46 Likes, 5 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "#selfie"
In the spirit of decade-in-review lists, I thought I’d look back at mine:
Move or Die. I moved a lot during this decade. I lived in Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Naples, Florida; and Los Angeles, California. Austin was hot, Chicago was cold, Naples was humid, and Los Angeles was — well, the other day, a guy told me there are two seasons in L.A.: summer and not summer. I liked living in those various places. You get to see the full point of view. I live in L.A. now and forever.
If All Else Fails: Retreat. I did a bunch of seminars, and residencies, and that sort of thing in this decade. I don’t think I’d done much of that before. That included THREAD at Yale (loved the train ride there and the Yale campus) in New Haven, Connecticut; the Logan Nonfiction Fellowship (amazing experience and made some of my great friends there) in Rensselaerville, New York; a Noepe Center retreat on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts (not a great experience, but the island was cool); I was the Lawrence Grauman Jr. Post-graduate Fellow at the Investigative Reporting Program at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley in Berkeley, California (didn’t think I’d score that but you don’t get every fellowship you never apply for); and the Social Science Summer Institute for Journalists at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York, New York (nothing says summertime like the UES, the Met, and a Philip Johnson building). All of these experiences were interesting for different reasons. Please keep applying, even if you get rejected. I didn’t expect to get most of these opportunities. They bring you into new worlds.
Work It. I did a lot of work things during this decade. I was a journalist, and a fiction writer, and an editor, and a copywriter, and I did readings and talks, I wrote TV shows, and I was a mentor. For whatever reason, this piece I wrote for Billfold, “Blood Sacrifice,” is a standout in my head, probably partly because it’s so weird. I’m proud of what I did as the editor of Forbes Vices. And I liked helping develop the voice of Pepto-Bismol on Facebook. I was also delighted to self-publish “The Tumor,” which you should buy. If you want a career as a writer, you might want to diversify. That’s what I did. I wasn’t precious. If it involved words, I did it.
Hitched, Unhitched. I got married, and I got divorced.
When the Call Comes from Inside the House. In 2011, I was diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer. I spent a year and a half undergoing treatment: a lumpectomy, chemotherapy, radiation, and a gene-targeting IV drug for my specific type of breast cancer. I’ve been NED (No Evidence of Disease) ever since. I’ve tried to describe what the experience was like, and sometimes I compare it to the line in the movie where the guy on the phone says that the call is coming from inside the house. Most challenges come from outside the house. Your boss sucks, or your partner leaves, or you don’t get some thing you want. When cancer calls, it’s already set up inside the house that’s you. That is very hard. I am glad cancer is no longer calling me from inside the house, and I hope that it never does again. There’s no lesson here — other than people don’t know why they get cancer a lot of the time, and when you survive it, it usually just means the drugs worked. It’s neither more nor less dramatic than that.
Queen of Vice. More recently, I’ve been a strategic consultant for vice companies. As the editor of Forbes Vices, I learned a lot about vice. And, man, it sure does sell. I shot guns, sampled THC, drank well, ate better, watched porn get made, and generally had a good time. If you’re interested in hiring me as a consultant, email me at susannahbreslin @ gmail dot com. Sometimes, I’ve said vice is all the things that we like to do that aren’t necessarily good for us. They sure are fun.
The Cowgirl Is Back. In 2002, I started one of the internet’s first sex blogs. It was called The Reverse Cowgirl. Obviously, that’s a double entendre, but it was also a reference to my days horseback riding. Now I’m riding again, and jumping again. Which I love. There’s some confidence building, and there’s some athleticism, and there’s a recognition that when you’re on top of a 1,500-pound horse that’s sailing through the air, you’re not exactly in control. Which is the point of life, I guess. To let go and hang on for dear life.
[Selfie from my Instagram feed]
Several years ago, I started writing a series of short stories (fiction) set in Porn Valley. Some of those stories have been published over the years. One that I had a hard time placing was entitled “Spike” and featured a male porn star whose erection wouldn’t subside. After 14 rejections, that story was finally accepted for publication. I’ll follow up with details closer to the date of publication, which will be in early 2020.
After spending the last year and a half helping Forbes build out a popular new digital vertical devoted to vices, Forbes Vices, I’m transitioning to strategic consulting for vice companies. My expertise is in helping adult, gambling, cannabis, alcohol, tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and firearms businesses grow their brands and includes strategic planning, branding, public relations, marketing, and digital. Interested in becoming a client? Email me at susannahbreslin@gmail.com.
15 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "For a clean up 🧽"
These pink vans can be seen parked around the Los Angeles neighborhood where I live. They promote various adult websites that offer various services. This one is for Topless Maids and suggests you “BOOK HER LIVE FOR A CLEAN UP !” I’m not sure how effective this marketing strategy is, but I’d like to find out.
You can follow my Instagram here.
I was interviewed by Dr. Belinda Middleweek for “‘In a Pink Getto’: How Female News Workers Define Sex Journalism,” the first chapter in Sex and Journalism: Critical, Global Perspectives. I believe I’m “Interviewee 4,” who describes herself as “‘The Hunter S. Thompson of sex writing” and her role as “‘Virgil to the readers Dante,’” and “describe[s] the ‘war correspondent mentality’ […] that comes from this form of news work in which ‘your mental state and your body [are] on the line in pursuit of a story.” You can buy a copy here.
24 Likes, 1 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "Burbank sunset"
I took this photo on the Chandler Bikeway in Burbank, California, a few days ago. I used my new iPhone Pro Max, which I very much love and highly recommend. I made no adjustments before or after taking the photo, other than running it through the Oslo filter on Instagram, which just amplified the golden hour a bit. Check out more of my photos by following me on Instagram here.
Like my work? Get “The Tumor.” It’s been called “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
The Swaddle has an interesting piece up on why men go to strip clubs that mentions my 2011 project: “Letters From Men Who Go to Strip Clubs.” The story is called “Men’s Preferences for Strip Clubs Stems from Vulnerability” and sheds some counter-intuitive light on what’s really going on in the half-light.
A brief glimpse into the psyche of the strip club-going man is offered by Susannah Breslin, who set up a blog titled “Letters From Men Who Go To Strip Clubs” in 2011. She collected and compiled submissions from men she deemed authentic and provided a window into their motivations to watch, in the company of other men, women take their clothes off for money. Their reasons included the need for company: “Who else can you talk to? Your business partner? Can’t afford to show weakness. A friend? His wife is friends with your wife so you have to be careful. A therapist? I’ve been trained to walk off a heart attack”; the need for control: “I’m 61 and I like to think this is my revenge for all the beautiful women in the world whom I can’t approach, whom I can’t get. [In strip clubs] I can have some young beauty dance and smile at me anytime I want,” and “Women hit on you all night. Everything is reversed. You, the guy, are pursued”; a need for attention and love: “[the girls] are genuinely interested in me”; and a need to prove their manhood: “to prove I could do it, sit in a testosterone-filled room and pretend the women there wanted to dance for me because I am a man.”
You can read more about The Letters Project here, and you can read the rest of the article here.
Buy my short story: “The Tumor.” It’s been called “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
1 Likes, 0 Comments - Susannah Breslin (@susannahbreslin) on Instagram: "My friend @valeriebaber interviewed me for her Sex & Society podcast. We talked #Playboy,..."
My friend Valerie Baber interviewed me for her “Sex & Society” podcast. We talked about Playboy, empowerment, and porn. You can listen to the first episode here.
[Image via my Instagram feed]
Buy my short story: “The Tumor.” It’s been called “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
I wrote an appreciation of Charles Forsman’s Slasher for the Seriocomic series on HILOBROW. I highly recommend the Slasher series. It’s wild and outrageous and like no other comic I’ve ever read.
“Narratively, bad things happen, oftentimes at Christine’s hand: people die, people are brutalized, people are terribly lonely. But for Christine, murder is self-affirming. ‘I’ve never felt so relaxed,’ Christine texts Joshua after a fresh kill. ‘Like I’ve been holding my piss for 25 years. I know who I am now.’”
Read the rest here.
Buy a copy of my latest digital story: “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
I wrote an essay about cancer, sex, and what happens when you can’t get away from you for Roxane Gay’s Gay Magazine on Medium: “Topping from the Bottom.”
“Maybe you’re getting too old for this shit. Maybe you’re not drunk enough. Maybe no matter what you do, no matter how many guys you fuck or how many times they leave you bruised, you still can’t escape yourself.”
Read the rest here.
[Image via my Instagram feed]
Buy a copy of my latest digital story: “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
I wrote a post on my Forbes blog about Kylie Jenner posing for Playboy. It’s about the images, the interview, and the real question people are asking when they’re asking whether or not posing for Playboy is empowering.
So why are we still questioning whether or not it’s empowering for a woman to chose to pose nude? The body is hers, and the choice of what to do with it belongs to her alone. The same is true whether you’re #2 on “The Celebrity 100” and have a real-time net worth of $1 billion, whether you’re the 50-year-old star of a movie about strippers, or whether you’re a sex worker fighting for her right to do business without fear of being killed while doing so.
Get a copy of my latest digital story: “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
I took this image on a porn set in 2014. It was somewhere in the Valley. Maybe it was Van Nuys, or maybe it was Chatsworth, or maybe it was Northridge. I don’t remember the girl’s name. There was a wheel of fortune at one end of the room with different sex acts on it. The whole thing was streamed live. There were other people in the room, including a guy who’d done security for Jenna Jameson. The male porn star had a tattoo on his right forearm that read: It’s not only who you are underneath. It’s also what you do that defines you. Eventually, I went home.
Get a copy of my latest digital short, “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
13m Likes, 134.8k Comments - Kylie ✨ (@kyliejenner) on Instagram: "When Houston meets LA .. 💛 @playboy #ComingSoon"
Tomorrow I’ll be on “The Quicky” on the Mamamia podcast network, where I’ll be talking about Kylie Jenner’s upcoming Playboy spread. She’s on the cover with boyfriend Travis Scott, and she’s not wearing much, it seems. The images were shot and / or creative designed by Scott. I’ve written about Playboy previously, and I was a regular on Playboy TV’s “Sexcetera” for five years. I still love the brand.
Get a copy of my latest short story, “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
Hustlers follows a crew of savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients. The film was inspired by the article published by New York Magazine entitled "The Hustlers at Scores" written by Jessica Pressler.
Not long ago, I got an email from someone with a company that was trying to hire me to deliver a presentation. But I wasn’t sure what the company was or what the presentation would be about. We went back and forth in email for a bit, and I remained confused. So, she told me to call her. Then she explained that she works for a company that owns all the strip clubs in a major city. After a bit of back and forth, I realized that she thought I was a former dancer, and she wanted me to come in and coach the girls. “Like on etiquette and stuff,” she said. In any case, since I’ve never been a dancer, but only written about dancers and clubs, I emailed her a few names of women who are and/or were dancers and do that sort of coaching. I was never a dancer. I lacked the guts. Much respect to the girls that do.
Get a copy of my latest short story, “The Tumor” —“a masterpiece of short fiction.”
A shot of Burbank today, from my Instagram feed.
Get a copy of my latest short story, “The Tumor” … “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
I learned today that a new essay of mine will appear in Gay Magazine, Roxane Gay’s new publication on Medium. The issue’s theme is Pain, so this one’s a bit of a doozy. I’ll post a link to here when it’s online.
Get a copy of my acclaimed story, “The Tumor.” It’s “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
Over at Forbes Vices, which I edit, I’ve really been enjoying working with a new contributor, Franki Cookney, who’s covering the sex beat. In a recent post, she profiled some of the best offerings in audio porn. You can read her full post and get her recommendations here: “Audio Porn Is a Booming Business, and Here Are 5 of the Best.” Are you a journalist with an expertise in vices? I’m always on the lookout for strong contributors who have a singular focus in one of our vices categories, which includes everything from gambling to guns. If you’re interested, shoot me an email at susannahbreslin @ gmail.com.
Get a copy of my acclaimed story, “The Tumor.” It’s “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
On Madd Fictional, Rhyan Scorpio-Rhys reveals why you shouldn’t question a writer’s motives:
“[T]he writing process has it’s own way of weeding out the fly-by-night scribblers, posers and pretenders with the obstacles it scatters on the long and winding path to a completed project. Whether your driving force is money, fame. to impress a person/people, burning need, or love of the artform, you will still experience your fair share of procrastination, anxiety, writers block, time crunches, lack of motivation, fear of rejection, judgment of peers, and impatience of selling a piece.
If you can repeatedly bash your head into these walls, get up, dust yourself off and continue to write, who am I to question your motives?”
Read the rest here.
Get a copy of my acclaimed story, “The Tumor.” It’s “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
I love Burbank. That place where movies are made and late-night TV happens. A small town inside of a very big town. Long, Magnolia-lined streets. A hodgepodge of people. The best little town that you flew through and left. I’m back.
Get a copy of my acclaimed story, “The Tumor.” It’s “a masterpiece of short fiction.”
