TORONTO (January 26, 2004): If you prefer the luscious taste of chocolate to a wild romp in bed, don’t despair—you aren’t alone! In Great Britain, 50% of women surveyed also preferred chocolate to sex, and a poll in the US’s Jane magazine backed up those stats: while having sex, 86% of female respondents preferred fantasies starring chocolate to those featuring their own partners. Perhaps that’s why so many people view chocolate as the ultimate aphrodisiac…

In this year’s Valentine's Day erotica competition, A Passion for Chocolate: 2004 Erotic Writing Contest, sponsored by North America’s leading worker-owned sex-toy stores, Come As You Are (Canada) and Good Vibrations (US) writers can combine their passions for sex and chocolate into one erotic concoction.

Whether you write fiction, non-fiction or poetry, Come As You Are and Good Vibrations want to read YOUR erotic writing inspired by nature’s most delicious aphrodisiac, chocolate, and it’s physical counterpart, sex. A Passion for Chocolate invites you to let the sweet, creamy taste of chocolate inspire your erotic fantasies, poetic imagery or intellectual arguments.

Three contest winners will receive truly fabulous prizes: First Prize is a one-year supply of sex toys and a one-year supply of chocolate! Second Prize is $200 worth of sex toys and an assortment of chocolate, and Third Prize is $100 worth of sex toys. Runners up will receive a 15% off coupon to either Good Vibrations or Come As You Are.

Two celebrity judges will be reading each submission genre. Fiction readers include bestselling author, lecturer and sex expert Carol Queen and Josey Vogels, author and creator of Canada's My Messy Bedroom. Poetry judges are performer and Love Bites columnist Sasha Van Bon Bon and erotica author and editor Thomas Roche. Non-fiction readers are Em & Lo, sex divas and bestselling authors of The Big Bang: Nerve's Guide to the New Sexual Universe, and Karen Croft, Salon.com’s popular sex columnist.

Participants are invited to submit erotic fiction, non-fiction and poetry. All submissions are limited to 1000 words or less and must include references to chocolate and sex. Submissions are accepted from February 1st through 29th. Winners will be chosen the first week in March 2004. First, Second and Third Prize entries will be published in Good Vibrations’ online magazine.

Participants may enter and read full submission guidelines at http://www.sexorchocolate.com.



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About Come As You Are

Since 1997 Come As You Are has been Canada’s first choice for high quality sexual products, education, and information. Democratically run and co-operatively owned, Come As You Are strives to offer women and men a comfortable place to explore their sexuality in a supportive, non-judgmental, inclusive environment. Voted best sex store for the past six years by NOW Magazine, Come As You Are has retail locations in Toronto and Montreal, and a website at http://www.comeasyouare.com



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