Even with only nine entries, picking the winner of this short story competition has been a pretty thankless task. The good kind of thankless, obviously – I’m never going to complain too loudly about having to read a load of quality smut – but still, elevating one above the rest wasn’t easy.
Before I get to the winner, I want to briefly mention some of the things I enjoyed most about the other entries. With Anna Sky’s ‘Butterfly’, it was the wistful beauty of her closing line that I loved: the butterfly pinned to the board, probed ‘…until the novelty wore off, bright colours fading.’ The purple-and-black panels of the silk-boned corset, and the temporary charge it gives the sex between her two characters, are reframed right at the end, and the reader is left to consider the impact of familiarity and time on relationships.
After reading ‘Happy Consequences’, by Septimus Warren Smith, I’m pretty sure the author could earn herself a hefty commission from nJoy; the toy her character finds (and uses) is described in wonderful detail, and I don’t blame Carrie for wanting to hang onto it for another day or two. The whole piece felt like a celebration of female masturbation, which I loved as well.
For sheer kitschy fun, the story title I enjoyed most was ‘Madam Madonna’s House of Pain’, by Cherrie Jubilee. Madam Madonna herself turned out to be lip-smackingly wicked, and by the end of the story I had a clear picture of what she looked like and who she was. I also really liked the closing line, and the hint it gave of what might happen next.
After reading ‘The Suitcase’, Vida Bailey’s story of the travelling sex-toy salesman and the woman who uses him to test the merchandise, I found myself craving a good spanking, which is not generally something I fantasise about – testament, I think, to the way Vida captures the relationship between pain and arousal in her description of the punishment handed out to poor Gareth. It’s a hot, filthy hotel-room encounter, and I was fidgeting in my seat by the end of it.
I thought the cleverest entry came from Charlie J Forrest, and I had to read ‘Emotional Baggage’ a few times to tease out the full story. Charlie’s writing style is smooth and laced with a sense of playful mischief; I especially loved the image of ‘bruises to be admired, bruises to be smoothed over with arnica and kisses’, among various other well-crafted vignettes.
‘MissTaken Identity’, by Oleander Plume was the only M/M entry among the nine, and confirmed the author as a reliable source of high-quality gay smut. I thought that the deliberate switch of the two suitcases was a great twist, but the story really came together around the cross-dressing painter with the big dick, an extravagant, exuberant character who I believed in right away; his seduction of the strait-laced middle-aged businessman could’ve felt far-fetched in less skilful hands, but instead was fun, kinky and hot, all at the same time.
The final ‘honourable mention’ goes to ‘Open Me’, by Malin James. I love stories that play with the psychological aspect of D/S, and Malin sets this up perfectly, with the jaded road warrior jolted into life by a mystery woman, who immediately burrows inside his head and finds the right buttons to push. Even though disobeying her command would have brought with it no negative consequences, I instinctively understood why he chose to submit. For the surprise and delight it conveys, I also loved this line: ‘He was a grown man wearing panties, and he was fucking satisfied’.
Seven down, two to go. I’m going to announce the runner-up and the winner in separate posts, so I can publish each piece in full, after explaining why I chose it. Look out for those later today!