Category: Erotica

This is my third and final piece for Smutathon 2020. As I finished writing it, we passed our £3,000 fundraising target, which feels like a fucking INCREDIBLE achievement, and one that owes everything to the wonderful people who joined in with this madcap venture, and of course to the 100+ generous folks who sponsored us. The money you donated to Endometriosis UK will make a huge difference, and we’re both happy and honoured that our campaign inspired you to help them out*.

This story is inspired by a tweet I saw a couple of months ago. At the time, I resolved to write four 500-word pieces of fiction, each inspired by one of the four images. Of course that went out of the window almost immediately, and instead you get one 3,500-word story, which features two of those positions. I hope you enjoy it.

*If you haven’t yet sponsored us, but want to do so, the fundraising link will remain open for (at least) another week. You can find it here!

As at all good weddings, by 10pm the dancefloor was packed. I fished a bottle of red off an abandoned dinner table and filled my glass as I surveyed the carnage. Of course my sister was in the middle of it; pint in one hand, phone in the other, she twirled, screamed, and stomped to the beat, surrounded by three bridesmaids and her adoring new husband.

As the Smutathon fundraising total sat at £1,066 yesterday evening, I made a rather niche offer on Twitter: if someone increased it to £1,087, I’d write a piece of flash fiction inspired by William II of England – otherwise known as William Rufus (or William the Red) – who ascended the throne in, yup, 1087. Happily someone called me on it, and at 10pm I sat down to bash out 500 words of filth, fully intending to have the whole thing posted by midnight.

2,556 words later, I think it’s ready. As well as William II, the story is also inspired by this excellent Eleanor Janega blog post on sodomy. You’ll soon see why.

Smutathon itself takes place this coming Saturday (26th September) from midday till midnight UK time. If you’d like to take part, check out the details here, and if you enjoy this story, please consider showing your appreciation by chucking a few quid at our 2020 Endometriosis UK fundraising appeal.

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I glanced up from my notepad to see the sun streaming through the high windows on the far side of the lecture theatre. Megan followed my eyes and grunted in disgust.

Please fish out your tiniest violin and get ready to play a mournful tune, because I’m about to tell you just how tough it is to be a cis man who writes erotica.

Unlike almost every other genre and sub-genre of fiction, erotica is both written and read primarily by women. That is true of mass-market erotica, true of indie published erotica, true of sex-blogging and amateur erotica, and overwhelmingly true of slash and fanfic. While women who write literary fiction are apparently eight times more likely to get attention from publishers if they submit their work under a man’s name, in erotica they can write as themselves without fear of being pushed to the bottom of the pile.

Last week, the outrageously-talented Kate Lessons posted a new story on her blog, called ‘The Lodger‘. Like most of her work, it’s hot, transgressive, and deliberately disgusting in places, in a way that really works. It says a lot for Kate as an author that the style of the piece, and the protagonist’s voice, are both unmistakably hers, and it came as no surprise that I really enjoyed reading it.

What did take me by surprise was the urge I had, hours later, to go back and rewrite it. Or rather, to tell the same story from the perspective of the man her main character, Chloe, is lodging with. And blowing. And fucking. Something about the dynamic between them really got under my skin, and I wanted to explore that whole scenario using the platform she’d so skilfully built. I asked Kate whether that would be OK and she graciously said yes, so here we are!

I’m on the jury for the 2020 Smut Marathon, which is very exciting indeed, and means that after every round I have to award points to the nine entries I liked best. I’m going to try to provide relatively detailed feedback on my choices, and to offer some slightly broader thoughts on the round as a whole, in the hope it’ll help this year’s authors to improve their fortunes further down the track.

With that in mind, here are my thoughts on Round 1…

The thing that stood out to me most as I studied all 109 R1 entries was the real split between those writers who’d understood the point of this particular challenge, and those who hadn’t. At this stage, it is both unsurprising and completely understandable that the second of those buckets swallowed up so many of you: there’s a reason R1 isn’t an elimination round, after all, as everyone is still finding their feet in the contest – especially those of you who haven’t taken part in Smut Marathon before.