Erin O'Riordan writes smart, whimsical erotica. Her erotic romance novel trilogy, Pagan Spirits, is now available. With her husband, she also writes crime novels. Visit her home page at ko-fi.com.
This special edition of Margaret Atwood'sThe Handmaid's Tale is read by Claire Danes. It's disturbingly relevant now that Americans have lost our Constitutional right to privacy and states can tell us what we can and can't do with our own pregnancies. (Vote for people who will pick good Supreme Court justices, my fellow Americans. Don't stop there, but please do start there. I have no patience for non-voters in the year of our lord Carly Rae Jepsen 2024.)
Thick and Other Essays is, of course, a wonderful choice to read during February, Black History Month. Or at any time of any other year. So is Alex Haley's Autobiography of Malcolm X, read here by the legendary Laurence Fishburne.
Not to turn this books post into All My Criticisms of the United States, but I'm still angry that I was taught in school that Malcolm X was some kind of "dangerous radical." That was only racism, Islamophobia, and an attempt to revisionist history. Almost all of the things Malcolm X said were factually accurate. He was right about so much.
I'm also angry that September 11, 2001 was 23 years ago and if you're a white American, you can still get away with so much public Islamophobia. It's sickening. It literally costs you zero dollars and zero cents to treat people who practice Islam as your fellow human beings who are each an individual person.
I want Benjamin Netanyahu imprisoned at the Hague, next to Donald J. Trump, both of them awaiting their trials for crimes against humanity. This is a non-controversial statement: It's bad to starve your neighbors to death. That is an objectively bad thing. Every single Palestinian person is, objectively, entitled to eat food, drink water, and receive medical care.
I've been told in the recent past that voting for President Joseph R. Biden is the same thing as supporting the genocide of Arabs in Gaza. I explicitly reject that notion.
But that's me up on my soapbox again. Now back to books.
Everybody likes music, right? You know her, you love her, you heard her song "All I Want for Christmas Is You" while you were shopping in December.
Trainwreck: The Women We Love to Hate, Mock, and Fear... and Why by Sady Doyle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Doyle is somewhat preaching to the choir with me - I already love "difficult" women like Courtney Love despite their flaws (i.e. being human beings). Still, I was enthralled by this exploration of what happens when a woman in the public eye is judged to have become the wrong kind of woman in the public eye. It taught me more than I'd ever known before about Charlotte Bronte and Marie Antoinette - we're not good at teaching history and literature from the point of view of the women who experienced them. I highly recommend this book for anyone who participates in American popular culture on any level.
I borrowed this audio book from my local public library using the Libby app. I'm not obligated in any way to review it.
This book will be useful and instructive to all kinds of artists, from writers to visual artists to theater performers to musicians. Although it does discuss faith, and particularly Madeleine L'Engle's Christian faith, faith is not necessary to read and get something positive out of this book.
I'm a writer who wouldn't consider herself a Christian, although I was raised in the Roman Catholic church and have attended the Episcopal church as an adult. Madeleine L'Engle states in this book that she likes to call herself Christian and not particular denomination. However, she does mention the Book of Common Prayer, and I know from her other writings that the church she attended was also Episcopal. (For those of you outside the U.S., that's our version of the Anglican Church/Church of England. We split from the Crown during the American Revolution, but we're still part of the Anglican Communion.) Personally, I also find a lot of beauty and meaning in the Book of Common Prayer, but if you don't, that doesn't mean you won't enjoy this book.
Like many readers, I came to know of Madeleine L'Engle through reading A Wrinkle in Time as a child. I carried on with some of the sequels much more recently, and I found them to be quite wonderful too. I have enough appreciation for L'Engle as an artist to understand that she knows quite a bit about art and how art is done.
That's not to say that I entirely agree with everything she writes in this book. I find her lecture on why it's perfectly okay to use "man" to mean "human being" to be terribly old-fashioned and anti-feminist. No, Ms. L'Engle, we don't want the male gender to be the "default" setting for human being, thus reinforcing the idea that man is human and woman is "other." I don't know if she ever read Germaine Greer or Simone de Beauvoir, but she should have.
I will give her a little bit of leeway since she originally wrote this in 1980. Sadly, L'Engle passed away in 2007, so there's no possibility of asking her now.
Overall, though, this book gave me much more to love than to quarrel with. It serves as an antidote to the kind of misplaced piety that would try to separate artists from our art and to squeeze art into too-tiny, too-narrow boxes it no longer wishes to fit inside.
I received this book from BloggingForBooks.com in exchange for a fair and honest review, which represents my own honest opinion.
[Press Release] CYBERSPACE – In the wake of the event, organizers of the online debate “Women in Porn: Shattering the Myths” declared the event “wildly successful” and announced that due to high demand, a second discussion featuring the same panelists is already in the planning stages.
“The response from people who watched the discussion has been tremendous,” said Angie Rowntree, owner of the porn-for-women site Sssh.com and coordinator of the debate. “We received so much positive feedback along with several requests asking that we bring back the same panelists, for another show on the same topic. This event really is just part one of an ongoing conversation – which is exactly what we hoped it would become.”
Rowntree said that while the entire discussion was animated and engaging, the most heated moments came when the panel took up the topics of performer compensation (including whether performers make less for their efforts now than they did 10 to 20 years ago) and the question of how much responsibility the porn industry should shoulder for keeping children from accessing pornography – exchanges that Rowntree said “people really need to see and hear for themselves.”
“That’s what this event was all about – giving women in the adult industry a chance to be heard in their own words,” Rowntree said. “I don’t want to try to paraphrase the great points the panelists made, and the debate is available to watch any time on MindBrowse.com; I encourage everybody interested in these topics to check it out for themselves, firsthand.”
Rowntree added that other live panel discussions, interviews and debates will soon air on MindBrowse.com, including the live broadcast of “An Intimate Talk with Nina Hartley and Ernest Greene”, which is scheduled for August 26, and a discussion entitled “Feminism and Porn: Can They Co-Exist?” slated for broadcast in September. The second edition of “Women in Porn: Shattering the Myths” will follow in October, Rowntree said.
Rowntree says that the goal for MindBrowse.com is to develop into a “TED-like platform for discussion of serious, weighty issues surrounding the adult industry”.
“One of the best kept secrets about our industry is that it is filled with amazing people,” Rowntree said. “I’d love to see MindBrowse.com become a vehicle for people to contribute their perspective on a range of issues, and not necessarily just those that directly relate to the adult industry.”
To watch the “Women in Porn: Shattering the Myths” debate and for more information on future events sponsored by Sssh.com, please visit www.mindbrowse.com.
Erin's Note: All links in this post are to other blog posts on this site, for further reading.
Peg Tittle has an M.A. in Philosophy, a B.Ed. in English and Man-in-Society [sic], and a B.A. in Literature and Philosophy (with a minor in Psychology).
She has written Critical Thinking: An Appeal to Reason (Routledge, 2011), What If…Collected Thought Experiments in Philosophy (Longman, 2005), Should Parents be Licensed? Debating the Issues (Prometheus, 2004), Ethical Issues in Business: Inquiries, Cases, and Readings (Broadview, 2000). She also contributed the Ethics unit to the high school philosophy text, Philosophy: Questions and Theories (McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2003). Her papers have appeared in Sexuality & Culture: an interdisciplinary journal 1 (Autumn 1997), The International Journal of Applied Philosophy 11.1 (Summer/Fall 1996), and Philosophy in a Contemporary World 3.1 (Spring 1996) and have been anthologized in At Issue: Is Parenthood a Right or a Privilege? and Current Controversies: Child Abuse.
LOS ANGELES, CA/March 31, 2014 … The Daily Beast has featured Kelly Holland as part of an increasing number of women combating the stigma attached to females in the adult industry. As one of the most influential women in the business, Holland attempts to tackle the misconception that porn is degrading to women and other notions based on the outdated blueprint of the "good girl."
“Holland is one of the most powerful women in the entertainment industry — adult or otherwise,” Daily Beast reporter Emily Shire wrote. “She and a few other women working behind the scenes of the porn industry as writers, directors and entrepreneurs are combating the stereotype that the only place for a woman in porn is in front of the camera servicing men.”
Holland was previously working as a mainstream documentarian before being offered the opportunity to direct an adult feature. She found working outside conventional rules of filmmaking both an educational and eye-opening experience.
“I began to realize that these women—whether they articulated or not—really exemplified for me the essence of modern day feminism, which is, ‘My body my rules,’” Kelly Holland, Managing Director of Penthouse Entertainment said. “Not my dad’s, not my husband’s, not my mullah’s, not my rabbi’s, not my priest’s, and frankly, not my girlfriends’.”
Holland is part of the growing number of women in the adult biz that prove that whether a woman chooses to be in front or behind the camera, her choice can be empowering and liberating.
Kelly Holland started her film career in the late 1980’s as a documentarian in the war zones of Central America.In the mid 1990’s, Kelly began directing adult features under the name "Toni English," where she worked with Vivid Entertainment under an exclusive contract for the next seven years. In 2004, as the Executive Producer for the newly launched Playgirl TV, she developed the channel’s look and feel, overseeing all of the channel’s content as well as representing women’s erotica as the Company’s international spokesperson.
In 2006 Kelly left Playgirl to help launch Penthouse TV where she created the look and feel of the platform as well as directed and produced the majority of its content for the first two years.
In 2008 Kelly became the Managing Director of Penthouse Entertainment and now oversees Broadcast, Licensing, Clubs and the Magazine division. Today, Penthouse Entertainment has 11 distinct channels, is live in over 72 countries and available on over 40 platforms reaching more than 300 million households. The linear channels include Penthouse HD; Penthouse 3D; the first all black channel, Penthouse Black; and the first live interactive channel to be launched in Europe, Penthouse Live TV.
When she’s not busy working with Penthouse Pets, Kelly is actively engaged with other pets through The Animal Rescue Alliance, a non-profit rescue and farm sanctuary she founded.
This is an affiliate link:
All In: 25 Erotic Storiesby Emily Cantore. $4.99 from Smashwords.com
25 erotic short stories from the hot and bothered mind of Emily Cantore! To buy individually would cost a bundle! More than 130,000 words of first-time lesbians, threesomes, girls experimenting, sex toys and much more. Guaranteed to warm you up and get your mind racing!
The United States claims to be one of the most egalitarian countries in the world, but it was essentially 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation that Barack Obama, a man of color, was elected president. Part of the reason for this can be seen in the controversial "Birther" movement which claimed that he wasn't an American citizen and that his Hawaiian birth certificate was a forgery, and ignored the fact that no matter where he was born, Obama was legally considered an American citizen due to the fact that his mother was. And it's striking that John McCain, who we know was born not in the US proper, but in the Panama Canal Zone, never faced any accusations that he could not run for office.
But even more ingrained in our cultural prejudice is our resistance to women leaders. Unlike many of our allies, such as the United Kingdom, India, and even Turkey--an Islamic nation--we have never elected a woman to our nation's executive position. Is this in part because our culture's emphasis on women's appearance undermines their success in politics?
Coverage of a Woman's Appearance May Hurt Her Politically
It has been said that when a woman is running for office, news coverage of her wardrobe and appearance is much higher than it would be for a man's. According to one study, that hurts women's chances at winning an election, whether the coverage is positive. That's right, the study says that whether we're talking about Hillary Clinton's supposedly unfashionable pantsuits or Sarah Palin's history as a beauty queen, just talking about a woman's appearance reduces her chances of election.
This is from a study by Name It, Change It, a political action group focused on exposing and undermining feminism in politics. They sent fake news stories about a primary election between two fictional candidates "Jane Smith" and "Dan Jones." When the stories were focused exclusively on the candidates' responses to an education bill, voters were evenly split. But when the news coverage included neutral, positive, or negative coverage of Smith's appearance, she lost four, six, or seven points, respectively.
In response to the Name It, Change It study, the Washington Post ran its own version of the study. Essentially, they protested the Name It, Change It study on two bases: 1) the descriptions were unrealistic and may have increased bias, and 2) the study only inserted appearance descriptions for the female candidate.
In their own study, the Washington Post found that actually women did better than male candidates when appearance was discussed, no matter whether the coverage was positive, negative, or neutral.
The Washington Post also pointed to its own analysis of news coverage, conducted in 2010, that showed male and female candidates' appearance was actually discussed essentially equally.
The Issue Isn't Appearance
Based on the Washington Post study, it's likely that it's something more complex and subtle than appearance that hurts women candidates. It's likely that we are still having trouble as a society adjusting to how women in power interact with our traditional notions of gender roles. This is highlighted by the New York Times article about the purses of women in politics, which gives extensive coverage to the existence of "purse boys," male aides that sometimes hold their bosses' bags.
This inversion of the power dynamic is emasculating, something that American men fear perhaps more than anything, and something that we can see coded in Tim Gunn's criticism of Clinton's pantsuits as a sign that she's confused about her gender.
On the other hand, women in politics can find themselves in the crosshairs for being too feminine, as for example when Michelle Obama responded to a question about whether she would try Botox. By responding to the question, feminist critics felt, she was giving credibility to a condescending question that never should have been asked.
These frictions show just how uncertain we as a society are about power, politics, and gender. It's been a hundred years since women were given the vote. Maybe it will take another fifty before we are prepared to accept that they will sometimes win the vote, too.
About the Author: Dr. Matthew B. Candelaria (PhD, U of Kansas 2006) is a freelance writer who grew up in the 1970s and was strongly influenced by his mother's strident feminist opinions and participation in the fight for equality. He writes on a diverse array of topics, including gender, medicine, science, and the environment.
Put on your kippahs, it's still time for Hanukkah! Yeah, I prefer the perfectly good Hebrew word kippah to the Greek word yarmulke - no offense to the Greeks. The Greeks aren't exactly the heroes of the Hanukkah story, but we'll let the historians debate over whether the Maccabees' revolt was against the Seleucid Empire led by the Greek king Antiochus IV Epiphanes or against a philosophy within Judaism itself that favored embracing Hellenistic culture.
So, about tonight's Hanukkah hottie:
There are about a million billion reasons to love Natalie Portman.
- She was born in Jerusalem and is a U.S.-Israeli dual citizen. She went to high school in Syosset, New York. I like to say "Syosset" because it sounds like it's in Parseltongue. Outside of her professional life, her family name is Hershlag.
- Her great-grandmother, a Romanian Jew, was a spy for the British during World War II.
- She has a bachelor's degree in psychology from Harvard.
- She was the producers' first choice to play Juliet in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, but eventually lost the part of Claire Danes because she was too young.
"I want [female characters] to be allowed to be weak and strong and happy and sad - human, basically. The fallacy in Hollywood is that if you're making a 'feminist' story, the woman kicks ass and wins. That's not feminist, that's macho. A movie about a weak, vulnerable woman can be feminist if it shows a real person that we can empathize with." Preach, sister.
Natalie Portman starred with Night 4 Hanukkah Hottie Kat Dennings in Thor and Thor: The Dark World, and with Night 5 Hanukkah Hottie Mila Kunis in Black Swan. (She was also in Your Highness with James Franco, but I didn't see it.)
But honestly, I've been impressed with Portman ever since Luc Besson's Leon, or The Professional. It was her first movie.
The next time I took note of her was as Amidala in the Star Wars prequel. I was obsessed with Star Wars when I was a kid. Now, I was born the same year the original film - Episode Four now - was released, and I was only 6 when The Empire Strikes Back come out, so I probably didn't see any of the movies until later in the '80s, when we got cable and/or a VCR. (Before that, we did have Episode Four on a projector reel, but it didn't have sound.) I do remember my R2D2 Underoos and being jealous of my friend Mark because he had plastic light sabres - we were probably fans of Star Wars without even having seen the movies when we were very young.
By contrast, when my niece Eira was four or so, she told me the entire story of Anakin Skywalker, from his birth to his death. She used to watch a Star Wars movie or two every night while she was falling asleep.
So in 1999, I was excited to see Episode One: The Phantom Menace, more from nostalgia than from anything else. How could it not be great? But then when my brother and I went to see it in the theater - meh, not that great. But that was not Natalie Portman's fault.
At one time, Portman was slated to play Elizabeth Bennett in the film adaptation of Seth Grahame-Smith's Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but she has since dropped out. :( It is really too bad, because she would have made an awesome ninja Lizzie.
Boston, Massachusetts. (November 5th, 2013) – Sssh.com, the Web’s leading erotica site for women, has just released an exclusive interview with Carol Queen. Carol Queen is an American author, editor, sociologist and sexologist active in the sex-positive feminism movement. Queen has written on human sexuality in books such as Real Live Nude Girl: Chronicles of Sex-Positive Culture.
Sssh.com publisher Angie Rowntree sat down for the exclusive informal video interview in mid-October with the renowned sexologist at a cafe in Boston. During the one-hour conversation, they discussed a wide variety of sexuality topics ranging from current "sex issues" in society, the increased mainstream censorship of adult materials, the history of the female orgasm (including a lively conversation about "hysteria") and the invention and development of the vibrator, and other topics in a fast paced and entertaining format.
In her own words, Carol Queen tells Sssh.com a bit about her career as a sexologist and activist, saying “I’ve been writing since I was a kid, though have only focused on sex since I became fascinated by sex. I write spanning many genres, almost always to inform or involve as well as to entertain, and when I’m not writing, I teach, talk, and produce events about sex in my capacities as lecturer, staff sexologist at Good Vibrations, and founding director of the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco. I’ve authored, edited, or co-edited eleven books, winning awards for PoMoSexuals (a Lammy) and The Leather Daddy and The Femme (a Firecracker Alternative Book Award). I’m about to see a re-release of my first book (from 1995), Exhibitionism for the Shy, and I’m sloooowly working on a memoir. Pretty much all my anthologized work is listed on my home page. I’m also on the board of the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, dedicated to the premise that sexual freedom is a fundamental human right, and this year I'm serving as a judge for the Sex-Positive JournalismAwards.”
“I've admired Carol Queen and her advocacy work for years, and was delighted to get a chance to sit down for a chat with her” says Rowntree. “Carol is funny, on-point and has a real grasp of the issues in current sex in society issues from her past 25+ years as a sexologist and outspoken pundit, lecturer and author.”
About Sssh.com: Sssh.com offers an extensive, evolving source of information and entertainment from bold and brassy to tender and traditional. Providing a safe place for women to explore their sexuality, the company continues to grow the website's scope in order to reach a wider audience of women interested in high quality, intelligent erotic content.
Because no woman is an island, Sssh.com embodies a community where women can relax, enjoy, learn and feel good about being sexual, sensual beings without sacrificing personal ethics. Sssh.com encourages each member to approach her journey at her own pace: Content is arranged by levels, each clearly annotated with its degree of explicitness. After all, women may be curious about what a guy has, but they’re more interested in discovering how he uses it.
Elle.com, one of the largest and most read women’s fashion and editorial websites in the world, listed Sssh.com as “one of the websites to see,” describing the website as the best place for movies and advice, plus “it has a hunky guy photo gallery.”
This is an affiliate link:
All In: 25 Erotic Storiesby Emily Cantore. $4.99 from Smashwords.com
25 erotic short stories from the hot and bothered mind of Emily Cantore! To buy individually would cost a bundle! More than 130,000 words of first-time lesbians, threesomes, girls experimenting, sex toys and much more. Guaranteed to warm you up and get your mind racing!
First, that Barack Obama was re-elected president of the United States. I don't care for Willard Mitt Romney. Not because he's a Mormon - I don't care what religion (or lack thereof) someone is. I just don't think he's ever been to the U.S. - he doesn't seem to know anyone here.
Second, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery. Besides Small World, the other bookstore I went to in L.A. was Piccolo's, the one at the Promenade at Howard Hughes Center, an outdoor mall in Culver City. All the books are used, were donated and cost $1, with proceeds benefiting a literacy project. Surprisingly, I had a hard time choosing a book there, perhaps because they were only loosely organized. I remembered discussing Anne with Jenny Shaw over at Well Shut the Front Door, and I got it to read on the plane.
I didn't read it on the plane. I watched The Real Housewives of Atlanta on those little TVs Virgin America puts on the backs of everybody's seats. In my defense, I don't have cable at home, so it's not like I regularly veg out to Bravo.
But I'm reading it now. I don't plan to read the whole series, though. It's much more than a trilogy; there are at least 8, from what I could tell when I was searching for this cover. It's a good book, though. It teaches children that if you accidentally get one of your friends drunk by mistaking wine for a nonalcoholic beverage, you can make it up to her parents by saving their youngest daughter's life.
Another book-related thing that made me happy was listening to Dr. Oliver Sacks talk about his book Hallucinations on yesterday's Leonard Lopate Show. I don't think Leonard Lopate asks the most astute questions, but it's nonetheless an interesting, fairly brief (about 25 minute) interview. Listen here.
I was also excited when I returned The Lucky One to Netflix and got back The Raven (starring John Cusack as Edgar Allan Poe), the red envelope was decorated with Twilight: Breaking Dawn Pt. 2 imagery.
The other thing that makes me happy is Crystal Marie's blog A Word or Three, which I just discovered yesterday (while attempted to watch the now-deleted Twilight-related videos on this blog, The Latter Days. Of the posts I've read so far, two of my favorites are:
Yesterday I mentioned the Michigan lawmaker who banned a female colleague, Rep. Lisa Brown, from speaking because she used the word "vagina" during debate over an abortion bill.
The subject has been quite eloquently addressed by bloggers including Shah Wharton and Guerrilla Mom. Shah suggests you experience Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues in book form or in performance, and I wholeheartedly agree.
This post is all about vaginal pride.
This post is about not fearing the word "vagina," or the body part it represents. This post is about letting women be women. (This is from Shah's post.)
Sometimes vaginas get angry. (This is from Guerrilla Mom's post.) Think of "fear" here in the old-fashioned sense of "respect, awe," as in the expression "fear of the Lord." That's the proper attitude for approaching the subject of the sacred yoni.
Sometimes vaginas can be sweet, too. And sexy. Very sexy.
You know what vaginas shouldn't be? Silenced, in the Michigan state legislature or anywhere else. "Vagina" is anatomically correct, like clitoris, elbow, patella, penis, coccyx, vulva, larynx. If "vagina" is too formal and stuffy for you, use "pussy" or "cunt." Use them lovingly, adoringly, respectfully.
Use them loudly.
Tomorrow is U.S. Independence Day, but to paraphrase Bill Pullman in the movie Independence Day, this could be our vaginas' independence day.
Last week it was the ladies' turn. This week's Blue Monday is a kind of Man Candy Monday, too.OK, I guess I didn't have that many blue-related pins of guys.
You got that right, Andy Warhol. My most dearly-beloved Hindu god is Shiva, but this is an absolutely beautiful image of Krishna. (I have beautiful pictures of my sweet lord Shiva, but none of them are blue enough.) One of the very first erotic books I ever read, one I didn't even remember to mention in The Good Parts, was a collection of stories about Krishna and Radha.
Then there was Christian Bale. Hey, skinny Christian Bale in a blue jacket, whatcha doin'? Something related to filming your Academy Award-winning Best Supporting Actor role in The Fighter?
But I wonder what you would look like with more meat on your bones, wearing a blue jacket that isn't a track jacket? Probably something like this.
But I kind of feel like that loud blue shirt doesn't go with your hazel eyes. You know what we need? A man with bright blue eyes and a blue shirt.
James Caviezel, you'll do nicely. You do everything nicely in my estimation, ever since I wrote that EPIC Easter post and fell in love with Badass Jesus. Neck beard and all. Why do you think the corresponding Pinterest board is called I Haz An Obsessed?
But maybe I'm a tiny bit color blind, so you tell me: is this shirt blue or is it purple?
The Dork Mistress, whose Tumblr and I are in a relationship, informs me this white suit is Dolce and Gabbana. You know, when JC gives the paparazzi a thumbs up, it kinds looks like
Know what goes great with blue? Gold. What would Jesus do? He would root for Notre Dame.
I didn't go to Notre Dame. I went to St. Mary's College of Notre Dame, Indiana, the all-women's college across the highway. The kind of patriarchal crap that flies at Notre Dame doesn't go down at SMC, and the pretty Italian and Irish Catholic boys are more fun to look at than they are to date. That's how my alma mater got the nickname School for Lesbian Nuns. I say it with pride - hell yeah, women's spirituality and sexual diversity!
Let the Vatican put that in its pipe and smoke it. (I link to that story about the Vatican chastising American nuns for their "radical feminism." The radical notion that women are people - shocking!)
So mentioning Person of Interest on Facebook provoked a discussion, in which Ms. Elvira Scaff suggested I watch The Count of Monte Cristo. It's a great movie. I've never read the book by Alexandre Dumas pere, though he just might be the greatest French-Afro-Caribbean writer who ever lived. I read the summary on Wikipedia, though, and the book sounds rather convoluted.
The screenplay by Jay Wolpert, on the other hand, is fantastic. Even Tit Elingtin agreed it was a fantastic movie. The only thing it didn't have was the Harmless Chair of Relaxation.
From the special features, I learned that while filming the climactic sword fight, Jim Caviezel accidentally cut Guy Pearce, who now has a permanent scar. The party who committed the injury also mentioned that he'd been an athlete, so I had to know which sport(s). Basketball, it turns out.
Speaking of injuries that sound much more sexy than they actually should, IMDB says, "While filming the whipping scene in The Passion of the Christ (2004), one of the whips missed the steel board on Jim's back and cut a 13-inch gash into his back." (Caviezel's own account here claims 14", but you know how men exaggerate.) It also says he was struck by lightning, but more importantly:
a) Getting so into a creative project that you'd literally take a whipping for it is both artistically admirable and incredibly hot, and
b)You can't use the phrase "13-inch" in a sentence about Jim Caviezel without giving me dirty thoughts. I'm an erotica writer, not a saint.
So then I watched this cheesy fan video yesterday:
So then I wrote this short bit of fiction. First draft, yo. Unedited. I will not be offended if you tell me there's a typo:
Joss Carter awoke to the sound of someone knocking on her bedroom door. Taylor, she realized as she opened her eyes. Her 17-year-old son stood in the doorway, a wise-beyond-his-yearslook of consternation on his face.
“Mom,” he said urgently. “Is your alarm clock broken or something? You’re going to be late for work.”
Carter looked at clock and realized he was right. If she didn’t get out of bed and pull her clothes on right now, she’d never have time to drop Taylor off at school and get herself to the precinct on time. She’d slept almost an hour later than usual, and she didn’t even remember hitting the snooze button.
She rushed to her closet and grabbed the first blouse she could find, followed by a hastily chosen jacket and slacks. “I’m coming, Taylor,” she said to the young man who still stood in the doorway, watching her. Of course he was watching her – this may have been the first time in his life he’d seen his mother so disorganized.
“Don’t worry about me,” he responded. “I fed myself, and I’m catching a ride to school with Erica and her mom.”
Carter breathed a sigh of relief that she’d raised a son responsible enough to call a friend from school for a ride. She was only slightly irritated that Taylor hadn’t woken her up sooner. “Thanks, kid,” she said. “I don’t know why I slept so late.”
She meant it. The night before had been no different from her usual routine. When her shift ended, she’d come home, made dinner for Taylor and herself and did a little laundry before bed. She couldn’t explain why the simple acts of her daily routine had left her so exhausted lately.
At the precinct, her head dipped low over her paperwork for the fourth time of the morning when Detective Fusco said something to her. “Late night, Detective Carter?”
“No,” she said. “Just a normal Tuesday night.”
“If you don’t mind me saying so, you look exhausted.”
“I must be coming down with something,” she said. “I did feel a little queasy at breakfast – maybe I’m getting the flu.”
“Flu?” She looked up to see the captain standing behind her. “Go home, Carter, before you infect half my precinct.”
“But, Captain, I’m fine,” she protested.
“I’ve been watching you yawn and nod your head all morning,” the captain said. “You’re no good to me tired. Go home and get some rest.”
She thought about protesting further, but he was right: she wasn’t at her best, and her cases were going to suffer for it. Reluctantly, Carter went home and took a nap.
When she woke up, Carter’s stomach rumbled. She went to make herself a bowl of soup, but somehow, none of the varieties of soup in the pantry looked good to her.
She opened the fridge to explore her options when her phone rang. “Playing hooky, Detective?”
Mentally, she cursed John Reese for the way her body reacted to the sound of his voice. “I have the flu.”
He said something, but Carter had stopped listening. She closed her eyes, remembering that night at the hotel. Up until this moment, she’d refused to think of what she and John had done as a mistake. Now she realized she hadn’t felt so exhausted and nauseated…since she’d been pregnant with Taylor.
“Detective Carter, are you all right?”
“I’m fine, John,” she said as she dashed to her purse to find her calendar. She looked for the last date with a red circle around it and found it – six weeks ago. She did the math quickly. “Damn it,” she said out loud, forgetting the phone she still held to her ear. “I’m too old to be peeing on a stick like some teenager.”
“Carter – what did you say?”
Damn it. What had she said to him that night- no complications? Well, this was turning into one pretty damn big complication.
“Did you say – peeing on a stick?”
“Just meet me at the coffee shop, John.” She hung up, hating him for making her feel this way. That damned stick had better not turn blue.
Taraji P. Henson, beautiful, very
talented and also principled. Now, off to watch High
Crimes. 'Cause I also love Ashley Judd; she wrote this awesome feminist thing.
P.S. High Crimes was
pretty good, though it does take a very creepy turn at the end. Judd
certainly plays a strong, resilient character.
All In: 25 Erotic Stories
