Panel Discussion: Sex in the Text: Making Love Between the Pages

 Must be 18+ to attend.

You won’t want to miss this live panel discussion with romance and erotica writers on the hows and whys of putting sex You won’t want to miss this live panel discussion with romance and erotica writers on the hows and whys of putting sex into print.

William D. Prystauk writes the award-winning Kink Noir crime thriller series. He’s also an award-winning screenwriter, filmmaker, podcaster, marketer, and educator. Prystauk is currently working on his first horror novel as he takes notes for book five of Kink Noir. He is also a medical copywriter and prides himself in never leaving any sushi behind. Get his books at https://amzn.to/3xKYR6f (free for Kindle Unlimited) and follow him on Twitter @ NoirKink.

The beauty of words has infiltrated the life of Angel Ackerman for her entire life— from reading Green Eggs and Ham thousands of times to writing groundbreaking poems titled “My mom wears flip-flops” in Mrs. Sanders’ second-grade class. She spent 15 years as a print journalist, specializing in weekly newspapers where reporters learned to write about every topic and take their own photographs. With the decline of print media, Angel explored the non-profit sector where she worked in public relations, program design, social media, grant writing, and development.

As a fiction writer, Angel crafted a paranormal urban fantasy universe that combines horror, romance, and humorous women’s fiction, the Fashion and Fiends series featuring Chez d’Amille, the French fashion empire of Étienne d’Amille, who attracts female attention and the supernatural. Angel explores the struggles of human relationships using “monsters” and threats to discuss topics like domestic violence, depression and grief, women’s rights, religious difference, sexuality, body image, and coming of age.

As a participant on the “Sex in the Text” panel, Angel will highlight the purpose of sex in a story— as a means of communication, a way to show who your character is, a way to show how characters interact, and sometimes as a way to bring characters to their “next level.”

In 2021, she founded Parisian Phoenix Publishing Company (ParisianPhoenix.com), a pandemic-era project, with graphic designer Gayle Hendricks. Her staff members include blind poet and writer Nancy Scott and photographer, Joan Zachary. Parisian Phoenix has published eight books in their first year: Angel’s ongoing Fashion and Fiend series; Darrell Parry’s quirky poetry book, Twists: Gathered Ephemera; an anthology of marginalized Lehigh Valley voices, Not an Able-Bodied White Man with Money; a rom-com novel by Seneca Blue set in a fictionalized Bethlehem, Trapped; and a memoir by nonagenarian Holocaust survivor Charles Ticho, Stops Along the Way.

Currently in production are two cat anthologies to benefit Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab, The FURR itty bitty how-to-cat book and As the FURR Flies as well as fiction by Larry Sceurman, a member of the Lehigh Valley Storytellers Guild.

Although now separated, Angel enjoyed a 20-year marriage to Darrell Parry. They have a teen daughter, Eva, who keeps bringing home strays—leaving the Ackerman household with a current count of five cats, one pit bull/black lab/mastiff mutt, one Goffin’s cockatoo, one parakeet and nine foster cats and kittens from Feline Urban Rescue and Rehab.

Angel holds a bachelor’s degree in English and French from Moravian College, a bachelor’s in International Affairs from Lafayette College, and initiated a master’s degree in World History at West Chester University. Her academic interests include French post-colonial Africa, Muslim relations, and the politics of miscegenation. She hopes to revisit her honors thesis which looked at the stereotypes of Muslims in France and how they perpetuate the colonial mindset and how that influences modern international affairs and the American War on Terror and also how it compares to the African American experience.

In addition to newspapers, Angel has been published in Ten Word Stories by Dime Show Review, Rum Punch Press, StepAway Magazine, two volumes of The SAGE Encyclopedia, and did book reviews for Hippocampus Magazine and Journal of Global South Studies.

When not examining the world with a post-colonial critical theorist’s eye, Angel loves to travel and study foreign languages. She has visited Canada, France, Tunisia, Somalia, Djibouti, Yemen, and various parts of Russia (such as trekking to Siberia for pizza). Read more of her escapades on AngelAckerman.com and follow her on YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram.

Parisian Phoenix Publishing can be found on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter in addition to their website, ParisianPhoenix.com.