53%???

 

Crazy, Sexy & Cool

 

BY ELIZABETH A. ALLEN

ow do you review an
anthology without
devolving to a list of

one-sentence summaries?
Simple. Find a good anthology,
like Erotic Fantastic, edited by
Cecilia Tan. The title promises
the cream of an independent
press known for high-quality
racy fiction, and EF doesn’t
disappoint. The best stories in
the book all follow classic, sur-
prisingly hopeful arcs that
affect our hearts as much as
our imaginations andhor- E 
mones.

Raven Kaldera’s
“Cyberfruit Swamp,” for exam-
ple, launches us into an intoxi-
catingly sensuous near future
where transpeople are out and
proud, but still wary as they
look for love. In this setting of
new sexual divisions and
terms, our narrator, an unlucky
schmuck whose bravado con-
ceals a fragile heart, makes us
feel right at home.

We may take a while
to figure out the difference
between winktis (M2Fs) and
kuramiv (F2Ms), but we’re
already rooting for the winkti
protagonist as he gets the one-
night stand he craves  as
well as much more than he bar-
gained for when an innocent
little kurami captures his heart
and his dick. The characters’
world may be fantastic, but the
familiar and crisply executed
triumph-of—the-underdog plot
reminds you that love and lust
are the same, no matter what
the place or the contents of
Your pants.

And then there’s a

 

story like Laura Antoniou’s
“Shayna Maidle,” the Gothic
elements of which form the
foundation for the old coming-
out saga. In this tale, Kiva, a
young Jewish woman, tries to
conceal her lesbian relationship
from her family, thinking they
will be revolted. Besides her
gayness, Kiva has another
socially reviled identity: she is

the latest in a line of vampiric
“women...   ..    .. - ..

At first revolted when
her grandmother explains to
her, Kiva eventually acknowl-
edges her supernatural side;
she now even has a girlfriend
who offers her blood willingly.
But Kiva’s family could never
wrap their heads around Kiva’s
gayness, could they? In the
end, they do, surprising Kiva
and suggesting that her mon-
strousness was mostly a projec-
tion of her own nervous mind.
For all their initial shock and
their general bloodsucking,
Kiva’s family makes you real-
ize how open-minded, tender —
and human — others can be if
you’re willing to trust them.

Even the most graphic
stories in EF expose something
deeper than skin. In Gary
Bowen’s “Heir Apparent,” an
overlooked virgin princess rises
to a peculiar challenge: that of
impersonating her mad brother
in order to seduce a gay prince,
thus ensuring her marriage and
the safety of her throne.

' There’s enough whoring, cross-

dressing, dom/sub play and
large leather dildos to fill sev-

eral porn novels, and it’s all
detailed in the hero/heroine’s
wry and sensual voice.

Of anal entry, she says,
“I gripped his hips finnly, just
my phallus protruding from my
trousers. It was like a dance
almost, one step forward, one
step back, pause, repeat. It was
pleasant even. I began to see
why men might like doing it so
much.” Such glimmers of her
queer consciousness titillate
and eventually culminate in her
debut as a cheerfully transgres-
sive transperson. Like the
princess, Bowen seems to be

" lsaying',~we allhave strange

desires that could lead us to fun
and satisfaction if we had the
courage to explore them.

My favorite story of
the lot, Thomas Roche’s
“Temporary Insanity,” crystal-
lizes EF’s mind-bending opti-
mism. The unnamed main
character, a porn writer in a
creative dry spell, finds the
fusion genre of erotic fantasy
in an unlikely place: as a temp
for a tech support hotline. The
highly charged pleas for com-
puter help (“. . .I need my
access! Lines closed up! Need
them open!  Open me up —
widel”) re-awaken the protago-
nist’s imagination (and loins).
He/She crafts mundane life
into steamy, outrageous, mind-
blowing art. Even when you
least expect it, there’s hope for
love  or at least lust. Now
that’s the best of Circlet
Press.V

Elizabeth Allen looks for good
erotica in Boston, where she
and her girlfriend recently
married.

Good legal advice
can make all the difference.
V

Langrock Sperry 8: W001 offers the services
of 22 lawyers with over 300 years combined experience
in all areas of the law — including two lesbian attorneys
with special expertise serving the legal needs

of the g/l/b/t/q community.

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i—-V Leah Wittenberg

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LICENSED CLINICAL MENTAL HEALTH COUNSELOR

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