Erotic Novels & Stories: Does Sex (Still) Sell?

Consider 50 Shades of Grey, the most recent entry and phenomenon in the sex book wars. I read a couple of pages at the checkout counter of a local bookstore and that was enough for me. My daughter says that she and a group of girlfriends read scenes aloud and howled. So what’s to be made of the trilogy’s 65 million in sales? Do women really crave bondage? Or is it simply that every generation needs a sex novel? When I was a boy it was Peyton Place. I was just a kid when it came out so it must have been a few years before I read it though I remember the sex scenes as if it were yesterday, bad girl Betty Anderson and rich boy Rodney Harrington on the beach, illegitimacy, incest and more. Then there was Fanny Hill, a bit flowery for my taste but it did the trick, and of course … Read more

Summer Events and Readings Coming Up

These are the upcoming reading events for the launch of my new anthology The Marijuana Chronicles by Akashic Books. 1. Tuesday, June 25 – 7-9pm, St Marks Bookshop, 31 3rd Avenue, NYC (212) 260-7853 *program starts @ 7:30 2. Sunday, August 4 – 4pm, Spotty Dog, 440 Warren Street, Hudson NY (518) 671-6006 3. September 1-2 – Bumbershoot Festival, Seattle Time TBA  (I’m afraid I can’t be there but Amanda Stern of “HappyEndings” and Maggie Estep and other contributors to the anthology will be. It’s still an event not to be missed!) 4. Tuesday, September 10 – 7pm, WORD, 126 Franklin Street, Brooklyn, (718) 383-0096

The Marijuana Chronicles Launch Contest

Here’s your chance to win this original illustration by Jonathan Santlofer from THE MARIJUANA CHRONICLES! Here’s all you have to do: 1. Buy the book. 2. Take a picture of yourself with the book (make it fun!). 3. Send us that picture one of three ways: a. Tweet the photo using the hashtag  #weedtales b. Post the photo on my Facebook Page:  https://www.facebook.com/jsantlofer c. or Submit the image to http://bak.jonathansantlofer.com/contest 4. Deadline: August 31st. Extended to October 31st. 5. Names will be placed in a hat and drawn at random. *Like they used to say on television: Family members are not eligible!

“The Peyote Factory” Short Story on Akashic Books

Today, my short story “The Peyote Factory” inaugurates Akashic Book’s “Thursdaze” Check it out on the Akashic Books Website.         The Peyote Factory By Jonathan Santlofer I always told myself that I’d never use anything stronger than pot. I was a middle-class kid away from home, at NYU for my second year of art school, and hard drugs scared the shit out of me. But pot, I loved it. I smoked in the morning, afternoon, and night. I’d go to school stoned, paint stoned, fuck stoned. It was 1970 and I was living on Avenue C. It looked like the set for an end-of-the-world movie: deserted tenements, bums, hustlers, junkies, and pushers on every corner. I thought I was cool. Read more…

“Talking Images” Panel Discussion – Tang Museum of Art – Skidmore College

“Talking Images” – Panel Discussion: Words in a work of art and the power of a word to create an image in writing. Where: The Tang Museum 815 North Broadway Saratoga Springs, NY – Part of Skidmore College Summer Program When: July 18, Reception 5:30-6:00, Discussion: 6-7:30pm Panelists: Jonathan Santlofer, Rick Moody, April Bernard, James Esber Narrated by Tang Museum Director, Ian Berry.

Book Q&A’s with Deborah Kalb

This is an excerpt of my interview with Deborah Kalb on her great blog Book Q&A’s. Q: How did The Marijuana Chronicles come about, and how did you determine which authors to include in the collection? A: That’s a two-part question, Deborah. The first part is easy. I was at a book party and was talking to Johnny Temple, the publisher of Akashic Books, and he mentioned that he was looking for an editor to do The Marijuana Chronicles, the third in his ongoing drug series. I immediately said I was interested. Not because I’m a pothead – I’m not – but I thought it would be a great project, obviously topical and that it would be fun to do, all of which turned out to be true. Read more…

Book Talk Interview with Kory French – Break Thru Radio

Here is a recent interview I did on Break Thru Radio with Kory French. The 1st half is about “me” and the 2nd half about THE MARIJUANA CHRONICLES. I thought is was going to be all about the book so I was a little unprepared for the personal questions but I did my best. The show has a long musical Intro and then another at the midpoint but you can skip past them. And you may have to hit “DJ Kory” when you get to the site. But have a listen and let me know what you think. Listen here: [audio:http://bak.jonathansantlofer.com/wp-content/uploads/book_talk_with_kory_french.mp3]

City Mouse Versus Country Mouse

I have always been a city mouse. Well, not always, but mostly. I was born on East 57th Street in Manhattan though my parents deserted the city for Queens and then LI when I was a preteen, but I couldn’t wait to get back. And I did. But then, like so many diehard New Yorkers I longed for escape, which I did on occasion and liked that too but always came back. I think mostly it was a quest for quiet, a rarity in NYC, and something I found when I bought a little house in upstate NY about eight years ago. An impulse buy. I swear. It was just after New Years and we were visiting old friends, the realist painter Catherine Murphy and her sculptor husband, Harry Roseman. I’ve known Cathy since we met at the art colony, Skowhegan, when I was 19. (Cathy says I looked like John Sebastian of the Lovin’ … Read more

Why Crime Fiction Academy Matters

About a year and a half ago Noreen Tomassi, the Director of Manhattan’s Center For Fiction, came to me with the idea of creating a place for crime fiction. A place where unpublished writers could come to finish the crime novel they’d started but stalled, where writers could be taught by really good published authors, could sit around a table with the best crime fiction writers of our time, people like Lee Child and Elmore Leonard and Laura Lippman, to name just a few, and a place to study and learn from classics in the genre. We did it because no program like it existed. There are writing programs everywhere, but not one that concentrates on crime fiction. In fact, few writing programs offer students even one class in crime fiction (and to those students I say, come take your classes at CFA and we’ll find a way to work it out with your school). … Read more