German Coverage

The current edition of the popular German psychology magazine Emotion, includes an in depth feature about us. For those who don't read German, go here for google's auto-translation, which is far from perfect and a little perplexing at times, but you'll get the idea.

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Indie Excellence Awards Finalist

We just learned that Tantra for Erotic Empowerment is an Indie Excellence Awards 2008 finalist. The selection is especially gratifying, since the New Age Non-Fiction Category is such a broad one.

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Come Early

The first 200 guests at our launch party will get gift bags. We've already received over 200 RSVPs, so arrive early if you're planning to be there.

In addition to the gift bags, every attendee will get a raffle ticket and a chance to win an amazing door prize.

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Book Contest

Go here and enter to win a free copy of Tantra for Erotic Empowerment:

http://tcm-ca.com/adultcontest.html

Copy and paste the link. For some reason myspace won't allow it as a hotlink.

Hope to see you at the launch party!

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Tantra for Erotic Empowerment/Opening Up Launch Party

Hope to see you there.

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Launch Party: Tantra for Erotic Empowerment and Opening Up -- 5/13/08

Come celebrate the release of two exciting new books: Opening Up: A Guide to Creating and Sustaining Open Relationships by Tristan Taormino and Tantra for Erotic Empowerment: The Key to Enriching Your Sexual Life by Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson.

Tantra teachers Mark Michaels and Patricia Johnson and sex expert/Village Voice columnist Tristan Taormino will party with the Sexerati as they schmooze, dance, and sip on special cocktails. You’ll get an exclusive sneak preview of their latest collaboration: see Mark and Patricia teach Tantra techniques to performers in Tristan’s latest volume of her award-winning porn reality series, Chemistry 4.

Every person who purchases a book will get a free tantra, sex ed, or porn DVD. Guests will also be treated to fabulous gift bags full of sexy, sensual, fun goodies hand-picked by the authors. Plus, don’t miss an exciting performance at 9 pm by a very special guest!
Please rsvp to sarah (at) puckerup.com.

On a different note, we were at the Virginia Festival of the Book last weekend. We had a great turnout for our free talk and a really good group for our workshop the following day. Charlottesville is a wonderful town. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back to teach. The Hook, the local alternative weekly, did a really nice piece on us:

http://www.readthehook.com/stories/2008/03/20/FACETIME-johnson-B.aspx

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Tantra for Erotic Empowerment Available Now

Copies of Tantra for Erotic Empowerment were waiting for us this week when we returned from a ten day teaching trip. The official publication date is April 1st, but since it is available now, we're celebrating by offering free shipping & handling on domestic US orders placed before April 1. We'll also inscribe it for you. (We will send a separate shipping and handling invoice for international orders.)

Visit our books page to order.

If you prefer, you can place an order with your local bookstore (always a great option) or purchase it on Amazon.

Currently reading : Tantra for Erotic Empowerment: The Key to Enriching Your Sexual Life By Mark A. Michaels Release date: 01 March, 2008

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More Honors

Tantric Sexual Massage for Lovers has been selected for the CineKink 2008 Film Festival -- http://www.cinekink.com/.

In March, we'll be attending the Virginia Festival of the Book as participating authors. The selection was based primarily on Tantra for Erotic Empowerment, but we submitted The Essence of Tantric Sexuality too. We'll be doing both a signing and a workshop -- www.vabook.org.

We have devoted an enormous amount of time, love, and attention to these projects, and it's deeply gratifying when others recognize our efforts.

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Valentine’s Day is Coming

Valentine's Day is coming, and we'll be appearing on Playboy Radio's Afternoon Advice on Monday, February 4th at 4 pm est (Sirius Radio, Channel 198). The show has a call-in segment, so if you have any questions for us, this is an opportunity to ask. The number is 1-877-205-9796.

We'll be on the road for Valentine's Day itself, but we've written an article that should be appearing on various websites. It's already up on one blog, and we'll post the first three paragraphs here..

Tantra is an ancient Indian spiritual tradition that recognizes human sexuality as one avenue among many for achieving mystical experience. Although the number of Tantric texts that deal directly with sexual activity is quite small, most Westerners associate Tantra with love, sex, and relationships. While Western ideas about Tantra are thus somewhat misguided, if you can bring a Tantric sensibility to love and relationship, your love life will be richer and more fulfilling.

Celebrating Valentine's Day is controversial in 21st-century India. This is due, in part, to the rise of Hindu fundamentalism and objections to the holiday's Christian origins. More importantly, conservative Indians view Western ideas about romantic love as alien and immoral. Arranged marriages are still very much the norm, even as India becomes a technological superpower, and in arranged marriages, love is a fringe benefit, not a necessity.

The Western belief that romantic love is the prerequisite for an enduring relationship is a relatively recent phenomenon that evolved gradually over centuries. The troubadours of twelfth century Provinces celebrated romantic love, often unrequited, for the wives of other men. The Saint Valentine's Day holiday has its origins in Roman fertility rites and medieval French midwinter celebrations inspired by beliefs about the mating of birds. Charles the Duke of Orleans sent the first known "valentine" to his wife from the Tower of London, where he was imprisoned, in 1415. While the custom of exchanging cards and gifts became popular in the 16th-century and pre-printed cards were fashionable by the end of the 1700s, the belief that romantic love should be a precursor to marriage (let alone a happy marriage) did not become the dominant paradigm until the 1900s. Before then, marriages were usually based on social and economic considerations, and love matches were the exception not the rule. Throughout most of human history, East and West, love and marriage did not necessarily go together and indeed were often seen as virtually antithetical.

You can go here and scroll down to read the rest.Note that the quote about the gaze is from Miranda Shaw's wonderful book Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism. The footnote disappeared at some point in the process after the article left our computer.

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Busy, Busy, Busy

Ever since our last blog entry we've been almost completely absorbed in the final stages of editing Tantra for Erotic Empowerment. It was painstaking and very time consuming, but we're very pleased with the results and feel we will have a better book for all the hard work. The polishing process can be an endless one, so it was a relief to be able to put the book to bed. Everything's on track for an April release.

Our DVDs Tantric Sexual Massage for Lovers and Advanced Tantric Sex Techniques(Alexander Institute) are available at last through our website. The process of making the films was very interesting, and we learned a lot. It's very difficult to make effective, explicit instructional films, and we really didn't know what to expect. We're delighted with the final versions.

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