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Ask Me Anything: My Favorite Smut

Meredith asked:

I’m excited for the anthology and your turn at editing. I’ve read some of your other published pieces and of course this blog so it begs the question: What is YOUR favorite smut to read? Got a favorite anthology? Author?

Oh sure, I have a few thoughts about that.

My Secret Garden by Nancy Friday changed my life and was significantly formative to my sexuality. I hunted down a copy in the last year or so and was pleasantly surprised that her opening introduction is still amazing and relevant, though that’s also kind of sad—it was published in 1973, it is almost forty years old, yet the limitations, stereotypes, and restrictions placed on women are still relevant. I wish I still had my teenage copy with the spine broken at all the best places.

Amazing single-author smut books are hard to come by, so the anthologies are easier to mention. I love Doing it for Daddy edited by Patrick Califia, Back to Basics: A Butch/Femme Anthology edited by Therese Szymanski (especially “The Trick” by Amie M. Evans), and Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch/Femme Erotica edited by Tristan Taormino—but those are very specific to my butch/femme and daddy orientations, so they might not be your favorites. I adore the stories “Poster Boy” by Carol Queen and “Dress Leather” (one of my favorite short stories ever, of any genre) by Robin Sweeney in Switch Hitters: Lesbians Write Gay Male Erotica and Gay Men Write Lesbian Erotica, edited by Carol Queen & Lawrence Schimel. The stories “Clash of the Titans” by Karlyn Lotney and “Ridin’ Bitch” by Toni Amato in Best Lesbian Erotica 1998 edited by Taormino were very formative for me, as I started obsessing over lesbian erotica in the late 90s while I was working up the nerve to leave my boyfriend and come out, and they are cock-centric and butch/femme in a way that made me realize that I still had a lot more to explore.

I’ve also been really into the “sudden sex” stories lately, the super short ones. Often the longer short stories feel like they just drag on to me, especially when I just want to pick something up in order to get off and I’m not leisurely reading. Got a Minute?: 60 Second Erotica edited by Alison Tyler and Frenzy: 60 Stories of Sudden Sex edited by Alison Tyler are great, and Rachel Kramer Bussel just put one out called Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex (which I have a story in, but the book is good regardless). I’d pick up just about anything Rachel publishes, she has great taste and her anthologies are always well done.

    
    

It’s harder for a single author to sustain an entire book, so there aren’t as many of those that I go to when I want inspiration (for writing or for getting off). I am kind of in love with Mr. Benson by John Preston and The Leather Daddy and the Femme by Carol Queen. I have read them both many times. I can’t believe it took me this long to read Mr. Benson.

Cherry by Charlotte Cooper, Breathless by Kitty Tsui, and Macho Sluts or Boy in the Middle by Patrick Califia (or just about anything by Califia, really) are also amazing and worth reading. It’s been a while since I read Cherry but it comes to mind immediately as fun and readable and great.

I also really love Jack Stratton’s stuff at WritingDirty.com, especially What’s in a Name. He’s got an eBook of Writing Dirty volume 1 which I haven’t purchased yet (I should go do that right now), but I’ve read all the pieces on the site (seriously I’m sure I’ve read every single one), so I highly recommend the collection if you’d rather read it on your reader than in a blog-form.

Other things I read online … well, I read a lot of Daddy/girl stories these days. I’ve been quite enjoying the recent Bedtime Stories blog. I still think The Provocateur has some of the best writing ever, but it’s generally more literary and fancy than I turn to when I want to get off. For that, I like the quick and dirty stuff.

Many of these books can be found on my smut bookshelf … and there are more of my favorites in my Amazon A-store.

And now, what about you all? What are your favorite books of smut? Got any recommendations for things that I perhaps haven’t read? What is your go-to story when you want to get off? What do you love in an erotic story?

Published by Sinclair Sexsmith

Sinclair Sexsmith (they/them) is "the best-known butch erotica writer whose kinky, groundbreaking stories have turned on countless queers" (AfterEllen), who "is in all the books, wins all the awards, speaks at all the panels and readings, knows all the stuff, and writes for all the places" (Autostraddle). ​Their short story collection, Sweet & Rough: Queer Kink Erotica, was a 2016 finalist for a Lambda Literary Award, and they are the current editor of the Best Lesbian Erotica series. They identify as a white non-binary butch dominant, a survivor, and an introvert, and they live outside Seattle as an uninvited settler on traditional, ancestral, & unceded Snoqualmie land.

5 thoughts on “Ask Me Anything: My Favorite Smut”

  1. Thanks for the suggestions! I don’t normally read smut. I’m more of a… technical sex reader? Things like The Purity Myth or The Ethical Slut. When I want to get off though I head over to literotica and wade through until I find something hot.

  2. meridith says:

    These are fantastic recommendations – I cut my teeth on My Secret Garden at an age I probably should keep to myself. I’m looking forward to tasting some of the others. Thanks!

  3. Mnl says:

    I agree, I like Sometimes She Lets Me, particularly the first story. My favorite story ever was in a book I no longer remember, about an encounter on the Toronto subway during rush hour. I’m really fond of sex-on-the-train stories, generally. Like subway ride 4 play by Rosalind Christine Lloyd, from Pillow Talk II.

    I’ve only bought one book of short-short fiction, but it didn’t work for me.

  4. Sophia says:

    Thank you for these suggestions. I haven’t been able to stop reading Bedtime Stories since you recommended it. I really want to share these stories with my partner but he is much more visual than I am so I am wondering if you have any recommendations for a similar kind of daddy/little girl porn.

    Thanks!

  5. Sinclair says:

    Sophia—There’s some good tumblr blogs for daddy/girl stuff, but they are kind of hit-or-miss, you know, some of the things one blog posts is amazing and some of the things I’m like “err …” not sure. it is all waaaaay too hetero & white & skinny & normative. so what I’m saying is, you might have to dig a little for the good stuff. but that is part of what is fun about tumblr.

    http://daddys-sin.tumblr.com/
    http://yesdaddy.tumblr.com/
    http://littlegirlyone.tumblr.com/
    http://daddyshand.tumblr.com/
    http://collaredprincess.tumblr.com/
    http://keepingitinthefamily.tumblr.com/
    http://likeabikeseat.tumblr.com/

    As far as actual porn flicks go, I’m working on some research and I hope I’ll have some to report. I’m pretty picky about hetero depictions of daddy/girl, it doesn’t take much to squick me the wrong way and ruin a scene. which is why I find the stories easier to recommend.

    I’ll keep thinking about it and let you know what I find.

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