Blackmail material??

Earlier this week, I received email from Andrew Morgan, photographer extraordinaire. I first met Andy at Shadow Lane 12 years ago and have had several wonderful sessions with him. He's also taken a few pictures; he's responsible for this favorite of mine, which most of you have seen over the years:

Anyway, he wrote that he'd found some old photos he didn't think I'd seen before, so he attached them. When I saw them, I laughed. And cringed just a little, too.

Fade back to Labor Day weekend, 2000 -- the Shadow Lane party in Palm Springs. Alexandria Panos and I had done our first SL video earlier that year, and we were asked if we'd model some clothing for Bobbie Tawse at the vendor fair. For those who aren't familiar with Bobbie's fashions, she specializes in drop-seat PJs, baby-doll dresses and other... well, youthful items. (check out her site here) Really cute stuff, and perfect for those who enjoy ageplay. However, y'all know how I feel about ageplay. Not my thing.

However, I was game for just about anything at that point. It was exciting to be selected for this sort of thing. Besides, we were paid for it. :-D

So Alex and I ran around the ballroom for two hours, wearing the PJs, the baby-dolls and pantaloons. (Can I just say that wearing full-length, high-necked, long-sleeved fleece PJs in August in a ballroom packed with hundreds of bodies was torturous?) The baby-dolls were comfortable and pretty, but honestly, I felt squicky in them. I was 42 years old, for God's sake.

I never saw the photos Andy took of us -- until this week. Ready for this?

That's nothing. Get a load of this one, of Alex and me. What the hell is up with that cheesy face I'm making? LOL!

Go ahead -- knock yourselves out. "Erica Scott had a woman's hands on her ass! OMG!"

You never know what's going to come back to haunt you. :-)

Also in this batch of pictures, Andy included a shot of John and me. I'm not sure when this is from, but I believe it's about 8-10 years old, because John hasn't had a beard for a long time.

That one didn't make me cringe at all. :-) 

Haven't seen Andy for a few years, but he's coming to BBW! Yaaaayyyyyy!

Thoughts on photo blogs

First, the disclaimer: I mean absolutely no offense to anyone who runs a photo blog. Some of my friends have photo blogs that are adjuncts to their regular blogs, and that's fine. These are simply my observations and opinions, and I welcome yours, as I'm curious about what others think.

Is it my imagination, or is it true that practically every time I log on, there's a new spanking-oriented photo site in the blogrolls? Pictures, pictures, pictures. No words. No stories. Oftentimes, not even a reference as to the origins of the photos. Just photos, one after another after another, every day, all over the place.

Can these really be considered a blog? Isn't a blog a web journal? Doesn't that imply that writing and creative expression is involved? Where is the creativity in copying and pasting pictures?

Please don't misunderstand me -- I love pictures. I post plenty of my own. But they are always accompanied with writing, a background, a setup. They have a story. They are not there just for the sake of being there.

Granted, I am female, and according to the gender cliches, we are not as visual as males are. But really, how many pictures can you look at before it all becomes redundant? One trend I notice is that the same pictures make the rounds of many of the photo blogs. Click on one blog, there it is. Click on another, there it is again. Posted and reposted. And reposted again.

You don't even get to read interesting comments on these photo blogs. All you see are lists of people who liked them or reposted them.

Again, where is the creativity? I am old school, I guess. I like the written word. I like to read someone's thoughts and feelings.

Also, in some of the so-called spanking photo blogs, the photos have nothing to do with spanking. They are simply cute young girls with their butt to the camera. That's not spanking. And this is my own personal distaste, but I'm really, really getting tired of seeing the straight-on, spread-open kitty and back door shots. Jeeezus.... if I click on a blog looking for a spanking picture, I don't want some woman's hoo-ha in my face, so close up I feel like a damn gynecologist. Sure, there are glimpses of private bits in spanking pictures. But I'm talking blatant display here.

Even though there are thousands, perhaps millions of pictures out there, you're going to get repeats when so many people are posting them. Am I the only one who finds this boring?

Granted, not all the photo blogs are created equal. Some are more varied, some have a particular theme, etc. I didn't want to name names in this post, but I'd like to call attention to one photo blog I find exceptional -- At a Kinky House. Not just a spanking photo blog, but an exploration of kinky romance with gorgeous pictures.

What are your thoughts? Photo blogs, yea or nay? What do you like about them? What do you dislike? If I could make only two suggestions to the photo bloggers, I'd choose these: 1) credit the photos whenever possible, and 2) find some variety, please. Don't just copy and paste something that's already been on a dozen other blogs.

Again, I mean no offense, and I am not anti-photos. I just don't want to see the death of writing; it's already being tortured by text-speak and crappy grammar.

A fun photo shoot

I have had good luck on Model Mayhem so far, with the photographers I've met. I've worked with four of them now and each one has been charming, complimentary and talented. After hearing/reading about some of the creepazoids out there in the business, it seems I've chosen well. I guess my instincts are still looking out for me? :-)

Anyway, I recently did a quickie shoot with a lovely man for a special project of his, one he wants to show at a gallery and hopefully put into a photo book. He has this very cool red leather sofa, and his idea for the "Red Couch Series" was to shoot about 30-40 different women, all ages and types, posing on this couch. I thought sure, why not? Sounds fun.

He asked me to bring two things: 1) my favorite pair of heels, and 2) something that is special to me. He's asking each woman to bring an item that means something to them, to make their pictures different from all the others. I wasn't sure what he had in mind, at first, so I jokingly asked if I could bring my boyfriend, since he's special to me. :-) He found that amusing, but he'd meant something I like. For example, if I enjoyed photography, I should bring a camera. If I collected something, bring an example of it. If I'd received a special gift, bring that. As long as it wasn't too small or too large.

What do I love, kids? No, not that. The other thing. Dark Shadows! And what perfect piece of memorabilia do I have from Dark Shadows? My Barnabas cane, of course. (Wolfie, are you reading this? You're one of the few spankos I know who is also a DS fan.)

A replica of the silver wolf's-head cane that Barnabas the vampire always carried, given to me by a sweet friend in the scene who has since passed away. I couldn't think of anything better.

So I showed up with this cane, and the photographer, even though he'd never heard of Dark Shadows (!!), flipped over it. He came up with some creative and fun poses with me holding it, and we got some good shots. He told me I'll definitely be included in the series.

Oh... one other thing.

Those favorite heels he had me bring? They were all I wore. :-D

Tasteful, though. The cane and my arms were strategically placed so all parts were covered.

I really must be an exhibitionist; I was remarkably comfortable doing this. Or maybe he was just a gentleman and his matter-of-fact demeanor made me comfortable.

Anyway... it was fun. I guess red really is my color.

Hey! It's JUNE! Spanking Court and New Guy's return. It's going to be a great month. Maybe I'll even finish my book, huh? (sigh) It's taking longer than I'd originally thought to finalize it, but I should have expected that, I suppose. I actually thought I was done with the writing and all I had to do was tweak and  polish, but today I wrote a new chapter. I'm up to 313 pages; geeezus, I really hope people have the patience to slog through this thing. :-)

By the way, you know the issues that Blogger has been having for, well, forever? I asked my computer tech about that today (my computer is acting up a bit) and he asked what browser I was using. I said Internet Explorer. I know everyone seems to think Mozilla Firefox is the be-all-and-end-all of browsers, but I downloaded it and found it to be glitchy, so I went back to IE. My tech suggested that I try Google Chrome, which I did. Poof. No more Blogger problems; I can sign in, sign out, comment on blogs, all that good stuff. Just thought I'd share that tidbit in case others are still enduring Blogger frustrations. It might help.

Night night...

Fun stuff from Spanking Court

Blogger problems be damned. I feel like posting these. Cali sent them to me yesterday and I can't wait to share them. And I can't wait until a week from Saturday!

Here I am in court -- I wore my glasses so I'd look more earnest and serious. Did I succeed?

This is Spanking Court's "intrepid reporter" Dave Llewelyn interviewing me. What a character! He had this rapid-fire delivery of questions, and no matter what you replied, he'd twist it somehow. Some of us couldn't stay in the room when he was doing these interviews, because we'd crack up. It was quite a challenge keeping up with him, but I think I managed OK.

The punishment room. I'm handing my pants to beautiful bailiff Dana. And will you look at that knee-melting glare The Villain is shooting at me?

I guess I must have just said something sarcastic. Fancy that.

My mug shot. Naturally, I'm smirking. Would you expect anything else?

Is it June yet? I am so over May.

Butterflies!

You know, you'd think I'd be over pre-shoot nerves already; I've been doing this for 11 years. Then again, the jitters are part of the fun and excitement of it, so if they were missing, that would mean I'd become somewhat jaded and blasé about the whole thing. Not a chance.

So off I go to Spanking Court tomorrow. What's my reason for being there, you're wondering. Sorry, kids. I'm not telling. It's a secret for now. :-)  Let's just say it's different from what anyone would expect.

I've had messages bouncing back and forth all week with Cali and the Villain, driving them nuts for input, and I finally stopped on Wednesday, not wanting to be too annoying. So what am I obsessing about today? What I'm going to wear! Arrgh! Who cares, really? Aside from the panties, is anyone really looking at my outfit all that much? I admit, I got spoiled with Shadow Lane and Spanking Epics. Eve buys all the dresses and lingerie for the models, which is unheard of elsewhere, and Spanking Epics shot period pieces so Bethany provided the costumes.

I'll figure it out.

Cali was sweet enough to invite me to lunch before the shoot, so I will join them, but doubt I'll be eating much. There's no room in my belly for food, what with all the butterflies banging around in there.

I'm not going to John's tonight; I need to stay home and be quiet, get a good night's rest. He understands, bless his heart.

The book is on hold for now, since both my readers are in the middle of it. But I've had so much fun meeting with photographers for the cover! Yesterday, I met with a man from Model Mayhem who had contacted me for a project of his own, and he offered to do some shots in trade, so I could add to my own collection. He shoots in B&W and his work is amazing.

He'd brought his laptop with him, so he was able to download my photos right away and let me choose the ones I liked. Then I watched while he Photoshopped them. Wow! I've never seen anyone do that before, and it's fascinating.

Most of what he did, I didn't comprehend -- stuff with the lighting and shading and contrast and softening this and filtering that. But I loooooved watching him zero in on my body and work his magic. Freckles, poof! Dark circles under my eyes, zap! That weird little mole/wart/whatever the @#$% it is on my left butt cheek? Gone! Damn... what did we ever do before Photoshop was invented?

Et voila....

I have tons of photos, but the ones he took are like professional portraits -- I am really thrilled with them. :-)

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Masochism post. I was trying to generate a little action with something interesting. It's one of those subjects that will never have a definitive resolution, but it's fun to hear all the different takes on it. And thanks for being respectful!

(deep breath)  Have a great weekend, y'all. Wish me luck, please.

So, so glad to see him...

I really missed New Guy last week. I know, it was just one skipped week. But it felt like longer than that, for some reason.

It took a while for us to get started; I was busy yakking at him, bubbling away about my book, the photo shoot I had last Friday, the upcoming Spanking Court shoot, blah blah blah. You know, I could have sworn he put an anonymous comment on my blog last week; whoever it was sounded exactly like him. He insisted he did not. Then I said, "I don't believe you!"

I'm not really sure what possessed me to say that.

"Are you calling me a liar?"

No, I protested, I didn't say that. "Yes, but it's implied," he said. Aaaaaand... we were off and running. Actually, no running was involved, but you know what I mean.

He was of the opinion that I should apologize. I had a difference of opinion. Amazing how convincing he can be, though... I came around to see it his way. I finally gasped out that I was sorry. "Thank you!" he beamed, then added, "that doesn't mean your spanking is over, though."

@#$%&*!!!!!!!!!!!

After Round One, I showed him some of the photos and then we got to talking about dungeon/BDSM parties and some of our experiences there. I told him a couple of my more risqué tales (including that infamous one in which John and I ventured into a swing club for the evening), and he shook his head. "You know, you're a very naughty girl."

Tell me something I don't know, Mr. Obvious. "Yeah?"

"Yeah, and you should get a spanking for it."

Right. He had just finished telling me his own risqué stories. Hypocrite! Hypocrite! Still, hypocrisy or no, I wound up OTK again.

"Are you learning the error of your ways?" he smirked at me after a few minutes.

"No," I retorted, "but at least this time you have a real reason, instead of making shit up like you usually do."

"There you go, calling me a liar again." Uh oh. He did a rather deft maneuver: lifted me off his lap, flipped me over into his arms and stood up, flipped me face down again in midair and plunked me back down over the ottoman.

Such a Neanderthal. I loved it, of course. With one hand fisted in my hair, holding me fast, his other arm went fiercely to work.

And once again... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmpppppphhhhh.

We were so busy this time, we didn't take pictures. Ah well.

It's been a good few days. I think this latest photo shoot is going to yield a cover picture. John and I had a lovely weekend; he was so sweet to me, taking me out for a special dinner Saturday night. I now have two people reading my book: my anonymous new friend, and Danny, who volunteered to do so last night (thank you, sweetie!). So I have the best of both -- one completely objective person who doesn't know me, and one dear friend who knows me well, and both of them excellent writers. And this weekend, yet another video shoot.

Post-shoot drop? Nahhhh. New Guy will be over next Monday to give me a little hair of the dog. :-D

Here is a picture from last Friday. This particular one is not a good fit for the cover, but I like it a lot. It represents how I feel right now... blissfully relaxed, boneless, warm and tingly in my skin. Thank you, NG. ♥

For those who were wondering...

...why I was taking boudoir photos -- the answer is on Devlin O'Neill's current blog, right here. Yes, my friend and one-time co-star has written another book, and he asked yours truly to model for the cover art.

No sarcasm here -- I was truly honored. I mean, let's be honest, shall we? It is not every day that a 53-year-old woman is asked to pose for the cover of an erotic novel. Considering that his novel before this one (I think?) had a cover photo of this gorgeous girl we all know, I took his request as a high compliment indeed and told him I'd do my very best to create what he envisioned. I also told him that if what I sent him didn't quite fill the bill, then please, please go with someone else; I would take no offense. It was his book and he had the right to have it exactly the way he wanted. Devlin graciously assured me that I'd be perfect. (blushing)

So I recruited both John and New Guy to help me. When I was at John's last weekend, we took some shots in his bedroom in front of the window. As NG and I had done on Monday, John and I experimented with lighting, flash, candles, etc. We took it seriously, but had fun with it too.

Then last Monday, as you already know, I had NG shoot some photos in my own bedroom. I figured it would be a good idea to have two different scenarios and two different nighties. After I had a nice set from each shoot, I sent Devlin everything and hoped for the best. He and Poppy both wrote to me, full of lovely compliments, and he said it was down to a choice between one of John's and one of NG's. Ultimately, they went with John's. Blogger isn't letting me upload the cover file (it's a .tif file and they only allow .jpg, .gif and .png), so here's the original photo:

By the way, John really enjoyed doing the shoot... especially after I did this:

Oh, come on. Can't a girl flash her own boyfriend? The fact that he chose to snap a photo of it is his bad, certainly not mine. :-D

(Isn't that sticker a hoot? I found it in a photo-enhancing program called Picnik.)

So thank you, Devlin. And thank you, Poppy, for the beautiful cover design. I am really so tickled by this! I wish you smashing success with the book sales.

And of course, thanks to John and NG for all their help. You guys are the bestest! :-)

(sigh)

New Guy has a bad cold. I kinda had a feeling... usually on Monday morning, he drops me an email to tease me a bit about what's coming later. This morning, I didn't hear from him... and then I got email from him in the early afternoon, when he's usually at work. :-(  Poor guy was sick all weekend and he didn't want to take a chance of spreading it to me.

Wish I could make him some chicken soup or something. Oh, wait. That's right... I don't cook. Never mind. I'll just have to send my best wishes and recovery thoughts.

So, what's a girl to do while she waits for her top to feel better? Post more pictures!

I have some goofy ones from the opening of the Nervous-Neglected-Wife-Hires-a-Prostitute video. My character has never done anything like this before, you understand, and Sarah's character is trying to put her at ease. Before Hubby comes home unexpectedly, she attempts a bit of seduction:

Naturally, when we were shooting these stills, K and Paul were hooting and hollering (I swear, men are so juvenile), so Sarah and I started hamming it up...

And then, of course we both lost it.

Here's me playing innocent and sweet (after I've practically thrown Sarah behind the bed) when Paul surprises me by coming home early...

And Sarah just had to make a little more mischief.

Hummmppph. :-)

Here's the frustrated teacher and the bratty schoolgirl. I love Sarah's expression -- "WTF do you want from me??"

Check out Paul's expression here -- ("Do I love my job? Oh HELL yeah!")

And just for the hell of it, here's another picture of Max, because he's so darn cute:

Keep your eye on Sarah's blog as well... she's got a whole lot of stuff going on, but I know she'll be writing about our adventures as well. (Oh, and psssssst... on February 5, somebody's having a birthday.) :-)

I'm still not fully back to reality yet. I can't believe I was there for only four-and-a-half days; we crammed so much into them. I'm waiting for a drop like I get after parties; hasn't happened so far, so maybe I'll get lucky and dodge it.

I do miss New Guy, though. Take good care, darlin'. :-)

Weekend + a couple of pictures

Hope everyone had a nice weekend! I was so jet-lagged and loopy on Friday, I stayed home that evening, but went to John's yesterday morning instead. It was fun to catch him up on all the adventures and stories. He was enjoying it all and kept asking for more. Poor baby had dental work done, so he was in a fair amount of discomfort; I'm glad I could distract him. Still has the rash, but says the itching is lessening slowly. I so want him to feel good again...

Sheesh! I take a few days off from blogging and my stats plunge. Ah well, I guess if you don't write, people don't come, 'cause there's nothing new to read. OK, I'll do my best to get the interest back up again. How about a couple more pictures from last week?

These are from the snotty waitress scenario -- Paul the annoyed customer taking me to task:

Facial reaction angle:

And here's a rarity -- me, exhibiting contrition (isn't Sarah's dress cute?):

This one is from the "hooker" shoot -- can you believe those handprints??

Paul had a case of dry skin happening on his right palm on Wednesday; I offered him some lotion, and he scoffed, "Nah, I don't want to smell like a girl." Men! So he kept on going, and when we wrapped, his skin had broken in about six places, tiny little splits.

Ouch! See the little cuts at the base of his fingers? So there were K and Sarah, fussing over him, asking if he was OK, offering him skin balm, ice, etc. Hello?? Sore butt over here! :-D

I have several photos of Sarah and me, and of the three of us, but I want to run them by Sarah first to make sure she's OK with my posting them.

Meanwhile, New Guy is coming over tomorrow; it's been two weeks and he says his hand is itching for some action. I seem to be fully recovered, except I have a bit of "sandpaper butt." So I'm loading up with Gold Bond Mega-Ultra-Healing cream. I missed him!

Back to the gym tomorrow too, after not going for a week. Can't say I missed that. Some day they'll invent a pill we can take that will tone our muscles while we sprawl on the couch watching trash TV and eating peanut-butter Oreos.

Well, it's a nice dream, anyway. Right up there with finding an anti-wrinkle cream that does everything its ads promise. You know it doesn't really exist, but you still keep hoping!

Back tomorrow to report on the Monday evening festivities. :-D

Post-party odds and ends, and a dumb question

OK, here's the dumb question first: How do you guys, my readers, see my blog? I'm talking purely visuals here.

Let me explain. I have viewed my blog from my AOL browser and through Internet Explorer, and I've viewed it signed in and signed out of Blogger. No matter how I look at it, I see the same thing: All the print, the photos, etc. are on a white background. Then, surrounding that white background is a red-and-pink floral border.

This weekend, a friend came to me and said that he loved my blog but found it a bit hard to read with the floral background. Huh? I said the background is white and the flowers only surround it, but he said no... the entire background is floral and all the copy sits over that. Ugh!

No one else has commented about the readability or the overabundance of flowers, but that's certainly not what I want. I am not that girly! So please let me know what you see. It frustrates me to think that I'm seeing one thing and everyone else sees another.

The post-party drop is setting in. Nothing too heavy, no weepiness or anything like that, just a general blech. Perfectly normal after so much excitement. The party feedback, comments and messages have been flying all over the Shadow Lane board and on FetLife, and I've been having lots of fun with them. I got my blogs out rather quickly (I have to, so I won't forget), but others are just starting with theirs, so there is more fun reading to come. 

Oh, and Mike Tanner sent me the cell phone shot taken of my bottom on Saturday. It had already slightly faded, but here I am after five with the "family strap":

And allow me to amend something stated previously: I had said that our friend CO Carolyn had taken 20 with the family strap. She had not; she only took 18. That wimp. :-D

OK... I really do need to do something or another that's not post-party related. This week has been a complete wash!