This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
Sexy Summer Reads Event Report by Cesca Martin
Hoxton Square – an achingly cool part of London and home to the first female-focused sex shop (yes, all men must be chaperoned at all times while on the premises…!) was the perfect setting to host the ‘Sexy Summer Read’ – a chance to hear extracts from some of the latest Bonkbuster Novels around from the likes of Stella Duffy, Rebecca Chance and Olivia Darling.
We arrived in the delightfully pink Sh! Shop off Hoxton Square to be greeted by various spanking implements, a tray of cupcakes, pink bubbly, excited looking women and one poor man. There, on a delicious red crushed velvet chaise longue, sat the writers of the evening and as after being greeted by the lovely girls of Sh! we settled down to listen to them all read extracts from their latest books; Temptation (OD), Bad Sisters (RC) and Theodora (SD).
I looked around the audience for the evening and was delighted to see the likes of Lisa Jewell,
Jenny Colgan, Lulu Taylor and Jojo Moyes listening on. Stella and Rebecca opened up the evening with an extract from ‘Bad Sisters’. The dialogue was read with real flair and the witty dialogue warmed the crowd up. Chris Manby then read a lovely little short story she had written for an anthology. She was nearly tempted (ha, ha) to read an extract from her book but looked a little like she might start weeping on the chaise longue if any one made her say a rude word out loud (she explained that she actually suffers from a terrible affliction in which she cannot form the word ‘clitoris’ as a spoken word – just dreadful). In a gloriously rich voice Stella Duffy then treated us to a fantastic extract from her latest ‘Theodora’ and we were fascinated to hear that some stuff she had made up had already made its way onto Wikipedia and was now therefore ABSOLUTELY TRUE.
There was giggling, more cupcakes and drink as the Q & A session descended into a colourful chat about male genitalia and other essential topics. There was a chance to explore the shop and chat to other women there and for Stella Duffy to show us how to look the bestest in a photo (note her cheeky hand…) And then we left, head buzzing, cheeks blazing, into the night. A fantastic night with some talented, witty women. Hail to the Bonkbuster and all the glamorous fun it entails.