“The majority of readers will know that Violet Blue is an icon in the world of erotic fiction; being a sex educator, columnist, editor and authoress, as well as having many other roles and accomplishments to her credit. She even reviews books, so the lady must be incredibly gifted.” –Ashley Lister, The Erotica Reader’s and Writer’s Association

Since at least 1999, I’ve written about sexuality for things like Forbes, O: The Oprah Magazine and RH Reality Check, while being a best-selling, award-winning author/editor of over two dozen books, all currently in print, a number of which have been translated into French, Spanish, Russian, Italian and Turkish. I’ve contributed to eight (and counting) non-fiction anthologies by other authors. I self-publish sex ed and erotica at Digita Publications (many available in Kindle Editions), featuring DRM-free e-books and audio books from myself and a variety of talented authors. My literary agent is Kate Lee at ICM New York.

Best Women’s Erotica 2009 will mark my fourth year editing this esteemed series; I’m honored. What’s more, I think the 2009 collection is the most steamy, remarkable and fierce literary erotica by women I’ve put together in one fiery anthology. The authors in it are amazing, talented, unforgettable. It’s not out until December 1, 2008, but you can pre-order it here.

Of the above print titles, I have edited: Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples (also in Italian), Sweet Life 2: More Erotic Fantasies for Couples (also in Italian), Taboo: Forbidden Fantasies for Couples, Best Sex Writing 2005, Best Women’s Erotica 2006, Lips Like Sugar, and Best Women’s Erotica 2007, Best Women’s Erotica 2008, Best Women’s Erotica 2009 (also in a Kindle Edition), Lust: Erotic Fantasies for Women and the upcoming title Girls On Top: Explicit Erotica for Women (all with Cleis Press).

Of the above print titles, I am the author of: The Smart Girl’s Guide to the G-Spot, The Smart Girl’s Guide to Porn, The Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus (Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish), The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio (Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish), The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos and The Ultimate Guide to Sexual Fantasy, The Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Sex Toys, The Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Strap-On Sex (all Cleis Press) and Fetish Sex: An Erotic Guide for Couples (Daedalus Press).

Awards and honors: Best Women’s Erotica 2006 (2006 Gold IPPY winner for Erotica); Best Women’s Erotica 2007 (2007 Gold IPPY winner for Erotica); The Smart Girl’s Guide to Porn (2007 Bronze IPPY winner for Erotica).

Other people’s books: Of the above print titles, I wrote the introduction to Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z (Rachel Kramer Bussel). I am a featured contributor in Naked Ambition (Carly Milne), Everything You Know About Sex is Wrong (Russ Kick), Whipped: 20 Erotic Stories of Female Dominance (Carol Queen), and She’s Such A Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff (Annalee Newitz and Charlie Anders), Best Sex Writing 2008 and upcoming Best Sex Writing 2009 edited by Rachel Kramer Bussel, and 101 Sexy Dares by Laura Corn.

Digital publishing is an area in which I have several releases in audio books, e-books and Kindle Editions (Digita Publications and Cleis Press). My complete list of e-book titles include Open Source Sex Ed: The Complete Ebook Guide to Sex (ISBN 978-0-9799019-0-4), Sweet Heat: Explicit Erotica For Couples (ISBN 978-0-9799019-6-6), Erotic Role Play: A Guide for Couples (ISBN 978-0-9799019-5-9), The Modern Safer Sex Guide (ISBN 978-0-9799019-4-2), Creatures of the Night: Halloween Erotica (ISBN 978-0-9799019-3-5), and How to Kiss (ISBN 978-0-9799019-2-8). My complete list of audio book titles include Sweet Heat: Explicit Erotica For Couples, Erotic Role Play: A Guide for Couples, How to Kiss, Creatures of the Night: Halloween Erotica, and Open Source Sex Ed Audio: Pleasure Zone Basics (ISBN 978-0-9799019-1-1). Kindle Editions include Sweet Heat: Erotica for Couples, How to Kiss , Creatures of the Night (erotica), The Modern Safer Sex Guide, and Erotic Role-Play: A Guide for Couples.

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Assorted summaries and reviews: I wrote and edited all these books, but I strongly feel and sincerely believe that for us to truly enjoy sex you should read everything you can that interests you at any given time in your sexual pursuits. There is no one right way to perform a particular sex act, and to make your lover squeak with pleasure you should seek out as much information as possible from a diverse variety of sources. I do hope you’ll make my books part of your pleasure library, and if you don’t — that’s cool too.

The Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Sex Toys is a terrific sex exporation respource for couples who want to try (or learn more about their) sex toys. Listen to a podcast (audio) exerpt and read the text on my podcast, Open Source Sex. Even more incredible, read what the esteemed Library Journal Review (!!!) says about it:

“Blue, Violet. The Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Sex Toys. Cleis. Oct. 2006. c.160p. illus. ISBN 1-57344-254-2 [ISBN 978-1-57344-254-1]. pap. $14.95.
PSYCH
Sex toys have been associated with masturbation and alternative sexual lifestyles-i.e., gay, lesbian, or otherwise gender-kinky. This how-to presents toys as safe and fun options for heterosexual couples. Blue, author of numerous excellent sex guides from Cleis Press, concisely covers all the usual suspects: vibrators, dildos, plugs, ‘toys for boys,’ BDSM (bondage & discipline/sadomasochism) gear, how to talk about toys with your partner, and how to use them. What’s new: sex machines, online sex for two, exotic and luxury toys (some mind-bending notions here), and ’sex furniture.’ It’s a short book, but she surveys the wide variety of products very well, with ample safe-sex and safety reminders. Small black-and-white drawings show toys only, perhaps an advantage for many libraries, although more numerous and colorful drawings of the toys, and the toys in use, could be quite attractive and helpful. A competent resource section gives where-to-buy web addresses, other web sites of interest, and books. Recommended for public libraries.”

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The Smart Girl’s Guide to Porn is the book that landed me in Oprah. Read the table of contents here; listen to the introduction as I read it in my podcast Open Source Sex #41; hear it right now with this link (MP3). Wired reviewed it and loved it! Check out Smart Girls Need Smart Porn.

What could possibly be in a book about porn for us girls? Lots! Women dig porn and it’s a fact — don’t listen to conservative pundits who would like to convince you otherwise. In the book, I explain how to find good porn, what kind of porn women like and don’t like (you’ll be surprised), the degradation question, how to avoid horrifying boob jobs in your porn, and more. The book covers becoming a savvy porn shopper, why porn sucks, where all the hot guys are, and there’s a huge amount of information about online porn, RSS, online video, porn podcasts, safe porn surfing, oodles of links to hot free porn sites, grrrl-positive online porn review forums, and how to shop for porn (and watch it) with a lover. Lotsa resources, too. w00t!

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The women’s erotic fantasy genre just got a very explicit update in my new collection, Lips Like Sugar: Women’s Erotic Fantasies. The chances these women take, the impulses they act on, and the forbidden taboos they explore on their own terms are experiences you won’t find in any other erotica collection.

Listen to audio samples from Lips Like Sugar on my podcast, Open Source Sex! Episode 30: When I Make You Say No by Julia Price (MP3) is a terrific example of the book: it’s one long, hot, tense blowjob where the female narrator gets off by pushing her macho boyfriend to his limits. In episode 31: The First Stroke by Erica Dumas (MP3), a woman tries out her new strap-on and takes control with her boyfriend for the very first time. Yum. Thanks to the authors for allowing me to read their stories.

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Listen to the first story in my award-winning book Best Women’s Erotica 2006: Cate Robertson’s Just Watch Me, Rodin (MP3) is a riveting story about an edgy modern girl’s compelling power-exchange relationship with a male artist. This is one of my favorite stories of the year (so far), rife with erotic tension, full character development, a woman who willingly plays rough with her own boundaries, a tough man calling the shots, and explicit kinky sex. It’s a perfect sample of this fantastic collection. Click here to launch iTunes: Open Source Sex.

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I still am about Best Women’s Erotica 2006. Taking over from Marcy Sheiner, this is the year the series passed into my hands (at least through 20011; that’s how far I’ve signed contracts in advance). And I’m giving it an update with erotica so fucking hot, that many of the stories inspired me to try something new in my own life… It’s filled with female protagonists and erotic heroines having intense, sometimes shocking, explicit sex, on their own terms — no sadness, no contrived literary context (though the pieces are quite refined), no apologies, no prisoners. Except sexual ones. We want sex, we *take* sex — even when it’s someone else doing the taking. Cover photo: Siege. (Nerve registration) Want to find out more? Read the book’s introduction.

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Ultimate Guide to Fellatio It’s all here: male anatomy for pleasure (with no area left out), oodles of licks, sucks, tips and techniques; what to do with your hands; what to do with his hands (especially when you don’t want them on your head); male genital massage techniques; prostate and anal play during fellatio; incorporating sex toys into your oral sex sessions; what to do when things go wrong; how to sweeten his come; dealing with erectile difficulty; spitting vs. swallowing and how to control where he comes; how to do tricks like put a condom on with your mouth; how to deep throat — seriously, my gay male friends tell me how much they learned form this book, so you know it’s got it goin’ on. Plus, it’s for everyone from beginner to expert, and never talks down to you. Fully illustrated: translated into French, Spanish (El Arte del Sexo Oral: Felacion) and more. Read more about fellatio here.

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Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus Susie Bright says, “Violet Blue’s cunnilingus book is the best sheer technique manual I’ve ever read on going down.” Which is a hell of a compliment, but see for yourself; it’s got dozens of techniques, tips, recommendations on starting, getting her “over the edge” and what to do after she comes… and much more. Yup, it’s full of cool tricks like heat and cold, sex toys to make cunnilingus even more pleasurable; but it’s also for the nervous beginner who’s not sure how to start, what to expect in terms of taste and smell and how to talk to a reluctant partner — and why she might not want you to go down on her. Plus, there’s a whole chapter just for her, addressing issues about orgasm, stimulation and pleasure, fears about genital appearance, taste and smell and more. Unlike most other books on cunnilingus, it also covers internal and external female anatomy for pleasure, anal play with cunnilingus, and g-spot/female ejaculation with cunnilingus. Fully illustrated: translated into French (Tout savoir sur le cunnilingus), Spanish (El Arte del Sexo Oral 2: Cunnilingus), and more. Read more about cunnilingus here.

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Best Sex Writing 2005 is an edited collection of nonfiction sex writing from journalists and a vast assortment of multi-talented writers that documents some pretty darn interesting intersections between sex, culture, everyday life and more. It’s funny, it’s weird, it’s intense — it’s real-life sex stories that are often shocking and sometimes even arousing. In it, you’ll visit a sperm bank where a woman passes the time by “assisting” clients, a sex club where you see through the eyes of the “dick check” attendant, and you’ll take a crazy trip to a whore’s town in Mexico with a female journalist and her horny male pals… and yes, you get the full donkey experience. I love this book, and I’m thrilled to have a cabal of talent in the pages; Robin Postell, Carly Milne, Annalee Newitz, Carol Queen, Paul Festa, Patrick Califia, Michael A. Gonzales, Ellen Friedrichs, Chris Ohnesorge, Timothy Archibald and many more. Audio sample: listen to the hilarious podcast of Polly Enmity’s “Sperm Bank Teller”. (MP3 link)

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The Ultimate Guide to Sexual Fantasy is a book that I’m extremely proud of. Sexual fantasy is an essential tool for hot sex, and here I explain how to use fantasies to help you achieve orgasm, how to use fantasies in partner sex, how to role-play, asking for a spanking (or anything else you want to ask for sexually), what to do in dominant or submissive sex roles, how to talk dirty, strip and give a lapdance, and what to do with someone who’s tied up; I suggest oodles of sexual fantasies and tell you how to make them come true… like my Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, but “hands on”. Note the huge chapter on threesomes, multiple partner sex and voyeurism, and another whole chapter devoted to sexual fetishes.

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Taboo: Forbidden Fantasies for Couples takes literary erotica as far as it will dare to go. And following the tradition of Sweet Life, the stories feature couples trying out their number-one, dirtiest fantasies for the very first time. “Taboo: Forbidden Fantasies for Couples is a truly spellbinding collection. The twenty-two stories skate skillfully along the borders of our darkest desires and always offer the promise that the fantasy could become a reality.” Read the outstanding review at The Erotica Reader’s and Writer’s Association!

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Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples is the explicit anthology that I always wanted to read myself. My goal was to create a world of sexy, lusty, in-love couples who wanted to try out their fantasies together, realistically told, from authors whose skill at storytelling could really take you there. So Sweet Life was created — and it sold out of its first print run in less than three months!

“Sweet Life is the perfect title for this very sweet collection of erotic stories, all about couples trying out fantasies for the first time. First spankings and first sex parties, first three-ways and first strap-ons, all make their way into this charming anthology, along with many other ventures into new sexual territory. Not just fun smut (although it’s certainly that), it’s excellent inspiration for your own fantasy explorations.”
–Blowfish

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Sweet Life 2 is the perfect continuation of the original. There are threesomes of every kind, edgy public sex encounters, instances where a wife wears the pants in every way, women who become naughty girls for their “daddy,” and much more. The stories are really love stories, and it crystallizes in moments when they add a third partner, such as a high-class call girl, or the cute video store clerk. Some of the stories go into some taboo realms, including dominance and submission, like when a woman becomes her boyfriend’s puppy, or when a man is overwhelmed by three “schoolgirls” and forced to perform a forbidden sex act. I loved putting this very explicit and very charming collection together.

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To my delight, Adult Friend Finder reviewed The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos. Check out quotes from Playboy, Jane’s Guide, Razor Magazine, the Library Review Journal and more. Fleshbot called it: “…the must-have consumer guide of the year.” YesPortal wrote,

“In The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos the little porn sleuth does more than simply review more than 300 videos — she plays Virgil to those men, women, couples, and “others” that want to know more about the controversial world of adult products but haven’t been sure where to go for guidance… works like Blue’s are absolutely vital for successful efforts to protect the health and safety of individuals, the truth, the adult industry, and possibly even the Constitution.”

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Rachel Kramer Bussel interviewed me this week about my article she selected and published in Best Sex Writing 2008 — “Kink.com and Porn Hysteria: The Lie of Unbiased Reporting?”. In the interview, I kind of forgot my usual filters and went *off* on mainstream media and how the way they cover sex and porn is the perfect example of how our media and news structures are broken — and how we can fix it.

Here’s a snip from an interview about the article where I don’t hold back; interview snip from Violet Blue Interview About Porn and Mainstream Reporting:

What prompted your piece “Kink.com and Porn Hysteria: The Lie of Unbiased Reporting?” I know you were reacting to articles about Kink.com specifically, but how long had you been noticing this trend of unbiased reporting?

I write for the SF Chronicle; I’m their sex columnist. and on the same day my column ran “Open Source Sex” I had an interview with sex-positive alt porn director Eon McKai up. it was a great interview that showed the breaking down of porn’s redundant gender and physical stereotypes, the sex-positivity and inclusiveness of modern sex attitudes into the mainstream (which had been going on for a while, I was just drawing attention to the newest wave of it). porn from the POV of the makers, not the critics who don’t know what’s really going on. that week, local BDSM empire (and all-inclusive, sex-positive, politically minded local porn company) Kink.com had purchased the SF Armory for its new studio location. the Chron’s website bumped my column to the bottom of the page and ran a totally anti-porn, completely biased piece about a staged “protest” in front of the Armory — many have said that even the number of protesters stated in the piece was incorrect and more than the few who showed up. the website showed photos of Kink employees who were there to wash the building and called them “protesters” (though later corrected their mistakes).

the piece was so anti-porn, and especially anti-kink, I saw red. especially since Kink is one of the most incredible places to work — they treat their employees better than any company I’ve seen (except for Google), the performers are treated with respect, paid really well, have hair and makeup people, and are regarded as Olympic athletes. the cleanliness standards should be envied by every restaurant in San Francisco and copied by every porn company in the world. and the owner’s mission is to demystify kinky sex, normalize it, and make the world a better place for all sexual outsiders for doing do. the Chron’s hit piece disgusted me, the rest of mainstream media predictably followed suit, and I wrote a powerful response.

the reaction at the paper was extreme. let’s just say mainstream media found it a bitter pill to swallow when I criticized their lock-step anti-porn and anti-sex bias within its own pages. it was quite a scandal. but that’s what happens when a paper hires a blogger, you know?

You contrast religious groups’ opposition to porn with the coverage in mainstream papers like The New York Times and your own San Francisco Chronicle. Do you feel the anti-porn groups have been successful in getting their POV into mainstream papers or is it simply lazy reporting?

it’s both; mainstream media still sits behind its cozy little Fourth Estate wall of authority and assumption that everyone agrees sex is bad and wrong; journalists don’t have to bother questioning this point of view, even though the world’s view on sex has changed (and is changing rapidly) around them. MSM needs to get sex positive, because we can only make fun of them for so long…ultimately their attitudes are causing them to miss telling real stories and reporting with accuracy, which I think the corrective nature of the blogosphere will reign in eventually (…read more!)