We hope to see you at Abiola's Kiss and Tell Live Revue at Madame X this Tuesday June 15th, 7-10pm, free, 94 West Houston Street in NYC to celebrate the release of the new Robot Hearts anthology! If you aren't in NYC still pick up the new internet love, online dating and tech book Robot Hearts!
1) Tell me about your anthology.
Robot Hearts is a collection of personal essays written by people navigating the relationship maze of online dating and new media.
2) What inspired Robot Hearts?
Both of us met our husbands before the whole internet dating thing, but were fascinated with stories of people connecting in this new way. Even our own friendship was rekindled through Facebook. We thought it’d be fun to gather these kind of stories together in one place. We have a line of nonfiction anthologies planned—this is just the first.
3) How did you select the writers?
We put out a general ‘call for submissions’ on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and our website. Some of the folks who contributed were friends, but most were complete strangers. David Sterry is an award-winning memoirist and well-published friend whom we’ve worked with before. Carrie Cohen’s essay, “The Man I Might Have Married,” is a tragic, touching tale of the strange and sometimes false intimacy meeting online entails.
We were intrigued by the experimental form of Kianoosh Hashemzadeh’s essay. “They Left a Paper Trail.” Trudi Tayor, who is traveling from North Carolina for the reading, cracked us up with her submission, “The Pickle Story.” Cara Bruce wrote about the truly frightening ways that psycho exes can use technology to terrorize. And the title of Caroline Bryant’s piece, “Match.con: One English Woman’s Experience with Online Dating” just says it all.
4) Do you Kiss and Tell?
Hmmm….well, we’ve both written explicit material of our own, before, but in this case, we hug and allow other people to tell on themselves.
5) What are your thoughts about the intersection of love and technology?
Shawna: I’m suspicious. Technology is an extension of the user, yet it has the uncanny ability to mask our most human qualities. Meeting people online is both more immediate and more removed—our online selves are artifice. I’m a romantic, so I’d like to believe anything’s possible, but interacting online can never replace that intangible thing—that chemistry—that people feel once they see, hear, smell and experience one another in-person.
Cara: I agree with Shawna about the chemistry. I’m also not sure it can be replaced. Yet, I do wonder if meeting someone online and taking the time to get to know him or her, really get to know him or her, before doing anything physical might not be such a bad idea. But, then again, sex is such an important part of any relationship that maybe all relationships should start with sex and move on to talking. I also would imagine that meeting someone online would involve a whole other level of trust or, should I say, distrust. Overall, I think that as long as we don’t remove ourselves from real, face-to-face human connections we should be okay.
6) Are there any things that we humans should avoid with our newly Robotic Hearts?
Loneliness. Hermitude. Agoraphobia. Damn, it sounds like the life of a writer.
7) Where can we find the book and learn more?
We’ll have books at the reading, iand t can be ordered online now at
and we have guidelines for future anthologies up at our website:
8) What can we expect on June 15th?
Expect to laugh and maybe even cry a little. You will emote, whether you want to or not.
Cara Bruce is the editor of Viscera, Best Fetish Erotica and Best Bisexual Women’s Erotica. She is also the co-author of The First Year – Hepatitis C (1st & 2nd editions) and Horny? San Francisco. Her short fiction has appeared in many anthologies including Pills, Thrills, Chills & Heartbreak, Best American Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica, Necrologue, Public House, among others. She has written for The San Francisco Bay Guardian, Bust, GettingIt.com,
Shawna Kenney is the author of Imposters and the award-winning memoir, I Was a Teenage Dominatrix. Her work has appeared in Juxtapoz Magazine, Transworld Skateboarding, Punk News, Girl With Pen, Veg News and the Florida Review, among others. She teaches creative writing online for UCLA Extension and lives in Washington, DC. For more info see www.shawnakenney.com
Cara & Shawna are the co-editors of Robot Hearts: True and Twisted Tales of Seeking Love in the Digital Age and co-owners of Pinchback Press. They also co-host the monthly Washington Writers' Salon at the Rock and Roll Hotel in DC.
