I happened to run into Violet Blue while I was attending the SXSW conference recently, and she agreed to sit and talk with me. Violet is an awarded author, a frequent guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show, a magazine columnist, an all-around web celeb, and damn sexy. You might have seen her in Macheads (and if you haven’t, there’s no time like the present to watch the movie).

She tells it like it is, holding nothing back. She does so in a way that will make you stop and think about things – making you laugh all the way.

Given the subject material at hand (sex!), you’d think that a person would be uncomfortable talking to Violet about it. However, that isn’t the case at all. She may be open and direct, but it is also obvious that she is an amazing communicator – even if I happened to stumble here and there. Okay, so this is something I’m not used to talking about (certainly not on video).

Violet has written several books on the subject of sex. Many of them are non-fiction works, discussing different aspects of human sexuality. Others are collaborative efforts with several other writers (including a book full of short erotic stories).

Violet’s career is something she never planned on, though. She carved her path for herself purely by accident. In 1998, she was hired as a copywriter for a women-owned sex store, reviewing all of their books and movies. There, she wrote a lot for the website and magazine (helping them launch their online presence altogether). She started being approached by editors wanting to publish what she was up to, then subsequently launched her own site.

Violet recently had a run-in with Steve Jobs (!) while attending Macworld. Violet took a chance, walked up to him, and asked to take his picture. She admits that took a lot of guts, but figured it was worth a shot. When she asked him if he would take a photo with her, Steve turned to her and suggested that she was rude. Violet was shocked; she figured if he didn’t want to be around people or be bothered by them… why be on the floor at all? Steve’s entourage started to giggle, which only fueled the fire in Violet. She turned around and ended up taking a picture of Steve’s back (as well as his hyenas). She then just happened to run in to Robert Scoble, who was live streaming. Robert picked up the story and ran with it on his stream. The rest is history.

If you had just one question to ask Violet, what would it be?

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I’m going to be talking about sex and relationships at Gnomedex this year–specifically about the bloggers, vbloggers, podcasters and photographers who are using Web 2.0 tools to give voice to their longings and experiences with a vitality unmatched since the Victorian era and the communities forming around these topics. This isn’t a talk about porn, though much of this work is erotic; it’s a talk about how digital identities (masked and cloaked in many cases) have enabled regular people–many of them geeks–to build a frank and authentic shadow world focused on free expression, sharing, and sexual celebration–and to connect with one another.

This is going to be an interesting discussion. Albeit an awkard one with my parents in the room. I still remember “the talk.”