Fanny Press’ newest red-hot release is Yogic Bliss and Sexual Healing (144 pp, $14.95, ISBN: 978-1-60381-441-6), an erotic memoir/self-help book by Autumn Needles.

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Autumn Needles draws from the philosophy of yoga and lessons from her own life to contemplate body awareness and image, sex and sexuality, and how we shift through layers of belief, desire and taboo in search of truth. Weaving her observations with personal stories—raw and honest, silly and sexy—Autumn suggests ways to explore our own inner landscapes to surmount our boundaries and fears. Look elsewhere for a guide to tantric yoga or sexual acrobatics. This courageous little book is a must-read for sexually adventurous truth-seekers.

“I have always had the feeling that we are working from a script, either consciously or unconsciously, when we talk to one another on certain topics,” Autumn says. “Sex and sexuality, body image and comfort, relationships—these are all particular areas that we carefully dance around in highly choreographed ways. I can’t keep from sniffing around looking for the truth beneath the script … When I see so many people hurting—because they hate their bodies or because they are confused and conflicted about sex or because they can’t seem to find the right kind of relationship—I want to make that better somehow, or at least to give people a door into a different way of thinking.  For me, the door was thoughtful exploration using yogic principles as a guide. I hope Yogic Bliss and Sexual Healing provides some relief or comfort to others, or at least a fun, thought-provoking read.”

Autumn Needles, RYT, began practicing yoga at age 12 for its physical healing properties and was hooked by its calming and centering effects as well as for its integrative life philosophy.  She received her yoga instructor certification from the Nosara Yoga Institute in 2006 and has been teaching ever since. The core of her personal beliefs is to live fully and pleasurably within her body and to move with joy and gratitude. She owns Home Body Yoga in Seattle, where she lives with her primary partner, Jamie.

Here is an excerpt:

“Maybe we grow up feeling that some activity is particularly shameful. That feeling could destroy a relationship, or it could make the sex really hot, extra sexy because of the taboo. We may not be able to re-shape our sexual territory, but we can look closely at what made it how it is, really look at the landmarks and draw ourselves a better, clearer map. Then decide how we want to use it. Do we want to avoid certain places because they seem a little too dangerous? Or do we want the adrenaline rush of extreme sex? Do we want to explore some areas by talking with friends or our lovers or a therapist? Or do we want to create a fetish of desire around it? Everyone will have a different take on it, each landscape is unique and what you choose to do with your map will be as well. Your choices in the past may have been blindly guided by others in your world but now that you have a map, you can choose your own direction for your very own reasons. Your choices may not be my choices but that doesn’t matter. They belong to you, as mine belong to me.

“I keep coming back to this idea of forming a safe place to play together. I believe that when we come together in love and intimacy in some ways we are practicing our yoga together. Yoga in the sense of what the word itself actually means, yoking together, becoming something larger and whole. In order to do that, we need an agreement. We agree to be present and witness one another. In other words, we leave our beliefs behind and we simply watch what actually happens, the reality of it, physically, energetically, emotionally. We agree to leave the inner censor behind. Play requires freedom of creativity and a sense of permission. Even more, then, it is important not to allow any other form of censorship within our safe space, so all of the societal attitudes we’ve absorbed need to stay behind. This is our private place together. Bullies, keep out! No judgment, just curiosity. Isn’t this interesting what happens when we do this together? We agree that when things go wrong somehow, we still hold one another in love and safety, observing and learning from even the mistakes we make together. We make a space together safe from the intrusions of the outside world.”

***

“I’m working a volunteer shift at the local sex-positive club, making coffee and putting out snacks to prepare for the party. One of the men who attended the orientation is following me around. We don’t usually allow people to hang around between orientation and the party to give ourselves space and time to set up, but for some reason I’ve since forgotten we’ve made an exception. He is eager to help me, to talk to me. He asks about what I’m into and whether I have plans for later. I can almost feel the waves of hunger coming off him and I struggle not to push him away.

“Later at the party as I work my shift and wander around to talk with people, help new people feel comfortable, I get several more invitations from needy men. I recognize the hunger. They are filled with a secret need, something they’ve kept hidden for so long that it is hidden even from themselves. They know only that they are hungry, but they have forgotten what they hunger for. They see me but they don’t know me yet. They don’t know themselves. They are being devoured by the hunger and are desperate to be rid of the feeling of being eaten from the inside out. The only thing they can imagine (Can they really imagine anything right now? Only the hunger is real.) is that eating someone else might somehow ease the suffering, fill them up.

“What interests me is that many people come to this club believing that the mere act of changing their venue will heal them. But this hunger is something no human can satisfy. Searching for something to feed that hunger is a losing proposition. In some way though they are right to come here, because here at least they will find people who are interested in sitting with sex, and with everything that attends it and its desire. We talk about sitting in meditation because the idea is that we literally just sit and observe ourselves.  Frequently, people go to places where they can meditate together in a group. I recently came across a rather novel idea for me, which was that contemplation is not necessarily a solitary pursuit, that in fact contemplation requires people working together as a social unit. Our larger social unit has created this strangely unhealthy and untruthful concept of sex and sexuality, but maybe by forming a new social unit committed to observing itself more clearly around these issues, thinking about them and sharing insight with one another we can deconstruct our old unhealthy ideas.

“So here among this community, perhaps these men can sit with their hunger long enough to allow it, understanding that, once they begin to pull out their more concrete earthly desires from the overwhelming yearning, they are among people who will be able to see them and accept them and help them achieve their desires. I believe that sometimes that funny little map we’ve drawn over ourselves and lived by, if it is too far off from the reality of the landscape of who we really are, creates a feeling of invisibility, of being unseen and unrecognized. Even we have a hard time seeing it ourselves but it just feels wrong, and more so over time, until the hunger overtakes us. We have no box to check off and we want it, we yearn for it. I believe it’s a hunger to just be who we are, which no one else can feed for us. With a chance to just sit with it and observe it from our center, with other people holding space for us with their own heartfelt desire to be with who we really are, we can relax into the hunger rather than having it drive us blindly.

“I believe that people want to connect with one another. We want to know each other in some way. We want to create something bigger together, whether it’s an intimate life-sharing relationship of some sort, or simply building bonds together as a society that gets along, creating an easier flow of life. The easiest place for us to do that is to begin where there is shared experience. But what happens when the supposedly shared experience is exactly what defines you as different?”

Memoirs of a Wannabe Sex Addict, by Julia Morizawa

“…Julia Morizawa’s beautiful prose and haunting images explore women and men in their search for understanding, love, sex, and belonging. It’s a twenty-something’s second coming-of-age story, wrapped in prose that captures the sense of confusion of a generation…. Morizawa’s debut collection of erotica is an impressive read with an array of identifiable characters connecting to the darker side of the feminine.”   Read more …

Axie Barclay, Sacramento Book Review

“This book is skillfully written. Julia is brave to open herself to the world and bare her story.  The erotic passages of this book take you out of your element. It is as if you are there and it is not Julia who this story is unfolding on…. Memoirs of a Wannabe Sex Addict sheds light on real issues, real people and real sex. Julia does a wonderful job of portraying all three, as well as hoping that others find their way just as she has.”  Read More …

Tiffany Schlarman, ReaderViews.Com

Buy it on Smashwords

Every woman has a story. But not every woman will tell it. Memoirs of a Wannabe Sex Addict is a brutally honest and fearless retelling of one girl’s sex-capades. Each short story is a vignette taken from her life—the ups, the downs, and everything in between. In a search for belonging and purpose, she explores men and women, submission and dominance, prostitution and commitment. But what will she find?

As “The Slave” she learns that she is afraid to love or be loved. As “The Addict” she finds power in impressing her pimp by having sex for money. As “The Foreigner,” she discovers that fantasies are best sought after on the other side of the world. And, one by one, each experience forces this girl to grow up.

Julia Morizawa exposes an arousing world of sexual freedom colored by the vulnerability and complex emotions that go hand in hand. This book is a must-read for any woman who has searched for herself by using— and abusing—her body. And for anyone who has emerged at the other side, older but wiser.

. . . When he said that, I couldn’t help but turn onto my side and face him. I couldn’t help but feel a sudden rush of passion flow through my body. He turned toward me as well and wrapped his arm around my waist. He slowly rubbed his warm hand up and down my back, first over my shirt, then under it. When he kissed me, it was as if all the warmth in his body had been passed over into mine. I wrapped my palm around the back of his neck to pull him in closer, to kiss him harder. His tongue felt like warm silk in my mouth. When he moved it around and under mine, it was done perfectly, as if we had choreographed the movements ahead of time. He caressed my stomach with his hand, making my muscles tense up. When we kissed harder, he grabbed my skin tightly. He slid his hand under my bra and gently cupped my breast, then massaged it, moving it any way he wanted. I kept one hand on his neck and slipped the other underneath his shirt, feeling a thin trail of fuzz just below his naval. I pinched his nipples hard between my fore-finger and thumb. I knew he liked it because of the soft, airy grunts escaping from the back of his throat. He slid his other hand up the back of my skirt and squeezed my thigh, then my ass. I moved my hand from his chest to his stomach to his crotch. I could feel him hard underneath his jeans. After undoing the button and zipper of his pants, I wrapped my fist around his cock, first over his boxers, then under. As I slowly slid my fist from tip to base and back to the tip again, his breathing became heavier, his vocalizations more difficult to control. He followed my lead and pulled my underwear to the side so I could feel a cool breeze pass through my moist skin. He pushed his fingers inside of me, first one, then two, then three. I briefly pulled my hand away to spit in my palm and used it to moisturize his cock. I began to move my wrist and arm faster and he did the same with his fingers. I could feel his pre-cum dripping into my hand, helping me keep him lubricated. Our hips danced with our hands, synchronized in motion together. Suddenly, he pulled himself out of my grasp.

“Stop, stop,” he whispered.

“Why, what happened?” I asked.

“Nothing. I just want you to come first.”

He sat up, grabbed my ankles and pulled them toward him. He lifted my skirt and slipped my underwear off and let them hang on his wrist. He spread my legs open and held onto the insides of my thighs. I closed my eyes and rested my head against the dry grass. I felt his warm, wet tongue tease my groin, then the lips of my pussy, then my clit. He started slow and gentle. My breathing became heavy and a soft moan escaped my mouth. As he began to pick up speed, he slipped his fingers back inside of me and used his other hand to pinch my nipples. As soon as I came, he reached for his wallet and found a condom. He quickly opened the packaging and slipped the rubber around his hard cock. He leaned into me but stopped and asked, “Is this what you want?” I simply nodded. I watched him penetrate me for the first time. I squeezed myself tight around him and I could tell that he liked it. He felt so good inside of me.

Life on the List, by Jeffrey Essmann

“Life on the List is probably one of the best gay erotica tales book I have ever read. Well, despite what you can think, I haven’t read many of them, since usually, after a page or two, I’m bored by all the sex, and well, an erotica without sex is pretty much non-sense. So, first Jeffrey Essmann managed to catch me for more than two pages; the secret? He quoted Dante’s Inferno.”  Read more …

—Elisa Rolle’s Journal

Jeffrey Essmann’s Life on the List: Assorted Sordid Tales and Unsavory Relations is one of the hottest stories of gay erotica ever told.

Jeffrey Essmann was a fixture on the New York downtown performance scene in the 80s and early 90s. His one-man show “Artificial Reality” was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, and he was featured in the video, “New Wave Comedy.” His cult hit “Triplets in Uniform” at La MaMa marked his transition to playwriting. In the early 90s Essmann left New York for Chicago, where he became a featured performer in a performance series at Steppenwolf and a regular contributor to the Chicago NPR affiliate. In 2005 he returned to New York, where his short piece “Johannes, Pyotr & Marge” was produced at the Humana Festival. His one-man show “Skin Deep” was commissioned for the 2006 HOT! Festival. “Skin Deep,” along with “The Usual Freak Show” at La MaMa a year later, marked his successful return to the New York theatre scene. He is currently working on a new play, The Indifferent Narrator. Life on the List is his first book.

Listing: Casual Encounters, by Lee Vasey

Do you live in a quiet neighborhood? Do you think nothing too shocking is going on behind closed doors?  Do you think your neighbors’ lives are as boring as yours? Think again, friend.

Listing: Casual Encounters is the memoir of a man who contacts people online and meets them for sex. His anonymous encounters are mostly with other men, but they also involve both women and couples. His narratives are definitely hot, and the quantity of his encounters as well as their variety will impress just about anyone. His adventures range from the touching to the bizarre. If you have ever wondered what your life would be like without inhibitions, you must read this book. Vasey’s exploits are truly hard-boiled.

Vasey tells his tales plainly: no fantasy, no exaggeration or idealization, and none of the false heroics you expect from erotica. Unlike most people, he simply does as he pleases. Most of the stories in the book were written, with journalistic detail and clarity, within 24 hours of the encounter.

Read it on Scribd!

Also available in eBook and Kindle formats!