I started writing sex stories several years ago. I had been reading and writing poetry for a year or two, wallowing in rec.arts.poems and devouring cummings and G. Brooks and Anne Sexton. Then, wandering across newsgroups, I started reading rec.arts.erotica and alt.sex. stories. Even in its heyday, r.a.e. had a pretty low volume, and only perhaps 1 in 25 of those stories had much plot or character. The ratio on a.s.s. was much worse, despite the huge volume. So somewhere around there I started thinking, "hey, I can write better stories than this!" So I tried it, with "American Airlines Cockpit," and got a lot of fan mail, and was encouraged, and so I wrote some more. It's been in large part the fans who kept me writing, although I also had some stories I wanted to tell. And yes, some of the stories are autobiographical, and some are friends' stories (the dangers of being friends with a writer :-), and some I just made up entirely (like Wide Brown Eyes -- I wrote that one because I wanted to do a sex scene on a piano -- I never intended it to get so serious, but the characters took over the story). So that's how I started writing erotica. Do you still want to know why?
Why I write erotica. Well. It's a complicated answer, and has a lot to do with identity politics, sexual politics, sociology and of course personal psychology. To simplify -- mainly I write it because I think it should be written. Sex should be written about. Our culture (American culture especially, but I think it applies to most of the world) has an unhealthy fear of sexuality, in my opinion. We punish people for enjoying sex, for celebrating sex, for having sex with people of the wrong religion, race, gender, or even having the wrong kind of sex.
Safe, sane and consensual are the bywords of the S/M community, and as far as I'm concerned, those are the only restrictions that should be placed on sex. They cover just about every situation, and every taboo. Consider specifics -- is interracial sex safe, sane and consensual? Yes. Homosexual sex? Yes. BDSM? Yes. All of the previous assume that the parties involved use appropriate precautions (safe), are in their right minds (sane), and are both willing and old enough to decide they're willing (consensual). There are, of course, some fuzzy areas -- where do we draw the line for children who are having sex? I'm generally inclined to draw it quite a bit lower than governments are, but that's a whole other argument. But it does seem to me that the general guidelines should be quite clear -- and it frustrates the hell out of me when interfering busybodies presume to tell me and mine (or thee and thine) how or when or with whom to have sex.
So I write these stories as part of my own private attempt to change the world. I write stories with strong consenting women, to remind people that strong women are sexy and that consent is crucial. I write stories with queer characters, to spread a little awareness. I write stories dealing with taboo subjects such as incest -- I've even got a few poems floating around which deal with underage sex. Mainly, I try to write stories with real people -- people who love and hate and sometimes even have sex for all the wrong reasons (there's a rape scene in Wide Brown Eyes, but I think it's pretty clear that she's not enjoying it) and who have lives beyond the immediate sex act. And occasionally I write a little fluffy fantasy like "Making the Sale" because life isn't all politics either. So there's my rant, and I leave you with instructions:
Have safe, sane, consensual sex (or don't) with whomever you choose, however
you choose...
Fight for the right to do so and the right of everyone else to do so...
Fight for the right to talk about it, or they'll take that right away from us
too...
And perhaps most importantly, spread the word. Silence is the great death.