Stella Fosse author
Stella Fosse

Stella Fosse Author

Stella Fosse is a writer in her sixties whose erotic life bloomed in her fifties.  Stella captured this surprising turn of events in short fiction, which she shared at the Dirty Old Women reading series in Oakland, California.  She chose the pseudonym, Stella Fosse, to spare her adult children the embarrassment of a mother who writes erotica. By now the children are more or less resigned, but Stella keeps the name just in case.  

You can find all Stella’s books here

Her book empowering women through erotic writing “Aphrodite’s Pen:  The Power of Writing Erotica After Midlife” was published by North Atlantic Press in September, 2019.  Through anecdote, playful exercises, interviews and writing samples, the book encourages ripe women to explore erotic writing as a joyful practice. Stella plans to expand this writing group concept to other locations, including her new home state of North Carolina.

Stella leads erotic writing workshops based on the concept of creativity as play. Or you can sign up for a FREE online writing class.

In 2016, Stella and her friend Susan Kuchinskas founded a writing group called Elderotica for women over fifty.  With monthly meetings to share story writing and friendship, Elderotica has become a great support group for Bay Area women exploring creativity and sexuality after midlife.

As all this has unfolded, Stella has discovered many terrific resources, which she is happy to share on this website. 

Stella wishes you joy exploring! 

The "Why" - Stella's Manifesto.

We all know that there are advantages to passing as a member of a socially preferred group, whether through able-bodied privilege, straight privilege, married privilege, or racial privilege.
It was no surprise when I read an article by an older woman recommending to her sister writers of erotic fiction that we disguise ourselves and our characters as young. Her reasoning was that young sex sells, young sex gets published, and old sex does not. Why not pass, borrow the privilege of youth, and make more money? It's no different than the Brontes, really, when they began their careers by publishing with male names.

But the flip side of passing is the lost opportunity to expand our own horizons and educate others. When we let people assume we are different than who we are, we allow them to continue their denial. We make a tacit agreement: "I won't rock your boat and you won't treat me as less-than."

Passing may be a great bargain in the short term, but it has costs over time, in attitudes that don't change, in lost opportunities for personal growth. Still, we must choose our battles. For example, at age 65, I was not ready to let my hair go grey, although grey is my authentic color. I am not prepared for the uphill slog of proving to each person I meet that I remain vivid and capable. The fix - the twenty minutes a month I spend dying my hair - was just too easy. Plus, I tell myself, why shouldn't I have the same right to dye my hair as a younger woman? I know women my age who are grey, and I respect that choice, but it's not my fight.
To me, this business of writing sexy characters past midlife is a bigger deal than hair color. It is a battle worth choosing. This is our voice. This is our opportunity to let ourselves and others in on the "secret" that women past midlife can be vibrant and alive. That when we live in sin, we are blissfully sinning; that when we marry, we want more than a companion; that when we date, we are older women with new relationship energy. 
We each make our own decisions about writing, just as we make our own decisions about sex itself.
Not every woman wants to remain sexual past menopause. Some put it down like a burden; others take it up like a victory flag. It changes everything when we put aside stereotypes and pay attention to what we need. When we do, we may decide to continue or even ramp up our sexuality after midlife. We may decide to combine our creativity and sexuality to write erotica in playful exploration, during our wise ripe years. We may decide to share what we write with others, through writing groups, performance, publications; or to keep our writing to ourselves, for our own joy and validation. And we may choose to write as ourselves, with characters who share our complexity, as humans who have lived full lives, loved much, desired much, and experienced much. 

If there are limited opportunities for women to publish erotica that reflects our true age, let's nudge the world toward our joy. We won't be the first: Writers like Jane Juska and Erica Jong, and anthology editors like Lynx Cannon and Joan Price, have carried that torch. We can keep it going. 
Let's be brave and fearless and sexy, let's find our voices, take our paths, strut our stuff. Let us be each other's biggest fans. Let us read erotica by and for older women. Let us write fearlessly, read joyfully, and love passionately. 


If not now, when?

If not us, who? 


Let's do it!

a hand writing on the page of a journal

We Want YOU!

... to get involved: send us your blog or an article for publication on Stella's site.

Here’s what we need from you:

  • The draft text of your proposed piece. We prefer plain text, with a length of 500 words or more.  Your topic should be related to Stella’s passions: writing, erotica, sexuality, being a mature woman, a grandmother, etc. See Stella’s manifesto, above.
  • A picture of you.  jpg format 800 pixels on the long side, standard srgb 
  • Your  byline – or pseudonym – if you use one 
  • Your real name and age (decade is fine!)
  • A short bio (up to 100 words – we may edit it for length)
  • Your email address
  • A link to your website (if you have one)
  • A link to you blog (if you have one)
  • A Link to your social media.

Please email all these items to webmaster [at] stellafosse [dot] com and we’ll be in touch!  Very Soon!
Thanks!

All That Legal Stuff

Contacts:

Stella Fosse, Author

Mailing Address:  125 S Estes Drive #4311, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
Email Contacts:
Stella: stella [at] stellafosse [dot] com
Web Problems: webmaster [at] stellafosse [dot] com
Press, PR, speaking, book club 
scheduling, operational issues, etc., etc: graham [at] stellafosse [dot] com

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