Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Be a Good in the World: April 15
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Be a Good in the World: April 14
Hold a Closet Swap Soiree
You can share your surplus clothing with friends and acquaintances by throwing a “naked lady party.” This is a fun way to exchange clothes as well as other items. First, set a date, and invite a group of friends to your house (we do ladies only, but men could be included, too) and ask everybody to bring some clothes that they don’t want anymore. Set up your living room as a shop, designating different areas for guests to deposit their items—dresses in one pile, sweaters in another, and so on.Be sure to make a bedroom available for those friends who are too shy to try on clothes in company. We usually drink wine and have some snacks, and we end up with bags of new-to-us clothing. Don’t be bashful—things that you are heartily sick of will be starring in somebody else’s wardrobe, and the surplus can be dispatched to the thrift store.
Tuesday, March 24, 2015
Got gratitude?
Operation Gratitude
I learned about this from my mom, whose church regu- larly sends cards, letters, and care packages overseas to the armed forces. My mom and her fellow church ladies bake some of the best cookies in the world, so they gather up all kinds of goodies and treats and send them over- seas where the taste of down home surely brings many smiles of satisfaction. Those who are less gifted in the baking department (such as me!) can make a $15 dona- tion to Operation Gratitude, which pays for one care package for one serviceperson. Operation Gratitude (operationgratitude.com) has sent over a million of these kindness kits around the world!
I learned about this from my mom, whose church regu- larly sends cards, letters, and care packages overseas to the armed forces. My mom and her fellow church ladies bake some of the best cookies in the world, so they gather up all kinds of goodies and treats and send them over- seas where the taste of down home surely brings many smiles of satisfaction. Those who are less gifted in the baking department (such as me!) can make a $15 dona- tion to Operation Gratitude, which pays for one care package for one serviceperson. Operation Gratitude (operationgratitude.com) has sent over a million of these kindness kits around the world!
Monday, March 2, 2015
The gift of yourself
When
I lived in the Lower Haight district of San Francisco, I drove for an AIDS food
bank in my rusted-out little car I had brought with me all the way from West
Virginia. I had arrived in the mid-eighties, which we may all remember as the
height of the AIDS crisis. My best friend delivered meals to patients in their
homes and I gave rides and also hauled groceries donated to the food bank by
the Church Street Tunnel. One early morning, I was walking to the Market and
Church Street MUNI station and there was the bank, with giant pink letters
announcing itself as a place to lend a hand for the AIDS cause. I went in and
within two minutes had a shift and assignments for the week. Everyone in there
seemed extremely cool to me and they were not grim at all, but seemed to have a
mission of importance. It seemed such a small way to help during that scary
time, and I learned that regardless of what you can give, large or small, it is
important to give of yourself. And it all does add up. Feeding America is the
largest hunger relief organization the United States and they need you. Please
visit www.feedingamerica.org to find your local
food bank or hunger organization. Get involved – you’ll make a difference and
you’ll make friends along the way. I sure did, and they remain my friends to
this day.
Thursday, January 22, 2015
Hugged a tree lately?
Trees Are the Lungs of Our
Planet
Have you heard about the
amazingly ambitious goal of The Nature Conservancy to plant a BILLON trees and
restore the forest of the world? From the rainforests in South America to China
and even in the Arctic Circle, this hardy group of tree huggers is doing their
darndest to recreate the woodlands and rainforests everywhere they can. I urge you to look at the map to see how far
they are getting; it is impressive and gives me so much hope about our future.
I grew up in a deeply
forested state, West Virginia and was taught from a child to know and love
trees. When I visited last time and drove all around to see relatives in far
flung counties, I noticed huge swaths of brown amongst the green and asked what
the heck was going on that seemed to be killing trees. That is how I learned
about “acid rain,” an unfortunate by-product of coalmining, logging and too
many chemical plants. On our 300-acre farm, no trees are cut, only planted so
we are doing our part. In the settled of the great prairies and western states,
trees were felled to “clean the land.” That is, in part, being rectified by a
special effort to protect trees in the “last frontier.” Check out www.americanforest.org to see how you
can help. Oh, and start in your own yard. Got room for a couple of trees? Start
digging and planting and know you will enjoy years of beauty and leave behind a
legacy for generations to come from your own efforts.
With each passing day, as I read in news about 2014 being the hottest year in recorded history, I feel it is incumbent upon each and every one of us to do everything we can to cool down, slow down and give back to the planet.
Monday, December 22, 2014
12 Dates of Christmas- sweet treats from authors we love (and you will, too)
Cleis has never composed a gift guide before, but we love the thought of spreading a little sexy Christmas cheer. We’ve curated gifts from a number of writers, some of our favorite scribes, ones we think are really brilliant. If you’re stilling looking for presents, why not consider stuffing a stocking with one or two of these.
We’ve handpicked twelve gifts for you and there’s not a partridge in sight.
- 1) Rachel Kramer’s ‘Sex and Cupcakes’ (in a pear tree)
A collection of essays from writer Rachel Kramer Bussel, reflecting on her years as a sex columnist and cupcake blogger, detailing her dirty and sweet sides as well as sexual adventures, politics, heartbreak, tattoos and more. Sex and Cupcakes reveals the woman behind the stereotype, one far more complex than Carrie Bradshaw and her Manolos, a woman willing to expose herself, on paper and in the flesh, who takes risks and gets hurt and keeps on searching for love, sex, passion and happiness.
- 2) Alison Tyler’s ‘Alison on the Rocks’
This kinky collection of erotic bar stories is sure to fill your cup—and fulfill your thirst—for BDSM, anal, gangbang, punishment, spanking, and humiliation. The six sultry stories included in this collection are: Last Call, Stirring Up Trouble, Cubed, Bastard, Sitting Pretty, and Prix Fixe. The pieces have appeared in other collections but never all together on one shelf—amidst the tequila and the triple sec.
- 3) ‘Violet blue’s ‘The Smart Girl's Guide to Privacy’
Social media, online dating, photo sharing, mobile everything… It can make your life a dream - or a nightmare. The Smart Girl’s Guide to Privacy is the only guide focused on privacy for women. This book helps you hack your way through the jungle of privacy chaos and fight back against sleazy marketers, unethical megacorporations, scammers, stalkers, hacked apps, and thieves.
- 4) Shanna Germain’s ‘Numenera’
Shanne Germain is editor of Cleis Press’s ‘Kinky as you wanna be’. She leads a double life as an editor for a futuristic RPG…
Numenera is a science fantasy roleplaying game set in the far distant future. Humanity lives amid the remnants of eight great civilizations that have risen and fallen on Earth. Player characters explore this world of mystery and danger to find these leftover artifacts of the past, not to dwell upon the old ways, but to help forge their new destinies, utilizing the so-called “magic” of the past to create a promising future.
- 5) Katie Gilmartin – Fine Prints
Katie Gilmartin is the author of ‘Blackmail, My love’, a smoky murder mystery that follows Josie O’Connor, in search of her missing brother, through the foggy streets of corrupt 1950’s San Francisco. The novel is illuminated by black and white prints created by Katie herself and cut a vivid window into the city’s neo-noir past.
- 6) Alison Tyler’s ‘The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica’ Audiobook
Imagine a library - a very special one run by a librarian whose only concern is pleasing her patrons. In fact, this librarian will stop at nothing to service her readers. To that end, she has carefully collected a fantastic and fantasy-filled set of stories guaranteed to satisfy literary lusts in The Sexy Librarian's Big Book of Erotica.
- 7) Tristan Taormino's Top Sex Toys
Tristan Taormino is an award-winning author, columnist, editor, and sex educator. She wrote our very own ‘The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Woman’. When she’s not writing, she likes to play (among other thngs). And believe us, she has great taste in toys.
- 8) D L King’s ‘She who must not be obeyed’
Award-winning erotica editor D.L. King's new lesbian anthology showcases dominant femmes and their submissive partners playing out vivid and unforgettable BDSM fantasies and trysts. Each of these stories is as beguiling as it is demanding.
- 9) Saachi Green’s ‘Lipstick on Her Collar and Other Tales of Lesbian Lust’
An anthology like this invites you to a cocktail party of possibilities. You'll mingle with some dykes who are accountants, computer programmers, and scholars, interspersed with the occasional horse-trainer, army sergeant, and drag king. Is there a lover in your life, or is she still a figment of your imagination? You might get a glimpse of her here, among the butch daddies and femme fatales and rogues, because there are representatives of every kind of woman in this book, having every kind of sex you (and twenty-two authors) can imagine. Welcome to the party!
- 10) Mitzi Szereto’s ‘Normal for Norfolk’
Not what you would typically think when someone mentions ’Cleis Press top Xmas presents’, but charming all the same. Thelonious T. Bear, ursine photojournalist, leaves behind the big city life of London to take an assignment in the Norfolk countryside, where he hopes to find the real England. Instead he stumbles upon gastro-pubs, crazed Audi drivers and murder…
- 11) Kristina Wright’s ‘Seduce me Tonight’
Erotic love is the most powerful force in the world. 'Seduce Me Tonight' explores seduction from lust to long term love, from playful and teasing to dark and edgy. A short story collection perfect for anyone seduced by the 'Fifty Shades' trilogy or Sylvia Day's 'Crossfire' series. "Seduce me." A plea? A command? A need for connection that goes beyond the physical? These are stories of seduction. The anticipation, the tease, the buildup … the promise of what comes next…
- 12) Laura Antoniou’s ‘The Marketplace’ series
Laura Antoniou is the author of the well known Marketplace series of erotic novels. The Marketplace series describes "an elite and secretive world organization,dedicated to the auctioning and overseeing of the world's finest lifestyle slaves... a world so vivid in sequel after sequel, it takes on a reality of its own, one that's visually hard to let go of once the reader has put down the book." (Libido Magazine).
Wednesday, December 3, 2014
Keep those cards and letters coming!
Write
letters and send postcards
The things that make me the happiest
have an emotional and physical effect. And even more so when you do something for
someone else. One of the most lasting of
these things is a personal letter.
Being born in the transitional time between letters and
computers, many people in my generation have already shunned snail mail as a
way to communicate. This makes them rare, but a very inexpensive surprise. My
grandmother was one of seven children, and they communicated with a round-robin
letter. From mailbox to mailbox, they would add an update on their life and
send it around to the next sibling. She taught me that letters are a valuable
form of communication, something she’s emphasized as her memory slowly fades.
I got into the habit of writing letters and during the times
where I was most stressed, a paper due, a newspaper deadline, or turmoil, I
would write a letter. Letters live somewhere between thoughts and stories. They
are a confidant and a piece of yourself that you can choose to scrap or share.
When I receive a letter, especially from someone who I
haven’t heard from in awhile, I get a rush of endorphins, because I’m holding
proof that the friend considered me. It’s the same rush I get when someone is
thoughtful or goes out of their way to help me. Most friends reciprocate with a
call to say how happy they were to open a personal note rather than another
bill or W-2.
I followed epistolary literature in college, often using my
break from studying as a chance to write letters. Perhaps letters will go the
way of Wells Fargo wagons, but I’ll single-handedly support the post office as
long as my friends have addresses and my fingers can write. Letters are my
personal therapy, my rush of endorphins, my connection with those I love, and
my alone time—my regular serving of happiness.
As the old Jimmy Durante song goes, “make someone happy.” A
thoughtful, hand-written letter will do that EVERY TIME!
It's so important to make someone
happy.
Make just one someone happy…
Fame, if you win it,
Comes and goes in a
minutes
.
Where's the real stuff in life, to cling to?
Love is the answer!
Make someone happy.
Make just one someone
happy.
And you will be happy too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)