Where Books Come to Play

Whew! There is nothing like flying across the country to hang out on the opposite coast for the weekend! Talk about jet setting. I had the pleasure of spending last weekend with the unstoppable Violet Blue at the Book Expo America in Washington D.C. this weekend. It was a jubilant experience.

The night we arrived in D.C., a fortuitous mix-up resulted in Lady Miss V. losing her hotel room ressie and residing instead in the top floor suite of the Hyatt Regency, with a knock-out view of the Capitol Building and beyond. Not only did she gain a view, but also an especially delicious fruit and cheese plate that pleased our jet-weary palettes. I found out after I got home that later that night Violet recorded a sexy table dance on top of the coffee table in the suite and shared it with her blog-readers!

This is the second time I've been to this convention, so I warned Violet that the expo is immense- like several football fields wide type of immense. (A short video of it is on her blog as well.) It takes days just to look at each booth in the place. Being a born-in-the-cradle rebel type, I took perverse joy in noticing that the the books Daedalus Publishing publishes stood out as some of the very naughtiest books offered at this event. There were rows upon rows of religious, children's books, and political books. In fact, I would go so far as to say that was the majority of the books offered here.

A few of my naughty favorites were there- including Last Gasp, Cleis Press, Goliath, Greenery Press, and Feral House. Of course, I enjoyed geeking out the Graphic Novels area, got myself a Wonder Woman pin and a promo copy of Alan Moore's latest work. Violet did the Euro version of the bird in front of a Newt Gingrich book, and we both scoffed at the fact that they stuck all the African American book booths in their own separate ghetto row off to the side. Bleh.

People with giant goofy happy grins on their faces waited in line for a signed Violet Blue promo copy of Fetish Sex (the actual book will be out in just a few weeks). The response was fantastic! This was a very prim crowd, and it was great to see people feeling like they were granted permission to learn about fetish sex. Amidst the throng was a prominent French Publisher who is very interested in printing Violet and Midori's book in French. Oooh la la! Leave it to the French to snatch up our naughty kinky books first!

A few more random memories.... For some reason the Pilsbury Dough Boy mascot was walking around posing for photos- I didn't get a chance to pose with him. Rats! And Washington D. C. cabs rip you off! Be warned! They have this very strange zoming system for cabs in place of a meter that doesn't make any sense and costs a lot of $$$$.

If I had time, I would have loved to take a tour of the White House. Alas, not enough time. And if you are in D.C., the Cajun food at Madam's Organ is great. They had a BEA schmooze party there with free eats that were delicious.