Last weekend, I went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I'd been to the FoB before, but when it was at UCLA, and it's now at USC, which I'd never been to before. USC is sprawling and nice, but there's something sort of flat and banal about it. Although there is some interesting architecture. I was there to see my friend Matt Young sit on a panel and discuss his new memoir, EAT THE APPLE, which is an amazing and experimental memoir that explores what multiple deployments do to a young Marine's mind. I highly recommend it. I got to meet BLACK HAWK DOWN author Mark Bowden, who was on the panel and discussing his new book, HUE 1968; read his rave of Matt's book in the New York Times. We didn't stay long at the FoB, because there were amazing shrimp tacos to be had at the appropriately named Best Fish Taco in Los Feliz. That inspired choice was thanks to Maggie Waz, a great young, talented, and hilarious writer who has an alter ego that is going to Mars.
Buy "The Tumor" -- a new digital short story that's been called "a masterpiece."
If you haven't seen it already, watch "Operation Odessa." It's on Showtime, and it's a fascinating, brilliant, hilarious, gorgeous, energetic documentary involving three guys, a lot of cocaine, and a Russian submarine. If you love hustlers, international intrigue, and strippers, you will love this movie. My favorite character is Nelson Yester, seen here and known as Tony. He's a man with global connections who's the brains behind the operations. He seems unable to resist engaging in whatever series of actions will result in the highest yield with the greatest risk. "Being a player was in my destiny," he pronounces as if to be a man-of-the-underworld is a higher calling.
Buy "The Tumor" -- a new digital short story that's been called "a masterpiece."
To date, I have received nearly 800 emails from men who want to be male porn stars. They write to me because in 2012, I wrote a post on my Forbes blog entitled: "The Hardest Thing About Being a Male Porn Star." In 2013, I wrote an article for Salon on the number of emails I receive: "'How Do I Become a Male Porn Star?'". In 2015, I wrote a follow up post on my Forbes blog about why so many of the emails come from India: "In India, Porn May Be Changing How Some Men View Masculinity." The original post I wrote for Forbes has over 2M views. Below, a recent email, which arrived with the subject header: "For the Post of Male Pornstar."
I am 25 years Old Indian Guy with strong Sexual power. I am Mentally and Physically ready to do the job . Kindly guide me to earn bucks , I have my passport ready just give me accomodation and proper food.
Thanks and Regards
[redacted]
Buy "The Tumor" -- a new digital short story that's been called "a masterpiece."
I took this photo the other day near Fairfax, I think, in Los Angeles. Earlier, I'd been to LACMA. It's a billboard for "A Quiet Place." People responded positively to the image. I like it because it reminded me of the photos I used to take in LA, when I lived here before (I moved back to LA last October). There's something fantastical about LA -- the blurring between reality and fiction, the larger than life facade, the staggering sprawl. I'm very happy to be embedded in it.
My shocking short story "The Tumor" has been called "a masterpiece." Buy it today!
I'm happy to report that a short story I wrote will appear in an upcoming issue of a literary magazine. I'll announce which magazine as publication nears. The story is called "The Flesh Eaters," and it's about a woman who works in a San Fernando Valley factory, where she makes sex toys. The story is one in a short story collection-in-progress called Porn Valley Stories. All of the stories are set in and around the adult industry. This will be the first one to be published. If you're an editor interested in seeing another story for consideration, email me: susannahbreslin @ gmail.
My controversial digital short story "The Tumor" has been called "a masterpiece." Buy it today!
I snapped this pic last weekend in East LA. I had a really great time reading at David Rocklin's amazing Roar Shack series at 826LA. I also had a wonderful meal beforehand at Triniti with a girlfriend.
A shot I took of some public art in front of the library in Burbank, in The Valley.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
There's a house in the San Fernando Valley that's not far from where I live, and the owner has filled the foliage growing in the section of dirt between the sidewalk and the curb with a collection of curious things. There are inspirational signs, small gnomes, a happy Buddha. I don't know who owns the house or what the purpose of this collection is. Suffice to say, the snake that's hanging in the tree is striking.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
My friend Matt Young's memoir, Eat the Apple, which has been called "the Iliad of the Iraq War," is on sale tomorrow. It's an amazing book that I was lucky enough to read while he was working on it. Today, the NYT proclaimed it "inventive, unsparing, irreverent and consistently entertaining," and NPR says it's "brilliant and barbed." I strongly recommend you read it. You will love it.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
One of the great things about being back in LA is listening to KCRW in the car all the time. Weird, eclectic, emotive. What I'm digging: Lord Huron's "Wait by the River."
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
If you're interested in hearing me read a short story about a male porn star who has a problem with his penis, I'm reading in the Roar Shack series at 826LA in the Echo Park neighborhood of LA on March 11. The reading starts at 4PM. This story is from a collection of short stories I'm working on that all take place in and around the adult industry in the San Fernando Valley.
Roar Shack Reading Series presents "The Way Up" on Sunday, March 11 2018 at 826LA in Echo Park! Join us as we welcome a superlative lineup of lit talent: Wendy Labinger, Dig Wayne, Poetic Nubia, Emanuel Bergmann, Susannah Breslin and Erica Garza! All this plus the world famous Live Write. You don't want to be left out, do you? I mean, didn't we all get enough of that in high school?
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
Awhile back, a screen grab from an article I wrote on my Forbes blog was circulated on social media. The original story was "A Porn Star's Widower Delivers a Moving Speech at the Oscars of Porn." The portion of that piece that was widely disseminated focused on the fundamental challenge presented to women who work in adult. While everybody watches them, no one truly sees them. This tension -- between being visible and invisible -- is a fraught place in which to live.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
Not long ago, I went to a strip club in the San Fernando Valley where porn stars and strippers were engaged in cage fighting. I expected it to be something like the WWE, but in reality it was a bit more like the UFC. I spoke to several of the fighters -- all women -- and it occurred to me that maybe fighting wasn't so different from stripping or performing in the adult business. It's about pushing yourself to extremes, taking your body to its limits, and enjoying the spectacle.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
I re-read this piece today for a related book project I'm working on and found it interesting to consider some eight years after having written it. I sought to illuminate the ways in which the Great Recession and other factors had impacted the adult movie industry, and I did so, I think, albeit a bit oddly and indirectly. Every so often I re-read that piece and wonder what it's about. Memory? Humanity? Desire? Whatever it is, the last thing it's about is porn and the economy.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
I made a quick detour up to the Ennis House today, in the hills above Los Feliz. This is the house where Deckard lived in "Blade Runner." Oh, and it was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. It's one of my favorite residential homes in the world. I used to live nearby and would walk by it regularly. Before they stopped doing so, I went on a tour of the place. It is truly extraordinary. For a time, it appeared that it would fall into ruin, but billionaire Ron Burkle bought it, and he saved it. It's still standing.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
On March 11, I'll be reading at 826LA. Details to be announced. This is the second reading I've done since moving back to LA last fall. I've been reading a series of short stories that I've been writing, which are based in the San Fernando Valley, where I live, and focus on the adult industry and those who work in it. At the last reading, I read a story about a woman who makes silicone vaginas for a living. At this one, I'll be reading a story about a day in the life of a male porn star.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
Not long ago, I had the distinct pleasure of being interviewed by Ken Reid, host of "TV Guidance Counselor," a podcast in which he interviews people about a copy of TV Guide. I picked the issue from Ken's collection that featured the ladies of "Charlie's Angels" on the cover from 1976. You can listen to the episode here or here. We talked about Farrah Fawcett, the presidential possible pee tape, and what it's like when a lot of kids are watching TV alone, but kind of together.
Here's what we discussed:
Ken and Susannah discuss being tall, Berklee, the odd isolation of neighborhoods, being anti-establishment, intellectualism, Charlie’s Angels, hair goals, Farrah Fawcett, Jaqueline Smith, The Shazam Isis Hour, the original Saturday Night Live Not Ready for Prime Time Players, Dolly Parton’s sisters, brunette as protest, The Jeffersons, Holmes and Yo-Yo, having four Real Dolls, how empathy can motivate you to do odd things, sex contracts, 20 years of covering the adult entertainment business, big budget pornography on Entertainment Tonight, sex robots, being a latch key kid, The 3:30 Movie, made for TV horror flicks, being on panel shows, Politically Incorrect, stand up comedy, being a control freak, The Post Feminist Playground, Jenna Jameson, The Mitchell Brothers, Roberta Findley, the false safety of parody, Star Trek, being in love with William Shatner, racist nerds, the varied experience exposure of television, Black Mirror, old man talk, hating progress, virtual reality, eXistenz, Little House on the Prairie, the horrifying mime episode, Monroe’s assault on Too Close for Comfort, Johnny Cash, Variety Shows, Cherry 2000, Happy Days, Lavern and Shirley, Jackie Brown, The Golden Age, the long slow death of physical media, sad warehouses, looking for humanity, obscenity trials, the hunt for the most extreme, the President and the Porn Star, Japanese weirdness, pee pee tapes, connections made to be broken vs lack of connection made to be made, why Ken would never have Donald Trump on the show, being fueled by spite, what the hell the point of TV Guidance Counselor is, being sad to find out how lonely you were as a kid, but feeling happy when you realize you were alone together with a lot of other kids.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
I drafted an outline for a comic the other day. It had to do with Porn Valley. I made it on some index cards I had lying around. I used to make comics. You can read one of them, "My, My American Bukkake, Too," on Artbomb. I made that one using photos I took on a porn set, which I ran through a Photoshop process called Stamp, then messed with them to make them how I liked. I should probably do a third one.
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
Awhile back, a friend of mine told me that a publication was looking for a writer to do a story on financial domination. Financial domination is a very curious thing. I wrote a story about it, and I have to say, I'm not sure I understand it. Why would a man give a woman thousands of dollars to tell him that he was worthless? It defies the capacity of my brain to comprehend. In any case, I talked to a handful of women who've done it about the who, what, why, where, when, and how's.
From "The Hustle of Financial Domination":
You can call her Goddess Haven—although, on Twitter, her handle is @Haven_TheGreat—and if you’re what’s known in the curious world of financial domination as a “pay pig,” you’re going to have to offer her a “tribute,” if you want her to even acknowledge that you exist.
In “findom,” as it’s known, it’s all about the money. Or, as Haven puts it in her Twitter profile: “Pay first, learn about me later.”
Buy a copy of my digital short story "The Tumor"! It's been called "a masterpiece."
The future world I'm foretelling in my novel-in-progress is coming true. Meet deepfakes, if you haven't already. Videos of female celebrities' faces transposed onto the moving bodies of porn stars in homemade, app-enabled content clips. Truly. Fucking. Bizarre. Sometimes it's the lack of the Frankenstein quality that's what's freaky. Sometimes it's the disconcerting placement of an ill-placed face not seamless situated across another's body. As my novel wonders, speculatively: What does this mish-mash do to the entities from which they were taken? When your expression, your limbs, your breath is combined with another's, will it change you?
