[Q: R. Gay] Would you ever want to edit a collection entitled Fucking [insert your name]? Why or why not?

(Jamie Berger)No. It would utterly pale in comparison.

(Hanne Blank)No. I have had nightmares about being stuck in a group therapy session that consisted solely of my ex-lovers. Enough said.

(R. Gay)Hells yeah. Because I am a writer, and therefore, to some extent, self-absorbed. Also, I often think the idea of me is more interesting than the actual me so there’s that. I would love to see what people would have to say about the idea of fucking the idea of me. Me, me, me.

(Marlo Gayle)No, because I’m a lousy editor, but if someone else wants to edit it…by all means!

(Caren Gussoff) No. No. No. God, no. The, let’s-call-them colorful (you know who you are) characters from my fucking past are better left silent. And although I had a few years moonlighting as a burlesque starlet, anyone that is currently fantasizing about fucking me should re-read my answer to Jamie Berger’s question where I compare myself to George Burns. Now Fucking George Burns: That could be interesting.

(Sarah Katherine Lewis) Sure I would, but I suspect the anthology would be pretty short. Now, “Fucking With Sarah”…that’d be a giant book printed in a teeny tiny font and packaged with a magnifying glass, OED-style.

(Jared Jacang Maher) I think every American citizen should be required by federal law to compile an anthology of stories written about them by ex-lovers. All of these would be cataloged in the Library of Congress in a division known as the Department of Sexual Complaints, which would be staffed by sex offenders and White House staffers. Any person would be able to have access to these books 24-hours a day as a way to research the sexual and emotional habits of current, future and hopeful partners. Particularly long volumes of certain individuals would be housed in microfilm in a separate room. Copies could be made at 25 cents per page; 1 dollar per page for color.

(Nick Mamatas) I would, but only if there was a very famous Nick out there, the sort so well-known that he would go only by his first name.

(Lori Selke) I would be much too mortified to ever publish (or even read!) a collection called Fucking Lori Selke. Also, I think it would be a big flop. I do not have a well-defined or prominent enough public persona to make such a project interesting, from either the salacious/sensational angle, or the more interesting one about the tug-of-war between identity and representation. Oh well.

(Eric Spitznagel) Frankly, no, I’d never consider it. Not because I’m in any way bashful or private about my sex life. I just don’t think there’s a market for a book that, to be completely honest, would need to be called “Fucking the Guy Who Kinda Looks Like Paul Giamatti But Isn’t Nearly as Famous.” Let’s not overestimate the audience for flabby dude erotica, shall we? Is the world ready for a scorching sexual tell-all with chapters like “Would You Mind If I Kept My Shirt On?” and “Read To Me From McSweeney’s, Baby, It Totally Counts as Foreplay” and “Ouch, Hold On, Something’s Pinching.”

(Carolyn Turgeon) No, because I am not as narcissistic as Daphne. Plus I would never be interested in editing other people’s writing, as I’m far too interested in my own.

But still, no I would not ever want to edit a collection entitled Fucking Carolyn. Making Sweet Sweet Love to Carolyn All Night Long?

Maybe

But wait! There’s more!

• June 14 Caren’s question www.spitkitten.com
• June 15 Sarah Katherine’s question www.sarahkatherinelewis.com
• June 16 Jared’s question blogs.westword.com/latestword/
• June 17 Nick’s question nihilistic-kid.livejournal.com
• June 18 Lori’s question pantryslut.livejournal.com
• June 19 Eric’s question www.spitznagel.net
• June 20 Carolyn’s question carolynturgeon.blogspot.com AND lillianleitzel.livejournal.com/
• June 21 Contributors’ questions to Daphne postmaudlin.livejournal.com

San Francisco Readings

June 17, 2008
Joint Release Reading for Kissing Dead Girls and Fucking Daphne
with
Charlie Anders
Guy Gayle
T.R. Moss
Gabe Scelta
Lori Selke
Susan Steinberg

261 Columbus Ave :: 7:00 p.m. : Free

June 26, 2008
Book Release for Fucking Daphne
Center for Sex & Culture
with
Charlie Anders
Justin Chin
Tristan Crane
Stephen Elliott
Guy Gayle
T.R. Moss
Gabe Scelta
Lori Selke
Bucky Sinister
Susan Steinberg
1519 Mission Street :: 8 p.m. :: Admission TBA, NOTA

August 12, 2008
Joint Release Reading for Kissing Dead Girls and Fucking Daphne
with
Tristan Crane
Guy Gayle
T.R. Moss
Eric Spitznagel
Justin Chin

Modern Times :: 888 Valencia St :: 7 p.m. :: Free

I read someone, somewhere else asking, “How hard is sex writing, really?”

My answer is this.

Sex writing may not be that hard. But good sex writing is a different thing entirely.

We all know that there’s a lot of bad, very unfortunate sex writing that has been released into the wild. We’ve all read the confessions without reflection and the barely plausible yet lurid tales of debauchery, packaged with some kind of moral. We’ve read about women who hate their bodies and only want to fuck with the lights out and men who hate women and use sex as a therapeutic means of dealing with who they were in high school.

And then, of course, there’s the fiction–purple prose dripping with swollen members and swooning bosoms and sexual positions that defy both logic and the laws of physics.

Reading sex writing can be exhausting.

But, when sex writing is done well, it is smart and witty. It engages you intellectually, emotionally, and in the best of all words, physically. There’s no magic formula for good sex writing, but when you read it, you know what it is.

However, good sex writing is never easy. Just because you have sex doesn’t mean that you automatically know how to write about it in an engaging manner. Sex writing is hard because lots of people have sex but no one has sex the same way. And we all have very different relationships to sex. Some of us are repressed. Some of us are wanton. Some of us are indifferent. Some of us are traumatized. A great many of us are some combination of the above. Sex writing requires negotiating these differences while trying to find that common ground that might strike a chord in the reader.

As a writer… As a lazy writer, I must confess that I generally write to please myself. Its easier that way. But on my more productive, less self-involved days, I try to use a few well-crafted sentences to tell the stories (whether fiction or nonfiction) that might be interesting to other people, as well. Because good sex writing, to my mind, makes us feel a little less alone and perhaps even a little more validated about the choices we make with our bodies and whom we share our bodies with.

Accomplishing that is no simple task.

Also, check out the blog for Dirty Girls, in which I have a story appearing early next year, edited by the always delightful Rachel Kramer Bussel. I do realize that was a poorly constructed sentence.

And ::shill::shill::, feel free to purchase a copy of Best Women’s Erotica 2008, where my story Stranger in the Water appears. You can find it at fine online purveyors such as Powell’s or Amazon. You can also find it in these quaint edifices once known as bookstores.

I think the better question is “why do I write?” I don’t set out to write erotica, but most of my fiction is concerned with relationships between people who actually have sex with one another. Sometimes, that sex is explicit, other times, less so and the stories with explicit sex seem to find homes in the erotica genre, which is fine by me.

But back to the main question, I write because its fun, relaxing and I have a very vivid imagination. It also provides a great opportunity for me to pretend that many aspects of my life aren’t incredibly boring.
2. What do you like best about lesbian erotica?

I like a lot of the stuff that has been published in the last few years, where lesbians are more multidimensional than the characters you might have seen in lesbian erotica in the late 90s and earlier part of this decade. I have particularly enjoyed, for reasons I can’t quite articulate, lesbian erotica with transgender characters as well as what the somewhat contradictory subgenre lesbian erotica involving men. There is something about that combination, I find very… stimulating and transgressive. It is also cool that its more acceptable to write these stories without people looking at you like you’re crazy.

3. What is the theme of your story Grease in Iridescence: Sensuous Shades of Lesbian Erotica?

I actually wrote this story many years ago, and when I saw the Call for Submissions, I thought, let me dust this one off. Its a really simple story, about two girls in love and the protagonist, if you will, is absolutely smitten with her paramour. She cannot get enough of this girl. If there’s a theme to this story, its that women in love can have absolutely searing sex over and over and… over again and that imbalance can be erotic.

4. Name some other books where we can find your work.

Several editions of Best Lesbian Erotica, Best American Erotica 2004, Glamour Girls, several editions of the Mammoth Book of Best New Erotica, etc etc.

5. Just for fun! Gym Shoes or Stilettos?

As the song goes–STILETTOS, PUMPS, in the club. We’re rocking stilettos, ho! We’re rocking stilettos!