Interview with Sinclair Sexsmith, Editor of Best Lesbian Erotica 2012

The smokin' hot cover of BLE 12

I'm continuing with my series of interviews of editors of recent anthologies that include my work. Today, meet Sinclair Sexsmith (in the unlikely event you haven't already heard of her)! We're talking about Best Lesbian Erotica 2012. This is the most popular and best-selling series of lesbian erotica there is. I'm pleased to have had my work appear in a few times. Here's what I said about the book on my page of Recently Published Works:

What makes this edition of BLE consistent with others I've contributed to? It's full of hot, well-written, well-edited stories. What's unique about this year's volume? Kathleen Warnock says it best in the foreword: "This year's collection has a chronological arc to it. It starts with the story of two young girls in love: one embraces who she is, the other panics at the unknown. And so it goes through lifetimes: people fall in love some more, break up, have brief encounters, know each other better than anyone else, heal their wounds, have families, take vacations, find comfort, grow older, care for each other, continue their pursuits, and keep on keeping on." Includes a smart and passionate introduction by co-editor, Sinclair Sexsmith, and stories by Lea DeLaria, DL King, Kiki DeLovely, Xan West, Ily Goyanes, Anna Watson, and more. Pick up a copy of Best Lesbian Erotica 2012.

Now, on to what Mr. Sexsmith had to share about her role in editing Best Lesbian Erotica 2012 and her journey as an erotica writer and editor.

Sharon: Your first erotica story was published in BLE 2006 and your first time editing an anthology was BLE 2012 (though your first solo anthology, Say Please: Lesbian BDSM Erotica was released this past April). What did you need to learn to make that journey from writer to editor?

Sinclair: I read so much queer erotica in those years — even before I began submitting and publishing stories, I was an avid reader of queer erotica, but I significantly stepped it up in the last six years. I’ve been reviewing erotica for the Lambda Literary Foundation and directly for Cleis Press, which publishes the majority of the queer erotica available (and my personal favorite erotica, and most of my favorite erotica authors). Beyond that I’ve been more intentional about pursuing erotica writing as a craft, and read as much as I can get my hands on, whether it’s straight or gay or lesbian or queer or pansexual.

I think the biggest thing I needed to learn was what makes a good erotica story. That sounds simple, but not everyone’s definition of “good erotica” is the same (just look at the Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon — definitely not my definition of good erotica). I definitely want erotica stories to be well-written, but I don’t want there to be too much backstory before they get to the sex. Because I’ll be honest — I don’t read erotica for the good story, really; I read it to get off. I read it to get turned on and inspire ideas about how else I could play or fuck. I know a lot of folks want stories that happen to have a sexual component, but really, for me, I want sex that happens to have a story component.

I will definitely admit to having particular personal tastes — like lots of D/s, lots of power play, lots of penetration and cocksucking and dirty talk — but I also love finding erotica stories that aren’t necessarily my taste, or precisely not my taste, but that are so well written that they turn me on, even if just for the time I’m reading the story, and I get it, I understand that kink or fetish temporarily.

Sharon: Was there anything that surprised you in working on BLE 2012?

Sinclair: I was surprised by the amount of good writing that was submitted, and the impressive storytelling. It’s a well-known series and many talented writers submit annually, and as the guest editor, I received the finalists’ stories blind, without the author’s names attached. Even so, in the first pass, I went back to Kathleen Warnock, the series editor, and said, “Are there any more maybes that were particularly dirty?”

As much as I do love good writing, if it wasn’t turning me on while I was reading it, I wasn’t going to put it in the anthology.

“I need tension!” I told Kathleen.

She sent me a dozen more stories that weren’t included in her initial finalists that had more BDSM, more kink, and more sex in them, and some of those made it into the final cut of the book. It wasn’t surprising that I wanted to make the book dirty, but it was surprising that we had to do more than one pass to find the dirtiest stories. I’m glad they were in there!

Sharon: I really liked the chronological arc of this anthology. I don't think I've come across an erotica anthology before that had an embedded theme like this. Was that something you looked for in the stories you chose, or did it just arise organically from the material submitted?

Sinclair: Thank you! It arose from the material submitted, particularly comparing the first story, “Touched” by Amy Butcher, with the last story, “Never Too Old” by Dejay. Kathleen was the one to make the chronological arc suggestion and I think it works incredibly well.

Sharon: What was the best part of working on BLE 2012? 

Sinclair: Working with Kathleen was fantastic because she has so much experience and expertise and really knows how to put a great collection together. The best thing, though, is holding the completed book in my hand and knowing that my taste in erotica is valued and interesting enough for Cleis and Kathleen to ask me to curate a whole collection. I was so honored to do that, especially for the series that published my first story six years prior.

Oh, and the cover — I think the image they chose is super hot. I want to get a wall poster made of it to put up in my writing space. [Note from Sharon: Agreed. Best BLE cover, ever!]

Sharon: This is a writing and disability blog, so disability is a topic I always raise. As far as I know, Peggy Munson and I are the only lesbian erotica writers who frequently write disabled characters. As a reader and editor of lesbian and kink erotica, what would it add for you to find more disabled characters in erotica?

Sinclair: That’s a great question, and I’m not sure how to answer it. Since I don’t frequently see or read disabled characters in erotica, I’m not sure what it is about a disabled person’s sexual and kink experiences that I’m missing out on understanding. I am pretty well and able bodied, at least so far in my life, so I don’t have the experience of those limitations.

I think it’s very important to have accurate representations of sexualities in the erotica worlds — which is one of the reasons I am thrilled about continuing to edit anthologies, because I think my particular tastes are not widely seen in lesbian erotica, but there are a lot of people out there whose tastes overlap with mine. Which is also why we need more diverse representations of disability and ability—so that there is not one singular story about the sexuality of someone disabled, but that there are a myriad of voices that normalize many people’s lived experiences. It is so valuable and important to see one’s self and sexuality reflected in a story in a book; that mirroring is so valuable.

Reading more erotica with disabled characters would contribute to that lack, I think. I’d love to see more of that. So, to folks out there with interesting sex lives or active imaginations — write some of ‘em up! Submit them to anthologies — mine or someone else’s. That’s a missing voice still, and we need more people to write with care and honesty and respect and radicalism.

Sharon: "We need more people to write with care and honesty and respect and radicalism." What a perfect note to end on! Thank you very much, Sinclair Sexsmith, for taking the time to answer my questions!

And if you haven't picked up a coy of BLE 12 yet, do yourself a favor and pick up a copy (in electronic or paper form) at your favorite independent bookstore or at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. And if you  do read it, please post a review on Amazon!

Interview with Sacchi Green, editor of Girl Fever

A decade ago, my first piece of erotica was published. One of the other contributors to that anthology was Sacchi Green. In the years that followed, almost every time I made my way into a new erotica market or gave a reading, Sacchi was there. (She lives in Western Massachusetts, too.) 

Then Sacchi began editing her own anthologies ("cracking the editorial whip" as she puts it), and I've been lucky enough to be a contributor to a couple of them. She first co-edited very successful anthologies on themes such as cowboys and bikers before going solo to edit anthologies on lesbian cops, coming out stories, and more. I have been inspired and impressed by her dedication to finding good writing and a presenting a fluid consistency of theme.

Sacchi's latest anthology is Girl Fever: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex for Lesbians. I'm particularly pleased to have two pieces in Girl Fever because these were the first pieces I wrote after being unable to write or edit professionally from 2007 to 2010, when Lyme disease was taking its biggest toll on my brain and body. It was great to re-enter the world of literary erotica under the auspices of an editor with whom I felt such trust and comfort.

Now Sacchi has agreed to answer my questions about her work as a writer and editor of lesbian erotica (and other genres). Enjoy!

Sharon: The first thing I noticed when I got my copy of Girl Fever was that it's huge! Sixty-nine (even very short) stories of wall-to-wall, throw-down, wet, juicy sex is a whole lot of sex. What I enjoyed most about this book was the variety. Did the number of pieces you were selecting make this a more challenging project than your other anthos? Besides the sexual element, what were you looking for to keep the reader engaged in each story and eager to move to the next one?

Sacchi: I always look for variety, on general principles; anything can get boring if it's repeated too often in succession. I look for variety in a number of aspects. Since this is erotica, the sex is a major factor; I look for a certain mix of mild kink, edgeplay, sweet romance, vanilla, first-times, long-term partners, etc. I especially like things I've never encountered before, like, for instance, that story you wrote about sex during an MRI.* I also look for variety in settings, especially settings vividly evoked in a minimum of words. Different types of characters are good; not just dominant, submissive, butch, femme, andro, but earthy, intellectual, geeky, older, on the young side, introspective, outgoing -- the list could go on and on, and there can be all sorts of combinations. Varying lengths are important, too, even in a book with 69 very short stories. And then there are matters of tone, voice, mood, atmosphere -- lighthearted, heavy, humorous, anguished, intense, casual, and my favorite, indefinable.

Sharon: Back to the topic of variety! In addition to beds, bathrooms, elevators, and boardrooms; planes, trains, and automobiles; this book contains a mix of fantasy/myth, realism, sf, and a huge range of locales and situations. I know that in your writing, too, you have quite a range -- science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, all of which you are able to mix with erotica. Did you solicit spec fic pieces, or did they arrive by luck and connection? Do you have a favorite genre or mix of genres to write (or to read with an eye to publishing)?

Sacchi: For this book, I didn't ask for specific genres, and wouldn't have taken too many stories of, say, space opera or fantasy, but I was happy with the ones I got. In general my main publisher doesn't like much along the lines of speculative fiction, except in specific cases like vampires, shapeshifters, steampunk, fairy tales, whatever seems popular at the time, and all their books like that have been edited by other people, even though I expressed interest in doing some of them. I'm to some extent pigeonholed with traditional lesbian themes, but that's not really limiting. I do write stories myself for some of these, and slip in the occasional historical piece, too. Historical fiction and fantasy are my favorites, but they tend to work best at novel length, and I'm not necessarily a novelist. I've been working with a smaller publisher, though, Lethe Press, where I've edited an alternate history anthology (Time Well Bent) and am co-editing a year's-best anthology of lesbian speculative fiction, Heiresses of Russ 2012, due out on October.

Sharon: I love your historical fiction. There are two pieces I remember from erotica anthologies that have stayed with me for years. One was the title piece from Lipstick on Her Collar. The other was from the perspective of an American woman who had an affair (while she was a WAC) in England during World War II, I think?

Sacchi: Yes, my Lipstick on Her Collar story was set during the War in Vietnam.

The other one you're thinking of is "To Remember You By." She was a WAC nurse, and the other character was ferrying new fighter aircraft for the RAF, as many Americans and Canadians did before similar groups of women pilots were formed in the US. That's one of my very favorites, along with a sequel I wrote about them 35 years later in Alaska, where the pilot had established a career, and gained a partner, a Russian defector who had flown bombers with the "Night Witches" during the war. This was the nearest I ever came to writing a threesome. I did large amounts of research for all these stories, and will probably use some of it again. In fact, one of my rare hetero stories, coming out in November in Kristina Wright's Duty and Desire from Cleis Press, is about a "night witch" shot down near the Russian/German border and rescued by a Russian sniper recovering from severe injuries in the Siege of Stalingrad.

The two stories about the WAC and the pilot are the first and last in my collection of my own work, A Ride to Remember, from Lethe Press. One of these days I'll write a third one, taking place between the other two, when the American pilot rescues the Russian one, who has crashed on the ice shelf near Nome.

Sharon: Ooh, I'm looking forward to reading that collection.

Switching gears, I'd like to talk a bit about disability in erotica since that's a theme on my blog. I've never before been in an erotica anthology that had two stories with disabled characters. Thus, I was pleased and surprised to discover in Girl Fever Fran Walker's "Cats and Dogs," which has a protagonist who uses a wheelchair and a service dog. Do you think it's becoming more common to have disabled protags in erotica anthologies? As an editor, how do you approach stories with a character with a chronic illness or a disability?

Sacchi: I look at stories with characters with disabilities with the same critical eye that I use for any other work, but I'm very glad to see them. For one thing, disabilities (like alternative gender presentations) contribute to the complexities of stories in various ways. Not only are the characters personally influenced by their situations, but their worlds and the ways they navigate them are more complex than for most people, and this adds depth and interest to their stories. Another aspect is the journey a reader make take from initially seeing someone as "other" to recognizing a fully shared humanity, with an extra dose of respect. Not every story has to be "educational" in this way, of course, but it's good for readers to empathize with all sorts of well-written characters.

Sharon: You've contributed to a stack of erotica anthologies that are "breast-high," according to your blog. (I remember when it was thigh-high! I think you really should post a picture of yourself on your blog with your boob-high stack of books.) How did you go from being a contributing writer of lesbian erotica anthologies to being an editor of them?

Sacchi: Well, as you know, I'm not very tall, so "breast-high" doesn't imply all that much altitude. I toyed with the idea of editing for a while; I never wanted to be a teacher, exactly, but I do read with a sense of what's good writing and what isn't, and of how to fix what needs fixing. Then another writer with an anthology idea tracked me down and talked me into co-editing Rode Hard, Put Away Wet: Lesbian Cowboy Erotica with her, since she had experience with training horses and cowboyin', and I had more on the writing chops and contacts side. We did four books together, but we've both moved on.

Sharon: I know you're still contributing to other anthologies, such as She-Shifters, the lesbian paranormal erotica anthology, in addition to editing your own books. What keeps you interested in writing short erotic fiction after so many years and so many stories?

Sacchi: I wrote and published a moderate amount of fantasy and science fiction, including some YA (which is why I chose a pseudonym for my erotic writing) before getting into erotica, so I've been exposed to a variety of genres. Now and then I think I should forget about erotica and focus on other writing, but I find myself including at least undertones of the erotic in most of what I write. To me, erotic stories need to be about other things besides sex, and the fact that a piece has enough sex in it to categorize as erotica doesn't have to limit it; there are still infinite numbers of stories to tell.

Sharon: Last question. In Girl Fever, I found many familiar names -- writers well-known in the field of lesbian erotica -- but I also came across some writers I've never read before, whose stories I really enjoyed and whose writing took me by surprise. What surprised you the most in editing this anthology?

Sacchi: I was surprised (and relieved) that I got so many good stories, and, as you note, by so many by people I'd never encountered before. Maybe it was because some of them felt that their chances were better for a book with so many stories, or maybe they felt more up to writing short pieces than long ones; I don't know. But it does take a special skill to present well-developed characters and settings and scenes in a concise way, and I think that sometimes the amount of focus required on the part of the writer makes a better story than they'd produce with more room to fill.

Sharon: Thank you so much for your time, Sacchi!

Sacchi: Thank you, Sharon, for the great stories you've written for me, and for all you accomplish.

*The MRI story Sacchi is referring to is called "Imaging," and is in Lipstick on Her Collar. That was a fun one to write. I took on a literary no-no and created a not-very-likable protagonist -- a disabled dyke who is an unreliable narrator. I was glad Sacchi took a chance on it.

Interview with Lynne Jamneck, editor of Perhiphery

When my work is in an anthology it's always great fun when my copy of the book arrives and I discover what and who else is between its covers. The biggest thrill is when I get totally absorbed by the work of the other writers and can't put them down. These are the books that make me realize how lucky I am to have been included. Periphery is one of these books.

Periphery was originally published as a paperback by Lethe Press in 2008. I'm thrilled that it has now been re-released as an ebook by Untreed Reads because I anticipate that this will give more readers a chance to enjoy it, particularly science fiction (sf) readers who may not have thought it would be their cup of tea because of how it was originally subtitled.

Although I dabble in speculative fiction, I'm not an sf writer, so I could never have conceived of creating this collection, let alone of editing it. I've therefore been very eager to find out what was going on in the brain of the person who did, Lynne Jamneck. I have pounced upon the re-release of Periphery to ask Lynne a few questions, and I thoroughly enjoyed her answers. I hope you do, too.

Sharon: My first question is, why did you want to edit an anthology of erotic lesbian sf?

Lynne: I wanted to put something together that could be both entertaining and subversive. Sex is such a great divider; what some find erotic or sexually alluring others find immoral, degrading, dangerous. sf introduces the context of future possibilities, and with that, future ways of thinking. The moral panic that persists around the world with regard to what people do in their own bedrooms behind closed doors (or open ones) can only change if people are willing to challenge their own thought processes.

Sharon: I remember at the time that you were still seeking submissions -- and I hadn't sent you anything because I thought I was not "sf enough" -- that you said you'd gotten a lot of good "sex in space" pieces and that that wasn't what you were going for. That gave me the nerve to submit something. Although there is some space opera in Periphery (such as what I think is one of the hottest and funniest stories, Elspeth Potter's "Silver Skin"), you were clearly going for something unique. So, what would a lesbian "sex in space" anthology be, and why didn't you want to edit one?

Lynne: I'm so glad you decided to send me something. "Sideways" is one of the stories in Periphery that gets positively mentioned to me almost always when I discuss the antho with someone who has read it.

What I was trying to avoid was a collection of stories that was, basically, erotic stories set in space, where the context of space or the future was incidental to the stories. I wanted the futuristic elements to be intrinsically coupled with the eroticism. The stories in Periphery are about loss, hope, possibilities, passion, resistance -- elements that, to me, are an integral part of humankind's evolution as a species. We stick our toes into ethical, political and social lakes filled with crocodiles on an almost daily basis as we gaily blast off into Tomorrow. I like stories to say something, even if it's something that doesn’t come across immediately. That's part of the fun of reading, isn't it? Sex in space is fine. It's great! But honestly, not for twelve stories in a row.

Sharon: I was intrigued by how cohesive the book was in its themes. One is a classic sf theme -- the future, especially dystopia, and another popular sf trope, crime (punishment, imprisonment, fighting back,  revolution). Did you seek out these themes or were they simply in the air when the stories were written? What, if any, effect do you think a lesbian sensibility had to do with it?

Lynne: I never intentionally sought out any particular theme. The tropes you mention are – sadly – always present somewhere in the world. The notion of "first world countries" is true only insofar as it designates a group of people who are materially well-off. Right now, I can rattle off the names of countries that are in actual fact dystopias owing to the presence of archaic laws, moral oppression, anti-intellectualism and spiritual poverty. "Fighting back" does not always indicate violent physical behaviour, but it remains the context in which many people frame rebellion.

As for a lesbian sensibility… I'm very careful when talking about stuff like this. I'm not a good feminist, haha. Obviously, there is a queer history of oppression to draw from, which is undeniable. I'd like to think that fighting back and being revolutionary isn't limited to one particular gender or sexuality, though; rather, it's a human trait.

Sharon: One theme which totally surprised me was illness and disability. In my own piece, disability is central, but illness-related themes appear also in several others (Gwyneth Jones's "The Voyage Out," Kristyn Dunnion's "They Came from Next Door," and Lyda Morehouse's "Ishtartu"), and most notably Melissa Scott's "The Rocky Side of the Sky," which to me felt like an sf version of the Karen Thompson/Sharon Kowalski story. Because it's so subtle and organic in these stories, I don't know if it hit other readers' radar, but because I'm one of few erotica writers who frequently write disabled characters, it caught my attention. What's your thought about why illness and physical difference are an element in several of the stories?

Lynne: That's an interesting question. I think people who are "different" are uniquely qualified to address those social aspects that label them as somehow not being "normal. Perhaps physical otherness provides a perspective which enables those with illness to perceive the future less rigidly. That's a fairly important ability, in my opinion, to have, writing-wise, if you are going to write sf. Well, any speculative work of fiction, really.

Sharon: Humor's very important to me, as a writer and as a human being. Speculative fiction has so much humor potential because there's such a big field to play in, with& The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy being the most obvious example, but there's also a lot of subtle humor in sf. Do you have any favorite winks or nudges in Periphery?

Lynne: You mentioned Elspeth Potter's "Silver Skin" earlier. I have to agree, there is some fairly wicked word-play on display in that story that subtly pokes fun at a number of sf conventions. Also, one of my favourite sentences in the anthology is the first one from the first story, Marianne de Pierres' "Origins." Read it and you'll see what I mean! [Note from Sharon: I did, and I burst out laughing.]

Sharon: Although Periphery is classified as erotica as well as sf -- and it was a finalist in the erotica category for a Lambda Literary Award -- the stories here are not usually what the public thinks of as "erotica," I think. There's not a lot of "throw down and fuck" going on, which is what I think some readers loved about it and others found disappointing. How did you approach the erotic element in choosing material?

Lynne: Several times, when I initially pitched the idea to publishers, I had to stress the fact that it would be a sf anthology with erotic aspects. Nevertheless, as you mentioned, it was shortlisted for a Lambda Award in the erotica category. Likely, that's where some of the reader disappointment may have stemmed from. To a degree, the anthology was marketed as something it wasn't entirely. Untreed Reads has just re-released Periphery. The publisher and I agreed to truncate the original title, "Periphery: Erotic Lesbian Futures" to simply "Periphery." Hopefully, this will put it on the radar of sf readers who may have missed it first time around.

The erotic elements had to be integral to the stories in a way that, if it was removed, the story would be altered in such a way that meaning or emotive response would be compromised. I wanted the eroticism to be a reflection of the characters, their thoughts, hopes and desires beyond a sexual scope. Eroticism is a complex beast. It involves psychology, and can to a large degree be dependant of the culture that an individual lives in. In that sense it's fluid, making it hard to pin down a static, go-to definition. But that's probably where ninety percent of people's issues with, and misunderstanding of sexuality and gender concepts stem from – the inability to clarify why something is the way it is, when instead they should be considering that we don’t live in a world where complex organisms like people can be shoved into a preconceived mould of "normality."

----

Thank you, Lynne, for sharing your process and insights! The first time around, Periphery got terrific reviews and was a Lammy finalist. I'm really hoping that this recent re-release in digital format will give more people a chance to enjoy this great collection. Grab a copy here. (Or as an Amazon Kindle or a Barnes & Noble Nook.)