Category: Blogging (Page 1 of 3)

ILB’s meta-blogging posts. Blogging about blogging? How perverse!

40

March 16, 2025 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

Today is the last day of my 30s.

I should probably be 40 already. I was born a week late (my mother claims I was still in there reading The Beano) and, for a while, it looked as if I wasn’t going to make it. Eventually, however, I was born on St Patrick’s Day, a date that becomes even more humorous when I tell people I don’t drink.

For a very long time (in fact, since I started this thing back in 2007) I’ve been wondering what to do when I turn 40. I did assume (as it turns out, correctly) that I’d still be blogging by this point, but as whom? At forty years old, am I still really a boy? I’ve always considered myself one. So do I change my name? Accept that I am finally into the adulthood I have been so strenuously resisting for twenty-four years and shed the moniker of “Innocent Loverboy” to which I have always painfully clung?

I could always go with “Innocent LB”, I thought. That’s my blog URL and social media handle. I could just do that and then refuse to explain what the LB stands for.

But then I look back at the ILB from 2007 and compare it to now. 18 years later (this blog could be a full adult) and it does seem like very little has changed. I still play Nintendo games. I’m still a fan of Knightmare, Star Wars and Pokémon. Additionally, I read DC Comics; I write songs; I listen to James. I remain a member of Woodcraft and the Green Party, I have a similar taste in movies (classical, contemporary and – of course – smutty). And I still have stories to tell. I even work in the same industry…

At least my logo has changed.

The more I think about it, the more ILB at 40 sounds to all intents and purposes like ILB at 22. People around me evolve all the time; just this morning I was talking over breakfast with Einstein about how many friends have ventured into the “having children” malarkey. 40 sounds incredibly old – I mean, that’s practically 60, and that’s practically dead. Bang, and I’m in my declining years!

Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose…

But no matter how I age (dis)gracefully, something still ties me to my “boy” identity, and by extension, my “Innocent Loverboy” moniker. If I’m the same person I was then, that’s the name I should be using. If GOTN can be a girl on the net, there’s really no reason I can’t be a loverboy. I mean, I still love… and I’m still kind of innocent…

…right? RIGHT?!

But here’s the rub. At the age of 40, does my content need to be any different? Do I need to move along from soft porn reviews, funny/awkward/sexy bits from my past, conversations with my friends, excessive parenthetical comments and awful self-deprecation?

There’s an answer to this: no. It’s all part of my brand. For years now I’ve been entertaining dozens, if not hundreds, of readers with pretty much the same claptrap. People still read, they still see, and they still interact (even if they don’t do as much any more…); blogging may not be as huge a medium as it used to be, but I persist.

Societal pressures, of course, tell me I should really do something for my 40th. And so I’ll announce it here:

Hi, I’m ILB. I’m really old.

Invisible

October 29, 2024 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

Let’s all eat naked!
The Erotic Adventures of the Invisible Man (2003)

Can anyone see me?

Okay, maybe that’s not the clearest of questions. You’re reading my blog so you probably can’t actually physically see me. Yes, there’s an avatar of me at the top of the page, but even that’s not me. In the more figurative sense, can anyone see me?

I ask because, for the past few weeks, I’ve been feeling fairly transparent. I don’t get mentioned, or talked to (or, I am assuming, talked about) by anyone (outside of my immediate circle, but even then, it’s a safe assumption that I don’t). Yes, I have gone through moments in my life when I have felt unimportant, or hopeless, or unlovable. This isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a new feeling.

And I don’t make any pretence towards being particularly important. I am entirely unremarkable in my civilian life and, despite the occasional titter of laughter, not particularly successful as a comedian either.

But what about ILB?

The other week I had a performance review with my boss at work. Fairly positive though it was (although less glowing than mine was last year, when I had a much younger and smilier boss), one thing came out that I wasn’t even aware I knew until I said it.

“The thing is,” I heard myself say, “because I have very low self-esteem, if you don’t tell me that what I’m doing is any good, I’m going to assume it isn’t.”
“But what you’re doing is good!”
“But you’re not telling me that! If you don’t say it, I’m going to think I’m not doing well!”
“But you’ve been doing this for ten years!”
“And I still need validation! At the very least you could make a note that I’ve told you this!”

Ralph Wiggum being a pop sensation in The Simpsons episode "New Kids on the Blecch". — Ralph gets it. Yvan eth nioj!

I don’t ask for much. In my younger years I would have… well, not exactly delusions of grandeur, but I did like to paint myself as something of a savant, or more central to a concept (or a group) than I actually was. I still needed validation, of course, but I could kid myself into thinking that I was being seen. The fact that I could write “wheeeeeeeee! I’m a pop sensation!” in my diary after a gig almost made up for the years of abuse I’d endured in the brass band I’d been in prior to taking up rock.

More than a decade later and I’m less sure. With less and less people telling me I’m awesome I am becoming more and more convinced that I am not, in fact, awesome. As ILB I feel more invisible than ever before, what with the gradual decline of the sex blog as a viable medium (and I don’t do audio porn or have a Patreon or an OnlyFans, so I’m lacking that USP as well!) and the fact that I genuinely feel extraneous anyway, sometimes this makes me wonder if I am anything of a presence at all.

Last time I went to Eroticon I had, on my way there, the curious feeling that people would have forgotten I existed until I actually turned up. I was even preparing for my translucent nature by attempting to reconcile the fact that nobody knew who I was with a joke. That Nick managed to find my lanyard without me having to remind him of my online handle was nothing short of a miracle, so sure was I that people were looking through me like glass.

Is this temporary?

Who ~~cares~~ knows? I go through moments like this; I know I do, even if nobody else is reading me enough to get that impression. I don’t even know what, in particular, brought this on, when the rest of the sex blogging community (or what remains of it…) is having a relatively self-congratulatory, mutually appreciative moment, I am feeling completely auxiliary.

What would happen, I wonder, if I disappeared? Would anyone care, or worse, would anyone actually notice?

Just something I think about, I suppose. You don’t need to do anything, gentle reader. But, if you could find it in your heart to notice me every once in a while, I’d very much appreciate that.

Burning Bridges

April 4, 2024 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

[An old friend once wrote a blog post with “Burning Bridges” as the title, so maybe the credit for the above goes to him.]

I’m not really brave enough for this.

Something I’ve noticed – mostly at Eroticon, but in conversation with others too – is that there is a bit of a difference in how European and American bloggers handle controversy.

What?

Evidently I’m not talking about everyone here, but I’m not the only one who sees this: American bloggers are zealous. They see something that needs to be called out and they’ll do so. Immediately. To the outsider it may look like a bit of a knee-jerk reaction, but it’s just the blogger getting something done before it becomes more of a problem. This can be good, evidently; the now-infamous Screaming O talk at Woodhull is a great example.

But to me it seems a little dangerous. If you’e going through life constantly looking for something to call out it seems a touch paranoid. And, of course, if you find something and leap on it without any prior research, then there’s always the problem that you’ll do more harm than good.

European bloggers are a touch more reserved. If one of us seems something troubling then we are more likely to try and fix it quietly than start a massive social media pile-on. I’m a European blogger and I’ve never knowingly tried to start anything, although if there’s already something going on a few of us will probably join in (the Inigo More post is a good example of that).

But what do I, a nervous British blogger, do when I notice something that I find abhorrent? Do I fall silent in favour of silence meaning security? Do I call the cavalry and initiate a brawl I don’t wish to happen or participate in? Or do I take on the issue myself, possibly solving it but just as possibly making matters worse?

Specifically, do I want to risk burning a bridge, even if it’s one I wish were no longer there?

It’s difficult.

So what?

A couple of months ago I noticed a fellow sex blogger – one I’ve met, befriended and previously had a lot of respect for – posting something questionable on Twitter (or 𝕏 or whatever it’s called now). I scrolled through her tweets – maybe this was satire and in response to something else – but saw a few more. And then I opened her replies tab.

Oh boy.

Most direct quotes are too sickening to post here, but they are all things that make me tremble. Constant references to trans people trying to brainwash children. References to refugees as “gimmegrants” and migrants as “illegals”, saying we need to get rid of them all to “protect our country”. At one point she verbatim said that

this wokey nonsense has got to stop

in response to a story about a trans person wanting to be called by their preferred pronoun.

And then I knew I needed to do something. Other than remove them from my blogroll, of course, which I’d already done.

Now what?

It’s difficult enough to deal with this stuff from Tory bigots and you already expect it from known transphobes like Graham Linehan and JKR. It’s much more difficult, however, when it’s from someone you used to like, and even moreso when it’s a sex blogger… whatever has happened to our community, the fact remains that we were all nominally banging the same drum.

This is not what I would usually expect.

Earlier on today I finally posted on Mastodon and Bluesky saying the following:

I don’t want to stay silent any more. But I don’t want to cause a fuss.

A sex blogger most of us know has been airing and sharing abhorrent views on X and this has gone unchallenged.

Most of you are following her.

Message me if you want to know who.
@innocentlb

Some of me wonders whether or not this was the right thing to do. Part of me wanted to do the “American” thing of putting her name and details verbatim on all my platforms, but I didn’t want to do that. Another part wanted to do the “European” thing of quiet outrage and soft indignation, but ethically I felt like I couldn’t do that.

So I took the middle road: I offered the information, and to those who asked I posted her blogging pseudonym and Twitter @, offering screenshots to those who had no access.

And so far this has seemed like the best course of action. I didn’t know how much uptake this would have, but it has been more than I expected. I was envisioning one, maybe two, curious people, but as I type this, more than eleven people have asked. All of them have gone on to respond, once they’ve seen the content, in the same horrified, disbelieving way that I did.

And what?

As far as burning bridges is concerned, it’s very rare that I’ll meet and get on with someone that I’ll end up never wanting to see again. I’m a social person and I’m genuinely quite protective of the friendships I’ve made. Fair enough, it may be different with 47 or Robinson or H or Mini – they are friends in real life, there’s much more physical contact there. Nevertheless, I’ve met this blogger; I’ve talked to her; I’ve hugged her, even.

But even I have my limit, and in this case – rare though it may be for a European blogger, even more so for a British one, and perhaps much more so for me – it has been hit by this person.

I am not going to post her identity here.

But my offer still stands. If you want to know, ask. I hope you do. I hope it makes its way around. And I hope everyone ends up knowing.

Above all, I hope she realises she was wrong. If she does, and she apologises, and makes more of an effort, then maybe it won’t have been worth burning that bridge after all.

All I can do is hope, in the end.

Ask ILB: Why don’t you have a Patreon?

March 29, 2024 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

Just before Christmas, with a very limited amount of disposable income, I splashed out a bit and joined a couple of Patreon. I had specifically made a point of not doing so until I was sure I could continue to pay for one ad infinitum, and in the end I made the additional rule of limiting myself to two. I joined Robyn‘s on account of the fact that (i) they are a dear friend and (ii) the stuff they do is smoking hot; I also joined GOTN‘s, which – as it turns out – is a very good investment, even when you consider the fact that I’m not really a fan of audio porn.

If you are looking for a Patreon to join, you could do a lot worse than considering the above.

Someone I know asked me the other day if I have a Patreon. I don’t. There’s a reason I don’t.

What would getting a Patreon entail?

Just in case you weren’t at Eroticon last year, it’s worth mentioning that GOTN herself did an excellent session about running a Patreon and that I actually took a lot of genuine notes about it (my ‘con notes usually amount to things like “a man got his hair cut at this point”, “sandwich tweet means absolutely nothing” and “Zac just stuck her tit to the table”; this was more involved). I even made a list of things I could offer if I did start one:

(i) Abandoned drafts. This is a tricky one since I tend to post pretty much any old shit, but the idea is there. There are a couple of old things I went back to years later and refined, and this practice might also be something I could offer.

(ii) Audio recordings of my blog posts. This is something pretty much everyone does, and since most of my posts are written to entertain, they may transfer well enough to the spoken word. I regularly read them aloud to an invisible and non-existent audience, and I’d do so if I ever got to read at Eroticon again.*

(*I never will.)

(iii) Group conversations. This worked really well the first time I experienced one, at GOTN’s virtual birthday party (exactly one week after my birthday, although I didn’t mention that!). Since I am a chatty ILB, I’m fairly sure I could do that. I’m still not sure the game of “I Have Never” I want to play with sex bloggers is achievable over Zoom, but…

(iv) Flash fiction. I genuinely don’t write a lot of fiction, but I do have a Word document full of the stuff that I’ve never done anything with. I even have my almost-complete novelette set on Rockall. Could serialise that.

(v) Songs. Just to make sure people leave my Patreon in droves.

So why don’t I have one, then?

That’s a more complicated thing to answer. But I do have a reason. A few, even.

The first is that my blog isn’t a commercial venture and never has been. I don’t really count Patreon as being anything more than supporting artists independently, so it’s not the same as – say – a paid-for ad or a sponsored post. However, were I to be effectively putting some of my content behind a paywall I’d be taking a machete to what I produce. I don’t really think that’s fair.

The second is that I’m not even sure anyone would be interested. I’m not as high-profile as some of my blogging mates who already have one, and I’m not even as high-profile as I used to be in the earlier days before the saturation of the sex blogging community. There’s nothing particularly tempting about me or my writing… specifically when all of it’s available for free on my blog to begin with.

And that’s the real reason behind it. I post all my content on my blog and I always have. It’s never occurred to me not to, and when it comes to reading bits of it out, then who am I kidding? I’d do that for free.

I’m genuinely not important enough

I’ve never, ever even really considered joining Patreon, even if my wife told me to when it was first a thing. I have an account and, for what it’s worth, I have been enjoying what I’ve heard so far.

It’s just not appropriate for ILB. I’d rather post all my content on my blog like I have since 2007. If there’s fiction I like, maybe I should self-publish. If there are unfinished drafts, then I should finish them and hit the post button. And I can always read my blog posts aloud to myself (the laughter can be in my head). But, in all these things, the truth is that, even with the best of intentions, I ultimately lack the drive.

And maybe that’s the real reason.

[citation needed]

October 3, 2023 / Innocent Loverboy / 2 Comments

I posted this on Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky the other day:

Hi, I’m your lazy blogger who doesn’t write a damn thing. 👋

I’ve been all over the place. I want to write, but I’ve got a terrible weight in the pit of the stomach and the thought of sex is making me feel sightly sick.

(Realistically, everyone else appears to be having quite a lot of sex, and since I’m not having any, I’m feeling a little left out too…!)

Please excuse my sightly reduced presence while I try to sort my head out.

While the bare bones of what I’m feeling are very much there, I feel like I need to spin this out a little more. I don’t quite understand exactly how I feel, but the best I can do is this:

(i) I’m not actually lazy. Recently I have taken on a lot of responsibilities at work, not all of which were voluntary. I’m coming home incredibly tired and often want to take a nap, if not immediately upon my return, within a couple of hours at least. While I may be lethargic, you couldn’t really call me ‘lazy’.

(ii) In previous situations, blogging was my escape after a hard work day (or, earlier, a hard week at university, or while jobseeking, or… etc.). I could be having a difficult time but with the knowledge that I can go home and write openly and unashamedly about sex being a sort of beacon I could carry in my heart, it didn’t seem so bad.

(iii) However, being unable to blog due to the aforementioned fatigue in point (i) above (plus other extenuating factors) is resulting in the “terrible weight in the pit of the stomach” to which I referred on social media. Whereas I often think of my blog as a boon, for the past few weeks I’ve been seeing it as more of a burden. I’m not good at this.

(iv) Whereas over the past week I have masturbated twice, and had an orgasm each time, in many cases the thought of being sexual with anyone, myself included, has made me feel slightly sick. I’ve been enjoying my own sexuality like I usually do, but again, it makes me feel slightly off – like I shouldn’t be doing this (I haven’t felt that way since I was 18!) – and it’s making me start to doubt myself.

(v) The mention in the post about “everyone else appears to be having quite a lot of sex” refers to specifically what I see on the blogs and all over social media. Yes, this is due to the people I follow – I am aware of this; it is, however, also becoming more of an issue to me. People I know and like enjoying active, varied and satisfying sex lives was always something I liked to see… now, however, I’m starting to feel like I’m not worthy to even know.

(vi) Not having sex hasn’t bothered me so far (well, it has, but not to any noticeable degree), but comparing this to what’s happening to “everyone else” (and yes, I know it isn’t everyone, but look above at point (v) makes me sort of… lonely? Left out? Envious? I’m not sure how to categorise it. Whatever it is, it certainly contributes to the aforementioned “terrible weight in the pit of the stomach“, which manifests when I see that stuff on social media.

(vii) I genuinely don’t have much to write about. Yes, I ran a session about this at Eroticon. Yes, it is also relatively effective to open a blank post and start writing at random (that’s how this post started). But I still don’t think it’s working. I sat on the bus on the way home today and tried to think of blog post ideas and didn’t even come up with a single one.

I think the real reason behind all this is twofold: one, a bitch is tired; two, a bitch is frustrated. I have very little creative impetus/outlet and no real consistent sexual one. Even my porn habits are starting to grate – I’m starting to spool at random, whereas I used to have a few cued up in my head to go through.

I’m not entirely without hope – as I say in the above post, I’m expecting my head to sort itself out. Give me a few days without any responsibilities and the grace to not feel the huge amount of crushing guilt for not doing anything for my readers and I might start to feel better about it all. I’ve even had a bit of a relief today at work and things are already starting to feel a bit lighter.

It won’t always be easy to find either. And it may take days, weeks, years even…

…but I really want to make it happen.

Revelations: IILLBB

August 31, 2023 / Innocent Loverboy / 2 Comments

Two similar-looking faces representing ILBs 1 and 2.

ILB wakes up in bed with ILB. Briefly, they look at each other, an uneasy grin unfurling on each face. Neither of them know what they have done, or how long for.

“Time to start my day,” says ILB-1. “Want some coffee? I’ll go downstairs to get it.”
“No need,” says ILB-2. “The kitchen’s on this level.”
“Mahar!” calls ILB-1’s dad. “I’m making tea; do you want any?”
“Thanks,” chorus both ILBs at the same time.

ILB and ILB take their seats at the computer. It’s time to write their blog post, which is a simple routine: ILB-1 opens Blogger, gets a compose window open and copy-pastes the HTML in first before writing. He had an idea in his head last night and this is a way to get it down. ILB-2 opens his self-hosted WordPress compose window. He doesn’t have any ideas; he’ll probably write any old shit and hope it works.

ILB-1 will be going to host a session at Eroticon about how not to do that.

Both ILBs click the publish button at the same time and cross-post to social media: ILB-1 to Twitter; ILB-2 to 𝕏 and Mastodon and Bluesky. Immediately after this they both open their blogrolls, one blog at a time via multiple tabs. ILB-1 is still impressed that Mozilla Firefox will do this. ILB-2 would have been upset if Google Chrome didn’t.

ILB-1 reads through a succession of very sexy blogs by very sexy people. The first ones he opens are by Blacksilk and Lady Pandorah. Each of them has written something new and he devours every word. He also checks on Lace Stockings and Silverarcheress. LucyBoots may have some new porn she likes. Bitchy Jones is still hitting people with stuff. Leah is busily laying London.

He finishes by reading the blog belonging to the girl he has a crush on. He knows where she is and how best to get there, but it’s only a dream, he tells himself. He’s never going to get to have sex with her.

ILB-2 spools through a succession of very sexy blogs by very sexy people. He opens each of them in alphabetical order and checks quickly. Most of them haven’t been updated in a while and he clicks off the page impatiently. GOTN, Emma and Robyn usually come through with something new. He still considers himself part of something, but he isn’t entirely sure what that something is.

ILB-1 talks about how connected he feels. ILB-2 fears that he is becoming increasingly alienated. Put together, these average out to numb. That’s a very good way to describe the life of an ILB.

ILB-1 reaches over to ILB-2 and takes his hand.

“Don’t forget what I’ve done,” he says softly. “However long this lasts… however long we last… nothing is not worthwhile. Years down the line, you will always remember this. And I’m sure there’s more to come for me, as well.”
ILB-2 nods mutely. “There is,” he whispers, almost conspiratorially. “It’s not all good, but the good stuff is very, very good indeed…”

They look at each other for a while, heart to heart but ten miles apart.

Later in the day they both get 40 minutes to themselves and decide to wank. They both have the same method, wrapping one finger and thumb around their shaft and rubbing the foreskin back and forth with their right hand. The left hand operates the computer, pulling up whichever scene of soft porn they can think of at the time.

They both orgasm at the same time to the same scene.

And connect.

Eroticon 2013: …and then we come

June 13, 2023 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

And so the Saturday evening social happened. It was a sequence of events.

I say that because I’m genuinely not sure what else to say about it. I ate too much food; I drank too much cloudy lemonade. Olly was chatty, Amy was sparkling and Robyn looked amazing. That’s what happened; I don’t have much else to say.

I went home via Kentish Town Station, having quite forgotten the farrago of the previous night, on which I clattered down the 100+ stairs in lieu of a working escalator. A helpful young man noticed me struggling with my bag and managed to convince me to let him carry it down the stairs for me – which he did. Thank you for your help, young man carrying bag full of sex things.

In contrast to Saturday, Sunday was a much calmer, more relaxing and relatively chill day. A pleasant surprise was the attendance of my dear friend Christine, whose name badge I had spotted at the Friday meet and greet but wasn’t expecting to see. It made me feel better to see her there, and I found her presence soothing.

Amy‘s session was nice and relaxed. As we should all know by now, I’ve never been particularly interested in adding affiliate links, but there were enough tips in her talk to help, and she was wonderfully composed while delivering it. Michael‘s first session – “Yet More SEO,” as I wrote in my notebook – was quiet but informative, and gave me an ego-boost by putting my site through GTMetrix. I don’t plan to use TikTok (I fail to see what I could do with it), but Sherryl seemed knowledgeable enough about it.

I didn’t take any notes during Michael’s second session. I don’t quite know why this is, but I’m really not keen on Mastodon. Probably mostly because I fear the unfamiliar. In any case, I now know enough about it to take the plunge. By contrast, I’m really not ready to have a Patreon, but GOTN‘s talk about it was so enthusiastic that I genuinely got some ideas about what I’d do with one if I did.

Goodbyes were said; the raffle was drawn. At this point it’s just become a matter of waiting to win the raffle, as opposed to wondering if I will. For my inevitable prize this year, I chose a book of erotica, and then sat with Olly trying to identify if I knew any of the authors.

And then we all went back to the pub.

And so that was it, basically. I ate some more, drank some more and then struggled my way down Kentish Town for the last time. Fair enough, it wasn’t the ribald ending filled with debauchery one would expect. We also didn’t get to play “I Have Never”, which I still want to do at some point…

…but it was Eroticon.

It looked like Eroticon. It felt like Eroticon. At some points, it very much felt like nothing had changed; as if 2020 hadn’t happened and we were returning to what was promised. At others, it felt so different that I began to doubt my own memory – surely there was more to ‘con than this? Was there something missing, or did I just have nostalgia for something that may not have existed?

But it was what it said it was. Frankly, I don’t even know what else I could have been expecting.

Explicitly, unashamedly Eroticon.

Good to have it back.

Eroticon 2013: …and so it goes.

June 12, 2023 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

As I said in my meet and greet post, I was uncertain about going to Eroticon this year. In the end, I did, and although I wasn’t sure if I would, I put a lot of myself into it, and got a lot out of it. Is that a win? Maybe it’s a win. I’m not too sure.

There are a few moments I want to touch on, but let’s do this in a vaguely chronological order.

The Friday night meet and greet was all right for what it was. I was one of the first there (of course), despite having stopped at a barber for a haircut and shave on the way(!); I decided to get a cloudy lemonade and wait, and although it took a while for the steady trickle of people to start coming, come they did. I was pleased to see Molly, Michael and Nick setting up (and nobody needed to ask my name or which colour lanyard I wanted – they knew by rote!), the sparkles on Amy‘s face, the incredible amounts of queer energy emanating from Quinn, and – of course – GOTN. Always a pleasure.

Seeing Olly, however, was a genuine surprise. I haven’t seen him for about five years and had no idea he was coming. He is still a genuine delight to talk to, and we vibed really well. That’s one of the things I love about ‘con – seeing people you don’t expect.

Saturday, for me, was characterised largely by the fact that I woke up incredibly early and got an Über to meet for the first time my dear friend Robyn. Robyn is basically the reason I ended up going to ‘con, as she made a very generous financial contribution that helped with my ticket and I felt like I should ingratiate her into the community (plus, after months of talking and flirting, I felt we ought to meet!). She took incredible amounts of notes in the sessions – I am amazed by her workrate – and, by the time the evening social came around (in which she looked AMAZING – we are talking incredibly stunning here, people), she was contentedly chatting away with people she had never even heard of before. I call that progress!

One of the best moments of entire weekend for me was introducing Robyn to GOTN and laughing at the amount of mutual fangirling that happened. It was genuinely difficult to tell who was more excited!

The Saturday sessions, even though I found it difficult to choose, I all enjoyed. Blake‘s session busted a few myths and gave me some stuff to research. I went to Dee‘s on a whim but really liked not only the content but the way it was presented. GOTN’s first session was great – I’m a little annoyed that I didn’t get to read this year, so this was a chance to pretend I was; plus, Robyn’s husky delivery made me hard, so thanks for that uncomfortable moment, gang.

I wanted to go to Neil‘s session all along and I’m pleased I did, for not only was it informative, he was hilarious! I ended the day with Dr Eleanor Janega‘s session – my one dead cert to attend, as I love what she does. This was a whistle-stop tour of sex history and she is a genuine pro (I wrote “she is a pro” in my notes, so it must be true).

I was fully intending, at this point, to skip out and go home to dump my bag and change my shirt before the Saturday night social. As it turns out, did none of these things. GOTN talked me into being one of the thirteen participants in ElectraStim‘s record-breaking chain. I’ve never experienced electro sensation before, and although I’m a genuine wimp, this was a fascinating and genuinely curious experience. Not altogether unpleasant, either, and I’m pleased to have been a part of something special.

And then we had the Saturday social, which was a sequence of events.

I’ll talk more about this later, I think…

2022 #orgasmcount (aka: “ZOMG! Easy Content!!!!!1 🙂🙂🙂”)

December 31, 2022 / Innocent Loverboy / 1 Comment

Everyone I know appears to have had a bad year in 2022, except for me. I’m not going to pretend that all of it was brilliant, of course – I’m not a maniac – but I did, in fact, have a relatively positive year. For me, that’s a major thing.

My blog has been one of the constants in my life, again… although this year I’ve mostly been doing memes. Whether it’s TMI Tuesday, Five Things, or even the occasional Soft Porn Sunday, I’ve just found memes to be a handy content generator. I may have had an okay year, but it’s been a busy one. Memes have helped my blog grow, although my favourite posts have always been the funny ones about my past.

This year I even wrote a compilation thereof, so, er, you’re welcome?

The Year

I had quite a confusing Spring, what with constant periods of unemployment and a pending wedding that I wasn’t entirely sure I could pay for. I did, however, get a job I really wanted, so April through to July were good months for me – even during the heatwave. July gave me a stag party thingy which was an excellent day.

Summer consisted mostly of wedding shenanigans, honeymoon wandering and then a few weeks of lazy vegetation. Autumn was a bit of an anticlimax following the action-packed first eight months, and maybe I’m still sleeping them off, judging by how little I did over Christmas!

I’ve spent the last few days trying to get over my cold (…if it’s a cold!). That’s pretty much it, so maybe there’s something more interesting to talk about.

The Orgasms

This’ll do. In 2021 I has 131 orgasms (more than I had anticipated). This year I had long periods of not being able to touch myself, but also some periods where I had many days to myself, in which I did it every day. My sexual desire has been all over the place, so maybe my New Year’s resolution should be about centering myself and realising where my sexual energy is best focused.

Fortunately, in the lack of the ability to do this, I kept a record….

117– the number of orgasms I’ve had this year (as denoted by a ★ in my WHSmith mid-year diary)

That’s less than last year. I am still pleased that I cracked the hundred mark, though.

32.05% – the number of orgasms in a year, compared to the number of days in a year, expressed as a percentage

Slightly less than a third. That’s an awful lot of time with my dick in my hand… but still a little disappointing, for some reason!

And the rest?

Usually I’d do these in categories, but I’ve changed up what I’ve written so much this year that I thought it would be ~~desperate~~ fun to go through this…

! (11/1, 31/2, 16/3, 17/4, 26/4, 9/7, 11/7, 12/12) – these are the days on which I had particularly powerful orgasms, for whatever reason.

x2 (21/2, 1/3, 13/4, 27/7) – days on which I had more than one orgasm! In my early twenties, I’d have done this every day!

Leana! (5 occurrences, maybe more) – orgasms had while watching videos of porn starlet Leana Lovings. I’m not a big fan of hardcore, as you should know… but I do like Leana!

Nice. (16/3) – I remember this one! It was a very pleasant experience all the way through, and a relief I needed after a difficult day. The same could also be applied to Blissful! 🙂 (23/8), for similar reasons (although I was hyped up on anaesthetic from the dentist at this point, so maybe…!).

Plentiful! (26/4) and Quite a lot. (31/8) – You don’t need a hint for this… just use your imagination!

🙁 (24/10) – a disappointing orgasm: too much effort for too little reward (and, if memory serves me right, I didn’t even finish the orgasm; it just stopped randomly). Fortunately there was only one of those this year!

Boing! (9/7, 8/9, 13/12) – my favourite thing to write as, as has happened before, these orgasms involve cum jumping in a pleasant arc, my appreciation of the aesthetic necessitating a mention of this!

The Audacity of This Bitch

This marks post number 58 in 2021, which amounts to slightly more than one post per week (1.115, if my maths is right). I promise I’ve been making an effort, but I’ll do better next year!

I know I say that every year, but this year I will, mainly because I want Robyn to buy me cloudy lemonades. Join ILB again in 2023 for more sex, porn and seemingly random screaming into the sky. See you there.

Top 100 Sex Blogs 2022

December 3, 2022 / Innocent Loverboy / 0 Comments

It’s the beginning of December and, true to form, I’d completely forgotten about this. Fortunately, however, Molly didn’t, and there’s – once more – a list.

I had to wrestle with the code (for half an hour!) to post it properly here, but I think this should work…

1	Focused and Filthy	@FocusedFilthy
2	Girly Juice	@girly_juice
3	Cara Sutra	@thecarasutra
4	The Big Gay Review	@thebiggayreview
5	Love, Emma	@EmmaAus27418832
6	A to sub Bee	@sub_bee
7	Princess Previews	@PrincessPreview
8	Kelvin Sparks	@kelvinsparks_
9	Pain as Pleasure	@bibulousone
10	Beyond Non-Binary	@girlieboy69
11	The Beautiful Kind	@TBK365
12	Coffee and Kink	@coffeeandkink
13	Miss Ruby Reviews	@MissRubyReviews
14	Exposing 40	@exposing40
15	Betty Butch	@betty_butch
16	Still Searching For Prince Charming	@SS4PC
17	Emma’s Story Corner	@EmmaXStories
18	Violet Fawkes	@fireandhoney
19	Master’s Pleasing Bitch	@MPBjulie
20	Tess Tesst	@jay_tesst
21	Temperature’s Rising
22	Joanne’s Reviews	@joannesreviews
23	Innocent Loverboy	@innocentlb
24	Poppet Subslut
25	Denying Thumper	@thumperMN
26	Sex and Psychology	@JustinLehmiller
27	O Miss Pearl	@OMissPearl
28	The Smut Report	@smutreport
29	Happy Come Lucky	@ht_honey
30	A Leap of Faith	@thebarefootsub
31	E. L. Byrne Writer	@ELByrne1
32	Kinky with a Twist	Facebook
33	A Faded Romantic’s Notebook	@romdominant
34	My Dissolute Life	@nLikes
35	Ready for Polyamory	@lauracb88
36	Queer Courtesan	@queercourtesan
37	Little Quean Piggy
38	Tall, Dark and Dominant	@darkanddominant
39	Naked Wanderings	@nakedwanderings
40	The Gentle Domme	@TheGentleDomme
41	Kinky World	@mistress_kay
42	Lilith Likes to Watch	@BWMTweet
43	Pieces of Jade	@piecesofjade
44	Cocktails and Cocktalk
45	Corrupting Mrs Jones	@MrsJonesMT50
46	My Wild Lens	@mywildlens
47	Maria Opens Up	@MSM1647
48	Holden and Camille	@h_and_c_dot_com/
49	Witch of the Wands	@WitchofTheWands
50	Queer Earthling	@threatganglia00
51	Modesty Ablaze	@ablazingmodesty
52	Victoria Blisse	@victoriablisse
53	Male Chastity Journal	@TheCagedLion
54	Lillith Avir	@Lillith_A
55	Evolving Your Man	@EvolvingYourMan
56	Butt Stuff
57	Lucy Felthouse	@cw1985
58	August McLaughlin	@augstmclaughlin
59	Kay Jaybee	@kay_jaybee
60	Spices of Lust	@spicesoflust
61	Sexilicious Ash	@sexiliciousash
62	Dancer in Chains	@Dancer_InChains
63	Jerusalem Mortimer: Between the Lines
64	David Mei
65	Love is a Fetish	@loveisafetish
66	[This space left blank for display purposes]
67	Love Letters to a Unicorn	@AuntieVice
68	Adult Exploration	@We_Fear_Nothing
69	Hannah McKnight	@HannahTGirlMN
70	Wind Whisperer	@_WindWhisperer_
71	Meghan Madness
72	Miss D
73	Loving My Disciplined Life
74	No Pants Endurance	@nopantsenduran2
75	My Sex Life with Lola
76	Breaking Away From Monogamy	@K_Ghislaine
77	Oz Bigdownunder	@OzBigdownunder
78	Olivia
79	The Poet’s Love Letter
80	Finding Strength in my Submission
81	J R Vincente
82	Wolfie Toons
83	The Drew Duality	@dualdrew
84	Deltoya Toys	@DeltoyaT
85	Eros Blog	@ErosBlogBacchus
86	Tabula Erotica
87	Mistress Lisa’s Femdom Diary
88	Abigail Storm	@EroticaStorm
89	Femdom Think Tank
90	SexBlogging.com	@sexlifeandevery
91	A German Brat
92	F dot Leonora	@fdotleonora
93	Madam Mayhem	@madam__mayhem
94	Mistress Scarlet’s Blog
95	The Sword	@THEswordcom
96	Morgan Destera
97	Girl Spanking Stories
98	Erotic Tales for the Visual Woman
99	O and P Spanking Stories
100	Anybody else

Did you know I’ve got a Chaturbate account? Well, I do!

Place 23 isn’t bad, especially considering how slack I’ve been with blogging this year (and the posts I’ve actually done have mostly been memes!). By no means am I going to make the top ten, but it’s seven higher than last year…

…for some reason. I’m satisfied with this, anyway.

My initial thought when reading through this list was something approximating “WHO THE FUCK ARE MOST OF THESE PEOPLE?!”. In fact, spooling through it again, there are less than thirty names that I recognise, and even fewer that I actually read! If you have a look on my blogroll, you’ll notice that quite a few of them are largely inactive, and a lot of those which are weren’t eligible for the list at time of nomination due to the rules!

But, then again, that is the nature of sex blogging. People come and people go, and while that’s sad, it’s always interesting to see some new voices. The fact that Molly managed to get a hundred (more or less) to populate this list stands testament to that.

ILB’s List?

As I think I’ve said elsewhere, I found it difficult to think of six blogs to nominate this year, since (at that point) a lot of the people I usually do nominate were either inactive, on hiatus, or hadn’t posted enough this year! For whatever reason, however, I thought them worthy of recognition. They are:

Emma Austin from Love, Emma – This is a genuinely active blog, and there’s always something new to read. For that, Emma deserves props. I’m pleased she made the top ten.
David from The Big Gay Review – David isn’t on this list and I’m not even sure if review-style blogs are eligible (but if that’s true, there are a lot of them here that shouldn’t be on the list either!), but I really like the way he writes.
Ash from Sexilicious Ash – I wish she posted more (as I think I said last year!), but I always appreciate it when she does.
Sweetness from Sweetness Blogs – Apparently she wasn’t eligible for nomination… but I did it anyway! I’ve recently come to appreciate Sweetness for what she does, and she’s a worthwhile follow on social media, too.
Robyn from Robyn Eats Everything – One of my most recent discoveries and also one of my favourite people to chat to on Twitter, Robyn has only recently started, but I want to see where this is going! (Plus, I, too, eat a lot). I’m pleased she made it onto the “new voices” thingy.

And one wildcard:

Violet Fawkes from Violet Fawkes – Violet doesn’t post very much, but she’s chatty and friendly on social media, and when she does post, it’s usually something worth reading.

What’s next for ILB?

So what’s next for me? I’m genuinely not entirely sure about this. I’ve done 47 (heh) posts this year, and with 65 in 2021, I’m not going to be making escape velocity by the end of the month.

But, as usual, I do plan to have a few more things to write between now and the new year. I even – shock! – have some ideas about things to write, so there may even be some of those out (if I can get the time to do something more expansive)! I’ll definitely be posting in 2023, as well, as my blog appears to be one of the few constants in my day-to-day life… it’s always comforting to see it there!

Until the next post, then… and the next list!