’t just dwindle, fade away.

10.) What is the one piece of advice you’d like to give to young girls today?
We still have to liberate ourselves from the male-driven religious nonsense that demeans us and forces us to play second and third-class roles in life. Don’t fear your sexuality. If I wasn’t a fervid atheist, I’d say our sexuality is god-given and an incredibly important part of our lives. For instance, to orgasm is to live. Orgasm is the closest we come in life to touching death. We should teach our daughters how to make love and masturbate and orgasm and live every facet of life to its very fullest.

Samantha Jones is a Canadian journalist publishing her erotic memoir at www.lulu.com)