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3x/month stories for humans seeking depth and meaning.

I'm Janelle Hardy and at some point you signed up for this weekly (ish) newsletter on memoir-writing, somatic (body) healing and stories. If you'd like to leave, just click the unsubscribe link at the bottom.

So I told a smutty story to... a bunch of strangers

onstage at the Vancouver Fringe Fest

Was it an instagram ad? Probably. Somehow, three days ago I found out about the Smut Slam at the Vancouver Fringe Fest and there was no doubt I was going. Fingers inched towards that 'buy' button and clicked.

Ticket bought, I invited a friend. She hears all my smutty stories, but didn't want to come.

I knew I'd be telling a tale. I had a sexy story in my notes app, one I'd written four weeks ago then shared, paragraph by paragraph, to a lover.

At the same time, I'd been working away on a twist on a love story, refining it to submit to the Modern Love column at the New York Times.

Visions of having my story accepted, then fame and a book deal have been dancing in my head ever since. The only problem is, well, that it's still a rough draft, the writing course is done, and I therefore haven't submitted it to the column yet. No matter. Nothing will stop my imagination from running wild!

All of which is to say, there is a a powerful current running through my life and imagination lately.

Eros. The erotic. The smutty, the sexy, but also the creative and vibrant. The riverine flow of total aliveness.

And so, when discovered the Smut Slam (these kinds of things exist?!) I had to go. Two hours of random people signing up to tell hilarious, hot, embarrassing stories about bodies and sex? Yes please! Hosted by a burlesque dancer? Ooohhh yes please!

Of course, I had no idea what the rules were. I've never been to a Slam.

But, last night, my story with me, I rode my bike 30 minutes to Granville Island, I entered myself as a storyteller, and my name was drawn.

I was the second of eleven to tell my tale. The host asked me what my favourite food was. That's random, I thought, as I blurted out gnocchi. Then she got the left side of the crowd to chant my name, the other side to respond with 'gnocchi'.

Cool, cool, that's a hype-up. Over 100 people shouting "Janelle, gnocchi. Janelle, gnocchi. Janelle, gnocchi..."

And then... I discovered I had to tell the tale by memory instead of how it was written, all in five minutes. I did my best; it was fuuuunnnn!

Sitting alone, by myself, I'd chosen a seat right at the front behind the judge's table. I got to chatting with them. Also Fringe Fest performers, the young gal to my left had a show called I Fear Love. And the 70-ish glamourama woman in front of both of us has a show called Naked at This Age, about becoming a sex worker in her mid-fifties.

I was surrounded by kindred spirits. Writers and performers working with stories, humour and vulnerability, everyone performing in front of the kindest crowd of loud-clapping, big-laughing audience members.

And then, I tied for first place! The tie broken, I came in second. I absolutely loved it.

So here is my question to you, you marvelous readers of this newsletter.

What stories of love, eros, the creative, are you sitting on? And why aren't you writing and telling them? Get going....

And, if you need some help with the writing and the telling, the crafting of a captivating story, check out my upcoming offerings below.

It's my life's work to support you in this beautiful, courageous and liberating work of writing and telling your stories.

xoxo,

Janelle

PS - Save the dates! I am SO EXCITED about the next online summit I'm producing: the Dirty, Messy, Alive: an Embodied Memoir-Writing Workshop Series.

Explore memoir-writing from start to finish and learn from 25+ skilled memoirists and writing teachers - with sessions on outlining, overcoming writer’s block, craft, revision, promotion and more.

September 26-29.

PPS - The dates for the next live round of my transformational memoir-writing course, The Art of Personal Mythmaking, are set. We start October 29th. Seats are limited and I only teach this live once a year. Enrolment is now open.​