For those interested in Wordpress technicalities, I’ve activated the Akismet and Peter’s Custom Anti-Spam plugins as well as changing the options on the blog.

Any comments on commenting?!

PS. Using the new way of commenting, your email address will remain in the input box after you’ve posted your comment. Don’t panic – it isn’t visible to anyone except you. If you don’t like it staying there for others on your computer to see, try deleting cookies that come from this website (Firefox: Tools, Options, Privacy, Show cookies, search – other browsers probably similar).

New Open relationships website and book

A new website has been launched, Opening up, by the US author, columnist, editor, and sex educator Tristan Taormino to accompany her book of the same title that was published on 1st May. It includes message boards, an excerpt from the book and a list of resources. It looks incredibly useful, especially for those in the USA. I hope to get hold of a copy of the book and review it here in due course.

Review of Open Fidelity – an A-Z Guide

A review of my book has been posted on Magic Penny’s polyamory blog. At the moment it is just in Norwegian, but Capricorny and Inni, authors of the blog, promise that an English version will be posted soon.

A poly novel – old but still good

I have just finished reading The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk. Although it was published back in 1993 it is still the best description I have read of what a society could look like if bisexuality and polyamory were the norm. Not to mention pacifism, non-violent resistance, earth-centred spirituality and environmentalism, of course.

I resisted it for a while because it sounded like it might be a tract advocating a pagan way of life, but it isn’t a tract at all, it’s a gripping novel that imagines in great detail what life could be like in 2048. Starhawk says on her website of the San Francisco of 2048 she describes:

In general the city is an open and tolerant place, where every sexual orientation feels welcomed. Respect for diversity characterizes the approach to sexuality and family life-and no one way of being is considered the ideal or the norm. Gay, straight, queer, bi, and transgendered people are valued. Coercion and force are considered deep illnesses and crimes.

Many people, like Madrone and Bird, are comfortable with open, multiple relationships, others are monogamous, or become so as they grow older and settle down.

Sexuality is seen as a positive, creative, healing force, and the city’s art and architecture reflect that view in sculptures and spaces conducive to romance, in education about sexuality and safe sex.

Two of the main characters are Madrone (female) and Bird (male), who are lovers, and they each have other loving relationships that include sex with men and women. At one point they have a reunion with their three housemates, friends and lovers that involves all of them in a sacred sex ritual. At another point, when Madrone is travelling, she spends an enjoyable day teaching a man (Hijohn) some sexual techniques, and expresses the hope that this will help with his relationship with Katy, who is pregnant with his child. He wasn’t planning to tell Katy and assumes she will be hurt when she finds out, but Madrone says she cannot promise to lie to Katy. Katy does turn out to feel hurt, but later forgives Madrone and says she plans to get back together with Hijohn.

This is just a taste of this wonderful book, which also gives hope that nonviolent resistance to oppression and war can succeed.

My vision for this site was, and still is, of a place where people concerned with these issues could talk to each other, share their stories, and form a community. It hasn’t yet happened, but I hope it can start  happening now.

If you have found any posts useful, please comment on them and say so. If you think something I have said is mistaken, or unclear, or over-simplified, please comment. If you have a story that relates to something I’ve written, please add it. If you think the whole concept is rubbish, I’d love to hear why – and then other readers can comment on what you say.

You can do all this without revealing your identity to other readers, and if you wish you don’t even have to give me any idea of your identity either. To comment you need to register (I insist on this to avoid spam comments), and that requires only an email address, which only I will see, and a username, which others will see. If you wish you can set up a new webmail address using a service like GMail, Yahoo or Hotmail, which can make you completely anonymous.

In time, the amount of discussion this blog generates will show how useful it is being. If it isn’t useful, maybe I’ll eventually call it a day though I fully intend to keep posting for a good while yet!