Eroticon 2016: Meet & Greet

Eroticon Live is only 11 days away! If you want to come and haven’t yet bought your ticket, click here. If you want to know why you should come, check out the post I wrote after last year’s event.

The weekend kicks off with a meet and greet over drinks on the Friday evening. Before that though, Molly Moore is hosting an online equivalent, which you can find here. My answers to her questions are below the jump – if there’s anything else you want to know about me, just ask! Or have a read through the mammoth Q&A I did last month…

NAME (and Twitter name if you have one)

Exhibit A – and I’m on Twitter as @EA_unadorned. I think my real name will be on my badge, but if it isn’t just feel free to ask. My anonymity pretty much goes out the window when I meet people in person. I’d have made a rubbish spy.

If you had the opportunity to rename yourself (or your blog) what would you pick?

I’d add a section for London bar reviews and call it ‘Cocktails & Cock Tales’.

No, that would be shit.

I dunno. I’d probably give myself a proper pseudonym and use it as the blog title. My parents nearly called me Alexander, but changed their minds at the last minute, so maybe I’d be Alex-something…

What are you most looking forward to at Eroticon Live and/or is there anything you are nervous about?

If the last two years are anything to go by, the best bits about the weekend will be the ones I didn’t see coming – the new friends, the weird and wonderful late-night conversations, the stolen kisses in hotel corridors…

It’ll also be great to meet Hyacinth Jones, whose writing I’ve admired for a long time – and to see the gorgeous Tabitha Rayne again, after she missed out on Eroticon 2015. Not to mention all the lovely people I haven’t had the chance to hang out with since last year’s event, of whom there are far too many to list by name!

As for nerves…this is my third Eroticon, so they’ve mostly disappeared by now, but I imagine there will still be a few butterflies when I stand up to read on Sunday afternoon.

Have you planned which sessions you will be attending or are you more of a spur of the moment kind of person?

I think there are 11 sessions in total (including panels and the afternoon readings) of which I’ll probably attend nine: even though it’s a short conference, there’s a lot to take in, and I’ve found it useful each of the last two years to duck out for a bit and clear my head. I’d say I’ve got about 75% of my schedule firmed up – the rest will depend on how I feel when the time comes.

What essential items to your life will be bringing with you to Eroticon Live? (you can have a maximum of 5)

Pretty sure the most important thing anyone can bring to Eroticon is an open mind – along with a willingness to listen and learn. As far as material items go, I’ll be travelling light, but I’m sure I’ll find room in my bag for running kit, laptop, shirt & cufflinks (if only to keep F. Leonora Solomon happy), emergency booze…and a corkscrew.

A new cocktail has been made on your honour, what would be the key ingredient and what would it be called?

Faced with a cocktail menu I invariably look for the gin-based options, so that would have to be the base spirit. I’d call it the Robin Hood, after Disney’s sexiest hero, and would capture the spirit of Sherwood Forest by chucking in some berry fruits and herbs – hopefully also giving it a reddish hue.

And finally… Complete the sentence; I have yet to…

…decide which story to read on Sunday. If you want to help me pick, leave your suggestion in the comments below!