Dark Odyssey: Winter Fire 2010 is only a month away! Like you, we’ve been devastated by the news of the earthquake in Haiti. Beginning now through Monday, January 25 at midnight PST, we will donate $20 of each new Dark Odyssey registration to Doctors Without Borders to help the relief effort in Haiti. Our challenge is to raise $1,000 or more. If we raise at least $1,000, PuckerUp.com will match our donation, doubling the amount of money we can give! So please help spread the word: register for an amazing event and help Haiti at the same time.

Your registration not only helps a worthy cause, it’s your ticket to one of the most exciting events in the country! From world renowned Tantra experts, to infamously skilled deviant dominants, to nationally acclaimed authors and award-winning educators, we have presenters from around the world teaching the most unique, exciting workshops anywhere. Look who’s coming:

Amy Jo Goddard * Angel & Sebastien * Anita Wagner * Barbara Carrellas *
Bobby * Ms Cynthia (CM Hurt) * Dan & Dawn * Danielle dv8 * Julian Wolf *
Lady Hilary & Marine * Lqqkout! * Marc B * Mark Michaels & Patricia Johnson
* Mistress Max Rulz * Mollena * Q * Sarah Sloane * SwitchMe * Whittney *
Wintersong Tashlin

In addition to workshops, Dark Odyssey features creative social activities, nightly special events, erotic rituals, an optional banquet with sexy & spectacular entertainment, the Sex-O-Rama playspace, and a huge, fully equipped dungeon so you can play to your hearts desire. Our legendary special events include:

Dirty Talk Olympics * Genderqueer Mixer * Prostate Play ‘Hands In’ Event * Banquet and Show featuring “The Wet Spots”

All this happens in a nationally known, upscale hotel located in the heart of Washington DC, with easy access to metro, Amtrak, and DCA airport. Our host hotel offers us private ballroom-level event space so we can play the way we want, and has wonderful amenities including onsite lounge & restaurant, gift & snack shop, and saunas & exercise rooms. Even better we’ve locked in special rates of $129 per night (for two or more nights) for king & double rooms, so you can relax and enjoy the event without having to travel all weekend!

Current registration rates are good through January 31!
Please join us and register before Monday to help us make this fundraiser as successful as possible.

Visit our website, http://www.darkodyssey.com for more details. We hope you will join us for this exciting event!

Best Regards,

The Producers of Dark Odyssey:

Tristan, Greg, Karri, and Colten

Hi all,

January was a very busy month for me, but I am happy to say I finished my new book for Quiver, The Big Book of Sex Toys! My first Quiver book, The Anal Sex Position Guide, comes out this spring, so stay tuned for details about it. Amazon finally has the new, final cover up, and it looks really hot! Speaking of heat, Penny Flame and I have been hard at work on the next Vivid-Ed movie, Penny Flame’s Expert Guide to Rough Sex, which will be out in March. I’m thrilled to report that Chemistry 3 has been selected to be screened at the 2009 CineKink Film Festival in New York City, and Chemistry 1 will be shown as part of the 10th Annual Red Dawns Feminist and Queer Festival in Ljubljana, Slovenia (March 5-8, 2009). I have also been working on a few new media projects, which I hope to tell you more about in the very near future! I meant to send this newsletter out at the beginning of the month, but I was swamped getting ready for Dark Odyssey: Winter Fire. I am happy to report that it was an amazing weekend!

Just before Dark Odyssey, I headed to Winter Wickedness in Ohio, where I taught and gave the keynote address; some local right wing nut protested the event, there were actually picketers and we were the top story on the local news! I have finally recovered from Dark Odyssey, and now I am packing for a quick trip to the West Coast where I’m speaking at University of Washington Bothell. This coming Friday I travel back to Washington, DC for some fantastic events, all sponsored by Whole, the sex-positive community center and boutique that opens later this year; events include an anal sex workshop, a VIP brunch, a reading with Open author Jenny Block at Georgetown, and The PolyAfterParty! I then hop over to Baltimore for a class at sex positive shop Sugar and a presentation at Goucher College. At the beginning of March, I will be at Food for Thought Books in Amherst for a Best Lesbian Erotica 2009 reading. I’ll definitely be ready for some R and R after that! As always, I hope to see some of you on the road!

with lube + affection,
Tristan

P.S. I’m still in love with Twitter, please come follow me: http://www.twitter.com/tristantaormino

Calling all heteros, bisexuals, queers, transfolk, genderqueers, crossdressers, swingers, sex-positive peeps, sex workers, pleasure activists, Tantra people, Pagans, sacred sexuality lovers, and freaks…Join us Valentine’s Weekend—February 13-15, 2009—for the 5th Annual Dark Odyssey: Winter Fire. This unique event features nationally known presenters, top-notch workshops, infamous special events, incredible vendors, unbelievable playspaces, and an amazing Saturday night dinner banquet and show. Presenters include Amanda Wildefyre, Barbara Carrellas, Dossie Easton, Lolita Wolf, Penny Flame (that’s right, learn the most amazing hand job techniques from the master herself!), Princess Donna of Kink.com (Directrix of WiredPussy.com and models on lots of other sites; her appearance on TheTrainingOfO.com is especially hot), Femcar, Dan & dawn, Trent of Evolutionary Tantra, me, and many more to be announced! It all happens at a gorgeous upscale hotel in Washington, DC. Remember that the earlier you register, the better rate you get!

Sorry to be MIA for a few months, but I have been busier than ever! After New Orleans, I took a much-need vacation in Europe. As soon as I got back to the states, I hit the ground running to prepare for a grueling shoot schedule in August. In LA, we filmed four new movies: Midori’s Expert Guide to Sensual Bondage with world-renowned bondage expert/sex educator Midori; my Expert Guide to Anal Pleasure for Men (finally!); Penny Flame’s Expert Guide to Rough Sex; and a new series I’m shooting for Vivid called Rough Sex. Stay tuned for details about the release of all those movies in the next 12 months! While in LA, I also had a standing room only Opening Up reading at Book Soup in West Hollywood, and they sold out of books! Woo-hoo!

We just returned from our most successful Dark Odyssey: Summer Camp ever: the event was sold out, the weather was gorgeous, and much fun was had by all. Look for my Village Voice column next week about one particular thing at camp. And mark your calendars now for Dark Odyssey: Winter Fire which will be Valentine’s Weekend, February 13-15, 2009, in Washington DC. You do not want to miss it!

Although I always say I am going to slow things down, the Fall is already pretty booked. I am thrilled to be a keynote speaker at the 8th annual Poly Pride Day in Central Park in New York City on October 4, and I’ll read at the poly book reading at Bluestockings the next day. After that, I head to Wooster, Boston, and Portland, Maine, and Minnesota State University/Mankato for some cool events. In November, I will be in the other Portland (Oregon) as well as Seattle. Right now, I am finishing up a new book, editing my latest Vivid-Ed title, Tristan Taormino’s Expert Guide to Threesomes, and working on a project I am not quite ready to tell you about. Patience. I don’t want to jinx it!

You may have noticed I’ve been off the grid…I was in Europe and I shall tell you all about it. But first, we must pick up where we left off: Columbus, Ohio.

We arrived in Delaware, Ohio at Mireille and Dorian’s house where we planned to stay overnight. It was pouring rain! I met Mireille at a conference in May; she is a professor at UC Santa Barbara, and we hit it off right away. This was the first time we got to meet each other’s partners. Then Colten and I were off to Columbus. We had dinner with Michael and Robbie who showed us the Pride Issue of Outlook Weekly, hot off the press! Outlook Weekly co-sponsored my Columbus reading and really helped get the word out.

Michael, Robbie, and I with the Pride issue of Outlook Weekly

After dinner, we headed to a Chinese restaurant where a group of about twenty-five people from a local poly group were eating. They had made my reading their monthly outing! We visited for a while with Barak and Brat Sheba of Adventures in Sexuality (who have presented at Dark Odyssey and are wonderful), and I was surprised to learn that Julia, who we know from DO too, has moved to Columbus to be with her sweetheart.

We all went over to Borders where I was greeted by a nice woman who showed me where I’d be reading. This was my first Opening Up reading at a big chain store (rather than an independent one), and I realized that I had to edit my talk slightly since there would be customers (especially kids) roaming the store. Lorna drove from Yellow Springs, Mireille and Dorian were there, and so was Luster, who we haven’t seen in a million years. Luster is an amazing performer and drag king from Columbus who also organizes the International Drag King Extravaganza (IDKE), which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this fall.

I read for a while then took questions. We raffled off the Astroglide basket, and a well-know guy from the local poly community, along with several of his partners, were thrilled to win. It was once again standing room only at the store (with over 50 people there, and one clerk told me they expected 10-15), and they sold out of books! The Midwest just showed me so much love—I cannot get over it!

One of my interviewees in Columbus came to the reading and introduced herself and her partner. She was such a sweetheart and she brought me the most amazing gift: a cupcake made of old sweaters created by her mom. How fantastic is that?

Afterwards, we went to a local ice cream place called Graeters, where I ordered the specialty: a buckeye sundae with peanut butter chocolate chip ice cream and hot fudge. It was yummy, but I couldn’t finish it, so Dorian gladly helped me out! We drove back to Delaware in one of the worst rain storms I have ever driven in. There was golf-ball sized rain drops coming down, and it was insane. We all made it home in one piece and the four of us hung out. Mireille and Dorian showed us pictures from their trip to Europe which got me very excited for ours! Then we fell asleep in one of the most comfortable beds we’ve been in on our trip. We woke up the next morning, drove to the airport, and got on a plane to New Orleans!