Sex & Laughter - edited by Susannah Indigo
Writing Naked - by Mike Kimera
Reviewed by Sam Garcia
(03/29/06)
I was deep into my own post-holiday slump mid-January
when these two new books from Clean Sheets (Samba
Mountain Press) arrived in the mail, and I was
immediately cheered up just by the covers,
never mind the promise of the eroticism written
inside. I've learned over the years, since I
originally reviewed the first From Porn to Poetry,
that if something has the Clean Sheets stamp of
approval on it, whether it's a story online or a new
sparkling book, it's always high quality. I personally believe that if Oprah
suddenly had anything going on sexually, she would
surely put all of the Clean Sheets' books at the top
of her new Erotic Book Club.
But the covers! I'm in love with the girl on Sex &
Laughter, or at least in lust enough to drag her into
my bedroom and try to smear that perfect lipstick a
bit, and then look forward to finding out later what she's laughing about. I know
for sure that she would make me laugh just like that
if I was sitting cross-legged across from her...but then I finally leave my cover-girl fantasy and enter the
contents of the book. I generally don't like themed
books, because erotica is enough of a theme for me,
but I'm making a permanent exception for "laughter" as
the greatest sex theme ever.
It's hard to describe the many kinds of "funny" that are in
Sex & Laughter -- they range from Friends TV-style
situational comedy in Chris Bridges' hilarious story "The New
Guy," to Mat Twassel's slyly humorous "How To Write a
Sex Story," which really is about everything else under
the sun, including college lust, wild orgies, and the
value of imagination and devastating appearances, all the way to a poem about a "dick"
who still owes somebody rent.
Ian Philips, Janice Eidus, and Susannah Indigo are in
fine competition here for the best over-the-top funny
story, with their mix of ping-pong playing
vampires (Eidus), talking sexy pepperonis (Philips),
and girls who are fucking to save the forests in the
middle of our "uh-ohs" decade (Indigo). Twenty-three
writers in all make this a book that is guaranteed to
put a smile on your face, while also making you want
to strip down and get seriously dirty with the next creature of
any sort who passes through your sexed-up aura.
And then we come to Mike Kimera's Writing Naked --
this one has become permanent briefcase material when I'm
traveling, if only to catch the eye of random women.
It looks quite literary, in spite of the naked ass on the cover,
and then there are words on the cover from a story
about a woman with a "substantial" body. I mean,
there you go -- just one minute of looking at my book and
you (lovely woman with time on her hands in the
airport) instantly know that I am 1) a guy who reads,
2) a guy who reads sexy stuff, 3) a guy who reads
sexy stuff about "substantial" women, no stereotypes
for me!
Mike Kimera's guy voice is very unusual -- he's not
quite like anyone else. I recently saw that he won
the Rauxa Prize for Erotic Writing, and I'm not
surprised. I don't even know where else to find a
book like this -- all hetero-male, all the time, but
with a wide open, honest appreciation for all types of
women and sexual situations. His voice is often sad, full of
guilt, but also sometimes funny and over-the-top. The
men are married, or not, or in my favorite story,
married but fucking the sister too -- but the guys are
never stud-types; they're real men with real desires
and real problems. "Mike Kimera takes an original,
unflinching look at the secret desires we all have:
the uncontrollable sexual needs, the surprising -- and
sometimes funny -- turn-ons, our dirty inner-lives that
are rarely shown the light of day" the back cover
reads, and that nails what Kimera does so well. It's
our dirty inner-lives made fascinating, made highly
readable, made somehow acceptable for us to share with
him and come away with a little more insight into why
we do the things we do.
I love Clean Sheets, and if you're reading this
review in Clean Sheets, you probably do too. Their
archives are a gold-mine for "wasting" time in a sexy
literary manner, and for free even, but there's something
still very special about the printed word. Both of
these books are a bargain, a value, and not to be
missed -- buy them both through Clean Sheets
and support the amazing amount of work and talent that
goes into this zine, and the remarkable writers
discovered and published here.
