INTRODUCTION

Over twenty years ago, I decided the world needed more collections of erotica. Erotica written with women in mind, with sexy, demanding, lusty, beguiling, furious, volatile, seductive, sensuous women as the featured characters. Women who were neither passive objects of desire nor fetishized simulacrums moving and acting according to a limited menu of activities and roles.

Twenty years ago, I put out a call for submissions, sending a carefully worded ad to three magazines, about a dozen newspapers and newsletters and a mailing list of my friends who I thought might know other writers, and waited for the typewritten manuscripts to fill my P.O. box….

Wait, wait, what now?

Things sure have changed.

For one, there are so many wonderful collections of erotica. The sheer wealth of delicious stories available for tantalizing enjoyment of every kind is nothing short of amazing. And of course, the Internet and e-books have revolutionized how we find these stories, whether we’re readers (as I am), writers (that, too) or even editors.

Guilty. With pleasure.

And then there’s the reach. I had trouble getting twenty submissions to some of my older anthologies, and often had to resort to begging fellow writers to please, please dash off something I could use—or writing things under one of my many pseudonyms. But now? One hundred and fifty stories came flooding in. Drenching me.

I know. I have your pity. And when you enter this steamy collection of stories, from the sultry to the sordid, I believe they will capture your attention.

Because some things have not changed. The thrill of a bar pickup, and the enticement of the new, will always be exciting. That’s why you’ll start this little erotic adventure with stories celebrating flirtation and spontaneous sexual combustion. With a nod to the cyber-age, it’s only right that the first story, “A Knock at the Door,” by Lee Ann Keple and Katie King, uses text messages to convey the courtship dance of getting-to-know-you and sexual negotiation. The instant ability to share thoughts and fantasies without even looking into someone’s eyes is one of the wonderful and frightening things I couldn’t have even imagined twenty years ago.

You will want to get to the eyes-meeting-eyes part though, even when we aren’t sure what that hot woman’s name is. Or… those hot women’s. Picking up couples or finding lust backstage at a USO show; nasty sex in the ladies’ room or the tempered and simmered heat of a meal designed to steam up more than the farm-fresh vegetables all await your traipsing. And if you’re really ready to get down and dirty, “Wet Dirt,” by Tina Horn, will serve a up potent concoction of humor and bodily fluids and “The Bullwhip and the Bull Rider,” by Sacchi Green, will leave you with a taste of leather in your mouth.

And that’s just the first section of this collection.

One of the things I love in a sexy tale is an unmooring from reality. Erotica has the ability to show us things that don’t happen, can’t happen, shouldn’t happen, never happened. This is part of the attraction. So I am delighted to include in this collection two stories of magic and fantasy: one from pure Greek mythology and one from the quasi-mystical history of the Rain Queens of Balobedu. They serve as wisps of fancy between the three thematic regions of the collection.

The middle segment celebrates and explores existing relationships, because not all passion resides in first-times. Older lovers, established couples, recaptured memories and the urging of a friend to go for more and more—all these show up, starting with the wonderfully sensuous “Behrouz Gets Lucky,” by Avery Cassell. Discovery beyond what we think we already know is just as intoxicating as any flirtation, and reawakening desire is like finding an old love we’d forgotten. So while “My Visit to Sue Anne,” by Anna Watson, might seem like a first-time story—read it slowly.

And in the final part of this romp through the wicked worlds of wild women…go just a little crazy. Fancy getting sexed up while getting some new ink? Or maybe grasp a different kind of bull dyke and confront the challenge of saying “Fuck you!” to a debilitating condition while savoring every moment of actual fucking you can get. You’ll be glad to have this collection discreetly on your reading device so your seatmate doesn’t spy you enjoying the oh-so-public in-flight entertainment depicted in Andrea Dale’s “Still Flying.” But don’t think you’ve landed safely; you’ll still have a stunning swing through gender and what it means to be strong, and finally, that special sort of furious sex that can only happen in the presence of a lot of bad history.

It’s been more than twenty years since I sat down to read the fantasies and myths and desires of hot femmes and butches, tops and bottoms and switches. I’m surrounded by married lesbians, polyamorous bi-dykes, and genderqueers with neutral pronouns, and the kinky sex that used to be way in the back is so mainstream the best-seller lists are packed with billionaires putting their girlfriends in bondage.

But some things never change. This shit is hot. And there’s always more to come. I certainly hope you do.

Laissez les bons temps rouler.

Laura Antoniou
Queens, New York