Giveaway! Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch Femme Erotica

Posted on March 22, 2010 in giveaways! | 68 Comments

Thanks to Cleis Press and Tristan Taormino, I’ve got TWO copies of the lovely new erotica anthology called Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch Femme Erotica edited by Tristan Taormino (in which I have a short story). More details about the book when I mentioned it a few weeks ago here.

Shall I mail you a copy of it? Just comment on this post and let me know what your favorite written erotica anthology is, or your favorite erotica writer, or that one erotica story that you always get out when you want to get your blood going. Bonus points if you describe what it is you love about the story. Or comment that you’ve never read erotica, or that you kind of hate it … or something else entirely, the point is just that you comment. I’ll pick two comments at random and notify you by email.

If you’re outside of the US, that’s fine, but I might ask you to kick me a few bucks for shipping. You just have to include a valid email address to enter.

Winners will be picked Friday morning, March 26th.

Thanks Cleis! Thanks Tristan!

68 Comments | Category: giveaways! | Tags: books, butch/femme, cleis press, erotica, giveaways, I don't mean to be US-centric or anything but international shipping can be expensive, leave a comment and win a prize, sometimes she lets me, tristan taormino

Comments

68 Responses to “Giveaway! Sometimes She Lets Me: Best Butch Femme Erotica”

Lizzie
March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:58 am

The best erotica I have read has, honestly, been on this site. The stories here are just so real and raw and emotional and honest. I love how you use sex as a tool for personal and inter-personal growth, and the dynamic between you and kristen in the stories is so hot.
bifemmefatale
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:06 am

My favorite collection of erotica of all time is Pat Califia's "Macho Sluts". It's female-centric but includes men as well, it's unabashedly kinky, the Tops are racially diverse, butch and femme, and there's a wide variety of styles of kink. My favorite stories out of the collection are "Jessie" and "The Calyx of Isis". The book is a little dated but still holds up pretty well. The only problem I have with the book is that it raised my expectations too high–I have yet to meet a real-life Top quite as hot as those in its pages!
Simone
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:13 am

Well, I have to go with Anais Nin, Delta of Venus. Not only is the the most elegant, luscious erotica ever created, it's sprawling array of sexual adventures totally opened my mind about group sex, polyamory, nude modeling…

In a word, it's spectacular.
cheyenne
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:36 am

i like different stories from the "best lesbian erotica" series – though i've never owned a copy, i just read snippets as i find them.
Barbara
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:40 am

My first (and so far only) erotica collection is Best Lesbian Erotica 2009 edited by Tristan Taormino. I had a gift card to Barnes & Noble (which is unfortunate, I'd rather spend my money at independent book stores) and started my rule that I have to buy something that (obviously I will enjoy but also) would completely horrify the people/person who gave me the gift certificate in the first place. This gift certificate was actually an award from the English Department in my fairly homophobic school. And so- my perfect excuse to buy lesbian erotica was born, not that one needs an excuse. at all.

My favorite story in it is, bay far, Stuck at Work and Late for a Date. It is chuck full of pain, "sir"s, "master"s, "daddy"s, consent play, anal play, and is told from the perspective of the sub. WIN.
Kody
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:46 am

I love Patrick Califia's collection "Boy in the Middle." It's smart and kinky and gender-fluid and diverse, and happens between all sorts of people in all sorts of (hot) situations.

I think my favorite story in it is about a young trans guy getting mentored (read: fucked) through his first coming out experience by another trans guy. It's sweet, and hot.
Yondergen
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:46 am

Honestly, the best stuff I've found is right here! You won that Lezzy for a reason, Mr. Sinclair. I love the way you write your way into sex scenes; there's something organic going for them that's lacking in a lot of other erotica. Plus, you write the hottest blowjobs…
Amber
March 22nd, 2010 @ 8:58 am

My favorite anthology is Best of the Best Lesbian Erotica, which of course is another Taormino work – go figure! Not only do almost all of the stories get me going, but they also inspire me to write some of my own stories. I'm still working my way through it, but when I'm done I'm going to write a review on it, even though I bought it at a used bookstore; it wasn't sent to me by any company. It's that good!
Ladycakes
March 22nd, 2010 @ 9:07 am

I've always appreciated the heck out of "Sweet Hunger" by Skian McGuire from Best Lesbian Erotica 2007, mostly because I am just that kind of goddess-worshiping dyke. :)
liberation
March 22nd, 2010 @ 9:38 am

wow. where to start? i love erotica that arises in stories, organically — a few of sarah waters' scenes in her victorian lesbian novels get me going…i confess it's partly the costuming. a lot of the older stuff on this site is amazing, and i love the whole sexblogging thing in general…. a theme that always gets me hot is the one where someone is being given permission to admit that their true desires are far more kinky and subversive than they have admitted before. there's something hot about de Sade in the original french.
Lark
March 22nd, 2010 @ 9:45 am

Anything from the Susie Bright collection Bitten. It is a great collection, but I think the real reason that those stories get under my skin is that I bought this collection as a (very selfish) New Year's present for my long-distance lover. He reads aloud to me over Skype when I am very good. There is a glorious sort of coincidence in the stories he picks, somehow without ever mentioning it he will pick the sexual topic that has been on my mind most lately. How does he know I've been thinking about spanking, boot licking, or rimming? How does he know exactly when I want to watch his mouth curl up and say "slut" or a tremulous "sir"?

The other collection I enjoy is The Best American Erotica – 2007, because my university library has a copy and the cover art always got to me.
MsF
March 22nd, 2010 @ 9:54 am

If I get stuck on a desert island with only one book, I really hope it is "The Leather Daddy and the Femme." The whole book is kinky and brilliant and hot, but the gang bang will do if I only have a few minutes….I'm going to go read it now ;)
Shah
March 22nd, 2010 @ 10:01 am

I don't read erotica except the stuff on this site. I'd like to start. This is, if I get a free copy.
Erudite Hayseed
March 22nd, 2010 @ 10:23 am

Erotica is, to me, kind of under appreciated. This is especially true for me, because some of my earliest masturbatory fantasies as a young buck came directly from me writing and drawing them out into a secret notebook. They all dealt with bondage or some sort of specific kink ( usually with me in the role of a spanker ), which probably should have been a sign.

Later, I traded a neighborhood kid a pocket knife and a skateboard for this small money box/tin case full of erotic novels he had inherited from his older brother. Many of them lacked pages or covers, and they were in complete disrepair, but there were some real gems…my favorite by far was one that figured into the standard "sexual nuns" trope, regarding a man who was in a car crash near a convent. They found him and nursed him back to health, and he all but started a sexual revolution there. Lots of scenes of punishment, lots of lesbian scenes. But the idea of these women of God being defiled so much really stuck with me.

I read online, mostly, but those are two incredibly formative times in my sexual development, and they just so happen to be tied to erotica.
rascalgrrl
March 22nd, 2010 @ 10:40 am

My favorite story is from the Herotica series. I can't remember the name. The story is told from each character's POV. The characters are a newly-hired femme secretary and her very butch boss. The boss puts the secretary in a very unusual situation reading a porn script with a butch who's auditioning and then disciplines the femme when she oversteps the boundaries. I'm getting tingly just describing it! There's spanking and a bit of humiliation and a hot strap-on scene wherein the femme is nearly nude and the butch is fully clothed with only her cock out. Umm. I think I need to be alone for a few minutes ; )
Zimt
March 22nd, 2010 @ 10:42 am

Hmmmm. I'm not an erotic reader for some reason. So if I won this I'd be giving it to my girlfriend. But she would definitely be happy.
Bailey
March 22nd, 2010 @ 11:22 am

It has been years since I found any erotica personally meaningful. Sure, a phrase here or there might get my motor running, but usually not a whole story.

Heh. The only erotica that really gets me going, it seems, would be the texts that fly rapid-fire back and forth between my lover and I. :)
Arien
March 22nd, 2010 @ 11:44 am

Usually I turn to the internet for erotica, I confess, a byproduct of being a frugal college student (as well as the fact that I'm hesitant to by anthologies unless I have a review or something to go by). Sugarbutch is one of my first stops; the power dynamics and the femme- and cock-worship are really hot.
Lauren Hennessy
March 22nd, 2010 @ 12:56 pm

One of my favorite erotica stories (other than one’s i’ve written myself.) is one that was in Best Lesbian Erotica 08 or 09 I believe. About a butch that picked up a confused, young trick one night, took her back to a hotel room, smoked a blunt with her and proceeded to have the the trick suck it. Then the ‘john’ fucked her ass and left her half a blunt, some money and the room for the night if she wanted it.

Wheeeeee!
ButchTay
March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:21 pm

I haven't read much erotica at all really, just whats on your site and a few stories here and there. I once read a story about a young butch being taught the sexual ways of butches by an older butch and that for me was life changing. Butch on butch is sometimes looked down on, but for me its beautiful and it gets me going. One masculine figure dominating another, magic really.
a.
March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:46 pm

Best Lesbian Erotica 1996 and Herotica 3…less for the contents and more for the contexts in which I encountered them.
Elise
March 22nd, 2010 @ 1:51 pm

Hmm, wish I could say that I've experience an erotica anthology…but alas, all I know is what I find on the internet. Some of the finest and most sizzling girl on girl action comes from this very site. Otherwise, I just turn to literotica.com because of it's vast collections (even though a lot of it is crap).
Mug-z
March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:10 pm

This is quite biased of me, but my girlfriend writes an erotica blog too, and I am ~quite~ fond of that. Reading about something you've done from someone else's perspective is hot!
Stella Omega
March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:33 pm

Whoah, i just found this blog today– just in time to sneak into a contest!

Um. best erotica? Pat Califia; "Doc and Fluff" is the kind of homespun dystopian scenario I love. But "Macho Sluts" had some great stuff and some not-so-great, and the genderqueer really spoke to me.

Only… I can't remember the titles!
Fae
March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:41 pm

I've got an oldie but goody: Coming to Power, for the amazing potent mix of erotica, politics, and worldview when I was coming out.
Leni
March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:00 pm

I love "Climb the Ocean": http://prettymuses.com/ocean.html

Cute gay boys in love. I feel like such a fag hag reading stuff like that, but you can't help what you like, right?

And what the hell am I doing here?
julep
March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:06 pm

The first story in Best Lesbian Erotica 05…I think its called "This Is How I Do It". It's a fierce 2-pager describing butch masturbation. I'm in to it.
Tracy
March 22nd, 2010 @ 3:58 pm

knife short hair, leather

i'm on my knees, desire pleads

words, and you, plunging.
Pamela
March 22nd, 2010 @ 4:23 pm

The best erotica for me is the stuff my partner and I write to each other! We've been exploring butch/femme alot lately, some D/S, and writing these stories of our own personal fantasies, and then acting them out later, has been soooooo hot!

Pam
Antonia
March 22nd, 2010 @ 4:29 pm

I semi-randomly stumbled upon SugarButch.net through FetLife. I'm a girl in her early twenties who has read plenty of erotica, but I've only just recently started thinking a bit more seriously about my interest in queer butch daddies/tops. I've spent the majority of my time post-adolescence shrugging off these proclivities of mine, as my attraction to men is a bit stronger.

I really don't know much at all about the queer lifestyle or if queer folk even call it a lifestyle. All of this seems like a big ball of yarn and I can't seem to find the end of the string to start sorting all of this out in my head.

So, I've read plenty of erotica (I have a preference for that which is sprinkled with incest-themes, Kristens Archives has a pretty good Gay/Bi Male section that I frequent), but never any with a queer butch femme theme.
KP
March 22nd, 2010 @ 5:47 pm

the story that i can read over and over again (and still gets me all hot and bothered) is from best lesbian erotica 08 called "the storm chasers" by peggy munson which is about two queer amish kids during their rumspringa. it has 4 or 5 parts and theres this line "we want to make ellie so dirty she can't go back" that gets me every time. ugh. i might go read it right now. thanks ss!
RB
March 22nd, 2010 @ 5:55 pm

Most of the erotica I've read is online and I can't remember where I've read what now. Of what I remember: "Spitting Seeds" from Girl Crazy stands out. It was some of the first erotica I read.
Heather
March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:02 pm

I love reading fanfic about gay boys. One of my favorites is http://nilchance.livejournal.com/468258.html?#cut...
Eva
March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:07 pm

My favorite erotica ever is the first fantasy that my girlfriend ever told me. I share my fantasies with her often, but she was never confident telling them to me, so one night she finally e-mailed me one. I saved it and I still pull it out occasionally when I'm alone. We haven't tried it yet, but I hope we will soon!
Randy
March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:41 pm

My fav is Eudaemon. I put it in the website link above…

I love the feelings it evokes and the relationship that evolves with it's intimacy.

Way beyond simple erotica.
Jessica
March 22nd, 2010 @ 6:50 pm

I don't have a favorite erotica, but I have a genre that will always be close to my heart because it was my first. When I was a teen, I read a lot of yaoi slash. Looking back, it was kind of a first hint to myself that I was never going to be happy with 'normal' in sexuality.
Al
March 23rd, 2010 @ 3:19 am

Sadly I can't pick a favorite. It's been way too long since I've picked up my trusty-make-ya-throb books. I should fix this….
femmelle
March 23rd, 2010 @ 4:29 am

This blog! Especially http://www.sugarbutch.net/2009/07/can-i-come-plea...
Mmhmm. :)
um, anonymous for th
March 23rd, 2010 @ 5:24 am

I'm not commenting for the giveaway; I bought this book a few weeks ago, and it's goooood! It starts off with a really great short piece, S. Bear Bergman's contribution was wonderfully refreshing and hot, and it ends with a ROCKIN story by our own Mr Sexsmith!

I'm not a big erotica person, but I find your work is really one of the best around. I've read some terrible erotica in my life, and there's a fine balance between bad cybersex-type writing (she slides her panties off and starts moaning 'oh, fuck me…') and SFW romance. You have to have the hot sex, but you also need to get enough into the story so that you care about their sex. You want to get a little wet, but you also want those butterflies in your stomach. My favourite work so far is probably in Tristan's anthology, by Joy Parks – shy soft butches and forward femmes tend to get me, as I'm a bit of the former! Karin Kallmaker, Therese Szymanski and Amie M. Evans are also great.

I don't usually buy lesbian erotica books because they sometimes tend to be incredibly boring, or about two inexplicably gorgeous young feminine women. The two butch/femme anthologies you mentioned – Therese Szymanski's Back to Basics and this one – are the only ones I'm glad I spent my money on. Now if I could just get my hands on Joan Nestle's Persistent Desire! There's really a lack of butch, or masculine lesbian representation in lesbian erotica.
D.
March 23rd, 2010 @ 5:52 am

Victoria A. Brownworth, "The Golden Age of Lesbian Erotica"
94.rowland
March 23rd, 2010 @ 6:23 am

Like some other commenters, the best (and only) erotica I've read has been on this site. It seems that the bookstores that I shop at only ever stock huge quantities of gay male erotica, and very little else for women– let alone something as specific as butch/femme writings. Lately I've been getting more and more into queer writings and have enjoyed it so much, but it's been more academic and memoir-based. Frankly, I can't imagine a better addition to my growing library than a little butch/femme erotica. Even if I don't get picked for the free copy, I might just have to order this for myself…
Bond
March 23rd, 2010 @ 6:58 am

My favorite erotica writer is Sinclair Sexsmith, of course.
Sherry
March 23rd, 2010 @ 8:00 am

Well Sinclair I guess i have your writings as the beginning of my erotic reading and by the way I love the "Hot Fuck in a Dark corner" that is the best

I have ever read ..I would like to win cause at the moment this butch is single and a bit sad..that book might just cheer me up..you and Kristen have a HOT and sexxy summertime.
effingdykes
March 23rd, 2010 @ 10:00 am

My favorite erotica is Anne Rice's "The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty" trilogy.

For my birthday one year, my girlfriend painstakingly whited-out EVERY SINGLE "he" and "his" and wrote in "she" and "hers" instead.

It must have taken forever.

So, so worth it.
jenny
March 23rd, 2010 @ 10:29 am

I've never really read erotica… just stuff that I stumble upon on the internet, like sugarbutch. I'd like to start though!
Irene
March 23rd, 2010 @ 12:53 pm

I want this book so bad I can't even think of a coherent comment.
jessica annabelle
March 23rd, 2010 @ 3:11 pm

i want in ;-)

i'm a brand new reader, and as far as good erotica goes, i'm a HUGE fan of those posts about the femme top. they are all kinds of exciting.
Destiny
March 23rd, 2010 @ 4:00 pm

Best Women's Erotica isn't bad…although there aren't nearly enough queer stories. :) I'm pretty excited about my new Filament subscription though – there should be some good stories in there!
Femme it up!
March 23rd, 2010 @ 5:03 pm

Some of my favorites are "Unraveling the Stone" (in Best Lesbian Erotica '04) and "Cop-Out" (in Best of the Best Lesbian Erotica 2… oh Troi, so hot!). The butch-femme themes get me going.
J
March 23rd, 2010 @ 9:58 pm

Trust me to stop lurking and comment when there's a giveaway ;)

Ummm… actually I think Literotica.com is a great resource – it has stories for every possible mood you might be in. Although the quality does vary, there are some really well-written pieces on there.

Jx
blueitefaceagel
March 23rd, 2010 @ 10:18 pm

hmm this is kinda hard for me but I'll come out again my fave book and really the only erotica I read was from the book "Where the girls are"It was the fist lesbian erotica I ever read and really kinda help me to stop being scared of what I like in sex…even if not a lot of people likes pony's…
L.
March 24th, 2010 @ 2:51 am

I don't read a lot of erotica, yet, beyond this site. Don't own any. So, so far, you are my favorite. But I am certainly open to expanding my horizons.
leopardprint
March 24th, 2010 @ 3:23 am

All of the erotica that I've read has fallen short. I have wanted to read better stories for a while now, but lately haven't had the time, and I find that the best stories are the ones that I write! Maybe I'll publish my own anthology someday…
earthquakepixie
March 24th, 2010 @ 6:23 am

I feel so geeky about this… but my favorite anthology was a H Potter slash with Hermione and Snape. A great deal of it was spent with Hermione using polyjuice to look like another Snape. Very autoerotic, very kinky, and surprisingly very well written.

Most of the other erotica I've found (excepting the erotica on this blog… THANK YOU!!!) is extremely poorly written. I regularly find erotica that thinks it's possible to push past the cervix with PIV sex.
M.
March 24th, 2010 @ 9:27 am

Comparatively it would seem that my erotic tastes lie between what could be termed either 'old school' or simply 'pedestrian', but it's long been my motto that if I can't find my porn at the public library, it's probably just not good quality:

My erotic awakening occurred at the tender age of nine when I discovered Nabakov, Lolita. Although, I no longer turn to the lustful musings of Humbert Humbert, that is where it all started for me. From there, Anais Nin (mostly the diaries) and Henry Miller (Tropic of Cancer) — which would surely have been forbidden in my puritanical, evangelist household had my parents been academics in any way, but they were not, and I openly displayed my erotica on my bookshelves. I still turn to Anais' short stories collected in Delta of Venus when I'm feeling chilly. No one gets me off quite like the French: Bataille's Histoire de l'Oeil, Pierre Louys' Trois Filles de leur Mere, Story of O (anonymous), and The Image (written under a pseudonym by Robbe-Grillet and his wife).
e
March 24th, 2010 @ 10:02 am

anais nin's erotica was the first that sparked my interest. i was housesitting for an older lesbian and loved being around her bookshelves and artwork. had a great time in her bed, with her anais nin books!
Wilhelmina
March 24th, 2010 @ 12:18 pm

right now, i'm reading "spanked" and i love it. spanking is such a big kink of mine, and i really love the way the writers get creative with the concept, in ways i would never expect. i've always preferred erotica over pron – even really, really good porn. i don't know what it is: the buildup, the titillation, the rest left to my imagination.
RD
March 24th, 2010 @ 12:47 pm

Geez, I just love erotica! Sometimes I'm surprised ap what does turn me on. Mostly it's about domination, although I'm not as crazy about it in real life. The Punishment on Libida.com is one of my favorites!
Babs
March 24th, 2010 @ 8:07 pm

I love Anne Rice’s Sleeping Beauty Trilogy (originally published under the pseudonym A.N. Roqeulaure) for their rich detail, disquietingly hot scenarios, and their unfailing ability to make this girl all slippery and fidgety.
Danee
March 24th, 2010 @ 8:19 pm

OK, so my favorite erotica isn't really erotica at all, but a story from a romance anthology (I know, I'm ashamed, but flights are long). It's the story "Tangled Dreams" by Lori Foster. It has a sexy librarian-type sub, dominant male (I imagine as butch), spanking, d/s stuff, and sexy vintage lingerie with lots of buttons. So damn sexy.
TlB
March 25th, 2010 @ 5:38 pm

I don't read erotica as much as I'd like to, to be entirely honest- I grew up in a place where gay / lesbian books were under the psychological help section and even though I now live in an entirely different country, I buy books in mind that I have to travel with them, since I commute from America to Wales to England on a semi-regular basis. I use the internet, usually, but being a literature student, I snap out of the sexy mood as soon as an unintentionally hilarious line sprouts out of nowhere, equating dicks to 'pulsating love rockets ready to lift off from the NASA headquarters' and pussies to 'rotting flowers that have been trodden on' (no, I am not kidding). I don't usually read heterosexual porn when I do end up reading- it's either gay or lesbian, although mostly gay erotica, which is easier to find and usually not written by prepubescent teenage boys or men that will never see naked women that aren't on television or online. I find that lesbian erotica, when I'm specifically looking for it, is either too chaste or utterly lacking in detail on an emotional and physical level, which is why it's easier to get into gay erotica, which is generally written by women and tends to be of a higher quality.

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'd like to try it properly. The closest I've gotten to reading lesbian erotica in book form was on a visit back to the States where I had to find a small corner to flip through the pages and keep an eye out for any judgmental old women (it's happened before). It was, however, bondage, and I remember it being hot. Usually I just write my own to get the urge out, but now that I have a girlfriend… well, maybe this book would be an interesting gateway, or at least a topic for discussion!

God, that was a long post. Haha.
ninja
March 25th, 2010 @ 7:40 pm

Oh I have to second those who have mentioned Anais Nin's Erotica. A classic. I read it as a teenager and have never been the same since … ;) Or at least it made me want to write erotica myself, which I have been doing since.
Amber
March 26th, 2010 @ 1:16 am

Favorite erotica . . . I haven't read a lot. The first book I bought was Rachel Kramer Bussel's Dirty Girls: Erotica for Women. One of the stories, Mile High Club by Kate Dominic, was my hands down favorite. Unfortunately all the stories are heterosexual, but the description of boobs in this one was just so hot.
Alexandra
March 26th, 2010 @ 4:59 am

My favorite erotica is hard to pick. I love the Best Lesbian Erotica series… My favorite story was written by Toni D'Amoto, describing his love of his 'fat femme' and their hot tryst in a rental car. As a big girl mysefl, it really made me happy to see big girls represented in erotica. YAY!
Juliana Marie
March 26th, 2010 @ 5:01 am

My interest in erotica goes in cycles – sometimes I crave the big anthologies that are genre-based (historical, noire themes, etc.), sometimes I just wanna look at sexy pictures – but I know I can't go wrong w/Susie Bright- or Greta Christina-edited works. And speaking of Greta, LOVE the Erotic Comics anthologies, they're always filled with talent, creativity and things I never would have imagined. Stretching exercise for the horny bumps in my brain.
Tatsumi
March 26th, 2010 @ 5:06 am

My fav erotic story (at the moment) is the title piece in Carol Queen's The Leather Daddy and the Femme. I so identify with that Femme! And the sex scenes are hot! Woof :)
Sara
March 26th, 2010 @ 5:11 am

I have been blessed by some very writerly and creative partners…so while I know it is a cop out, and sort of dorky, my favorite pieces of erotica are the emails and stories and creative text messages that my lovers (past and present) have written for me.

What can I say? Unmatched intimacy.