The Burning Pen: Sex Writers on Sex Writing [Paperback]

M. Christian (Author), Carol Queen (Author), Jack Fritscher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 2001

In this groundbreaking work, contemporary writers of erotica reflect on how their work originates, how their sexuality shapes their words, and, more important, how their words have affected their sexuality. Patrick Califia-Rice, Fack Fritscher, Cecilia Tan, Thomas Roche, Carol Queen, Felice Picano, Shar Rednour, Laura Antoniou, and Simon Sheppard are just a scattering of the names brought together by noted erotica writer M. Christian to deliver an eye-opening, thought-provoking examination of the craft of writing about sex, which includes each writer's favorite erotic story as an illustration of this group's diverse approach to sexuality and language.

M. Christian is the author of Dirty Words , Eros Ex Machina, Midsummer Night's Dreams, and Guilty Pleasures, and the editor (with Simon Sheppard) of Rough Stuff.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Erotica takes another sauntering, spike-heeled step toward the literary mainstream with this anthology of stories by some of the best-known sex writers in America, each paired with a memoir or personal commentary on the work. The editor's introduction can be skipped, but the rest of the book should intrigue devotees of this developing genre, especially those who wonder about the relationship between writers' sex lives or desires and the stories they write. In "Porno, Ergo Sum," for example, Jack Fritscher confesses that he breathes in experience and exhales fiction. In "Screaming Underwater," Lucy Taylor describes her attempt to merge the erotic and the spiritual. And Carol Queen, in an introduction to pages from The Leather Daddy and the Femme, provides perhaps the most articulate--and politically explicit--piece of writing in the book, a defense of her reputation as "Rebecca of Sunnyf**k Farm." Cecilia Tan may say it best, however, in the memoir that accompanies her early story, "Telepaths Don't Need Safewords": "Writing is identity and loss of identity at the same time." You may learn something here about the personalities of the writers included, but there is really no explaining the ways that fiction moves us, or the reasons writers write. --Regina Marler

About the Author

For the last decade M.Christian has proven himself to be a true literary chameleon, establishing himself as a master of multi-orientation erotica with stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, and so on and so forth as well as with the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, and Filthy.

Product Details

• Paperback: 264 pages
• Publisher: Alyson Books; 1st edition (October 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1555836151
• ISBN-13: 978-1555836153
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #854,109 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Read, April 5, 2002

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Burning Pen: Sex Writers on Sex Writing (Paperback)

This is not a "how to write dirty stories" book, as it is more the method and ideas leading erotica writers take to writing their stories. Not only do they each have their own thoughts on how they write their stories, and what "works" for them and what doesn't, you get some idea of what they're like as people. I have written my own erotica for years but am finding out especially after reading books like this that I may have a bit of a ways to go to match the work these authors have done.

Writers, at least the good ones can really be thought of as "word magicians" in how they can turn a phrase, how they develop their characters and their stories, making them not only entertaining but hot as well. The stories collected here (each author's personal favorite (s)he has written), as well as each author's essay are informative and highly entertaining.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic read, November 21, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Burning Pen: Sex Writers on Sex Writing (Paperback)

If you've ever read erotica and wondered about the men and women who write it, this is the book for you. Even if you just want to write, this is a great book. The essays are insightful and wonderful and the stories are incredibly hot and fun.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too narrowly focused, January 30, 2002

By 

TheCafeWriter (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Burning Pen: Sex Writers on Sex Writing (Paperback)

As the title says "Sex writers talk about sex writing." And they do, quite candidly. It addresses the "why" and offers some examples of the work of some established, published erotica writers. (This is not a nuts-and-bolts how-to, if that's what you're looking for.)

Having said all that, I'm disappointed. As a straight woman who writes gay male and straight erotica, I found the book too narrowly focused. Looking over the selection of writers and their personal stories, you'd think that most sex writers were either lesbigay and/or fetishist. There are very few straight writers represented here at all and almost no writers of 'vanilla' straight sex (which, while it may not be as colorful as S/M or B/D, it's still sex).

If it's "Sex writers on sex writing," I'd have liked to see a broader representation of them than this book provides.