INTRODUCTION:

LUST, CONQUER, SEE

I often think of editing an erotic anthology like curating a gallery exhibition. To put together a powerful show, you have to examine dozens (or in this case, hundreds) of selections and cull the strongest pieces. And each piece needs to be considered in the context of the whole; a good curator will pick a handful of talented big names and hang them with a roster of startling new discoveries.

With erotica, the art of selection is even more personal. In choosing the pieces for Best Women’s Erotica 2007, I tried to imagine how each story might reach into the core of a reader’s sexuality, find the trigger, and pull it.

I approached each piece as I might approach a fantastic painting or a jaw-dropping drawing or a visceral photograph, allowing it to overtake my senses, my imagination—and yes, my pussy. This collection did something to me while I was putting it together. The stories here provoked me. They took me over. Bits of them found me in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep; they visited me during the day on my way to the local café; they left me feeling that I wanted more. Was I hungry? Was I thirsty? Was I obsessed with the little details about slick fingers inside panties, a rough fuck by a tattooed boy who loves to spank while he probes, or women paying for outrageous sexual fetishes that most don’t even dare to speak of? I wasn’t sure. But I wanted more.

In “To Serge with Love,” by Reen Guierre, a young woman’s relationship with a British author goes from cybersex to phone sex to an outrageous first-time meeting in person, complete with an unusual (and inspiring) sex toy trick that leaves him literally breathless. In “Inked,” Jordana Winters follows a fascination many of us have for tattooed boys to an incendiary conclusion. “Chill,” by Kathleen Bradean, is one of the edgiest, most outrageous fetish sex stories I’ve had the pleasure of reading over and over. It arouses you as much as it holds your attention rapt in disbelief that such a taboo could be so—hot.

“This Flesh Has Changed Meaning,” by Jennifer Cross, takes the rushed yet tender fuck between two new mothers to dizzy heights; Jean Casse’s “Hands” gives us a most delectable butch who seduces a straight girl only to find that her lust for hands leads her farther than she’d ever thought she’d go—onto her new lover’s boyfriend’s fist. In “Cowboy,” Rita Rollins shows what happens when a lap dancer indulges her fantasies with a client in a most unconventional way, making boundaries into sex toys for the rest of us. “Rhythm Like a Heartbeat,” by Sophie Mouette, makes dancing into a new and delicious sex act when a woman decides her curvy hips should move in time with her heart—and her pussy—with thigh-clenching results.

Jane Black’s “Pivot” is one of this show’s tricks of the light: As you begin it you might think it’s just another hot power exchange fantasy, but when the angle shifts for our female protagonist, so does the sexual control. “Fluid Humiliation,” by Kayla Kuffs, may just be the Mapplethorpe in our collection, as a woman agrees to an ever-surprising level of enema humiliation play—and yes, it’s just as surprising (even to her) as it is a turn-on. “Becky,” by Kay Jaybee, is our most playful selection and one of the joys of the collection, even if that joy arrives with the tongue-in-cheek stripes of a cane properly applied in the most unusual office in the history of cubicle farms. Don’t let Irma Wimple’s “Electric Razor” make you think that women are all about appliances and power tools—except when we are, in the most devious ways.

In “Just Words,” Donna George Storey appeals to the snarkiest in all of us when a woman decides to play along halfheartedly with her lover’s phone sex games, until the words (as they are wont to do) take over her hands, her control, and her orgasms. Thea Hutchinson’s “Galatea Broached” combines lush imagery, male observation, and female sexual awakening in a stunning vista of pure voyeuristic adventure. In “Call Me,” by Kristina Wright, a wrong number turns into the right amount of filthiness for a repeat encounter. Scarlett French’s “Play Spaces” is a snapshot of a newcomer’s night in a sex club, with each new room as thrilling and arousing for her as the last.

“Voice of an Angel,” by Teresa Noelle Roberts, is the baroque centerpiece of this erotic exhibition, in which a costume designer discovers that an opera singer’s voice penetrates more than her ears—culminating in a riveting oral scenario. One woman’s overwhelming urge to conquer male skin with her voracious vulva makes “Puffy Lips,” by Susie Hara, a story you’ll want to revisit. Alison Tyler’s “Worth It” is a powerful portrait of a woman on the verge of marriage who is derailed by her desire for taboo anal sex. And if you’ve ever been consumed with the desire to fuck so hard that it burns through your skin and makes you into something not quite human, then you’ll be unable to walk away from Rachel Kramer Bussel’s “Animals” unchanged.

There is quite a show for you here, and I promise it will leave you wanting more.

 

Violet Blue
August 2006