By Madeline Glass
I’m really not into written erotica.
I should say, I’m very particular about written erotica. I don’t pay for it like, ever, and truth be told, I would rather be having sex of my own and writing about it than reading about someone else’s experiences. Yeah, I know, I’m a sexblogger. It’s a double standard.
Given that fact I was a bit surprised at myself when, a couple months ago, I told Rachel Kramer Bussel that I’d be interested in writing a review of Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists edited by Rachel and Alison Tyler.
Mostly, I just wanted the book for free.
I was also being a bit masochistic, since I’d gotten the call for submissions last year for the anthology. I was too much of a perfectionistic chicken to send a piece for consideration and now I wanted to see what other writers had come up with on the subjects of voyeurism and exhibitionism.
But mostly I just wanted the book for free.
When I saw the envelope in my mailbox from Cleis Press, I ripped it open and carried it with me to run errands. I left it in plain sight on the front seat of my car, parked in a downtown lot for all to see. I held it, title out, while standing on line at the post office.
When I finally got home late in the evening and was preparing for bed, I eyed the book next to my keys by the door. I picked it up. I read the first story: Curtain Call by Thomas Roche. As the woman sat naked and masturbating on a chair, her curtains open to the apartment across the way, I stood nude, flamingo-like in the middle of my living room, lights blazing, my silhouette clearly visible through the blinds at the window.
Because I’m an exhibitionist.
“Hee!” I giggled at the end, automatically turning the page to the next story, interested in seeing what the next author had in store. The faintest bit of arousal hinted its presence in my core and I read on and on. I shut myself in my room, taking pleasure in reading stories about spying on lesbians in showers, a dying poet composing as he watches two men perform for him, and the hijinks of two vacationing women watching the couple below them in the hotel through knots in the old wood floor.
Because I’m a voyeur.
I kept going back, over the next few days, stealing a few minutes here and there, reading one or two stories from the collection of twenty. Some of them are slamming hot, others less so. Straight and bent, kinky and vanilla, there’s some of each. Part of the appeal of reading is to get to the next piece. Just to see if it will be my favorite.
The experience of reading Caught Looking has been interesting because, while I don’t jerk off to the images I read about on those pages, I’m much more interested in the writers who’ve penned them. It’s nice to read stories with proper grammar and punctuation, with plot and characters, not simply “He fucked me like this and I fucked him like that.”
That sex writing certainly has a place, and I do enjoy reading it, especially if it is properly punctuated, involves my friends and has something to keep my interest, but I am now happily aware of more writers of fine erotica and appreciative of their work.
And while I’m still more likely to have my own hot sex and write about it online, maybe I won’t be such a chicken when the opportunity to contribute to another collection comes along.
Caught Looking is available at Amazon.com and your local bookstore.
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