Eroticon 2019 – A review

For those of you who don’t know what Eroticon is, its an amazing conference for erotic writers and bloggers alike. I spent a year looking forward to it but now it’s all over. Mixed emotions swirling in my head. Engulfed by sadness that I’m no longer surrounded by my people but excitement for things to come.

I won’t be doing a full round-up of all the sessions I attended but here are just a few of my highlights.

There were so many sessions I missed because I couldn’t go to them all. Top of that list is Kink Craft, I love spending time with them making something new and exciting or simply just switching my brain off and chatting whilst tying myself in knots with paracord. It seems this year I missed out on the hidden message necklaces which does make me sad.

Meet and Greet

One of my favourite parts of the Eroticon experience. Getting to meet new friends and catch up with old ones too. It’s such a delight to turn often anonymous faces I chat to on my phone into firm friends. I feel at home here, this is my family. I can be who I really am without the fear of being judged.

Sexblogging: A human rights issue with Zebra Rose

This highlighted so many issues I hadn’t even considered. Privacy, whilst fascinating, confuses the hell out of me. Whilst I want to know how many people are reading what posts, I have no interest in who they actually are and yet analytics thrives on personal data collection even if I don’t know how to access it.

It’s also about how to protect myself, other than using separate phones, separate e-mail addresses, accessing anything personal far away from the house and staying the hell away from Facebook, which I need to for family. But realistically we don’t have time for all of those protections.

I have to admit I did leave the session feeling very guilty and somewhat panicking that I don’t do enough to protect others and myself!

If you want to read more, then please find links to her talk

ePrivacy: Part one
ePrivacy: Part two

How to reach your goals when you have no time to work on them with Kayla Lords

Hello, my name is Bee and I’m a procrastinator! I work full time and have a fairly long commute but the time I get home and decompress, there is very little time before I need to crawl into bed and start it all again the next day. I also write all my posts on my iPad rather than sitting at a desk because I do that all day, which means I get distracted by all the games and Twitter!

We were told that writing needs to become a habit. Make a diary, block out your busy times and see what’s left. During that time focus on achieving the smaller goals which leads onto the medium goals which then lead into your bigger goals. Realistically I knew all of what was spoken about, it’s basic common sense but sometimes you just need to be told what to do. It seems Kayla has become my writing ‘top’. I have a long list of things that need sorting out behind the scenes on the blog and I’m writing this on the train!

If you want read more, the please find the link to her talk

How to reach your goals when you have no time to work on them

Kinky things

Saturday afternoon was spent playing with some fun toys. Thanks to Mac the Vac I had a lovely lie down wrapped in Vet wrap and even gained a little experience of what gas masks felt like, I’m still unconvinced about them. If I get the chance again I may try the ones with eye pieces I can see through rather than being blacked out completely.

Having experienced the vac bed last year I decided I’d try the inflatable bed instead. After finding the vet wrap calming I found the inflatable bed just uncomfortable which was disappointment.

Leaving the vac room we found ourselves back in the main Kink lab area watching friends sample the delights of the impact toys. I couldn’t resist, there were one or two things that caught my eye and I just had to try out for myself. The padded paddle was delicious, I need one of these and I suspect it’s the reason I have a lovely bruise to poke. I also got to sample a dragons tail, it was beautiful. I’ve always been intrigued by single tail whips and now I feel I need to take the step and purchase one.

Surviving social media; dealing with harassment online with Candy Snatch

Honestly, I was on the edge of tears hearing what Candy went through. She’s such a wonderful person and really doesn’t deserve any of it. There are some awful people out there and sometimes we forget what we do can attract some crazy responses. There are times I’m bored of being anonymous but this highlights that maybe it’s best to keep it that way whilst I can. It lead Bee Keeper and I to have some fairly in depth conversations about what we’d do if it happened to us.

Anxious writers club with Cara Thereon

I joked that I need one of Caras t-shirts for everyday of the week. I am anxious, I don’t feel like I can class myself as a writer because I don’t write that much. I don’t always feel my voice is heard in amongst a group of far better writers than I’ll ever be. I know, it’s imposter syndrome but I think we all suffer from that one way or another. I need to forget about that, put those posts out there whenever I can and remember to keep breathing. I may not be the best writer but I still have my stories to tell and nothing should stop me!

From 1000 readers to 100000: building traffic on your blog with Girl on the Net

As I mentioned before I have a busy life, this blog isn’t my top priority because I can’t do it all! I would love a huge following but I’m also realistic and know I can’t put all the necessary work in the achieve that. However, this session has given me a few ideas of what I could do in the future, some of them may not work but I shouldn’t let that stop me. I know I should guest write for others to gain some cross links but I don’t have much time to write for me let alone write for others too. Maybe I can change that this year…but what to pitch?! I also have my Menstruation Project I need to spend time publicising. It’s so important to me and deserves more time and effort spent pushing it out so it can help others.

Eroticon is a hugely valuable experience, yes the drop makes me wobble and wonder if the sadness I feel afterwards is worth it but it really is. Time spent around people that accept me for who I am makes me feel valid. Never have I been accepted by people the way I’m accepted there. If you’re a writer or blogger who hasn’t been before then, if you can, go. You won’t regret it.

I do have a few final thank you’s to make. Firstly to all the sponsors, without who’s help Eroticon wouldn’t happen.

Doxy
Electrastim
Fetish.com
Hot Octopuss
Lovegivr
Sheets of San Fransisco
Tempation Holidays
The Ruby Glow

And lastly but by no means least, the people who make this event happen every year. I want to say a huge thank you to Molly and Michael, you guys rock and I’m proud to call you my friends.