Fifty Shades of Diva Frenzy!
WHEN E. L. JAMES did her first US book tour in May 2012, people were surprised that two of her stops were sold-out luncheons (at $85 per person, no less) at country clubs in Long Island and Westchester hosted by a group of suburban New York moms. I’m the woman behind Fifty Shades of Diva Frenzy, and the founder of DivaLysscious Moms, and www.divamoms.com (which I always describe as Sex and the City meets Mommy & Me). I knew E. L. James spoke for us and knew she had to speak to us.
I had read the first two books back in November and honestly could not put them down. I knew that Fifty Shades Freed, the third book in the trilogy, was going to be released in January, and I knew that the DivaMoms.com book club had to launch the book as we’ve done for so many other amazing authors. I decided to email E. L. James in London and explain to her what I did, how much I LOVED the first two books, and that I would be honored to throw her a DivaMoms book club launch party.
A few days later she responded, telling me that she was the mom of two boys and that she would be honored to have us launch Fifty Shades Freed to the DivaMoms. She also said she would be in New York City in three weeks!
My work was cut out for me. I knew I had to get this event done! And so using my DivaMagic, I brought the DivaMoms launch of Fifty Shades Freed to a beautiful penthouse apartment in Chelsea. We reached out to over 380,000 of the most influential moms in the area via our database and social media. Just by posting the event on our Facebook page, we had 900 RSVPs in hours. But the event space could only hold 200 moms. I was in a panic. But we made it happen and the apartment was filled wall to wall with moms—women from Long Island, Westchester, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey who drove in to be at this event.
I knew then and there that E. L. James was going to be the next J.K. Rowling and that her big book and movie deals were just moments away.
The Fifty Shades trilogy has been nothing short of a whirlwind; moms everywhere feel like they are on a fantastic, erotic ride and never want to get off. We watch women of all ages from all over the country screaming for more, all hopeful that the story of Ana and Christian is just beginning. What started as the subject of whispered gossip between ladies has turned into the “it” book of the year—and its success and popularity is on an upward spiral. It has evolved into an absolute worldwide sensation. Fifty Shades of Grey has, without a doubt, tied women together—no pun intended.
The fans of the series have been the engine. The success of these novels has proven the power and effectiveness of women’s voices, of women’s interest in fetish, of what women want to see in the world of literature and in the world of romance! We celebrate our collective, bright inner light that won’t be dimmed. We celebrate motherhood and our evolution from the sandbox to the Red Room of Pain. We celebrate E. L. James for reconnecting women with an aspect of their sexuality—a flame—that they may have left unattended. We celebrate Fifty Shades of Fabulyssness!
Women everywhere are turning their shy, giggly whispers into full, loud, and powerful expression, making their sexuality something to be nurtured and accepted rather than hidden and saved for “appropriate” times. The books have inevitably gotten some kind of reaction from every woman who has read them; even the women I have spoken to who say they would not engage in such sexual behavior cannot put the books down. Women cannot help but discuss specific parts of the book with one another, turning their reserved, “Would you ever do that?” conversations into free, open, matter-of-fact discussions—and that’s the way it should be. As I always say to everyone, even my mom, “Everyone is reading them, everyone should be reading them, and there is nothing wrong with reading them.”
Time magazine nominated E. L. James as one of 2012’s “100 Most Influential People in the World.” This happily married mother followed her dreams and in doing so became one of the most talked-about authors—and women—of the year. Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker, and Fifty Shades Freed went “viral,” so to speak, putting ladies everywhere into a perpetual orgasmic coma! While breathlessly turning pages, we tuned out the world, escaped reality, and tapped into a typically forbidden world of sexual intensity. Women’s conversations have been consumed by this modern-day love story; our voices have been loud and our voices have been heard—Random House and Universal Studios are hearing us loud and clear! People who call the novels “mommy porn” simply have not yet fallen under the spell of Christian Grey. But they will. I’m sure of that.
LYSS STERN is the founder and president of Divalysscious Moms (www.divamoms.com), the luxury lifestyle company that caters to New York’s well-heeled and trendsetting moms. After eight years, Lyss’ company database boasts 380,000 members. Lyss is also the coauthor of If You Give a Mom a Martini: 100 Ways to Find 10 Blissful Minutes for Yourself (Clarkson Potter), which was recently optioned to be made into a feature film, and is the cocreator of the new NickMom short-form series Storytime for Moms. Lyss lives in New York City with her husband, talent manager Brian Stern, and their two sons, Jackson and Oliver, and spends her summer in Atlantic Beach and Southampton with her family and puppy, Jedi.