Fresh Loaf

One of the many Rodney Dangerfields of literature has to be erotica. Maybe it’s because most Americans probably like their sex scenes folded into “regular” literature so that it kind of blindsides them. The stuffier crowd might not like their sex telegraphed by the genre’s name — in your face, so to speak.

(Photo by Erik Kragh)

So be it. If there’s one author of erotica who could use some respect around here, it might just be Polly Frost.

The author e-mailed me awhile back to pitch a review of her latest work, the brazenly titled Deep Inside, with its foreboding subtitle, Ten tantalizing tales of supernatural erotica. By most accounts, the book has been well-received in the erotica world, drawing praise from the website Bookgasm as well as that astute reader of all things pervy, Ron Jeremy.

When I asked her if she was doing any Atlanta appearances to present her work, she said she couldn’t, for the sexy life of her, get a date in this town. And apparently she had a story to tell, which she did in a (solicited) e-mail response to me.

Here’s Polly, in her own, not-so-erotic words…

Hi, Atlanta, I’m Polly Frost. I live in NYC and I write erotica.
OK, I write a lot of erotica. I’ve just published a collection of supernatural-erotic tales, Deep Inside. (Photo by Amazon.com)

I also co-write a theater/spoken-word project, Sex Scenes: Erotic and Comic Tales of Hollywood, with my husband. I wrote a novel for the Vivid porn company called Private Access (it’s presented as penned by one of their stars, Tawny Roberts), and I’ve been co-writer/producer on an erotic sci-fi Web series, “The Fold.” (Read about “The Fold” here.)

During the last six months, I toured the U.S. with my fiction. Because I hate typical author readings — how boring it is to listen to most authors read — and because I want to give audiences a livelier experience than that, I present my fiction using local actors to read the stories and semi-act-them-out. The actors always bring a lot of energy and heat to the readings.

I did the show in Albany, Phoenix, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Santa Barbara, Pittsburgh, and other cities, too. I had a great time, audiences seemed to enjoy themselves, and I met a lot of talented performers.

One of the cities I wanted to present Sex Scenes in was Atlanta. I’ve long wanted to get to know Atlanta, as I’ve loved the parts of Georgia that I have traveled to.

But I was defeated in my efforts to present the show in Atlanta.
I contacted a number of venues in Atlanta — none of them wanted to do our smutty comedy. (By contrast, venues in other cities were eager for an erotica reading.) When I finally did find a place to present the show, it was in Athens, at Tastyworld.

OK, I forged on anyway. At least Athens is in Georgia! So I put out a casting call, asking for actors who would want to take part in the show.

Now, I’m never short of performers eager to take part. In most cities, I hear from numerous candidates within 24 hours. True, actresses sometimes have a harder time with the idea of presenting erotic material than men do, especially in NYC where their damn agents are always giving them bad advice about their “careers.” But I always find terrific actors who have a blast doing it, and who tell me afterward that the only problem they had was to keep from stripping and that they can’t wait until they do more X-rated comedy.

But in Athens? One week after putting out the casting call, I had heard from only one actor who was willing to do the material. He was great, and I loved the way he read. But … only one performer? If I was interested in presenting stories about masturbation, maybe that would have been fine.

But my stories involve numerous characters, many of them women. I needed at least five more actors to make the evening work.

Despite making many more efforts over the next few weeks to connect with performers from the area, I was able to line up precisely no one. Sadly, I told Tastyworld I wouldn’t be able to do the show.

So I’m asking: What is it with Georgia?

I encountered a similar challenge when placing ads for my book Deep Inside. Now, I knew that advertising a collection of erotic stories would raise some issues. I’m not dumb about how touchy some people can be about erotic material.

And I had an additional challenge. The endorsement for the book that I most value was from porn legend Ron Jeremy. Here is the quote he gave me:
“Dear Readers,
I found this book difficult to read, because the blood kept leaving my brain and entering my penis … (it’s called a boner). Very erotic stories you’ll find here. If porn as we know it, is on the edge, then Polly Frost has leaped over it, with a double somersault and a twist. If I directed some of these fantasies, I’d either be the world’s greatest adult film director … or I’d be in jail. Enjoy this. I certainly did.”

I couldn’t ask for more! To me that was better praise than a rave in the New York Times Book Review!

But how to let people know that Ron Jeremy found my book a fun turn-on without violating community standards? Obviously I wouldn’t be able to use the entire quote.

First step: I mainly targeted alternative weeklies and hip radio stations.

Second step: I cut down Ron’s quote to this: “Ron Jeremy says about Polly Frost’s Deep Inside: ‘Enjoy this. I certainly did.’”

The ad copy I wrote for radio spots went in part like this:
“Deep Inside — Dangerously oversexed fiction by Polly Frost. Ron Jeremy says of Deep Inside, ‘If I directed some of these fantasies, I’d either be the world’s greatest adult film director … or I’d be in jail. Enjoy this. I certainly did.’”

The ad played in Cleveland and in Washington, D.C., on alternative rock radio stations. Print ads ran all over the country. The only place I encountered a problem was the notoriously conservative San Diego Reader, which seemed upset by everything about my book.

So I decided to place the ad on a popular alt-rock station in Atlanta. The ad rep at the station was helpful and enthusiastic.
I was excited about getting the word out about Deep Inside to Atlanta!

Then … my ad rep e-mailed me that his station had vetoed the ad. They told him they found it unacceptable. He’d fought for it, he said, but he just couldn’t get it past the station manager.

So I’m asking: What is it with Atlanta?

Aren’t Southerners famous for — among other things, of course — their enjoyment of life and their sensual pleasure in houses, food, and drink? Then what’s their problem with erotic entertainment?
In any case, I’m not stopping my efforts to bring my erotic fiction to Atlanta. I know Atlanta audiences will get a big kick out of my work, and that I’ll enjoy meeting them, too.

You know what I really suspect? It’s that when I do finally present an evening of my erotica in Atlanta, it’ll be one of my biggest successes ever.

If there’s one thing I’ve discovered from doing erotica shows around the country, it’s that wherever there’s repression, there’s always the wildest underground sex scene, and the lustiest enjoyment of sex. And that can only mean good things for erotic fiction.

Bookmark It

Posted in Randomly Noted | Add a comment

Tags: Polly-Frost.

Email this post

Related posts

• No related posts.