Up All Night: Adventures in Lesbian Sex is one of the hottest books Ive ever read that I didnt buy from a train station or airport bookstore. Its a collection of true lesbian sex stories by erotica authors such as Tristan Taormino, Jean Roberta, Diana Cage and the books editor Rachel Kramer Bussel
You can buy the book directly from Alyson here
Daniel Robert Epstein: Lets start out first with an easy question. Are you a lesbian?
Rachel Kramer Bussel: Yeah I am. Im bisexual but I kind of use them both. I feel like I am both of them.
DRE: Why is that?
RKB:: At this moment in time I am in relationship with a woman and not involved with anyone else. So I feel like a lesbian but in the past I have been with men and who knows about the future?
DRE: I really liked your book. How did you get involved with it?
RKB:: I had done another book for the same publisher called The Lesbian Sex Book which I revised. I had submitted stories to the other editor of Up All Night, Stacy Bias, and she runs this website technodyke.com. We were emailing about something and she had a lot of other stuff going on and was looking for someone to co-edit with her. I ended up picking up a lot of stories for it. We needed a lot more submissions so I called some people I know. Many of them were from New York because thats where I am. Lots of the stories were good like The Pumpkin Patch one is by someone I know from Texas and I met a lot of people through friends of friends and they sent me stories.
DRE: Thats not a bad thing. A lot of editors bring on people they know.
RKB:: Yeah I knew they would send me something of good quality. We also put a public call for stories at well so some of those got in there as well.
DRE: Was it difficult to get passionate about a book you didnt originate?
RKB:: No because thats the kind of stuff I am interested in. I like to read and write non-fiction more than fiction so I like doing non-fiction erotica because to me its extra sexy because it really happened. Even though the book wasnt my idea I was really excited about it especially once I saw the kinds of submissions that were coming in. I think its cool to edit something like that because Ive never done some of the acts that happen in the book but its nice to read about then I get to meet those people. At the book party we had for it I got to meet one of the authors and I knew stuff about them which is cool.
DRE: How was it working with Alyson Publications?
RKB:: They do all sorts of gay books like biographies and they do a lot of erotica as well. They are probably the people doing the truest erotica. A lot of other publishers of erotica are looking for fiction. For some people it might be more challenging to write non-fiction erotica because you get to relive it. Working with them has been really great because they have a good distributor so I can go to the bookstore and see it there.
DRE: What were the criteria you were looking for?
RKB:: I was looking for stories that werent too similar to each other. Not two of anything even if they were both good. Just things that were unusual and would surprise me. I would never say Im looking for a peeing pumpkin orgy! I wanted stories that were so weird that the writer just had to put it down on paper. Bree Covens story about dating a lesbian porn star is so awesome because she had seen the persons movies before they met then they met online then she had sex with her. Thats pretty cool.
DRE: Were you looking for stories that could get people hot?
RKB:: I was. Its always a little bit of challenge because something that I might like someone else might not like. I tried to pick stories that were hot but also had elements of romance and loving in them. I think when youre writing like that it might be natural to look at a one night stand or a stranger which can be hot but a lot of the ones I really liked were about a couple or friends. Thats just as hot as a stranger. Those I liked because there are also couples who want to read erotica and not just lonely single people. I was looking for a mix of things that would turn me on but I also wasnt masturbating the whole time that I was editing the book.
DRE: Are there any stories you had to turn down for other reasons than being too similar to other stories?
RKB:: There were some. I pretty much used all the ones that I thought were good enough and the ones I turned down were boring. There was one that came in that was so obviously not a true story. It came in and it was about two people in a cemetery in New Orleans and then all of a sudden they were in a church and it had these sacrilegious elements that were kind of hot. Then the sister of one of them came in and immediately I knew the story was written by a guy. It just killed it for me because Im not interested in incest in a sexual manner at all. I googled the author and I found it that it really was a man. Not that men cant write erotica or anything like that but it was so clearly not what I was looking for.
DRE: Do you find that men cant write lesbian erotica?
RKB:: It really depends. There are some that can write in all forms. M. Christian and Thomas Roach write tons of erotica and its all pretty much really good. For someone like that who has a real talent for fiction can make it interesting and authentic no matter what.
Not that I can tell whether its a story written by a man or a woman but I think there is a way, especially with true stories, they can come across realistic or not. I would hope I could tell which ones were true or at least had that ring of truth to it that sounds emotionally authentic. If someone had sex with Madonna it may be possible but I dont think they would be writing about it.
DRE: Though its very possible that someone could have sex with her.
RKB:: Madonna yes but it depends on how they write it. I could safely say that everything in the book could have happened.
DRE: Do you feel like there is a theme to the book as a whole?
RKB:: Not a theme per say. I like that there isnt one.
DRE: What do you think of SuicideGirls?
RKB:: Yes I went to the burlesque tour. Ive been to the site. Im kind of nerd who likes to read stuff so Ive probably read more stuff than looked at porn there. For me personally I dont surf a lot of porn sites because Im on my computer so much that I kind of like to get off it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
You can buy the book directly from Alyson here
Daniel Robert Epstein: Lets start out first with an easy question. Are you a lesbian?
Rachel Kramer Bussel: Yeah I am. Im bisexual but I kind of use them both. I feel like I am both of them.
DRE: Why is that?
RKB:: At this moment in time I am in relationship with a woman and not involved with anyone else. So I feel like a lesbian but in the past I have been with men and who knows about the future?
DRE: I really liked your book. How did you get involved with it?
RKB:: I had done another book for the same publisher called The Lesbian Sex Book which I revised. I had submitted stories to the other editor of Up All Night, Stacy Bias, and she runs this website technodyke.com. We were emailing about something and she had a lot of other stuff going on and was looking for someone to co-edit with her. I ended up picking up a lot of stories for it. We needed a lot more submissions so I called some people I know. Many of them were from New York because thats where I am. Lots of the stories were good like The Pumpkin Patch one is by someone I know from Texas and I met a lot of people through friends of friends and they sent me stories.
DRE: Thats not a bad thing. A lot of editors bring on people they know.
RKB:: Yeah I knew they would send me something of good quality. We also put a public call for stories at well so some of those got in there as well.
DRE: Was it difficult to get passionate about a book you didnt originate?
RKB:: No because thats the kind of stuff I am interested in. I like to read and write non-fiction more than fiction so I like doing non-fiction erotica because to me its extra sexy because it really happened. Even though the book wasnt my idea I was really excited about it especially once I saw the kinds of submissions that were coming in. I think its cool to edit something like that because Ive never done some of the acts that happen in the book but its nice to read about then I get to meet those people. At the book party we had for it I got to meet one of the authors and I knew stuff about them which is cool.
DRE: How was it working with Alyson Publications?
RKB:: They do all sorts of gay books like biographies and they do a lot of erotica as well. They are probably the people doing the truest erotica. A lot of other publishers of erotica are looking for fiction. For some people it might be more challenging to write non-fiction erotica because you get to relive it. Working with them has been really great because they have a good distributor so I can go to the bookstore and see it there.
DRE: What were the criteria you were looking for?
RKB:: I was looking for stories that werent too similar to each other. Not two of anything even if they were both good. Just things that were unusual and would surprise me. I would never say Im looking for a peeing pumpkin orgy! I wanted stories that were so weird that the writer just had to put it down on paper. Bree Covens story about dating a lesbian porn star is so awesome because she had seen the persons movies before they met then they met online then she had sex with her. Thats pretty cool.
DRE: Were you looking for stories that could get people hot?
RKB:: I was. Its always a little bit of challenge because something that I might like someone else might not like. I tried to pick stories that were hot but also had elements of romance and loving in them. I think when youre writing like that it might be natural to look at a one night stand or a stranger which can be hot but a lot of the ones I really liked were about a couple or friends. Thats just as hot as a stranger. Those I liked because there are also couples who want to read erotica and not just lonely single people. I was looking for a mix of things that would turn me on but I also wasnt masturbating the whole time that I was editing the book.
DRE: Are there any stories you had to turn down for other reasons than being too similar to other stories?
RKB:: There were some. I pretty much used all the ones that I thought were good enough and the ones I turned down were boring. There was one that came in that was so obviously not a true story. It came in and it was about two people in a cemetery in New Orleans and then all of a sudden they were in a church and it had these sacrilegious elements that were kind of hot. Then the sister of one of them came in and immediately I knew the story was written by a guy. It just killed it for me because Im not interested in incest in a sexual manner at all. I googled the author and I found it that it really was a man. Not that men cant write erotica or anything like that but it was so clearly not what I was looking for.
DRE: Do you find that men cant write lesbian erotica?
RKB:: It really depends. There are some that can write in all forms. M. Christian and Thomas Roach write tons of erotica and its all pretty much really good. For someone like that who has a real talent for fiction can make it interesting and authentic no matter what.
Not that I can tell whether its a story written by a man or a woman but I think there is a way, especially with true stories, they can come across realistic or not. I would hope I could tell which ones were true or at least had that ring of truth to it that sounds emotionally authentic. If someone had sex with Madonna it may be possible but I dont think they would be writing about it.
DRE: Though its very possible that someone could have sex with her.
RKB:: Madonna yes but it depends on how they write it. I could safely say that everything in the book could have happened.
DRE: Do you feel like there is a theme to the book as a whole?
RKB:: Not a theme per say. I like that there isnt one.
DRE: What do you think of SuicideGirls?
RKB:: Yes I went to the burlesque tour. Ive been to the site. Im kind of nerd who likes to read stuff so Ive probably read more stuff than looked at porn there. For me personally I dont surf a lot of porn sites because Im on my computer so much that I kind of like to get off it.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
AndersWolleck said:
why do you think i put the words lesbian sex in the title
true. true.
[Edited on Sep 29, 2004 by royaljack]