THE KENSINGTON LADIES'
EROTICA SOCIETY
PRESS ROOM Sabina, Elvira and Bernadette at Quicksilver Mine Co., Forestville. Courtesy of Vesta Copestakes, publisher, West County Gazette (westcountygazette.com) As part of the Sonoma Word countywide series of events celebrating literary performance, the Ladies appeared at Quicksilver Mine Company, a lovely art gallery in the small, friendly town of Forestville, California. The audience was very receptive, laughed lustily and asked good questions. Sabina filled in details of our 30-year literary journey from book #1 (Ladies' Own Erotica to book #2, Look Homeward Erotica, to book # 3, Sex, Death & Other Distractions. She then opened the reading with her "Address to a Penis Owner" from book #1. Elvira and Bernadette continued with their selections, and the afternoon closed with the show-stopper, "Viagra Blues." by Jennifer Baldwin, staff writer The Oakland Tribune The midday sun brightens the kitchen and dining room of Rose Solomon's home in the Berkeley hills. Bustling around the tables, five women chat, laugh and ogle over the day's fare. "You all look like a bunch of fools," says Solomon, 61, a blue mask covering half her face to hide her identity. She herds her similarly masked longtime writing companions onto the deck for a photo. The women--when appearing as members of the Kensington Ladies Erotica Society--wear disguises and use pen names. In a leopard-print top and cream-colored mask, Bernadette Vaughan, 67, takes her place on a bench. Nell Port, 61, nestles in behind her, the black and white feathers of her black mask pointing straight up. Next to her, Sabina Sedgewick, 66, leans in with her wild red and black mask. In the back stands Elvira Pearson, 72, in a black top and haunting white mask. After 25 years of meeting, eating, reading and writing together, the Ladies haven't given up on sex. After publishing breakthrough books of mature women's erotica in 1984 and 1986, the Ladies have finally come out with their latest book, published in May, Sex, Death & Other Distractions. Unlike their first two books, which were products of their fantasies, the newest is a mix of fiction and nonfiction-and the Ladies are keeping secret which is which. The Ladies say they've seen the books under fiction, nonfiction, erotica, women's studies and aging. In a Bay Area newspaper bestseller list recently, it was listed eighth in local nonfiction. At least the truest nonfiction in Sex, Death & Other Distractions is the recipes, written as sensually and erotically as the stories. Vaughan writes that the Ladies make entire meals of hors d’oeuvres, eating with their fingers, "licking silky aioli from the underside of pâté-laden flatbread" and allowing tomatoes to "burst against the roofs of our mouths in sweet candy spasms." The Kensington Ladies made their start reading such authors as Anais Nin and Henry Miller. "But we felt that they didn't speak for us," Solomon says. So the Ladies decided to write their own stories. They had just two rules: It had to be erotic, and there could be no victims. "And I encouraged everyone to lie," Sedgewick says. The Ladies didn't expect to publish their stories in a book. But a friend convinced Ten Speed Press to take on the project and after Ladies' Own Erotica hit the stores in 1984 it spent 26 weeks on the San Francisco Chronicle's bestseller list. The Ladies were interviewed by Oprah, Dr. Ruth, Terry Gross for NPR, Newsweek, People and USA Today. On the heels of stardom, the Ladies became distracted and met only for occasional reunions. Then they realized they were no longer talking about erotica, but about illness and all life's twists. So they decided to talk about death freely, just as they had about sex. With recent influences such as Viagra and a presidential affair, the Ladies bring humor and reality into their newest batch of erotica. "We're continuing to affirm sexuality at this stage of life," says Solomon. "I want our next book to be 'Heavy Breathing from the Other Side'"  BOOKSTORES Avenue Books, Oakland Cody's, Berkeley Copperfield's, Petaluma Orinda Books, Orinda Book Passage, Corte Madera Booksmith, San Francisco Boadecia Books, Kensington Diesel Books, Oakland Capitola Book Cafe, Capitola Point Reyes Books, Point Reyes Northern California Independent Booksellers Association (NCIBA), Oakland RADIO & TV INTERVIEWS CNTV, "One on One" with Mike Orkin (California State University Hayward) KALW, "West Coast Live," with Sedge Thomson, (at Freight & Salvage, Berkeley) KPFA, "Cover to Cover," with Jennifer Stone, Berkeley KRCB, "Mouthful," with Michele Anna Jordan, Rohnert Park KRCB, "Word for Word," Jennie Orvino, Rohnert Park KRON-TV Morning News, San Francisco KTKT, Bert Lee, Tucson (AZ) KUSP, "From the Bookshelf," Billie Harris, Santa Cruz KWMR, "Viewpoint" with Ellen Shehadeh, Point Reyes Station APPEARANCES Quicksilver Mine Co., Forestville Barndiva Restaurant, Healdsburg Anne Bradford's Gallery, Healdsburg Claremont Book Club, Oakland Junior League of the East Bay "Livewire," Zebulon Cafe, Petaluma Meeker, Colorado, Book Club Orinda Junior League Ravenous Café & Restaurant, Healdsburg PRINT PUBLICATIONS Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Judging a Book by Its Author's Photo" Diablo Magazine, Peter Crooks Artbeat, Words in Place, Healdsburg Arts Council Nob Hill Gazette The Oakland Tribune, "Better with Age," Jennifer Baldwin Orange County Register, Jane Haas Publishers Weekly San Francisco Chronicle, Josh Sens San Francisco Chronicle, "Ladies First," Jane Ganahl Santa Cruz Sentinel, Peggy Townsend [In July 2002 Sex, Death & Other Distractions was #8 on the hardback best seller list in the San Francisco Chronicle.] For Ladies' Own Erotica (1984) and Look Homeward Erotica (1986), the Ladies toured nationally. Besides appearing on local (KPIX, KRON, KGO) and national (CNN, KTLA, and USA) TV, they were on the Regis Philbin Show, Dr. Ruth, and The Oprah Winfrey Show (before she was "Oprah!") Radio shows included "All Things Considered" and "Fresh Air" on National Public Radio, among other stations across the country. Our books were applauded in People Magazine, USA Today, the L.A. Times Book Review, the San Francisco Chronicle and in newspapers in Dublin and London. Ladies' Own Erotica (née Ladies' Home Erotica) was on the San Francisco Chronicle best seller list for 26 weeks and was a Quality Paperback Book Club selection. The Ladies' books have been translated into German, Dutch, Japanese and Serbo-Croatian. |
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