April 2012, The North, United Kingdom.

Convention for erotica readers and writers to be held in the

seaside town of Scarborough on June 22^nd, 2013.

Do you like to be beside the seaside? Or more specifically, do you like to be smutty beside the seaside? If so, then the Smut by the Sea Convention and Erotic Marketplace is for you!

The brainchild of Victoria Blisse and Kevin Mitnik, with help from their glamorous assistant, Lucy Felthouse, Smut by the Sea promises to be a smut-filled extravaganza in the beautiful seaside setting of Victorian Scarborough. The town’s library will be hosting the event.

Forget fish and chips, candy floss and ice cream – visit the dedicated Erotic Marketplace, including exhibitors Xcite Books and House of Erotica, with many more yet to be confirmed. Buy toys and books and all manner of saucy things. And don’t forget to get those books signed by the authors in attendance!

You’ll be wriggling in your seat when you attend a range of sexy readings from erotic authors including Victoria Blisse, Lucy Felthouse, K D Grace and Lexie Bay.

Or perhaps you’d like to attend informative panels on getting published, marketing your work and other smut related activities? It’s all covered, so you can check out whatever tickles your fancy!

It’s certainly going to be a fun-filled day – but it doesn’t stop there! In the evening will be the official launch of the Smut by the Sea anthology (calls for submissions available at http://smutbythesea.co.uk/call-for-submissions/, closing date 1^st June 2012 – edited by Victoria Blisse and Lucy Felthouse), with readings from the authors, and some seriously saucy swag bags with gifts from sponsors Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium, Total-E-Bound and Lovehoney, to name but a few.

Just as you’re settling down from hearing all those fabulously naughty stories, your heart rate will be rising once more as the result of an intermission with burlesque dancers!

Finally, there will be a Q&A panel with a range of authors, book signings and some good old fashioned networking and socialising.

It’s still early days so there will be lots more authors, sponsors, exhibitors and attendees coming on board as the conference draws closer, but hopefully this has given you an idea of what to expect from Smut by the Sea.

So, what are you waiting for? Mark your diaries for Smut by the Sea, 22^nd June 2013. Early Bird tickets have been released, and there are less than 200 available at this bargain price, so make sure to grab yours quick, before it’s too late! http://smutbythesea.eventbrite.co.uk/

Keep your eyes on the following links for further information on sponsors, attending authors, exhibitors and more:
Website: http://smutbythesea.co.uk
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/smutbythesea
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/smutbythesea

Also, just for a bit of fun, you can share your seaside themed photos on the Pinterest page: http://pinterest.com/mitnik/smut-by-the-sea/

The event is still taking on more exhibitors, sponsors, speakers and readers, so if you’d like to get involved, please http://smutbythesea.co.uk/contact-us/

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About Smut by the Sea

The brainchild of Victoria Blisse and Kevin Mitnik, the Smut by the Sea Erotic Readers & Authors Convention & Erotic Marketplace takes place in Scarborough in June 2013. It will be a smut filled extravaganza with readings, burlesque, panels, Q&As, workshops, erotica and more. See http://smutbythesea.co.uk for more details.

About Blisse UK

Blisse UK is the team of Victoria Blisse and Kevin Mitnik. Specialising in bespoke creations, working together they strive to bring originality and excellence into all that they do. Victoria is an award-winning author & Kevin is a twice Webbie winning web designer. They have over 15 years experience of creating successful websites with a portfolio of recent works available on http://blisseuk.com. Smut by the Sea is a new venture as they combine their love of the seaside with a love of erotica.

What is special about you and your brand – what makes you pop out from the masses who also write in your genre? I’ve been cruising the web learning about platform building (about time!) and found a very helpful post by Kristin Lamb, author of We Are Not Alone: The Writer’s Gide to Social Media. One way of pinpointing your brand, she says, is to write out the tags that describe you. So I did, and here they are:

Erotic Needs no introduction, defines everything we write. Explicit sex scenes created to evoke arousal and enjoyment.

Romance Happy endings, always. Satisfying, never tragic, always upbeat at the end. The erotic scenes are not gratuitous but always part of a story that leads somewhere. It may be happy-for-now, but the reader will be pleased the characters got it together.

Boomers Many of our characters are Baby Boomers. We don’t limit ourselves to this age range, but since we claim it as our own, we write stories that celebrate sex and vibrant living across the age spectrum. 

Couples We are a married couple, and we write for couples (married or otherwise, straight or LGBT). We craft scenes that appeal to both genders, scenes that invite fantasizing, scenes that can be part of foreplay, scenes that lead to one of our favorite lines from a reviewer of our very first published book: “the reader will no doubt want either a partner or a bucket of toys close at hand.”

Bisexual Heroines for lots of reasons. Because both of us enjoy reading and writing scenes involving two (or more) women together. Because there’s evidence that as we age, we become more sexually fluid. Because for some couples, if she wants him to read erotic romance together in bed, reading about two women may help entice him into the story. Because I’m bisexual. Because it’s fun.

Swingers Because the fantasy of ménage is so tantalizing. Because swinging offers so many opportunities for decadent lovemaking, for taking turns being the sole focus of two, three or more other people, for sharing pleasure, enjoying voyeurism, giving one’s partner a special gift.

Polyamory Sometimes, as in swinging, ménage is about recreational sex, but sometimes it’s about three or more persons falling in love, sorting out the intricacies of the relationship combinations, and making long term commitments. We write a world where such dreams can come true.

Sexual Freedom We’re not fond of the term “promiscuous” and prefer to champion consensual freedom of sexual expression as a healthy approach to sexuality. We know this requires deep trust and open, honest communication, especially when sexual freedom takes place within the context of committed relationships.

You’ll notice some of these tags (Erotic, Romance, Couples) describe everything we write. Others (Boomers, Swinging, Polyamory) are more fluid and are something you can find in our work, but not something that limits us. Taken as a whole, we think this set of tags defines us, and it’s what we hope we deliver to our readers.

If you’re a writer, what are some of your unique tags? If you’re a reader, what tags describe what you’re seeking when you read?

And, in any case, the whole point of our trip is to be with her, so I don’t want to spend excessive time focused on other things. Usually I can just run an occasional quick check of things like Twitter and email on my Blackberry – but this weekend the Browser disappeared and I haven’t figured out how to get it back.

Ooo, did that sound like a whine? Sorry! Guess I’m suffering from withdrawal! Seriously, what happens to you when you have to be off line unexpectedly? Here are some of my symptoms:  I miss hearing what the peeps I follow are up to. I haven’t been able to respond to reader comments at my blog. I need to keep up with all the new Crusade blog posts. I worry that maybe I’ve missed the one tips and advice post that will unlock the key to future promotion. And I know I missed some online events I truly intended to at least drop in on…

So tell me, what are your withdrawal symptoms? What do you miss most when you can’t be on line?