By Martine Duplessis

The Living in Leather Convention held in Portland last weekend has left everyone in a kink kinda mood. Here’s what the web had to serve up on this subject.

The National Living in Leather Association site is at http://www.nla-i.com/

This is a well-organized resource for anyone curious about the kink scene in general. Living in Leather is not just about running around in leather duds, it’s the “largest and most active organization in the world serving the Leather/SM/Fetish community.” Members are pansexual, which includes just about everyone, i.e., male, female, transgendered, straight, gay, lesbian and bisexual.

Their site includes a purpose statement, a list of local clubs, membership info, calender, and links. They also have a great list of print resources including such titles as The Klutz Book of Knots, Kiss of the Whip, SM 101, and the Masters' Manual. The raciest title: Trust–The Hand Book–A Guide to the Sensual and Spiritual Art of Hand Balling.

Closer to home is the Rose City Discussion Club site at http://www.teleport.com/~rcdc.

This local group titillating holds monthly meetings to provide a “forum and supportive environment education/resources/social contacts in a friendly and accepting atmosphere.” They are not a swing club or dating service. They see their mission as a sort of “Welcome Wagon” to the Portland “scenes.” Includes newcomer info, a meeting calender, a listing of past event topics (e.g., “Is Kink Legal?”, “Erotic Mind Control”) and a newsletter. Their web resources page is under development, but they have a great non-web resource list that includes many local kink-friendly businesses like The Crimson Phoenix, It’s My Pleasure and Northwest Gender Alliance.

If you live in Northern Washington state there’s a local kink club called The Triskeli Guild, based in Bellingham. Their site is at http://home.earthlink.net/~sherkhan. They bill themselves as the BDSM Group of the Pacific Northwest. This social group is similar to the Rose City Discussion Club (safe, sane and consensual). The site lists a calender of meetings, social events, a newsletter called “The Panic Soup,” resource links and more general local area happenings under the Pacific Northwest Resource Guide.

A wonderful resource for those in Seattle is SKIN, or the Seattle Kink Information Network, at http://www.halcyon.com/silver/wwc/SKIN.html. They offer informational seminars (two tracks! One for beginners and nother for more advanced practitioners.) each month. They also sponsor a conversational group known as the Table of Ruthless Conversation, or TORC. Its purpose is "an inquiry to uncover the reality of sadosmasochism." This seems like a genuinely supportive group of people, well worth checking out if you are in the area.

Feel like shopping? www.prettyeffective.com is an on-line emporium for the kink shopper. The site is based on a castle theme so you can navigate through the Armoury (leather and chains), the Stable (whips and crops), Governess’ Quarters (canes and paddles), and Order of the Lash (flagellation). Unfortunately, a lot of this site is under construction, but it might be worth bookmarking for future on-line ordering.

Need more? The up-close and personal site of Mistress Valkris at http://www.valkris.com is the domain of Portland’s own Ms Portland Leather. Mistress Valkris invites willing slaves to contact her via e-mail or postal mail.

If you'd like to submit your site for review in Exotic Magazine, please send your request via email: xmag@teleport.com and make the subject "site submission."

Past reviews can be found here <-- (beware... it's pretty big)