Susie Bright, a pioneer of sex positive feminism, has ignited a sexual revolution with her groundbreaking political writings. Through eight books, including In Bed With Susie Bright, and high-profile columns for publications like Bust Magazine and salon.com, Bright has found her way into the bedrooms of many sexual souls thirsty for pleasure and politics. With her latest release, Mommy’s Little Girl: On Sex, Motherhood, Porn & Cherry Pie, Bright brings us from a lashing sexual-political wake-up call in The Sexual State of the Union to a mothering bosom (sort of). She scoops up our anxieties around love, loss, porn and performance with a sweetness almost wholesome enough for children, yet somehow manages to retain the spitfire quick wit and bedside intimacy that make her writings some of the most accessible and acceptable dirty talk written today.

In her latest offering Bright has, in a sense, grown up and garnered the sort of confidence that can only come from professional experience, motherhood and life. Mommy’s Little Girl is a compilation of stories and essays written during Bright’s first 12 years of motherhood. While the topic of motherhood is dropped after the first few chapters (giving the book an unfortunate, all over the map incohesiveness) Bright is never uninteresting, jumping in her usual way from Viagra and Vargas to nudist resorts and mothering. Her unflinching honesty exposes the deadened passions of today’s sexual salesmanship – a circumstance that alarms her and leaves her wondering if “sex gets it on anymore, or if it just dresses up and looks for the next sucker.”

Bright’s powerhouse prose can get any intellectually stimulated reader hot, but if you need some extra smut scenarios, don’t fear: She provides enough sizzle to get any cherry-pie-loving American back on track with naughty goodness. The following is a recent email conversation between Bright and the Gay & Lesbian Times.

Susie Bright: A friend of mine who’s a sex educator says that when she runs workshops for parents, she asks them, “What would you like your kid’s first sexual experience with another person to be like?” You might imagine, as you contemplate that question, you realize that your answer has a lot to do with things you might have wished for in your own history!

I hope my daughter actually likes sex, that it’s truly pleasurable and thrilling, and not a “peer-pressure” situation where she has to fake her confidence or enjoyment. I hope she’s not such a scaredy cat to stick up for herself, as I was. But, I have a feeling she will be more self-assured than I was, because she is already a pretty confident kid in other social situations.

I home school, so you can tell that I “gave up” on school systems at a certain point. It’s so brutal and difficult to change. But what I love about the area we live in – near San Francisco – is that so many families are gay, or “different”, and we are just one more interesting family in a sea of quirks and eccentrics.

SB: I’m sure you know that George Bush is moving toward some strange interpretation of the scriptures, where he is the Great Father looking over all our shoulders and making sure we say our prayers His Way. The government is so strangely in the hands of religious zealots that it’s hard to understand what will happen … They are so grievously out of step with mainstream America. The religious divide is enormous.

SB: I have no idea. I do not get treated like an icon by anyone who knows me well, nor does the phone company or bank treat me with any awe or dignity. I would like to be a real, no-kidding icon just for 24 hours, because I would like to be a total brat and order everyone to tremble before me. Especially the phone company.

SB: Wow, I would like to hear this story. I almost came on a homemade chopper once in Seattle. … The girlfriend seat was nothing more than a slim piece of vibrating leather, just a strap, really. I was on my way to the first Living in Leather conference, where I received this extremely dangerous glass labyris, with sharp edges intact. That was a great day…

I just cringe when I hear that someone feels inadequate because of something I said or did. My whole point is, “Let’s stop comparing and start enjoying who we are!” I don’t care about special tricks or props. I’m not supersonic. Just bounce me on your knee and I’m a happy camper.

SB: Oh for crying out loud. You know, I feel almost guilty for popularizing the g-spot phenomena. … Why couldn’t I have kept my mouth shut? I hate it when the sexual hot tip of the moment becomes a high school popularity contest. Who gives a shit? Do you have orgasms, do you enjoy touching and being touched – do you love your body and know how to love someone else’s? That is waaaaaay good enough!

SB: I have three erotic novellas coming out this summer that I acquired and edited from three of my favorite authors. They’re under one cover, called Three the Hard Way. Meanwhile, I’m working on a novel this summer about another summer I spent – the first summer I was sexual – many years ago. Don’t know what to call that one yet!