Leatherwomen III: The Clash of the Cultures (Rosebud) (Paperback)

by Laura Antoniou (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
"Write about women whose self-image doesnt begin and end with top or bottombut includes things like religion, skin color, social class, ethnicity, even lifestyle." With the same unerring judgment that made Leatherwomen and Leatherwomen II international successes, Laura Antoniou gathers the very best of todays cutting-edge womens eroticaconcentrating on multicultural stories involving characters too infrequently seen in this genre. More than fifteen of todays most daring writers make this a compelling testament to desire. Jacquie Bishop Velma J. Bowen M. Christian Michael Thomas Ford Mickey Laskin Gwen MClatchey Robyn Mills Pagan OLeary E. A. Peters Psyche Shar Rednour Lori Selke Joan T. Sherwood Vivian Vincent Sinclair Karen Taylor Margaret Weller

Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Rosebud Books (March 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1563336197
• ISBN-13: 978-1563336195
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,952,946 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not the Usual Suspects, March 31, 2000

By	Gary J. Meyer (Reno, Nevada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Stop singing the Same Old, Same Old Blues! It's the Leather Muse to the rescue, with an anthology of Something Completely Different. Distinguished author/editor Antoniou (_The Catalyst_(see FL Vol. II), the Marketplace trilogy, _No Other Tribute_, _By Her Subdued_, _Some Women_) challenged her contributors to ditch the Top 40 and spin some World-Beat. Not to satisfy a multi-culti mandate, but for the sake of variety. They obliged with a funky mix of klezmer, salsa, reggae, "beer crying Western music," a little punk, and a whole lot of soul.

We're away from the chateau, there's not a dungeon monitor in sight, these are not the usual suspects, and sometimes they don't even know that they're doing S/M. But whatever it is, they know they can't live without it. Who needs a toy bag when a walk in the country provides an ear of corn, a garter snake, an electric fence and a railroad track vibrating from the oncoming locomotive? We're also away from apologies. What's most refreshing is the lack of anguished soul-searching over the nature of sadomasochistic desire. Here, it's as primal as romance and requires as little justification.

Do read the Introduction, if you have the least inclination ever to pen a leather tale of your own. In an intimate tour of her slush pile, Antoniou relates the musts to avoid, and makes a plea for plots: "Pornographic fiction...still remains storytelling," She wants to know "What's *different* about this time?" Even the standards (security check at an Israeli airport, commitment piercing ceremony, Biker raunch) have outstanding attributes: characters that convince, description from a different point of view, lyrical language.

Like giving a spanking, it's not what you do, it's how you do it. Here's a hot waxing: "I became lost in the rhythm of slow tilt and swift heat, punctuated by his harsh sounds." (Yes, there are a few biological guys here, mostly on the bottom). Here's a flogging: "...hammering her cheeks with warmth and surges of pressure..." The Jamaican mentor/white trash tale referenced above, "Tina and Gin," is narrated with a twang and cadence from deep in the holler: "I just needed to know if she was fakin', gonna make fun of me for doin' as I was told." Here's an orgasm: "Screaming floated to my ears, my lungs ripped. All of me convulsed...she watched, held my rope from the horizon."

Traditional folkways and religious rituals are reinvented to serve the leather goddess. An Amish bundling dress ("Nacht Ruck") is worn to celebrate a teenager's initiation by a single, older woman who works leather into saddles and lashes for buggy whips. A Jewish couple scrupulously adapt an ancient piercing rite, once used to bond a Hebrew slave who refused to leave her master.

A modern day fable finds a tattooed goddess at a strip show ("Mistress Butterfly"), who performs a simultaneous infibulation and husbandectomy on a wife dragged there by her piggish partner. This moral tale does some good work on body image: "It hugged her curves-including the curve of her belly, which embarrassed her because it made her feel fat." In a languid memoir of Cuba ("Julio") a naïve American university student is mentored by a Santeria wizard. Julio is the Trickster in a tale brimming with Sexual Magic. Initiations are a major theme here and two more are performed by a worldly Chinese businesswoman and a leather daddy. A changeling boy-toy gets his first kiss of the whip in the fun-loving "Cat's Play."

Warning: these stories may spoil you for the majority of existing product. _Leatherwomen III_ is a triumph of creativity and a celebration of the craft of writing. These stories are gems, cut and polished until they shine.