My Story's Story + Big Book of Bondage Giveaway!

When a new book arrives with my work between its covers, there's a lot to be  happy about.

Sometimes my story is the cause of my excitement. I may have stretched myself creatively or pushed myself physically or had a lot of fun with the characters or the plot.

On occasion I'm jazzed that I've entered a new genre, found a new publisher, or worked with a new editor. Conversely, I may feel a sense of "coming home" when I work with an editor and publisher I know and trust.

Then there are times when the other contributions are so well written that I feel simultaneously grateful and nervous -- glad that my work is in such great company and also intimidated by the talent of the other authors, worried that my piece pales in comparison.

In the case of The Big Book of Bondage, I have many sources of excitement. More of my stories have appeared in books edited by Alison Tyler and published by Cleis Press than any other editor or publisher, which is wonderful for me. This combination virtually guaranteed that my work would be in a book that is high-quality in both its writing and its packaging. 

Even so, I am blown away by the writing in BBoB. These are compelling stories -- the characters, the plots, the tone, the language -- whether or not bondage, or even erotica, are your thang. There are several stories that have become some of my new favorite stories. Kristina Llyod's "The Bondage Pig" is a masterpiece -- it's suspenseful, creepy, dirty, and surprisingly sweet. (Kiki DeLovely reviewed "The Bondage Pig.")

Sadly, the more I read and revel in the other stories, the more I struggle with I'm-not-worthy-itis. To get past this place of pointless self judgement, it helps me to remember how I even ended up involved with book. It started with writing a piece for another Alison Tyler anthology.

I got the idea for the piece, oddly enough, from a Harry Potter book. In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix the Weasley twins set off a huge box of fireworks, including "shocking-pink Catherine wheels." I liked the sound of the words, "Catherine wheel," and started thinking about and researching bondage wheels. Around the same time as I was researching wheels, I watched the documentary, The Life and Times of Frida Kahlo. Although I was deeply moved and inspired by Kahlo's work, I had no idea until I'd written most of my story that I'd incorporated Kahlo into my piece.

I'd always liked Kahlo's paintings, and I'd heard about her as a queer and feminist icon since I was 18, but I'd never expected to feel such kinship with her, such compassion and companionship. What we have in common is chronic pain, isolation, and lots of time in bed -- all of which are vividly, passionately, and bluntly conveyed in many of her paintings. Pain, scars, and paint are all part of my story. It seems so obvious now, but at the time I was writing it, I was focused on researching body paint (I watched a LOT of youtube videos on body painting) and finding out who my characters were. I wasn't thinking about Frida Kahlo at all.

Frida Kahlo's "The Broken Column"

As is so often the case, after I finished the first draft, I was convinced it was a total piece of crap -- an embarrassment and a mess. When I gave the story (and myself) a breather and returned to it for the revision process, I discovered there was a lot I liked about it. By the time I was done, I was proud that I'd struggled my way through it. Because I'd been so sick for the previous few years, I hadn't done much creative writing. Thus, the story was a bit of a creative rebirth for me, just as it is for one of my characters.

Along with connecting with care for the story and characters, I discovered the piece was way too long for the anthology for which it was intended. So I cut and cut and cut, and I emailed Alison about whether she had room for a longer piece. It turned out that she was now looking for even shorter stories than before, and I wasn't sure I wanted to pare down "River of Beauty" any further. I sent it to Alison to see what she thought. In reply, she asked me if she could use it for The Big Book of Bondage. I couldn't say "yes" fast enough!

Now, thanks to the generous folks at Cleis Press, I also have two copies of The Big Book of Bondage to give away! For a chance to win a copy here's what to do:

• To be entered once in the drawing, comment on this post.

• To be entered up to three more times, comment on any of the posts below. Each comment gets you an additional entry.

1. My video/reading of "River of Beauty" 
2. Sacchi Green's review of my story at Alison Tyler's blog 
3. My review of Giselle Renarde's story in BBoB

• Comments (entries) must be in by this Saturday, February 23 at 11:59 PM EST USA.

• Two winners will be chosen using random.org and announced on this blog. 

Please spread the word about this giveaway and share the link! I look forward to your comments!

- Sharon

Reading of "River of Beauty" with Fabulous Art! [NSFW Video]

I love giving readings. Recently, I took part in a reading here in Western Massachusetts. Organized by Jeremy Edwards, the reading ("Sexy Scribes Speaking") was in conjunction with the opening of a local art show, Triple S: Sensual, Sexy, Smut. The show was organized by Nina Rossi, the owner of Nina's Nook art gallery in Turner's Falls.

Because I've been dealing with a downturn in my health recently, I wasn't able to attend the reading n the flesh. However, thanks to the terrific creativity, talent, and dedication to inclusion of Nina Rossi and her partner Caleb Wetherbee, my voice was present.

Using slides from the show and my reading from "River of Beauty," Caleb created the gorgeous video below. It's a triple layer of sensual art: my voice, reading my story; the diverse paintings, drawings, and photographs of the visual artists; and instrumental classical music in the background. Due to language and some images, this video is NSFW. Please be 18 or older to watch it.

Enjoy! And please let me know what you think of the video -- below or on youtube -- I'm very curious. (Also, does my voice sound weird to you? A friend of mine who went to the reading didn't even recognize me!)

To read the rest of my story, pick up a copy of The Big Book of Bondage, edited by Alison Tyler. I highly recommend it! And not just because I'm in it. It's full of excellent writing. Literary erotic fiction has come so far in the last two decades! It just keeps getting better.

And now it just keeps getting better for you, too! I have two extra copies of The Big Book of Bondage, and Cleis Press has given me the green light to do a giveaway! Please stay tuned. I'll get a post up about that shortly.

Peace, Sharon

P.S. I have not yet been able to caption this video. I uploaded it to dotsub, but they deleted it. If I get this problem solved, I will post the captioned version at that time. Meanwhile, here is the transcript.

Sex, Art, and Bondage: Review of My Latest Story

My last post was a review of another contributor's story in The Big Book of Bondage. Today I had the honor and pleasure of having my own story reviewed by one of my favorite erotica writers, Sacchi Green. (Whom I previously interviewed here.)

Sacchi's review is on Alison Tyler's blog as part of the Big Book of Bondage Blog Tour. I'm grateful to Sacchi for the review in its entirety. But these two sentences were particularly squee-inducing for me:

Sharon’s fiction has a way of taking you places you’d never thought of going, and making you glad you did. 

The story itself is crafted by a true artist of the written word.

Come back here in a few days for my post up that will include a really awesome video featuring an excerpt from the story Sacchi reviewed. It's a multimedia piece that combines images of erotic art from a local gallery show with me reading the first part of "River of Beauty." The video's up now on Youtube, but I'm hoping to also caption it and post it on Dotsub, then post both versions here.

First, whet your appetite! Read Sacchi's review of my story here.

Big Book of Bondage Blog Tour: Giselle Renarde

Review of Giselle Renarde's story, "Double Dutch"

I'm thrilled to be a contributor to Alison Tyler's new anthology, the Big Book of Bondage: Sexy Tales of Erotic Restraint, published by Cleis Press. This book lives up to its title -- it's huge!

For this blog tour, Alison has asked each contributor to review a piece by another author. I got early dibs in choosing from the very impressive roster that includes some of my favorite erotica writers (such as D. L. King, Shanna Germain, and Alison Tyler, herself). Giselle Renarde's name in the Table of Contents caught my eye. I flipped right to her story. Although I enjoy good smut across genders, lesbian erotica makes my, um, heart swell. When I saw that "Double Dutch" had an all-female cast, I was sold.

Although Giselle has written scores of stories and a few books, it was when I read her story, "Blood Lust," in my contributor's copy of Best Lesbian Erotica 2012 that I truly became a fan. It haunted me with its perfect economy of language and utterly unique plot. I loved how she blended seemingly oppositional elements in a way that felt totally natural -- the fantastical with the real, the mysterious with the know-it-in-your-bones, the creepy with the homey. While the plot and characters in "Double Dutch" are very different from those in "Blood Lust," the writing has the same strong, distinctive voice and engaging characters.

The tension in "Double Dutch" starts with the word go. Actually, it starts with the first two words: "Damn, girl!" and draws the reader in with the lively language of four passionate teammates.

"Damn, girl!” Nakesha tore Jansey’s rope away. Hurling it to the ground, she stomped on it with the ball of her foot like she was crushing a cigarette. “How many times we been over this? It’s Crouger first, then into the Awesome Annie.” 

“I know, okay? I made a mistake.” Jansey bent to pick up her jump rope, but Nakesha’s foot wasn’t moving. In her peripheral vision, she noticed Ruby and Beatriz skulking at her sides.

I was also very curious about how a story that seemed to start out with four girls getting into an argument over a jump-rope game could possibly turn into erotica.* Well, it did! Given the book's title, you've probably figured out that the jump rope gets used for more than skipping.

Jansey was too shocked to react. They’d tied her arms behind her back? Why would her skipping team do that to her? . . . A dull ache began in her shoulders and bled down her back. As the other three girls took up their ropes, Jansey eased herself down on her knees. That was better—or, at least, the best she could hope for in such a strange circumstance. . .  

. When Nakesha turned on the boom box, the beat soared through the gymnasium floor, rocking Jansey’s calves. The music ran up through her thighs. It got right inside her spandex one-piece, vibrating inside her pelvis, making her instantly wet. Music could do that for her. That’s why she’d always been an easy lay at dances. The beat made her hot.

I don't want to spoil what comes next, but rest assured: this is not a simple girl-meets-girl/girl-gets-girl story. Jansey gets a lot more than that!

In addition to being sexy, "Double Dutch" brings a lot of sweetness and fun into the mix. The characters have a camaraderie that is infectious, carried in the fast beats of their dialogue and the familiarity of their clothes, their gear, and the space they inhabit. A deeper connection than you'd guess at the beginning is revealed in looks and touches and unfolding history.

I am making my way through the Big Book of Bondage and thoroughly enjoying the variety. Even so, Renarde's story has stuck with me. In fact, it even made me curious about competitive Double Dutch! Below are two (G-rated) videos of Double Dutch delights. These ladies -- and dudes -- are having so much fun, just watching them put a big silly grin on my face. What else can do that? Oh yeah, reading this book can.

Catch up with the other reviews in this blog tour at Alison Tyler's blog.

*It should go without saying, but just in case you're new to professional erotica: These characters are not girls. They're young women.

Click play and turn up the volume! You know what Jansey said about that beat....

The "Too Smart" Service Dog

Hi. As I explained on After Gadget, normally my service dog blogging (and related stuff) takes place over there. Except for today's post. I was going to post it at After Gadget, but it turns out it would violate WordPress TOS. So, I'm posting it here. Future Gadget- and Barnum-related posts will be back at After Gadget!

You asked so many great questions about my experiences as a service dog (SD) partner and trainer that it is taking quite some time for me to write all my answers. I am also still finishing Barnum's training. Until now I wanted to wait to train him to open the outside door to let himself out because I wanted to make sure he was really solid on having his door-opening behaviors under stimulus control (defined below). Which leads me to today's topic.

Two of you asked about my funniest or most embarrassing experience as a SD handler,* and -- especially considering that the idea for this post was inspired by support from www.wooddogcrate.com  -- I remembered a time I should have used a crate and about how my dog training skillz were not as groovy back then as I thought....

I've written in the past that Gadget was my heartdog, my perfect dog, and he was. But that doesn't mean he was actually a perfect dog! He was a reliable SD, and he liked to work, but he had his own agenda (as we all do).

When some people learn that I taught Gadget to open the refrigerator and other doors in the house -- including the door to the outside -- they picture chaos: a wagging stubby tail protruding from my open fridge while last night's leftovers are snorked down or Gadget opening and sauntering out the front door whenever he wanted. This is not what happened -- mostly. Why? Because the point of clicker training is to teach dogs to use their own minds to make the decisions you want. The more you train it, the more it works.

The behaviorist terminology for this is stimulus control, which basically means that the dog always does what you ask when you cue them and they don't do it when you don't cue them, etc. So Gadget only opened the fridge when I asked him to. For example, to get me a bottle of water. Likewise, he learned to let himself out to eliminate after I cued him to go out and not when I didn't . . . usually. And then there was this time which proved that I did not have stimulus control on door opening and that Gadget was thinking outside the, um, house.

Summer of 2009 - Playing at the Pond

In the summer of 2009, Gadget was undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma and feeling great. He had virtually no side effects from the treatment and was in remission. He was happy to keep working as my service dog.

I was undergoing treatment, too -- for Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections. However, I had prioritized his healthcare above mine. Even though my doctor had wanted me to start daily intravenous antibiotics several months before, I waited until Gadget was in remission and his chemo schedule was bimonthly -- instead of weekly -- before I made the appointment.

To get daily infusions, I would need a PICC line. This is a little tube inserted into the artery in your biceps so you can get intravenous medication pumped directly into your bloodstream without needle sticks. Because I have such a complicated medical situation, I conducted research and anxiously weighed the pros and cons before deciding to make that appointment. By the time my mind was made up and Gadget was halfway through his chemo protocol, I just wanted to get the procedure over with and move on with my -- and Gadget's -- life.

Going to the hospital is always exhausting and stressful for me, and this procedure was no exception. I was nonverbal throughout, needed a sign language interprepter, and experienced some heavy-duty chemical exposures. Still, it basically went fine, and Betsy and I were glad to get back home. After my assistant helped me wash the hospital residues from my hair and skin, Gadget and I wandered outside, picking blackberries. He loved berries and would pick them right off the bushes.

Gadget picks blackberries off low bushes.

All was well . . . except that my PICC site was a bloody mess. I had to keep mopping it up while trying to reach past the thorns. (Note to self: Picking blackberries after minor surgery is a bad idea.) I came inside and called the visiting nurse association and was told that some bleeding was normal and that my nurse would clean it up when she changed the dressing the following day. So, fine.

By that night, however, my arm was red and swollen under the dressing. I wasn't particularly worried but Betsy was, and I started to "catch" some of her anxiety. Just as a precaution, I called the VNA again. They told me to call my doctor. Unfortunately, my doctor was away on vacation. Had she been there, she probably would have told me to wait to see what the nurse said in the morning. She doesn't panic unnecessarily. Instead, I called the covering physician, who did not know my case and whose first priority seemed to be that one of her colleague's patients didn't go septic on her watch! She told me to go to the ER right away and have the PICC line pulled and cultured in case it was infected. I really didn't want to do that! After everything I'd gone through to get it put in -- oy!

I didn't think it was infected. I didn't have symptoms of sepsis, and I didn't even know if it was possible for a line to get infected so soon after insertion. But the doctor was insistent, and Betsy was worried, and by now I was worried, too because I was brand-new to PICC lines, and septic shock is not something to mess with. Thus, I gathered my water, supplements, oxygen, medical information, etc., and prepared to go.

Normally when I went to the ER -- or anywhere -- I took Gadget with me. However, if I went to a toxic environment like a hospital, I would have to wash not just myself, but him. Since he was getting baths every time he went to the vet for chemo already, that was a lot of baths. Given how long and tiring this day was turning out, I didn't want to add giving Gadget yet another bath, too. Betsy could assist me, so we decided to leave Gadget at home.

Gadget really hated being left home by himself. For one thing, as my SD, he was used to going with me wherever I went. For another, even though it was much less severe than when I'd first adopted him, he did have some separation anxiety. However, at nine years old he had lots of training, much less separation anxiety, and excellent manners, so he only spent time in his crate to chew something messy (house rules).

If I'd been thinking clearly, I'd have remembered that, between my health problems and his, I was sometimes leaving Gadget inside when I went out, and his solution to this bad behavior on my part was to go looking for me -- by opening the door, letting himself out, and scenting me down. In other words, he was not waiting for the cue. He was thinking for himself, which is often a good thing in service dogs -- but not when you need behaviors under stimulus control!

If I'd been thinking clearly, I would have thought of this before we left. Unfortunately, I was exhausted, stressed, and in pain. My mind was on my arm and how I was going to convince the ER doctors not to pull out my PICC line. It was ten o'clock by the time I distractedly left Gadget with a marrow bone, turned on the outside light over the ramp, and Betsy loaded my powerchair into the van.

As we drove the dark, country roads on our half-hour drive to the hospital, I thought of Gadget at home with his bone. And then I smacked myself in the forehead. "Omigod!" I said to Betsy, "I bet Gadget has let himself out by now to look for me."

Betsy agreed this was likely. And if Gadget was outside in the warm August night the mosquitoes were likely swarming in through our open door. We were not keen on the idea of adding at least another forty minutes to our trip by turning around to deal with it. We considered our options.

Recently, our household had made two new purchases for which I was profoundly grateful that night. The first, most important option was a chain-link fence. This meant that Gadget would only be able to follow my scent to the gate. He wouldn't run into the road, get lost, get hit by a car, have a porcupine encounter, or any number of other disasters. Thank doG! He could, however, and likely would, start barking at the gate, calling for me, demanding my return. Since we'd probably be gone for hours (any trip to the ER is at least a three-hour proposition -- NOT including travel -- on a slow night), I really was not keen for my neighbors to hear him barking all night.

Our other recent acquisition was a cell phone. Because we live in a rural area with no cell towers, we never used the cell, but we had it for when Betsy was doing overnights at work. So, I turned on Betsy's cell phone and waited for a signal. When I got bars, I dialed information. I only knew the last names of our closest neighbors, a married couple who have different last names. I fervently hoped that they were listed. First I tried the woman's name -- no listing. Then I tried her husband and got a number. Hoping he was home, awake, and in a mood to go deal with my door-opening dog, I dialed his number.

"Hi," I said nervously when he picked up the phone. "This is Sharon-from-across-the-street? I'm sorry to call you so late at night. We're on our way to the hospital. We left in kind of a hurry. And I think it's possible that Gadget has opened the door and gone outside to look for me. He'll probably start barking soon. Would you mind going over and putting him in his crate -- whether or not he's outside? That way I won't worry. . . ."

My neighbor didn't ask how Gadget would be able to open the door or why I hadn't just put him in the crate before I left. He just said that he'd go over and take a look. I was so relieved. I would have liked a report, but we would soon be at the hospital where cell phones were not allowed, so we didn't ask him to call back.

The story of what happened in the ER is a tale worthy of its own post. I'll save that for another time. The most important part is that they did not remove my line. And the whole time, in the back of my mind -- when I was not dealing with doctors or nurses or administrative matters -- I wondered, "What happened with Gadget? Was he outside? Was he barking? Did my neighbor put him in the crate? What would we find when we got home?"

We drove home after midnight. I don't remember when. Probably one o'clock or two o'clock in the morning. The house was dark and quiet. There was no gray dog in the yard.

We came inside and found Gadget waiting quietly in his crate. On the counter was a note. It said something like, "Yep, he was outside and the door was open," with our neighbor's signature on the bottom. After that, when I went out, if I didn't take Gadget with me, I always put him in the crate (and gave him something to do, like chew on a knuckle bone or frozen Kong). You don't want to leave the door open for that kind of behavior more than once.

- Sharon, the muse of Gadget, and Barnum, SD/SDiT

P.S. Because we trained it from puppyhood, Barnum is my first dog to have no separation anxiety and to be 100 percent relaxed and happy in his crate. Can you tell?

Barnum asleep in his crate.

*This is not my official answer to the questions raised by the Girl with the Cane blog. This story is just what floated into my head when the topics of "Gadget," "crates," and "funny" collided.

A Moving, Well Written Storyline....

When I was searching for links for my interview with Sinclair Sexsmith about Best Lesbian Erotica 2012, I stumbled across two reviews of the book I hadn't seen before. Seeing as how they both mention me -- in ways that delight me -- I thought I'd share these snippets with you.

Nikki Magennis of the fabulous [PANK] Magazine ("a place inhabited by contradictions, a place of quirk and startling anomaly") had this to say in her review of BLE 12:

In the hands of skilled writers, wall to wall sexual action can be turned into beautifully observed prose. . . . WHEN YOU CALL by Sharon Wachsler is a wonderfully complex and ambiguous piece playing with love, bodily failings and emotional weakness. Wachsler maintains a high level of eroticism as an integral part of a moving, well written storyline that calls for rereading. Probably my favourite story in the book.

There was also this mention in the Advocate, by editor Diane Anderson-Minshall, a hero of the queer literary world: Advocate Bookshelf: The Best One-Handed Reads

After however many years this series has been going, it's hard to believe [Kathleen] Warnock was able to find new material. But indeed she and guest judge Sinclair Sexsmith did, and some of the lusty contributions in this edition rival those of the early years. Among the surprises are Sharon Wachsler, Annie Grip, and Kiki Delovely, all filthy-minded women you'll likely hear more of in years to come.

Thank you both for making my day!

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!