The Journey Continues

Laura Antoniou

Laura Antoniou is an out leatherdyke and author of the "Marketplace" series (The Marketplace, The Slave, The Trainer, The Academy, and The Reunion), described by Libido magazine as "an elite and secretive world organization, dedicated to the auctioning and overseeing of the world's finest lifestyle slaves... a world so vivid in sequel after sequel, it takes on a reality of its own, one that's visually hard to let go of once the reader has put down the book." Her work has been published internationally.

Antoniou has been a featured speaker and presenter at the University of
Washington (where her essay "Unsafe at Any Speed" was first presented), as well as Columbia University, Rutgers University, and New York University, as well as leather, s/m, lesbian, and writers' conferences throughout the United States.

Her site

bio current as of 4-1-03

For Your Own Good: Enforcing Protocol with Punishment - In response to the success of her popular workshop on protocol in dominant/submissive relationships (presented to great acclaim just a month ago at South Plains Leatherfest), Laura Antoniou is expanding the exploration of enforcing behavior with a new workshop on Punishment. FOR YOUR OWN GOOD will explore the reasons for, and effective methods of punishment to enforce an agreed-upon protocol of behavior.
“This workshop addresses the philosophy of punishment, and how it is used in play as well as in enforcing authority,” explains Antoniou. Drawing from her personal experience, Antoniou will discuss punishment in its uses, reasons, and in making it work effectively in “real-life” dominant/submissive relationships.

Managing Service: A One-Sided Conversation - “Service is a way to show admiration, caring, respect, affection, and of course, love,” explains Antoniou. “It can also be a reward in and of itself, either as a pleasurable thing the bottom really enjoys doing, or an experience the bottom wishes to have for a personal reason. Many Tops love the idea of having someone in service to them, but when it comes down to it, they are unsure how to effectively manage a service-oriented submissive.” Antoniou presents this discussion to Tops only in order to have a freer discussion on the challenges of managing some in service, enforcing dominance over them, and ultimately rewarding all of the parties involved in the relationship. Areas of discussion include the type of mindset needed by the top to make such a relationship rewarding, and what personal skills would help in negotiation, creating a style that works, and keeping it going.