2006.03.17: March 17, 2006: Headlines: COS - Benin: Journalism: Sex: The Arizona Republic: Benin RPCV Melanie Boyer writes "About Last Night," a daily blog about dating and sex in the nation's capitol

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Benin: Peace Corps Benin : The Peace Corps in Benin: 2006.03.17: March 17, 2006: Headlines: COS - Benin: Journalism: Sex: The Arizona Republic: Benin RPCV Melanie Boyer writes "About Last Night," a daily blog about dating and sex in the nation's capitol

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Benin RPCV Melanie Boyer writes "About Last Night," a daily blog about dating and sex in the nation's capitol

Benin RPCV Melanie Boyer writes About Last Night, a daily blog about dating and sex in the nation's capitol

"They advertised for someone to do this," she explained. "And they asked for a resume and a link to a blog. So I started one. It sounded like so much fun - and I knew I wanted to write. Plus, they were going to pay for it." The "Modern Girl's Action Adventure Guide" went up in May.

Benin RPCV Melanie Boyer writes "About Last Night," a daily blog about dating and sex in the nation's capitol

T-bird grad writes sex tips
D.C. paper hired her to do blog about dating life

Patricia Bathurst
Special for The Republic
Mar. 18, 2006 12:00 AM

Melanie Boyer, a Thunderbird High graduate, writes "About Last Night," a daily blog about dating and sex in the nation's capitol for Washington City Paper, an alternative weekly.

Boyer, 29, was born and raised in Phoenix. She graduated from Thunderbird in 1994 and Northern Arizona University in 1998. Her parents, William H. and Marcia Boyer, still live in Phoenix.

"My parents have been encouraging and supportive . . . although sometimes my mother sends me a note that says, 'I'm not old enough to understand this.' But when I talked to my father about it, he said, 'Mel, how do you think you got here?' " Boyer said.
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City Paper senior editor Mike DeBonis said the blog receives about 4,000 hits a week.

"This is doing exactly what we wanted it to, help us connect with a very particular group of readers (those ages 24 to 40) and a particular type (disposable income)," DeBonis said. "It's our first blog, and we see it as a great way to bring people to our Web site and do it in an interesting way."

You can find Boyer's columns at www.washingtoncitypaper.com/aboutlastnight/.

William Boyer said he and Melanie have an agreement that there are certain things daughters do that fathers shouldn't know about. But, he said, the blog puts a different light on things.

"I don't know whether to bust my buttons with pride or poke my eyes out," he said.

A staff writer for the Arizona Daily Sun in 1998, Boyer spent two years in the Peace Corps before returning to the United States to pursue her master's degree at American University. Currently an international program assistant with USAID, she began writing about dating - and her dating experiences - in D.C. last summer after spotting a City Paper ad.

"They advertised for someone to do this," she explained. "And they asked for a resume and a link to a blog. So I started one. It sounded like so much fun - and I knew I wanted to write. Plus, they were going to pay for it."

The "Modern Girl's Action Adventure Guide" went up in May.

The paper's editors followed the blog for a little more than a month, then called Boyer for an interview.

"It was one job interview in which I used words I'd never thought about using in a job interview," she said.

City Paper hired her in August but wasn't able to get the blog up and running on its Web site until around Christmas. Meantime, Boyer kept recounting her adventures online, garnering regular readers.

When she "went public," the column really took off.

"I do get asked a lot what qualifies me to write a sex column. All I can say is they hired me," she said.

City Paper comes out weekly, but she posts a column online every day or so. City Paper carries a quote from one of her current postings, a photo and a directive to the online site.

Boyer has expanded on other aspects of sexuality and love, such as a recent column recounting her grandmother's difficulty in dealing with her husband's incipient Alzheimer's after 63 years of marriage.

Posting online updates about sex, sexuality and dating has had a distinct effect on Boyer's life - especially her dating life.

"I've learned that it's easy to confuse me with the blog," she said. "Once people know I write it, they want to talk very seriously about sex and their experiences, wildest fantasies - it makes for a charged atmosphere."

She has determined a few things.

"Sex is still a hard thing for people to talk about," she said. "People come to it with a whole palette of what is good for them or might be good for you."

Her very first posting for City Paper, she said, drew an unexpectedly negative response from a number of women.

"I wrote about what it means to be dating when you're nearly 30, and the different expectations and roles sex can play in your life," she said. "I also wrote about the possibility of having a healthy sexual relationship with someone who's not in love with you and you're not in love with them."






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Story Source: The Arizona Republic

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Benin; Journalism; Sex

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