Or, my 38K of fame.
“Violet Blue is (…) nearly omnipresent on the Web” -Forbes.com
“ever-luscious and infuriatingly prolific.” –Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle
Salient facts: The best way to reach me is email. The address is on my blog. To the chagrin of my friends, I do not answer my phone unless I know who is calling in advance. Chances are really good that I do not want to be on your TV show. I am represented by ICM.
About: Violet Blue (Wikipedia) is the best-selling, award-winning author and editor of twenty books on sex and sexuality, all currently in print, a number of which have been translated into several languages; she has contributed to a number of nonfiction anthologies. Violet is a sex educator who lectures at UC’s and community teaching institutions, and writes about erotica, pornography, sexual pleasure and health for major publications and blogs. She is a professional sex blogger and femmebot; an author at Metroblogging San Francisco (Metblogs); a correspondent for Geek Entertainment Television; she is on the Gawker Media payroll as girl friday contibutor and editor at Fleshbot; in January 2007, Violet was named a Forbes Web Celeb 25. She is a San Francisco native and human blog. Violet is the sex columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle with a weekly column titled Open Source Sex, and has a podcast of the same name that frequents iTunes’ top ten.
Points:
* Forbes: Violet Blue: Forbes The Web Celeb 25. “From penniless bloggers to geek entrepreneurs, these are the biggest and brightest stars on the Web.” About Violet Blue, Forbes writes, Sex educator Violet Blue is the best-selling, award-winning author of over a dozen books on sex and sexuality, as well as the sex columnist for The San Francisco Chronicle. She’s also nearly omnipresent on the Web, whether she’s writing for Metroblogging San Francisco, reporting for Geek Entertainment Television, contributing to Fleshbot.com or hosting Open Source Sex, one of the most Internet’s most popular podcasts.”
* Feature in July 2007 issue of O: The Oprah Magazine — “Eyes Wide Open”, two-page article plus sidebar about porn for women and celebrity contributor profile with photo under Queen Latifah
* Popular Open Source Sex podcast has been in and out of the iTunes top ten since inception; profiled in Wired, Newsweek/MSNBC (print + web) and featured on cover of business section of The Wall Street Journal with color photo. Average audience per show: 86,000. Total downloads to date: 3,773,025. As of July 7, 2007, the podcast was ranked 9th in the iTunes directory.
* Columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle/SFGate. Blue’s weekly column Open Source Sex appears on a weekly basis on SFGate.com,the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, a well-respected and long-running daily newspaper having a significant daily national and international distribution. SFGate.com is the sixth most popular newspaper website in the US, with a monthly audience of over four million unique visitors (according to Nielsen//Net Ratings).
* Currently in print: author of nine nonfiction human sexuality guides; editor of eight fiction anthologies. Contributor to five additional books. Three of Blue’s sex guides are best-sellers in their genres; three are IPPY award winners. Four more books are due out this year; three nonfiction, one edited anthology. As of July 2007, over 300,000 books sold in over 27 countries.
* Awards and honors: Forbes Web Celeb 25 (2007); 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)
* Website Tiny Nibbles and Violet Blue blog: over 4,320,000 visitors yearly (over 1 million pageviews a month). Also editor and contributor to Gawker Media’s Fleshbot for two years (approx. 45 million pageviews a month).
* My personal video blog: 114,409 downloads to date. I am also a video blog correspondent for Geek Entertainment Television.
* Recent lecture: guest speaking at UC Berkeley Law: cyberlawyer and Professor Jason Schultz’s Internet Law: “Indecent Speech on the Internet”. I spoke about cyberlaw and obscenity, 2257 laws and sex blogging (and sex in other Internet media).
Books by Violet Blue:
les have been translated into French, Spanish and soon Russian and Turkish.
Background: Violet has been a professional sex educator for over eight years. Her training includes over 80 hours of sex ed training courses, extensive reading and viewing curriculum, over 1000 hours of client counseling, and for over seven years she worked closely with women-run adult retailer Good Vibrations’ Education Department to write and develop their training and outreach materials (GV’s education staff trains a range of health care professionals including Planned Parenthood). Violet lectures to human sexuality students at San Francisco State University, UC Berkeley and to trainees at national sex crisis and information hotline San Francisco Sex Information.
Editor: Sweet Life: Erotic Fantasies for Couples, Sweet Life 2: More Erotic Fantasies for Couples, Taboo: Forbidden Fantasies for Couples, Best Sex Writing 2005, Best Women’s Erotica 2006, Lips Like Sugar, Lust: Erotic Fantasies by Women, and Best Women’s Erotica 2007 (all with Cleis Press).
Author: The Smart Girl’s Guide to Porn, The Ultimate Guide to Cunnilingus, The Ultimate Guide to Fellatio, The Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos and The Ultimate Guide to Sexual Fantasy, The Smart Girls’ Guide to Porn, The Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Sex Toys, The Smart Girl’s Guide to the G-Spot, The Adventurous Couple’s Guide to Strap-On Sex (all Cleis Press) and Fetish Sex: An Erotic Guide for Couples (Daedalus Press). Finished translations include Le Cunnilingus, El Arte del Sexo Oral: Felacion, and El Arte del Sexo Oral 2: Cunnilingus.
Other books: Violet wrote the introduction to Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z (Rachel Kramer Bussel), and is 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).
Press higlights: Forbes 25 Web Celebs 2007, PBS: Mediashift - The Week’s Top Five “People, Trends And Tech On Our Radar” (1/07; also,feature here); Vloggies 2006 judge; Technorati Featured Favorite Celebrity; Wired News’ “2005’s 10 Sexiest Geeks“; Newsweek (print + MSNBC web) “Podcasting: Talking Dirty on Your iPod”; O (Oprah) Magazine interview/pull quote in 10/04 issue; Wired (print and web) “Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star” by Annalee Newitz; The Wall Street Journal “Now Playing on Apple’s iTunes: Adult-Oriented Podcasts”; Web MD “Prescriptions for Sexual Frustrations” by Martin Downs, “Is Pornography Addictive?”; BBC Podcast (8/05 interview by Chris Vallance).
Web:
BoingBoing [Violet Blue’s] “Guide to unsafe sex products“(*post deleted*), [Violet Blue’s] “HOWTO surf adult material online safely” (*post deleted), “Xeni Tech on NPR: SRL’s robotic mayhem” (*post deleted), “Lego Abu Ghraib” (*post deleted), “Violet Blue’s Teledildonics show-’n'-tell photoblogged” (over 100 more as of July 2007, all posts deleted for unknown reasons)
CBS Healthwatch.com (quoted in women and online porn article, link expired)
Eros Zine Interview With Violet Blue by Thomas S. Roche
Fleshbot/Valleywag/Gawker Media (many features, posts ongoing; I now blog for Fleshbot)
PBS: Mediashift - The Week’s Top Five “People, Trends And Tech On Our Radar”
PBS: Mediashift - Google Search Snafu Can Have Huge Impact on Niche Blogs
Salon.com (small quotes, “Battlebots in the Bedroom“), positive review of my book, Best Sex Writing 2005, “The Joy of Sex Writing“
Men’s Health “32 Ways to Jump Start Your Sex Life“
MSNBC/Newsweek “Podcasting: Talking Dirty on Your iPod”
National Public Radio (NPR) “Eyeing Robots at Survival Research Labs” by Xeni Jardin
San Francisco Bay Guardian “Pod People: SF’s Podcasters” (article, interview, print version with lead photo in color)
San Francisco Chronicle (SF Gate) “Hot, steamy and now downloadable: Aural sex shimmies into the podcast as ‘podnography’ trend takes off” (featured in article); “Morse Code:
Filmmaker’s podcasts tap people’s urge to talk about their sex lives” (celebrity mention in really awful article) — I am now the Chronicle’s sex columnist.
San Francisco Examiner, PJ Corkery’s gossip column, entry “Auld acquaintance cheer lazy last days“
San Jose Mercury News (feature quotes in large print article on women and porn July 2005, link now dead — what is *with* these dailies that they can’t maintain a website!?); “Smut goes wireless; critics sound alarm” (March 06)
Savage Love - judge, “Winners of the masturbation horror story contest“
Technorati Featured Favorite Celebrity
The Wall Street Journal “Now Playing on Apple’s iTunes: Adult-Oriented Podcasts”
Too Beautiful, The Blog “What Are You Working On” interview
Village Voice “Threesome Mania” by Rachel Kramer Bussel
Web MD “Prescriptions for Sexual Frustrations” by Martin Downs; “Is Pornography Addictive?”
Wired (print and web) “Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star” by Annalee Newitz; “Tech Heads Drop Trou for a Friend” by Danit Lidor; “It’s All in a Name“, “Just Between Us Girls” by Regina Lynn; Wired News’ “2005’s 10 Sexiest Geeks“; cited and quoted numerous times in their “Hard Drive” column/feature
Yahoo! News “Kids’ Ability To Access iPod Porn Raises Concerns” (February 06)
Adult Friend Finder “Ultimate Sex Tipper”
Online Video:
Geek Entertainment TV episode #14: Violet Blue tells us what 2257 means to Tribe.net (interview)
Geek Entertainment TV episode #17: Violet Blue probes Timothy Archibald over the sex machine (interview)
Geek Entertainment TV episode #24: Teledildonicist Allen Stein nails it with his Thrillhammer (interview)
Geek Entertainment TV episode: Graham Leggat Talks Film & Citizen Media
Geek Entertainment TV episode: Nerd Salon and Roomba Cockfights
Geek Entertainment TV episode: RoboGames: Monty Reed Shall Walk
Geek Entertainment TV episode: RoboGames 2006 WrapUp
Geek Entertainment TV episode: Roboexotica 2006 in Vienna
Geek Entertainment TV episode: More Cocktail Robot Madness from Roboexotica 2006
Make: Podcast: Survival Research Labs Walkthrough
Print Magazines:
Adult Video News (Ult. Video Guide review/endorsement, Jan 2004)
Blender (June ‘04; quoted twice as Ult. Videos author and porn journalist)
Cosmopolitan (1. interview comments; 2. 7/03 editorial endorsement of Sweet Life)
Cosmopolitan (UK)
Esquire (1. porn recommendations in Answer Fella 8/03; 2. cunnilingus tips in 07/04; Lance Armstong issue featured my fellatio book in Amazon.com spoof of (then-new) Clinton book )
Forum (UK)
For Women First
Glamour (twice, cited as sex expert)
Grace Woman (Nov/Dec 2003 issue; Sweet Life featured in sex column)
Jane (March 2006) consulted and thanked for nine porn recommendations in Kate Torgovnick’s “How to Build a Sex Library”
Marie Claire (April 2006: “Sex by iPod, editorial plug for my Open Source Sex podcast in “Sex Confessions” article; also many featured comments over the past seven years in various sex articles. One feature included my photo.)
Maxim
Men’s Fitness
Men’s Health (1. interview comments for “Sex Taboos” article 03/03; 2. more comments re: Ult. Videos 01/04 ; 3. sex tips to “Jump Start Your Sex Life” upcoming April ‘05)
Newsweek: (print + MSNBC web) “Podcasting: Talking Dirty on Your iPod”
On Our Backs
O (Oprah) Magazine (feature pull quote in 10/04 issue re: women’s and couples’ sexual fantasies and featuring my fantasy anthos/guides)
Penthouse (UK) huge 5-page interview with me on porn for couples
Penthouse Forum February 2006, featured heavily in Rachel Kramer Bussel’s article on adult podcasts, “Adult Podcasts: the XXX Wave of the Future” (no link for such a great article, so sad)
Redbook
Scarlet UK: January 2006; positive book reviews of Best Sex Writing 2005 and Best Women’s Erotica 2006
Squirm
Venus Spring 2006: feature on my podcast with color photo
Wired (print and web) “Adam Curry Wants to Make You an iPod Radio Star” by Annalee Newitz
Local Bay Area weeklies:
The East Bay Express (paper bought by New Times, link defunct)
The Berkeley Daily Planet (before they thought links were important)
The San Francisco Bay Guardian “By the numbers: Our top 20 favorite things about sex this year”
San Francisco Bay Guardian “Pod People: SF’s Podcasters” (article, interview, print version with lead photo in color)
Newspapers:
San Francisco Chronicle “Hot, steamy and now downloadable: Aural sex shimmies into the podcast as ‘podnography’ trend takes off” (featured in article); “MORSE CODE
Filmmaker’s podcasts tap people’s urge to talk about their sex lives” (celebrity mention in awful article)
San Jose Mercury News (cited as expert re: feature on women watching porn, July 2005, link now dead — what is *with* these dailies that they can’t maintain a website!?); “Smut goes wireless; critics sound alarm” (March 06)
The Wall Street Journal: “Now Playing on Apple’s iTunes: Adult-Oriented Podcasts”
TV:
CNN (interview as precursor for upcoming “Point: Counterpoint” on women watching porn)
The History Channel’s “Sex in History” series; comments on the state of vibrators today.
Playboy’s Sexcetera (#60)
Radio:
BBC Podcast interview (8/05; interview by Chris Vallance)
National Public Radio (NPR) “Eyeing Robots at Survival Research Labs” by Xeni Jardin
Sirius OutQ Radio: The Derek and Romaine Show. Interview on Ultimate Guide to Adult Videos; regular monthly appearance as the show’s “official porn reviewer.”
Lectures and panels:
Dorkbot presentations “Bizzare But True Tales of Sex and Electricity with demonstration“; “Teledildonics with live demo” (BoingBoing link)
Electronic Frontier Foundation “BayFF Panel on Bloggers’ Rights” (7/05)
Oral Sex for SF State’s Human Sexuality class — I am a guest lecturer each semester
Sex and Electricity: Bizzare But True Tales of Sex and Electricity, Dorkbot SF
9/11 Sex: One Year Later, panel discussion, First Freakin’ Fridays panel series
Panel on Pornography, moderator, The San Francisco Film Arts Foundation
The Girl’s Guide to Humping and Fisting, discussion panel, Harvey Milk Foundation
The Women of SRL panel for the Tentacle Sessions’ Living Artists series — not sex-related, but I think it’s really cool
Co-hosted with Carol Queen (for the SF Sex Worker Film Festival) MST3K-style clip show called Good Vibrations’ Midnight Sexsational Show
Webzine 2005 Panel “18 or Over Only: A Look at the Laws, Technology, and Style of Adult Sites”
UC Berkeley, talking to students about being a sex writer.
UC Berkeley Law: cyberlawyer and Professor Jason Schultz’s Internet Law: “Indecent Speech on the Internet”. I spoke about cyberlaw and obscenity, 2257 and sex blogging (and sex in other Internet media).