As many of you know this past weekend was the very first EroticonUSA. Hubby and I packed the car and headed to Atlanta to join the fun. Let me tell you, the weekend was nothing less than a blast and we loved every minute of our trip.

Friday night, Molly and Michael hosted a meet and greet at the historic Georgian Hotel in Downtown Atlanta located across the street from the Fox Theater. For those who’ve never driven to downtown Atlanta, the trip leaves you wide eyed with white knuckles. Eight lanes of cars zooming by while you try to figure out which lane is the one you need to be in. Whew, I’m so glad we live a small town.

Walking into the hotel bar I was so nervous that I wanted to turn around and run out before anyone saw me. Hubby had taken me shopping at Rue 21 and I was all dressed up for the occasion. Including uncovered hair and high heel pointy toe boots, that were killing my feet. After I saw Molly’s warm smile and gave her a big hug, most of the nervousness melted away. I ordered a glass of wine, against Hubby’s protests that I know better than to drink. Only one I promised and smiled as I took a big sip. I was a good girl and held to my word and only had one glass. 

That night we met so many online personalities, it was hard to keep everyone straight. I’m here to tell you, there’s nothing like putting a face with someone you admire and chat with on the net. Penny from Penny for your dirty thoughts and her supper model boy friend was there. As lovely as her photos portray her, they are a fun couple and I’m honored to have them as new friends. Psst… a little birdie told me that they have a bit of rope after their trip. We just might get to see some great bondage photos soon. We met Harper Eliot whose smile warms the room. Lord Raven, Cammies on the Floor, Pieces of Jade; all whom I admire online were all there. I didn’t get to meet everyone. Yet, those that I was able to meet and chat with were some of the most cool, accepting, and open group of people that I’d had the pleasure of hanging out with in a very long time.

As we drove home, I knew that after this weekend I’d have memories to treasure for years to come.

The next morning at the event center, I wasn’t nervous at all. Harper Eliot was there with her big smile at the door with Ruby to greet us as we walked in. They even gave us a nice gift bag from the sponsors with all sorts of goodies including a ticket for a chance to win a prize package.

I can’t wait until Nov 1^st to see if we win.

After some delicious danishes and coffee EroticonUSA was officially opened with a presentation from the key note speaker Jincey Lumpkin, Esq. I’ve never hear of Jincey before and after hearing her speak, I was so inspired to continue on the path I’m creating for Kink, etc… Jincey use to be a lawyer and now she’s one of the industry’s top porn producers rocking the scene with her authentic glamorous lesbian porn. Sitting there listening to her speak I couldn’t help but think “She’s one Smart Cookie”. Her presentation was inspiring, educational, and validating all at the same time. She spoke about how the importance of creating your image and a highly conceptualized identity while remaining authentic. Jincey talked about pressing forward no matter how many no’s you hear or what others around us think. For those who don’t like what you’re doing or the path you choose to take, Jincey has a few words of advice “tell them to suck it” Not everyone is going to agree with you and you can’t please them all. But you can please yourself and take pride in what you do.

For the first session I sat in on Molly and Jade’s round panel discussion where they tackled the hard realities of coming out as an erotic writer or blogger and the effects it has on your life. With insights as to how they deal with the delicate subject with friends, family, children and even their children’s friends parents. They even shared hints and tips on how they balance a career, family, writing and blogging. I’m sure that everyone who sat in on the session left encouraged that they too can find a balance to it all.

Next on my list of must attend sessions was Molly’s 10 Tips For Writing a Sex Blog. Much more than ten tips, this session was packed full of tools to help you structure a user friendly blog. She covered everything from tags and categories, lengths of posts and the importance of grammar, ways to engaging the reader and being active within the community along with so much more. Honestly, after sitting in her session I realized that we have so many things to tweak on our site. Plus her talk inspired me to step out more on my blog and within the community. Come out of my cocoon as Hubby says.

One of the highlights of the weekend for me was meeting the amazing Lauralyn Brickhouse. I’m simply mesmerized by her self photography and in awe of the images that she’s able to create by herself with a 10 second timer. Lauralyn is a fun, energetic, and down to earth little gal that I just feel in love with the moment we first met. Very inspired by her photos and what she’s doing through her art gallery One Pound Gallery, I can’t wait to explore my own self portraiture’s  Don’t worry there’s a lot more about Lauralyn to come in my next blog post.

We can’t forget GrayDancer’s presentation about the common tools used for BDSM. That’s a lesson no one’s going to forget, I assure you. With the lovely Jade and Kristen as his assistants, the demo was both educational and erotic. You had to be there for all the juicy details. But I promise you it was great!

Held at 595 South Event Center, the venue was totally cool. In a converted warehouse, the wooden floors and brick created the perfect setting. The staff was gracious and helpful with everything we needed. Not to mention the food was great. With snacks of pastries, fresh fruit and coffee always on hand I wasn’t even very hungry when the sandwiches and soda was served for lunch. The whole event was very well done! A huge thank you to Ruby and her helpers who worked hard to put together the venue, after party and goodbye brunch; it’s not easy to put something like this in Atlanta when you live in the UK. Ruby’s helpers worked overtime to pull help everything come together on this side of the sea and they deserve a big HUG.

We didn’t want to leave EroticonUSA. But, all good things must come to an end and we’re back home energized and inspired to reach deeper and farther through our blog and photography. I can’t wait for the next EroticonUSA and we’re even considering attending 2014 in Bristol England! I hope next time will be even bigger and I can meet more of my blogging and twitter friends.