By
Sacchi Green
I
wonder sometimes whether I switched from science fiction and fantasy
to erotica just because the competition looked sparser way back then,
making my chances of selling my stories seemed better. Or was it
mostly because I really wanted to write about sex? Most of my
speculative fiction stories had more or less subtle sexual subtexts.
Discovering
back then that I got paid more for the erotica was a factor, too.
I’ve never exactly given up on writing sf/f, especially fantasy,
but my writing time and focus have been spent almost entirely on
erotica, especially lesbian erotica, for the last eighteen years.
From that perspective I can say that erotica is no longer the road
less traveled, no longer pays more, and in spite of its many talented
writers gets even less respect than genres like science fiction and
fantasy. Much less.
In
the science fiction community there has always been grumbling about
readers and critics who insist that sf/f is all rocketships and/or
elves, so if they like a book, it must not be sf/f after all, however
science fictional its theme may be. With erotica, readers—or rather
non-readers of the genre—dismiss anything categorized that way with
terms like Plot-What-Plot. I was going to say they use cruder terms,
but those seem usually to be assumed to go without saying. If they
accidentally read some well-written sexually-driven stories with
fully-developed characters and intriguing story arcs, well, those are
exceptions, not really what erotica is like.
Okay,
I’m ranting here, based on what I’ve seen and read and heard
readers say, the kinds of readers who actually buy books. I’m
probably overstating the situation. But recently I’ve been
wondering whether having my stories and anthologies tagged as erotica
is preventing them from being read by people who might actually enjoy
them in spite of sex scenes, or who might notice that sexual
interactions can be as revealing of character as any other
encounters. On the other hand, not including the term “erotica”
in their titles would make it even harder for them to attract any
attention at all, and I draw the line at calling them “erotic
romance,” even though some of the stories could qualify for that
description.
This
train of thought has been triggered by my anthology that came out
last May, Witches, Princesses and
Women at Arms; Erotic
Lesbian Fairy Tales. I had
wanted for years to edit a book with this theme, and finally
succeeded in persuading my major publisher that it was good idea. The
contributors to the anthology are outstanding writers, with stories
equal or superior to what might be found in a high-profile fantasy
anthology, with the added advantage (or disadvantage) of including
sex as a driving force of the plots. It’s doing pretty well, but I
have a feeling that it would get more of the attention it deserves if
“Erotic” hadn’t been included in the title.
I
had the odd experience lately of being on a committee to reassess the
descriptions of categories in an organization’s awards program, and
being told that they had a very hard time getting judges for the
erotica category. Nobody wanted to read it. That didn’t really
surprise me, but I was startled to see that their current description
for erotica pretty much went along with the “Plot-What-Plot” line
of thought, and my books wouldn’t seem to qualify, although I’ve
won an award there four times already. No, this isn’t the biggest
award-giving organization, but still notable in lesbian fiction. So
maybe my anthologies aren’t erotica after all, but so far I’ve
been able to get away with it, and no reviewers, at least, have ever
complained about not enough erotic content in them.
In
the case of my fairy tale anthology (which does not, as it happens,
include any traditional fairies) I suppose I just want, undeservedly,
to have it both ways, fantasy and erotica. I was a fan of speculative
fiction as a teenager, and always thought that someday I’d be
writing in that field. That “someday” came relatively late in
life, on a relatively low level, but at the time there was a
burgeoning of markets for sf/f short stories, with new small presses
and magazines springing up, and I managed to get a fairly respectable
amount of my work published. But there were more and more aspiring
writers, too, in those days when the use of computers and word
programs was becoming widespread.
Yes,
I wrote my first few manuscripts on a lowly typewriter, and had to
submit them by land mail, along with stamped self-addressed envelopes
if I wanted them returned, or stamped self-addressed postcards if I
just wanted notices of acceptance or rejection. All of this uphill in
six feet of snow, or so it seemed. On an increasingly crowded road.
(Oh, wait, then the snow would be packed down. Bad metaphor. Never
mind.)
But
then I discovered erotica. I didn’t intend to abandon sf/f, just to
dabble in this other genre that didn’t seem as crowded, and did
seem to have room for a writer who’d already learned the principles
of writing actual stories instead of slapdash vignettes. I came
across a call for submissions for a newish series called Best
Lesbian Erotica, thought I’d give it a
try, and had an actual phone call from the editor accepting my story
and saying how “different” it was from anything else she’d
seen. I’d been right about sf/f being good training for erotica. I
might try more of this type of thing!
In
fact, erotica seduced me. Seventeen years later I found myself
editing the 20th anniversary edition of Best
Lesbian Erotica, after editing fifteen
different anthologies, only two of them sf/f. Now my second BLE (now
titled Best Lesbian Erotica of
the Year Volume 2)
has just come out, and I’m reading submissions for a third. The
world of publishing has changed cataclysmically, though, and for
various reasons the erotica field has been flooded with so many books
and stories of varying length, quality, cover images (generally
lurid) and prices (generally cheap) that what I’d consider the
really good ones have hard time getting seen. Writing erotica is now
far from being a road less traveled, making it harder for any
individual work to get anywhere. Then, of course, there’s the whole
pirating situation, but I won’t get into that quagmire here.
Instead,
let’s get back to my beloved erotic fairy tale book. Instead of
excerpts from the stories, I’ll share my introduction, as a more
compact way to give you an overall impression. At least I hope so.
Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms: Introduction
How
often have you tried to envision “he” as “she” when you’re
reading fairy tales? Those flights of imagination can sweep you up
into worlds of magic and sensual delights—or would, if only so many
heroes winning the day (and, of course, the girl) didn’t get in the
way. Do you long for heroines who win each other?
I
do, so in this anthology I wanted erotic romance and wild adventure
with women who use their wits and/or weapons and come together in a
blaze of passion. These wonderful writers gave me all I hoped for,
and even more. Some adapted traditional tales, and some updated old
stories to contemporary times, not merely changing the gender of a
character but making the female aspect essential. Some created
original plots with a fairy tale sensibility, while some wrote with
merely a subtle aura of fantasy. Their heroines are witches,
princesses, brave, resourceful women of all walks of life, and even a
troll and a dryad. There are curses and spells, battles and intrigue,
elements of magic and explorations of universal themes, and, yes,
sex, sensuality and true love, all bound skillfully together into
complex and many-layered stories.
Royalty
or a miller’s daughter, a woman warrior passing as a man, a
sorceress in flowing robes, even a window inspector dangling in
harness on a high-rise building—who better to rescue a long-haired
captive in a tower?—all of them are made so real that you long to
touch them, and be touched. The relationships are intense, sometimes
quick to ignite, sometimes all the hotter for restraint that flares
at last into a fierce blaze.
In
all my years of editing anthologies, I’ve never read so many
submissions that were beautifully written and just what I’d asked
for. And I’ve never had so much trouble choosing which to use to
fill the finite space in this book. I can only hope that readers will
get as much pleasure from these stories as I did, and that Witches,
Princesses and Women at
Arms turns out to be, to quote a certain beloved
film with a unique take on fantasy traditions, exactly, “As you
wish.”
Sacchi
Green
_______________
Note:
I don’t know how long it will last, or who decides these things,
but right now there’s a temporary sale on the ebook version of this
anthology, so on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, etc., you can get it for
$1.99.
Also,
I’ll give away an ebook copy in Mobi, Epub, or PDF to a name drawn
at random from the comments on this post.
Sacchi
Green
(sacchi-green.blogspot.com,
www.facebook.com/sacchi.green)
is
a
Lambda
Award–winning
writer
and
editor
of
erotica
and
other
stimulating
genres.
Her
stories
have
appeared
in
scores
of
publications,
including
eight
volumes
of
Best
Lesbian
Erotica,
four
of
Best
Women’s
Erotica,
and
four
of
Best
Lesbian
Romance.
In
recent
years
she’s
taken
to
wielding
the
editorial
whip,
editing
fourteen
lesbian
erotica
anthologies,
most
recently
Wild
Girls,
Wild
Nights,
Me
and
My
Boi,
Best
Lesbian
Erotica
of
the
Year
20th
Anniversary
Edition,
Witches,
Princesses
and
Women
at
Arm,
and
Best
Lesbian
Erotica
of
the
Year
Volume
2,
most
of
them
from
Cleis
Press.
Sacchi
lives
in
the
Five
College
area
of
western
Massachusetts
and
makes
occasional
forays
into
the
real
world,
usually
for
readings
in
places
like
NYC.
She
also
posts
on
alternate
Mondays
on
Oh
Get
a
Grip,
a
group
website
for
ten
erotica
writers
with
plenty
to
say.
http://ohgetagrip.blogspot.com
