I’m fighting off a stubborn cold, so I’m not going to be as busy with the blog as I usually am. For the next few days, it’s probably going to mostly be reprints and Atheist Memes of the Day. Hopefully I’ll be back on my usual insane schedule in a few days. In the meantime, send me some secular humanist healing white light. I’ll see you soon!
Writing News
{advertisement}
Brief Blog Break and Atheist Memes
I’m dealing with an unexpected dental situation (what I thought was a mild sore spot on my gum turns out to be an infected tooth — stupid high pain tolerance). Not an enormous deal, but an unpleasant and seriously annoying one. I am therefore giving myself a couple days off from the blog. I’m going to keep doing the Atheist Memes of the Day of Facebook and here, and will check for spam and flame wars, but am otherwise going to be getting tortured and then sulking in front of the TV feeling sorry for myself. Will be back in a day or two.
In the meantime: Yesterday’s Atheist Meme of the Day was:
It’s not reasonable to say that only trained theologians are competent to discuss religion’s validity. Most atheists aren’t interested in the religion of a few theologians: we care about religion as it’s believed and practiced by the vast majority of believers. Besides, many atheists have studied modern theology… and found it wanting. Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.
And today’s is:
It is hypothetically possible that there is a three- inch- tall pink pony behind my sofa, which instantly teleports to Guam the moment I look. You can’t prove with 100% certainty that it doesn’t exist. Is that a good argument for the pink pony hypothesis? And if not, why is it a good argument for God or the supernatural? Pass it on: if we say it enough times to enough people, it may get across.
And Now, A Brief Pledge Break
We’ll return to our program, “Why Greta Is Right About Absolutely Everything,” in just a moment. But first:
Won’t you consider supporting this blog?
We have some wonderful gifts for those who do! Including — if you want it — a copy of my new book, Best Erotic Comics 2009.
And it’s just five dollars a month!
Here’s the deal. I have come to the conclusion that blogging is not like other forms of professional writing. I devote a tremendous amount of time, energy, and love to this blog — all of which I’m thrilled to do — but it just doesn’t pay in the same way traditional writing work does. It’s not like writing for a newspaper or a magazine or an anthology, where a publisher pays you cash up front for your writing and then turns around and sells that writing to readers.
It’s more like public radio.
Which is brought to you by generous donations from readers like you.
The reality for bloggers is that time is money — and therefore, money is time. Money I can make blogging is time I can spend on blogging. So if you’ve enjoyed great new posts like Why Calling Congress Isn’t a Waste of Time; Religion, Death, and the Argument from Wishful Thinking; or The Fat Positive Skeptic — or classics like Atheism and the “Shut Up, That’s Why” Arguments, and Eleven Myths and Truths About Atheists — and you want me to keep on doing it, then won’t you consider supporting this blog with a small contribution?
And like public radio, I’m offering swag to my supporters!
Anyone who subscribes to my blog (an automatic $5 donation a month for 12 months) — or who makes a one-time donation of $60 or more — will get a signed copy of their choice of any of my four books:
Paying For It: A Guide by Sex Workers for their Clients
Just email me (greta at gretachristina dot com) with a name and mailing address when you make a donation, to tell me which book you want. I’ll even take requests for how to sign it, if they’re not unreasonable.
You can go the subscription route, which spreads your donation out in small increments over a longer period. (A subscription to my blog is $5 a month for 12 months.) Or you can make a one-time donation, and that can be for any amount. Even small donations would be very much appreciated. You can use a credit card if you don’t have a PayPal account, or your PayPal account if you do. And if you don’t want to use the PayPal system at all, you can send a check or money order to:
Greta Christina
PO Box 40844
San Francisco, CA 94140-0844
(And if you’ve donated in the past, but never gave me your address so I could send you your book — please do that today! There are a handful of donators who never got their books, and I’d love to show you my gratitude.)
Think of it this way. If you spend five dollars a month on other forms of entertainment — books, magazines, music downloads, cable TV — and if you think my blog is just as informative, inspiring, and fun as those things — then I hope you’ll decide to support it.
Please help make this a world where blogging is a viable career option for writers. Thank you so much for your patience. We now return you to our regularly scheduled programming.
New Fishnet Story: "Christian Domestic Discipline"
Please note: This piece, and the piece that it links to, discusses my personal sexual fantasies in some detail. Family members and others who don’t want to read about that, please don’t read this one.
There’s a new story up on Fishnet — and this one is by me! Fishnet is the online erotic fiction magazine that I edit… and this week’s story is by yours truly, the editor. It’s called Christian Domestic Discipline, and here’s the teaser:
The literature says that marital relations will often follow a punishment. It assures her that this doesn’t mean anything sick, that it simply shows the husband’s natural eagerness to be intimate with his wife once his rightful authority has been restored and their relationship has been returned to God’s vision for marriage. But she’s starting to wonder.
To read more of my dirty Christian porn, read the rest of the story. (Not for readers under 18.) Enjoy!
"Depraved fantasies with sympathetic characters": Best Erotic Comics Reviewed on Carnal Nation
“Christina’s series is fostering and canonizing a genre of erotica that associates explicit images with well-developed stories, depraved fantasies with sympathetic characters, and high lit/art with complex queer identities and kinky sexualities.”
That’s the money quote from the recent Carnal Nation review of Best Erotic Comics 2009. It’s a smart and thoughtful review: critic Dusty Horn has paid my book the very high compliment of taking it seriously and thinking about it carefully, both as comics literature and as smut. Of course, she’s also paid me the compliment of, you know, really liking the book: but even her criticisms are thoughtful and valid. (I don’t agree with them, of course… but it’s not like they’re out of left field.) If you want an unbiased second opinion about “Best Erotic Comics 2009,” this is a good one. I’ll leave you with one more quote:
“I am heartened by this published record of the current state of the collective erotic imagination, in all its perverted, anxious, conscious, joyful horny glory.”
Netroots Nation/ Brief Blog Break/ Shameless Self-Promotion Op
I’m leaving tomorrow — today, I guess, technically — to go to the Netroots Nation lefty political bloggers’ conference. I’ll blog while I’m there if I can — it’d be a little silly to go to a bloggers’ conference and not blog — but I’ll probably be pretty busy, and I may not be able to keep up my usual breakneck pace. (I’m coming back on Sunday.)
So let’s make this a Shameless Self-Promotion thread! Link us to a blog post you’ve done that you particularly like; tell us about a neat project you’re working on. Obvious commercial plugs for pharmaceuticals and such will be deleted; but if you’ve done something cool and want to brag on it, now’s the time, and here’s the place. See y’all soon!
New Fishnet Story: "Good Vibrations"
Fishnet has a new story up! The online erotic fiction magazine I’m editing, Fishnet, has a new story available for your dining pleasure. It’s titled Good Vibrations, by Simon Sheppard, and here’s the teaser:
Chad pictured himself riding the gray- green of the Pacific, balanced there in the eternity between freedom and death. He opened his eyes. Bobby was frighteningly beautiful now. He reached up and unbuttoned the stranger’s Levis. A big, hard, uncut dick sprang forth.
To read more, read the rest of the story. (Not for anyone under 18.) Enjoy!
Sample Pages for "Best Erotic Comics 2009" Now Available!
Wanna get a taste of what’s inside “Best Erotic Comics 2009”? Of course you do! And now you can! We now have a dedicated webpage for “Best Erotic Comics 2009”… and it has several full-page sample pages from the book. Just click on the thumbnails to see the pages in all their glory.
The sample pages give a nice taste of the flavor of the book, with art in both color and black- and- white, and an assortment of moods, visual styles, and erotic styles — straight, lesbian, gay male, kinky, vanilla, and, shall we say, other. We’ve got sample pages from Erika Moen, Niki Smith, Steve McIsaac, Toshio Saeki, Quinn, Ellen Lindner, Belasco, and Colleen Coover. Enjoy the appetizers!
Fishnet is Live! "Confessions in a Small Room"
Fishnet is live! The first dirty story is up!
Constant readers may remember that Fishnet, the online erotic fiction magazine published by Blowfish, was being revived under my firm- but- gentle guidance as editor. The first story in the newly revived Fishnet is now up at last! It’s titled Confessions in a Small Room by Rowan Elizabeth, and here’s the teaser:
He brought his chair close enough that our knees touched. It was better than the back seat of the Pontiac.
“Okay…” I said.
“Do you kiss? You and Kevin?”
“Yes, Father. Is that wrong?”
“No. Not at all. It’s what kissing leads to which concerns me. It’s the touching.”
To read more, read the rest of the story. (Not for anyone under 18.) Enjoy!
Best Erotic Comics 2009 Is Here!
Best Erotic Comics 2009 is here!
This is the second volume in the series. And I am so proud of it I could burst. Here’s our blurb:
Comics for erotica fans! Erotica for comics fans! Smart, hot, and cutting- edge, Best Erotic Comics 2009 features the sexiest, funniest, filthiest, most beautiful, most unsettling, most inspiring adult comics of today, with work by Alison Bechdel, Gary Baseman, Peter Kuper, Junko Mizuno, Gilbert Hernandez, Ellen Forney, Toshio Saeki, and many other first-rate erotic comic artists.
For erotic connoisseurs who aren’t familiar with the world of comics, this anthology will open up an entirely new world of erotica. For comics fans who would enjoy erotic comics if so many of them weren’t so tacky, this anthology is for you. Best Erotic Comics 2009 has carefully culled the hottest work from today’s literary/ art comics — and the highest- quality work from today’s adult comics — along with some original unpublished work and a couple of vintage gems.
Other artists include Rick Altergott, Belasco, Robin Bougie, Marzia Borino & Mauro Balloni, Andrea Camic, Cephalopod Products, Colleen Coover, John Cuneo, DIRTY FOUND Magazine, Drub, Jess Fink, Jim Goad & Jim Blanchard, Diego Greco & Erdosain, Justin Hall, Molly Kiely, Ellen Lindner, Steve MacIsaac, Erika Moen, Quinn, Cristy C. Road, and Niki Smith. Cover art by Junko Mizuno. 8″ x 11″, paperback, color and b&w.
Praise for Best Erotic Comics 2008:
“A sensual trip into the wide world of sex… Seasoned sex writer Greta Christina is out to provoke discussion, identification, lust, and much more with this collection.” –Rachel Kramer Bussel
“This book has been far too long in coming… We love erotic comics here at Blowfish, and we cannot think of a better volume to get for an overview of the genre.” –Blowfish.com
“American literary erotic fiction and the great American graphic novel just had a love child, and Greta Christina is its savant midwife… Don’t bother me, I want to be alone with Best Erotic Comics.” –Susie Bright
The editor — that’s ME, ME, ME — is available for interviews. Interview requests, publicity questions, and congratulatory telegrams should be sent to [email protected], or [email protected]. I’ll post more here about publicity events and whatnot as the occasions arise. Yippee!