To say I have wanted to attend Eroticon for quite some time is an understatement.  I don’t know if I was scared, or what I was to expect, to be honest.

I wanted to improve myself on my erotica journey.  I had dabbled with my writing for a while, but I needed to know myself, if what I was doing was right.

When I was younger, I had been an Ann Summers party rep and I honestly loved it.  I never felt embarrassed and always felt confident about it.  I used to attend Erotica every year.  A type of sexibition.  I would walk in wearing a corset and stockings with the shortest skirt possible.  So why was my stomach turning somersaults right after I signed up for Eroticon?  I still had almost a year to go before the actual event.  I realise now, I was being silly.

What an amazing experience and with some truly amazing people.

So what did I take away from Eroticon 2018?  Plenty.  Lots of inspiration, new friendships and a sense of belonging.

Friday night meet and greet – I was debating whether to go to this.  The nerves were settling in.  No, I had to do this.  I walked into the Holiday Inn in Camden and I was greeted by Girl On The Net.  She started talking to me like she had known me for years.  I started to relax a little.  I still felt a bit like a wallflower, not knowing anyone, then I spotted another, who looked just as nervous as me.  We got rid of our coats and approached each other.  A new friendship was formed with the lovely and talented Pixie Heart.  We made a small pact to be with each other over the weekend, that way we would at least know each other.  Thank you, Pixie for signing your story in the Eroticon Anthology.

A huge thank you – without the amazing Girl On The Net, Molly and Michael Knight, there would be no Eroticon.  What they do for the Eroticon family is a wonderful thing.  You get a feeling of welcome and admiration and the buzz around the whole place, doesn’t die down for the one minute.

An inspiration – My first talk was with Madeline Morris on Taboo.  She was also my last talk of the whole event on Love you Longer: Writing longer erotic fiction.  A true inspiration and extremely passionate about what she was relaying to us.  She started the weekend on a high and ended it the same way.  I hope she will be talking again next year.

Shy Creatures – I think I fall into this category perfectly.  Thank you Victoria Blisse for bringing this shy creature out of her shell again.  Such an inspiration and thankfully, I did manage to get a few ideas written down, (now to actually write them up).

Goody bag – A girl does love a free goody bag and thank you to all those that added to this wonderful bag.  I am still looking at the products in awe.

The Erotica Effect – Annabelle Knight‘s talk was so enlightening.  It’s true people on the outside, looking in, will certainly frown upon sex in the written form (sometimes even the physical form).  People are slowly opening up towards the whole “erotica”, but that is due to a certain trilogy of books that actually made it into the mainstream.  Sex or erotica is a very taboo subject unfortunately, but let’s hope it’s starting to change now, for the better.

Self Editing – Thank you Anna Sky for a great talk (and for the slides).  I do tend to self-edit a lot, but with your help hopefully, I can do it better now.  I may even pluck up the courage to write something for next year’s anthology.

So my head was spinning with so much useful information and a ton of inspiration and that was only the first day.  Roll on the second day of this amazingly snow covered weekend.

Crafting Sunday – I had originally planned to go to two different talks on Sunday morning.  Sorry to those speakers that I didn’t manage to get there.  I wanted to know what KinkCraft was all about.  I walked in alone as Pixie had gone to a certain talk, but she would join me afterwards.  It was a nice small relaxed group.  We were sat around a table, chatting away and making kinky things with our hands.  I made a red and black flogger and a matching collar.  It was so therapeutic and so much fun.

Shocking the System – Kendra Holliday‘s talk was amazing.  She shared her story of the highs, quite a few lows and even a court case, but she came through it all and is still happy to tell the tales.  If there is something you like doing or writing about that is not the norm to others, don’t let those few others bring you down or stop you.

I believe you should be who you want to be, wear what you want and attending Eroticon, you can be yourself.  No one will judge you.

I do have a few regrets.

I regret that I couldn’t split myself into two as there were so many talks I would have loved to attend, but alas, I could not be in two places at once.

I regret not attending the Saturday night social.

Finally, I regret that it took me so long to make that step to actually attend Eroticon.

There will be no hesitation for Eroticon 2019.  I will be there!