Jean Roberta, A Collection of Works

Aggh. I will have to ask the one who updated this site how to add links!

Meanwhile, I recommend these sites:

 

www.tabithashay.com

 

www.sloanetaylor.com

 

www.lisabetsarai.com

Opposites Attract

Enthralled by Laura Baumbach (Changeling Press, 2007)

 

Reviewed by Jean Roberta.

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In the opening scene of this unusual erotic romance, an attractive young man, Colin Dobson, stands on a windswept ledge on the tenth floor, planning to jump to his death. He feels completely alone in the city night. For reasons which aren’t immediately clear, he can’t imagine finding someone to love who will love him back.

 

Imagine the unlikeliest possible lover for Colin: a rugged warrior from a distant time and place who is as desperate to stay alive against the odds as Colin is desperate to end the pain of living. While Colin stands ready to jump, Rowland the vampire (who has had other names in other eras) is escaping from three vampire-hunters armed with wooden arrows, the only weapons capable of destroying him, and only if they pierce his heart. Rowland easily defeats the three, but is taken by surprise when he jumps onto a rooftop where a fourth hunter stands waiting.

 

Painfully wounded by an arrow, Rowland falls on Colin, much to the surprise of both men. In his usual style, Rowland threatens to kill Colin if he jostles Rowland, or the arrow lodged in his flesh. “Promise?” asks Colin. His lack of fear intrigues the predator who has rarely found such a willing victim.

 

Mutual attraction, however, changes everything. Rowland realizes that he doesn’t really want to treat Colin like fast food. And Colin realizes that life has something to offer him after all.

 

Colin and the reader both learn the significance of the title when Rowland explains:

 

“Oh, don’t worry, my pretty little one, I plan on feeding from you. I just don’t plan on killing you. At least, not right away. I think after I feed and heal a bit, I’ll spend the next few days teaching you what it’s like to have a vampire for a lover.” This is obviously not the kind of relationship that many mortals could describe from experience.

 

Rowland goes on: “And as I hate to deny myself anything worth having, if you are an exceptionally good learner, I might even make you my thrall.” In answer to Colin’s question, Rowland defines the word: “a vampire’s human companion. Their lover, slave, and source of occasional nourishment.”

 

As the relationship between the two men develops quickly, Colin explains that his over-protective parents kept him sheltered throughout his childhood because of his rare medical condition, one that a vampire is perfectly suited to cure, at least temporarily.

 

Although Rowland is unwilling to admit that he might be vulnerable to anything, his thirst for the innocence, curiosity and kindness that can actually be tasted in Colin’s blood serves to ensure that he will not destroy what he needs. Rowland’s unacknowledged dependence raises the question of who is really enthralling whom. At the same time, the feverish heat of the sex between the two lovers while Rowland is healing from a physical wound also heals Colin’s heartsickness.

 

This story is likely to satisfy all fans of erotic romance who are not put off by a male-male pairing. (Or by fans of gay male erotica who are not put off by romance.) Laura Baumbach delivers the goods.

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More Ass to Love 

 

The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women, Second Edition, by Tristan Taormino (Cleis Press), 2006.

 

Reviewed by Jean Roberta.

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Revised versions of anything tend to make this reviewer skeptical. A second edition manual on how to pleasure the ass? A hip new version of Gray’s Anatomy? This year’s student-friendly explanation of “riting rules”? (As an English instructor, I get as many free copies of such things from publishers as spammy ads in my inbox.)

 

Rest assured, however, that  the current version of Tristan Taormino’s groundbreaking book on all things anal (first published in 1998) really is bigger, more packed with information, clear answers to courageous questions, new diagrams and surprisingly lyrical quoted passages from erotic stories about asses and all the things that can fit painlessly into them. I actually held my first and second editions of this book together and saw that the revised version is one-and-a-half times as thick as the first. It also has a sexier cover.

 

In the 1959 dope-inspired autobiographical novel, Naked Lunch by William Burroughs, there is a surrealistic scene in which a man’s anus complains bitterly that it is ignored and despised, and that it just wants to be loved as much as other body parts. As hallucinatory as this looks, the talking anus has a point. It has traditionally been regarded as the garbage chute of the human body, and its sensitivity has been seen as inherently humiliating as well as grimly funny. Traditional fantasy scenarios of ass-fucking (the intrusive strip-search by police or border guards, the medical exam or prison gang-rape) tend to involve the abuse of power or authority.

 

Tristan Taormino has been challenging these notions for several years. (Not that she is opposed to anal sex in the context of BDSM.) It is hard to imagine how anyone could love or understand the ass better than she does. Questions I never thought of are answered in this book, along with a thorough product assessment of lubes (absolutely essential when exploring a delicate orifice which does not self-lubricate), enema devices and anal sex toys. There is so much to know that it is easy to imagine an aspiring participant having to pass a preliminary exam first, as well as a few other things.

 

If memory serves me, the talking ass was left out of the movie version of Naked Lunch. Tristan Taormino has gone further. She produced and starred in an instructional video to go with the first edition of her book on anal sex, and has since gone on to make a more ambitious film, Tristan Taormino’s House of Ass, produced by Adam and Eve Pictures. According to the blurb:

 

“Village Voice sex columnist Tristan Taormino invited a group of porn stars to join her for a weekend of fun and sex in a secluded house in the mountains. . . Each cast member knew in advance who they would do one scene with. In addition, each person was encouraged to have sex with anyone else in the cast as their mood and libido dictated.”  The award-winning stars, Joanna Angel, Mr. Marcus, Keeani Lei, Scott Nails, Justine Joli, Sarah Blake, two one-name actors, Talon and Saana, and Tristan herself perform in a variety of anal scenes.

 

The official launch party for this film took place in New York on February 26, 2006. Photos and more information appear on Tristan Taormino’s website, www.puckerup.com. (And now the implied reference to kissing in “pucker up” seems more ambiguous than it did in times past).

 

In the new, improved book, the author acknowledges the few logical reasons (as distinct from irrational beliefs) why some people are afraid of anal sex. She refers to her experience as a sex educator who has taught workshops and classes on various sexual techniques. She explains that a woman student once asked her: “After the initial penetration of a guy’s cock in your ass, when should it start to feel good?”

 

Apparently Tristan answered: “Honey, it should be feeling good all along, and if it’s not, then something’s wrong.” She goes on to explain the advice she gave to the woman and her male partner: “go slow, do plenty of warm-up, and, if it hurts at all, stop without any consequences—no frustration, no feeling guilty, on either side.” This sounds like useful advice, and not only as applied to a form of sex which requires more skill, patience and co-operation on both sides than the traditional in-out of marital intercourse for the purpose of making a baby.

 

There is a whole chapter in this book on anal pleasure for men, despite the general focus on women, because women who play with men are likely to need this information. There is a chapter on anal masturbation, another on analingus, one on “butt bondage” (long-term butt plug wear), one on anal fisting, and one on giving and receiving enemas, both as a sexual goal and/or as a way of preparing the ass for other events. Safe sex tools and techniques are thoroughly covered, and the reader is warned away from some commercially-marketed products which are potentially harmful. The author explains:

 

“With popular brand names such as Anal Ease, Anal-Eze and Tushy Tamer, ‘desensitizing’ lubes promise to make anal sex easier and more comfortable. Don’t believe the hype! These lubes contain benzocaine (or a similar ingredient), a topical anesthetic that numbs your anus and rectum.. ..  I absolutely do not recommend using these products or others like them, ever. Because they have the effect of numbing your anal area, you literally cannot feel your ass and you are in danger of hurting yourself. Plus, some people are allergic to benzocaine.”

 

This reviewer could add that anesthetics are no longer as enthusiastically endorsed by health-care providers  as they once were for women in labor, which could be described as the one sexual event which can be expected to hurt even when the participant is doing it “right.” The reasons for doing it “cold turkey” are similar to the ones stated above: anesthetics are not necessarily safe, and an inability to feel one’s body puts one literally out of touch with reality.

 

Much of this book can be read metaphorically as well as literally. The paradoxically dirty pleasure of ass-pleasuring, as described, can be seen as a route to greater intimacy than the conservative and the fearful are likely to find in a sexual relationship. The author refers to an autobiographical book, The Surrender by former ballerina Toni Bentley, in which anal sex is described as a transformative physical and spiritual experience which brought the author closer to her conception of God. Of course, the same act is unlikely to produce the same results every time, or for every person who tries it. But now no one can claim that the ass is a hellish wilderness or that there is no relevant Bible for seekers after its truth. 

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Crave: Tales of Lust, Love and Longing

by Catherine Lundoff

Lethe Press, 2007

 

Reviewed by Jean Roberta.  

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Real and Unreal

 

“It began with small things,” claims the nameless third-person narrator of “Kink,” a story about a woman who seems to have a dull-grey life until a pair of spike-heeled leather shoes make her feel like “a woman no one could ignore.” These shoes lead her to “the boots: full-length black leather ones that ran up her thighs.” At first her boyfriend is intrigued until he realizes that the boots arouse her more than he does, and then he leaves.  His absence leaves a hole in the woman’s life, which is filled by an increasing leather wardrobe. She finds a leather bar and gets adopted by some of the “bears” (large, hairy men) who hang out in that urban den. The woman’s quest for ecstasy shows a momentum, which could lead her to heaven or to hell — or to one, then the other.  Eventually, her new life in the bar leads her to a biker dyke who understands her fetish and who gives her the satisfaction she has been seeking.

 

Most of the fifteen stories in this collection begin with small things and escalate quickly until each lesbian central character reaches nirvana, enlightenment, disillusionment or death.  It is hard for a reader to guess at first where desire will lead.  “Be careful what you wish for” seems to be one of the themes of this collection.

 

So many of the author’s stories (not only in this book but in various anthologies and in her earlier collection, Night’s Kiss) feature magic and the supernatural that even her more realistic plots seem to shimmer with a pinch of fairy dust.  In “Anonymous,” a woman receives text-messages from an unknown admirer who encourages her to put on an impromptu sex show in front of her window.  In this retelling of the ancient myth of Eros and Psyche, the narrator considers making an effort to discover the identity of her mystery voyeur, but then decides against it.  She thinks: “Sometimes not knowing is the best part.” The excitement of the unknown is so convincingly described that the reader tends to agree with the narrator.

 

The realistic stories in this collection could be considered tribal, since they all sound like anecdotes that are passed around in lesbian communities: the myths of lesbian culture. For readers who are unfamiliar with such stories, they are likely to seem like visits to a foreign country. For lesbian readers, these stories shed light on situations we have all heard of, but which we might not have analyzed in the same ways.

 

When the author is not exploring the strangeness of the real world, she explores the strangeness of the strange.  “Spec fic,” as it is broadly defined, is this author’s forte, and the most imaginative stories in the collection are this reviewer’s favorites.

Lundoff reworks the conventions of sword-and-sorcery, of international spy capers, of Westerns, of romance featuring shapeshifters, and of sci-fi, providing a smorgasbord of styles and plots.  In the fantasy realms of these stories, women play all the roles which have traditionally been played by men. For some readers, of course, that is the major appeal of a collection of lesbian stories.

 

While the author’s command of various genres is clear throughout the book, the emotional tone of these stories varies enormously. Some of them seem like witty spoofs of literature set in male-dominated cultures. Other paranormal stories in this collection are more genuinely poignant, suspenseful or eerie.  All of them center on the mysteries of desire, not only for sex as a quick release.

 

The one werewolf story is named “Leader of the Pack.” This title, apparently a reference to a rock song of the 1960s about a Romeo-and-Juliet relationship which ends tragically, reminds the reader that the author is influenced by popular culture as well as by literature. This reviewer was also reminded of a witty werewolf story which appeared when Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estes was a bestseller in the early 1990s.

 

In Lundoff’s version, the “leader” is a female werewolf in the old West who serves as the town sheriff by day and leads a pack of wolves (some of whom seem to be real wolves) by night. In true canine tradition, the leader dominates the pack, including her devoted submissive lover, a waitress in town whom she turned into a werewolf with a love-bite. Like very closeted leatherdykes in a hostile environment, the two female werewolves are in danger of being exposed and killed by human males. The climax of this story is as dramatic as the climax of the rock song by the same name. This story is entertaining, but its cultural references make it hard to take seriously.

 

The tongue-in-cheek quality of the werewolf story also appears in the fairy-tale takeoff, “Hands of a Princess.” The hands of the title are not dainty and deft with an embroidery needle, as one might expect, but large, competent and legendary as lesbian sex organs.  The princess’ mother, the Queen, had similar hands and a similar reputation among her servants and bodyguards.  Will the princess really enter a diplomatic marriage with the man who was chosen for her?  Or will she subvert an official tradition in order to continue enjoying “personal services” from the women who serve her?  The answer is not hard to guess.

 

The title “Medusa’s Touch” is misleading, since it seems to refer to the Greek myth of Medusa, the snake-haired monster who turns men to stone. The story by that name, however, contains no magical man-hating dykes. The “medusas” are hair-like wires that are embedded in the brains of space pilots, who can use them to fly spacecraft by their thoughts alone. The author is a computer specialist, and the technology in this story could be seen as a more exciting version of the kind she deals with in the real world.  In the story, an amoral dyke pilot-for-hire explains with a leer that the medusas can be used for more than official work. As in other space operas, the central characters must survive by their wits during the Corporate Wars.

 

A more obvious spoof of spy stories is “The Old Spies Club,” in which the repeated attempts of the two central characters to take each other out of the game is their version of flirting.  Loathe to give it up when they reach retirement age, a group of them have set up the club of the title.

 

Arguably the darkest and most gripping of these stories is “Emily Says,” which was previously published in an anthology of literary erotica. Emily is an invisible, irresistible lover who continually distracts the narrator from caring that her relationship with an actual woman (who has human limits) is quickly going downhill along with her life.  Like a stranger picked up in a bar, Emily has no last name and no personal history that she is willing to reveal, but the narrator is unable to hang onto her sensible reservations in the face of overwhelming pleasure.  The real-life girlfriend’s anguish is palpable.

 

“By the Winding Mere,” which reads like a prose ballad, conveys the flavor of oral history. The narrator is the daughter of a family of warriors, the only survivor of a battle over coveted territory with a rival clan.  The battle-maiden must seek the witch who can heal her if she wishes to live, but she is very conscious of her duty to avenge her male relatives, who lie unburied until she can return to them.  The witch, however, has an alternative value system, and she challenges the narrator’s concept of “honor” much like a pacifist feminist confronting a military dyke. Is it really honorable to kill and risk being killed?  Is there no better way for a strong woman to avenge her slaughtered kin than by shedding more blood?  The narrator herself has no answer for those questions, but she vows to find one.

 

The final story, “An Evening in Esteli,” raises similar political questions in the realistic context of Nicaragua in 1988, where an international swarm of leftist volunteers have come to support the popular regime.  In an atmosphere of hope, solidarity and risk, a lesbian volunteer from New York is fascinated by a multiracial, multicultural woman journalist who grew up in “the States and Spain” and has lived in “many other countries.”  A wall mural showing women coffee pickers with hopeful expressions serves as an icon for the New Yorker, who hopes that her relationship with the glamorous woman-of-the-world can also ripen and bear fruit.

 

In general, this collection shows a remarkable range. All the stories contain sexual heat in various degrees, but following the trajectory of each plot to find out what happens next is such a pleasure in itself that using these stories simply as masturbation material would be to miss out on the distinct appeal of each one. This book is highly recommended, and would make a good gift for any fan of lesbian erotica.

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The Magic of Household Gods

 

Chaos Magic by Jay Lygon (Torquere Press, 2007).

 

Reviewed by Jean Roberta.

 

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The title of this gay-male BDSM romance or parable of sexual magic in the City of Angels is misleading. It is more about patterns than about chaos. The adorable young bottom who tells the tale has a plan for his life, and the minor deities that he has willed into being (the Goddess of Traffic, the Goddess of Negotiation and the God of Computers) have their own plans. The author’s plan is the best of all.

 

Sam, who appears to be a SAM (Smart Ass Masochist), opens a psychic door to something new by literally praying for a new Daddy to appear in his life. This request is unusual for him, as he explains:

 

“See, to the Gods, most prayer was like the buzz of a hungry mosquito in a dark room late at night . . . Knowing that, I worshipped my Gods, but rarely prayed for anything. When I knelt before their altars and offered sacrifices, selfless adoration flowed off my soul much the same as when I gave my body to a Master. It was an incredible high to bow that low.

 

“Boundless faith, bottomless misery, and sheer desperation — the holy trinity of prayer.”

 

Sam reluctantly goes to the bar with his concerned friends, who want to help him get over his last relationship with a man who is very bad news. Unfortunately, Marcus the ex-Master is stalking Sam, and often appears in places where Sam has gone to escape from him.

 

Sam bolts out of the bar and into the arms of Hector, a mature and reputable dominant as well as a successful salesman of oil-rig equipment. Hector has no interest in tricks of any kind. Despite his frequent out-of-town trips, he wants to get to know Sam step by step, in an old-fashioned courtship that suggests the traditions of his Mexican ancestors. Hector even lives in the house of his dead grandmother, who appears as a ghost to Sam and his family of protective spirits.

 

On their first date, Sam expresses surprise that the oil-drilling business provides Hector with a good living in Los Angeles. Sam was raised in an eccentric family of pagan farmers in Oklahoma, and he is not familiar with all aspects of his adopted city. Hector explains it to him:

 

“Los Angeles is like sedimentary rock — layers applied over each other and compressed together. One layer is entertainment industry, another is agriculture, oil, aerospace, fashion, meat packaging — name the industry and it’s here somewhere you’ve driven past a million times and never noticed.”

 

This description of the local setting suggests the complexity of a plot that combines romance, hot BDSM, psychological realism and the paranormal. L.A. (or El Lay, as it has been called) is described as a place where anything can happen.

 

When showing his altar to Hector, Sam explains his religion:

 

“Gods aren’t immortal. They don’t live much longer than humans do. Every time a god spirit is reborn in the cycle, the Dewey Clan [Sam's family] stands ready to worship the new deity. That doesn’t mean we have to though, except that Mom would scalp me if I didn’t worship the family Gods. So I have altars for the God of Agriculture, the God of Weather, and of course, Mama Fertility, even though I don’t farm.”

 

Sam goes on:

 

“The minor deities share [an altar]. I’m never sure if those nameless ones are old gods clinging to life or new gods without much of a power base: the God of Exact Change, the Goddess of Please Let My Period Start . . . Think of how many prayers rise from human lips in the average day. People don’t mind asking for help, but then they refuse to believe in their own Gods. It’s sad. A lot of minor deities end up in therapy. No amount of hand patting and ‘it’s them, not you’ can give a God the strength to go on. Only worship, faith and the occasional bottle of Stoli can do that.”

 

Thus the reader learns how closely Sam’s spirituality is connected to his sexuality. As his guardian god-spirits tell him, his faith is strong enough to keep them alive and healthy, and therefore any favors they do for him are part of a power exchange, not one-sided acts of charity as he believes. Their hardest job is to get him to believe in himself.

 

Sam at first appears vain, restless and eager to connect with dominant men on a strictly physical basis. As his story unfolds, the reader learns how dangerous Marcus is and how much Sam is in denial about the harm that has been done to him and about his own paralyzing fear. As Sam has reason to know, hell hath no fury like a Master scorned.

 

At first, Hector looks like the anti-Marcus. He offers Sam a chance to reconnect with the soil by growing a garden while living in Hector’s house. Hector points out several times that he could easily support Sam, whose writing job on the fringes of the movie business barely pays his bills. Hector appears protective, concerned and generous. Is he the ideal Daddy or a control freak? Sam wants to be loved, like all other human beings, but no one living in L.A. could be unaware that exchanging sex and other domestic services for material things is a business. As Sam explains to Hector, a real relationship between them can’t be about money.

 

When Sam’s protective deities magically create houses in Hector’s neighborhood so they can live nearby and watch out for their boy, none of the local residents seem to notice anything unusual. Even with supernatural guardians, Sam can’t always be safe in a city where everyone seems to ignore all the “layers” or dimensions of reality outside their own.

 

Hector’s demon seems to be a fear of disloyalty. He has been wounded more than he will admit by two previous boys whom he loved but lost when he caught each of them with other lovers. Hector is determined not to let such a thing happen again. Unfortunately, Sam’s first reaction to fear is to run away first and explain himself later, if at all. And Marcus knows the weaknesses of both Sam and Hector. His plan is to convince Hector that Sam is too fickle to trust and to convince Sam that there is no alternative to a life of submission based on fear.

 

For awhile, Sam’s relationship with Hector seems headed for disaster as surely as the plot of a Greek tragedy. Even when Sam realizes that Marcus is the God of Fear, it is hard for him to turn off the negative energy that has enabled the bully to grow larger than life. As the plot thickens, the reader becomes aware that this saga is a teaching story about the differences between loving, consensual BDSM and one-sided abuse and how easily one can slide into the other.   

 

Does Marcus regain control of Sam’s life? Does Hector learn to trust Sam? Does Sam learn to trust himself?

 

To discover how things work out, you have to read the book. Be warned, however: on the way to a conclusion, you are likely to be distracted by the hot sex scenes. Sam attracts everyone who sees him (even Mama Fertility, who wishes he were straight enough to mate with her), and he describes every blow job he gives and every spanking he gets. He even learns to accept sex in a form that always frightened him too much to enjoy before. As he and the reader learn, however, love and trust are the best forms of lubrication.

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The Art of Being Butch

 

Butch is a Noun by S. Bear Bergman (Suspect Thoughts Press, 2006)

 

Reviewed by Jean Roberta

 

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S. Bear Bergman is both a youngish (Generation X) genderbending performance artist and a gentleman of the old school. In a series of elegantly-written essays, ze has explored the concept of honorable butchness (or the character of a gentleman) unconnected to maleness. This book could be read as a queer, postmodern answer to older works on How to Be a Man.

 

In a moving dedication, Bear addresses hir “sons:”

 

“We want to pass things down. We want heirs, and if I cannot have heirs of blood then I want heirs of spirit; I want you, when you are grown, when I am gone, to have parts of me. This is the first thing, the handkerchief. In its way, it is emblematic of the butch heart–it is something you carry with you at all times for the express purpose of giving it away when it is needed.”

 

In the opening section, “I Know What Butch Is” (and the parallel with art seems deliberate), the author wrestles with slippery definitions:

 

“First of all, butch is a noun. And an adjective. And a verb.”

 

In a hilarious passage, the author approaches the intersection of chivalry and feminism:

 

[Butches are] “Gentlemen who . . hold your umbrella over you in the rain while the water drips down their sleeves. But not gentlemen if being a gentleman means imposing on the unsuspecting their sexist modes of acting out the cultural paradigm of the helplessness of women. Except if the unsuspecting are crying and need a handkerchief, or elderly and need a seat to sit down in, then it’s all right. Probably.”

 

In a chapter named “Fire the Copyeditor, or Possibly the Author: A Few Notes on Pronouns,” the author introduces the reader to the gender-neutral pronouns ze (he/she) and hir (his/her). 

 

In “Defending Identity,” the author explains hir professional performance of gender as an art form:

 

“My identity, my complicated butch identity, this crazy identity that requires an hour, two charts and a graph to explain, is the commodity I use to make my living. I am an identity whore.”

 

In “Where Butch Resides,” the author describes hir identity in sensuous physical terms:

 

“Sometimes I think it’s in my hands. They’re big, you know, big boy paws, big enough to hold two glasses in each when I’m carrying them back to the table. . . Other days, I think it’s in my shoulders. . They’re lean-on shoulders, cry-on shoulders. . . Maybe in my hips, somewhere around my thighs, not in my cock or my cunt per se, but a near neighbor, a sexual organ all its own, something desirous and desired. My butchness engorges at the approach of an object of my desire, it leads the way and I follow, bringing along my butch behaviors all fed with the strength of that blood, those muscles, that possibility of my womb.”

 

However, Bear is careful to point out that “butch” in itself is not a sexual orientation. There are (relatively) heterosexual butches like hirself (happily married to a femme) and faggot butches: those who desire their butch brothers. In “A Note to the Reader,” the author warns: 

 

“I left all the sex in. I have a great deal of respect for the power of sex and sexuality. Not just the power it has when it exists but the power it has when it is erased. I think that all of us have been punished for or with our sexuality in one way or another, and butches tend to get an extra big helping of this–both the punishment and the silence. For that reason, I chose to write one very explicit essay, to allow others to retain their eroticism, and to include them in the book.”

 

In a piece on butch/femme courtship named “Dancing,” the author gives advice:

 

“Gentlemen, open your arms, hold your elbows high, invite the lady into your embrace just so, welcome her but do not grasp her or collect her, merely make a space for her in your dance. Once you have a partner, take a small step forward to make sure you’re both starting on the same foot, then a small step back to confirm it. Now is the time to be sure your partner is ready to move with you, not later.”

 

Even in the context of butch/femme flirting, however, the author warns that assumptions are unjustified. In an explicit chapter, “Getting Fucked,” ze explains:

 

“Butches are not supposed to like getting fucked. . . Butch sexuality is about focusing our attention outward, remaining composed and in control, serious and searching, calculating what twist or turn might bring the next scream, might wring the next increment of shuddering delight out of our lucky partners, who are naked and writhing and openmouthed on the bed, who are tearing up our sheets and loving us for it.”

 

Ze refers to cruel gossip among butches about who might not be a “real” butch because ze lets hirself be touched, fucked, driven beyond control.

 

Bear’s response to such backbiting is: “Bullshit.” Ze goes on:

 

“We’re butches no matter what we like to do in bed; butchness is not defined by who does what to whom in bed, in the backseat, over the coffee table or anyplace else. We may do all of the above-named things; I certainly have come from giving a lover pleasure, but we do any number of other things, too, other acts both sacred and sexual, which is what it is any time a butch takes you into hir bed or follows you to yours.”  

 

Most of the essays in this book convey the generosity of the emblematic handkerchief which keeps reappearing between longer sections. There are charming sections on the appeal of crisp white shirts and cuff-links, on the always-appreciated butch tradition of helping friends move by carrying heavy objects up and down stairs, of the influence of a responsible Jewish father as the original mensch in the author’s life, of the crucial support of an extended family of blood relatives and fellow-tribesfolk.

 

Each essay or meditation in this book is a little gem that can be read on its own, but reading the whole collection is more fun. The only important topic which seems glaringly absent (thinking of the possibilities of the author’s womb) is childraising. Even for a book which is largely aimed at a GLBT audience, this seems like an important omission in an era when a large minority of queer couples (and singles) are raising children from former relationships, male/female sex between friends or strangers, artificial insemination, or adoption.

 

How does a gentleman butch deal with actual (not only spiritual or cultural) offspring in a time when many het bio-men are deadbeat, absentee fathers? How can the influence of a hands-on biological father (see earlier reference) be adapted by a butch parent who is not male? An interested reader would like to know.

 

One can only hope that there will be a sequel to this book. Bear’s spin on the role of a gentleman would be hard for anyone to dislike, based as it is on compassion, helpfulness, strength and style rather than force, contempt, intimidation or snobbery. As reviewer Kate Bornstein suggests, this book should be required reading in any gender studies curriculum.  

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 The following are my notes for a talk I gave at the Conference/Annual General Meeting of the Saskatchewan Writers Guild on October 17, 2008.  - Jean

Things to Consider When Writing Sexually-Explicit Fiction:

 

1. Scene vs. Plot

            -         Is sex the focus of the work? (Consider the Fred Astaire rule: the dance must reveal something  

                  about the relationship.)

 

-         Why does the sex take place? (Bad sex scenes are unconvincing, improbable, unmotivated – good ones happen in a logical context, even if it is paranormal, historical or sci-fi.)

-         How much (& what kind of) sexual description is consistent with the narrator’s POV (even if it is omniscient third-person)?

-         Social context: sex outside marriage in some cultural/historical contexts must be secretive, accompanied by fear of discovery and/or drastic social consequences. “Minority” sex (lesbian, gay-male, transgender, BDSM/fetish, age-gap, cross-cultural or interracial) until very recently was also secretive, persecuted, or occurred in cultural community.

-         Specific activities – do you have first-hand experience? If not, read, read, read, surf the ‘net, ask questions.

-         If the emphasis is on the sex rather than plot, characters or suspense, is it  fascinating enough to bear that much scrutiny?

 

1. Genre

 

-         In “porn” (masturbation scripts) or literary erotica (stories with plot, characters, imagery), the sex must be a crucial element.

-         In suspense/crime/mystery, the sex must be integrated into a plot which follows the solving of a crime or discovery of something hidden.

-         In romance, the sex follows the development of a relationship.

-         In fantasy, sword-&-sorcery, sci-fi, etc., the sex must be well-integrated into an alternative world. Consider physical characteristics (e.g. are the characters vampires, werewolves or other shapeshifters?) and culture (is public sex included in religious ritual?).

-         In horror, the sex must be balanced: appealing enough to readers to be comprehensible, but disturbing or dangerous enough to fit the genre.

-         In YA, the sex must be consistent with other elements. (Teens are curious, but most don’t have fully-equipped playrooms.)

 

1. The rules and how to break them

 

-         Copyright issues: fan-fic or slash is not publishable outside a limited context, repetition of scenes or other elements tends to be noticed.

-         Know the standard legal taboos: no non-consensual sex or sexualized violence, no incest, no underage sex, no scat. Editors/publishers/ site owners prohibit these things due to possible legal consequences.

-         The rules can generally be broken IF the taboo behaviour is not shown as sexually appealing from narrator’s POV. Sexual abuse okay if part of backstory or shown as a problem – same with underage.

-         The more suave the style, the more you can probably get away with.

-         Learn the tastes of particular editors and/or publishers. If you do readings, learn as much as possible about what usually works at certain events.

-         Avoid clichés unless you can put a new spin on them. Examples: the horny delivery person, the lord/lady who falls in love with the governess or gardener, chance encounters that lead to ecstasy.

 

1. My pet peeves

 

-         Extreme BDSM with no warm-up OR aftermath – cartoonish scenes.

-         “Lesbians” who show no sexual interest in women, concern about “coming out” or gender/sexual identity

-         Lack of continuity, grammatical mistakes, unimaginative writing.

-         “Mary Sue” (autobiographical) characters getting lucky beyond credibility.

 

Exercises for a Writing Workshop

 

Background: The call-for-submissions asks for stories involving baseball. All genders and sexual orientations accepted.

 

Assignment: Write a plot outline or first paragraph or sex scene.

 

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Background: An editor you know has asked for a story involving GLBT characters involved in the Stonewall Riots of June 1969 for an anniversary anthology.

 

Assignment: Write a sex scene.

 

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Background: A history journal plans to do a theme issue on Victorian brothels that specialized in “le vice anglais” (bondage/discipline/dominance/submission).

 

Assignment: Decide what information you need and where you can get it.

 

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Background: You want to edit an anthology about sexual pleasure in marriage.

 

Assignment: write the call-for-submissions.

 

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Background: The call-for-submissions asks for male shapeshifters who are attracted to other males (who may be ordinary humans or other supernatural beings).

 

Assignment:  Write a plot outline or first paragraph or sex scene.

 

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Background: The call-for-submission asks for fictionalized versions of famous sex scandals involving actual people.

 

Assignment: Decide which celebrity you want to write about, and write a plot outline.

 

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Background: You want to write something for a website that specializes in threesomes or “ménage” (m/m/f, f/f/m, f/f/f, m/m/m).

 

Assignment: Write a sex scene.

 

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Background: The call-for-submissions asks for sex stories about lesbians with tattoos and/or piercings.

 

Assignment: write a sex scene.

 

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Background: You want to write a novel about life in a culture which has enforced incest and outlawed sex between NON-relatives.

 

Assignment: write a plot outline or introduction or first paragraph or sex scene.

 

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Openings to Another World

 

Alleys and Doorways: An Anthology of Homoerotic Urban Fantasy Short Stories, edited by Meredith Schwartz (Torquere Press, 2006). ISBN: 1-934166-53-7.

 

Reviewed by Jean Roberta

 

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The theme of this anthology is unusual and engaging: each of the thirteen stories is about something magical that happens in a city to a gay male or lesbian character who is often the storyteller. As the editor explains in her foreword:

 

“In modern fantasy, the city often takes the place of the green wood: it is where the discontented begin the quest for adventure or fortune or love; where the old rules—often the constricting conformity of the suburbs, or family expectations–are loosed. In the magical city, transformation is not just possible, but glimpsed around every street corner.

 

“Gay people, in particular, have often gravitated to the city to come out, become someone new, and find each other. Not all urban fantasy is queer, of course, but fairies have more in common with the gay and lesbian experience than just an epithet to be reclaimed. . .  the magic in urban fantasy is likely to pool in the corners man made and then forgot: the little spaces on the edges of things, unlikely and rough-edged and disregarded—the alleys, doorways and docks; deserted parks and poor, artsy neighborhoods. These are exactly the same spaces that urban gay people have often claimed as their own.”

 

While most of these stories deal with gay men, both the stories and the characters vary widely. The first tale, “Everlasting” by Rose Fox, is a grim variation on the gay-male tradition of cruising for tricks in city parks; in this case, the 200-year-old central character is doomed to repeat the process forever – unless or until he can find the miraculous antidote to the curse.

 

In the same tradition of be-careful-what-you-wish-for and let-the-buyer-beware is ”Path of Corruption” by Steve Berman, in which a fairly typical nerdy university student follows an attractive man in pre-Katrina New Orleans. The reader is led to expect an erotic experience which will enable the student to gain some life experience before returning to his studies, but what happens is much more sinister. The student discovers a world that resembles that of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories, dominated by the ancient tentacled god Cthulhu.

 

In the powerful “Steel Anniversary” by Valerie Z. Lewis, two lesbians are celebrating their eleventh anniversary together (the “steel anniversary”) while looking forward to the baby that one of them is expecting. Beneath their deceptively calm, domestic life together are horrifying shared memories from their teens. Needing to deal with “baggage” which is both emotional and physical, they find an inventive way to bury it.

 

The rest of the stories range in tone from poignant and erotic (“The Truth of Skin and Ink” by B.A. Tortuga, which explores the bond between a tattoo artist and a client who brings in an enigmatic design for his first tattoo) to whimsical.

 

In “Side Effects” by M. Decker, a young man in his first “summoning” job accidentally produces a dragon out of thin air, forcing his lover to help him prevent the beast from burning down their apartment. The souvenir that the dragon leaves behind suggests a sequel.

 

In another dragon story, “Underneath” by A.J. Grant, John must co-operate with his ex to deal with a dragon that lives under Grand Central Station – and decide whether the beast is doing more harm than good.

 

In “Were” by JoSelle Vanderhooft, Alex is a lonely geek approaching age 60 who believes that he is doomed to remain single for the rest of his life because of his embarrassing secret: he occasionally changes into an animal. When his friends set him up with another geek, he learns that there really is a partner for everyone.

 

“Lost” by Wendy Barnum has a similarly happy ending after her lonely central character travels the New York subway at night, aimlessly trying to lose his memories of past boyfriends and the bad luck that always seems to plague him on his birthday. After playing Scrabble with a mysterious old man in an almost-deserted train, Lawrence finds himself in exactly the right place.

 

“The Token” by Elspeth Potter and “Cedar” by Ann Stocce are also about the magic of place. In both of these stories, the central characters visit the men and the environments that appeal to them.

 

“The Reflection of Love” by Julia Talbot deals with forms of extrasensory perception: scrying (the ability to see visions in reflecting surfaces) and empathy. Can two men who are both wanted and feared for their special powers ever find peace? Read this suspenseful story to find out.

 

In “Picture Perfect” by Sean Michael, the magical ability to produce pictures of things which are not physically present is in a second-hand camera, not the photographer who uses it. He learns that the camera captures desire, and he is amazed to discover that he and a certain hunky model have more in common than he thought.

 

In “The Love Potion” by Abbie Strehlow, a young man who tries to perform a spell to find out the identity of his true love comes to realize that he would rather solve that mystery on his own, in the natural course of developing a relationship with an attractive man.

 

These stories are quirky, entertaining, and (in some cases) strangely believable. They are gay urban legends with a whiff of sulphur and a sprinkle of fairy-dust on them. Reading them is likely to give you a sense that you’ve heard them before – once upon a time.

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