“How would you define yourself?” a date once asked me.
“I wouldn’t,” I said. “I’m a Gemini. I like to transform.”
Former flames have described me as: juicy, bewitching, scary smart, a naughty knockout, a dynamo, an enigma, and a fabulous freak of nature. Nicknames include: Nips, Speedy, Pink Lady, Black Magic Woman, Miss Jazz Apple Hot Pie, and Little Miss Can't-Be-Wrong.
I am contradiction incarnate. I have a sweet-girl exterior but I talk dirty. You never know what’s going to come out--or go into--my mouth. It’s safe to say I’m always hungry. I’m rebellious and unpredictable and moody. Unless I’m in love; in which case, I’m the most affectionate little pussy cat you’ll ever meet.
I make a lot of rules for myself…then I break them. Hell, I refuse to follow my own recipes! My standards are so high even my perfectionist efforts can’t reach ‘em. I have a huge ego--but I’ll happily stroke yours, too. And just when you think you’ve figured me out, I’ll do something so uncharacteristic it’ll blow your mind.
That said, if I had to choose one word to define myself, it would be “insatiable” (and no, that isn’t just a plug for my first book…but buy a copy anyway.)
Or is “ineffable” a better word?
Or maybe…
See? I’m breaking the rules already.
Apple pie by any other name will still taste as sweet. Indulge now. Apologize later.
The Straight-Laced Bio:
Erica Rivera's memoir, INSATIABLE: A Young Mother's Struggle With Anorexia, is now available in bookstores everywhere from Penguin Group! INSATIABLE has been featured on Fox News, Showcase Minnesota, Twin Cities Live, KFAI, and radio programs and websites nationwide. Rivera has read at events at Bryant Lake Bowl, Common Good Books, Storefront-in-a-Box, Hamline University and Macalester College.
Rivera's second book is the erotic food memoir Man Eater: Seductive Stories & Mouthwatering Meals, now available on Amazon.com. Rivera also designed, launched and blogged on the Man Eater website for a year-and-a-half. Twin Cities foodies, musicheads and infatuation junkies were so entranced, City Pages featured Rivera in a full-page spread in their "Celebrity Eats" column. Rivera no longer blogs under the Man Eater moniker but select excerpts remain on the site.
Rivera's food writing is included in the Gotta Have It, Let Them Eat Crepes and The Tattoo Series anthologies. Her Black and White Cake won the Best Original Recipe prize in the 2008 Food Tasters for Obama Bake-Off, her Gingerbread House won Brett Olson's 2010 Gingerbread House Challenge, her food photography has been chosen multiple times for Foodbuzz's Top 9 and is featured in Schmap's Guide to New York. Rivera has been recruited to review products from Godiva, Tyson, Uncle Ben's, Nature's Pride, Magnum, Ore Ida, Azteca, Newton's, Bird's Eye and the National Peanut Board. When inspired, she still shares recipes and the occasional anecdote at www.crazysexydelicious.com.
In addition to a week-long sex diary for New York Magazine's website, Rivera has penned several columns for the Star Tribune and guest-blogged for Gimme Noise on City Pages' website. Rivera's creative non-fiction has also been featured in Writers' Journal and Moon Journal, and LaChance Publishing's Voices of Breast Cancer anthology. Her photography is often published on l'etoile magazine's LOL/OMG blog.
Most recently, Rivera wrote for KARE 11's Metromix website (which is no longer publishing new content). Rivera interviewed such notable artists as Rachael Yamagata, Dawes, Marketa Irglova (Academy Award winner for "Once"), Mason Jennings, Haley Bonar, Peter Wolf Crier, Little Scream, Pictures of Then, Chastity Brown and Buddy "The Cake Boss" Valastro. Rivera also created the 11 Guilty Pleasures feature for the site which highlighted a series of hedonistic delights on a different theme each month. Find out what Erica is writing now on her official authorial website at www.ericarivera.net
Rivera received her B.A. in Psychology and Spanish at Macalester College in 2001. After graduation, she worked as an advocate for battered women and a counselor in a residential treatment center for adolescents. She is currently available for editing, writing, and photographic freelance services.
Rivera is a three-time marathon runner with a PR of 3:14:10. She was also formally trained in yoga at Yoga Center of Minneapolis in 2008 and she is an avid practitioner of both Hatha and Kundalini yoga.
Rivera is a lifelong Minnesotan, where she lives with her family.
