I’m imagining that the light from my office is casting dramatic shadows down the hall. It probably is, but I just noticed that it got dark out while I was in here, toiling away over my excel spreadsheet for Best Women’s Erotica 2007. I’ve winnowed the almost 300 submissions down to 27 contenders; I still need to get it down to about 21 stories, which isn’t going to be easy. As I sit here alone, I can hear the wind blowing all the neighbors’ windchimes as I read and re-read these lush, gorgeous, shocking, heady and beautiful final selections. They make me think that someday soon, I need to touch someone’s skin again. It’s been a while.

Of course, because I have a folder with 27 amazing erotic, unpublished, written just for my book stories doesn’t mean that it’s all been a box of lube and flowers. It hasn’t been easy; I’d say that another 30 stories were hard to cull, because I really got so many truly great stories this year. There are so many great writers in the world. Women who write erotica, specifically — I can’t imagine the hardship I’d have trying to cull selections from an all-gender open call for erotica; likely twice as many if not more, to make my job even harder. Or just wetter and harder; I’m not afraid to admit that I’ve had to take numerous “editorial” breaks reading these stories. They’ve really turned me on. And they’ve made me long for things I don’t have.

Of course, I’ve also had to toil though some really bad erotica. Writers, please: bad erotica hurts everyone. I wish it actually physically hurt to write it, because at least then there would be less of it. And spell check; there is no excuse for not using it.

What’s interesting to me are the overall themes, even if I don’t end up using the stories — and I consider something a theme when I receive more than two stories with the same central thread or subject. Last year I saw a lot of stories with priests in them, which was a total head-scratcher. Lots of army/military stories too, though that’s less confusing. Don’t we all know someone in Iraq, or someone who’s related to someone who’s been through there? I do, but I didn’t include any priest or military stories; the book went in a different direction. But the themes this year have been very curious, indeed. Several office sex stories; not shocking as this has got to be *so* firmly implanted in our culture now as a sexual fantasy. A lot, a lot, a lot of female dominance — even two stories of women pretty much raping men, ulp! Plenty of forced cunnilingus; so many stories of women making guys go down on them it’s almost humorous — in a sexy way, though. Also, I got so many stories of sex outside sexual orientation lines, I’m kind of stunned; several stories of women getting with gay men, dykes getting with straight men, gay guys tag teaming a girl… Very hot stuff, really. More male anal penetration stories than I’ve ever seen in one place (yay!), and too many masturbation stories for me to include (which is odd because last year there were hardly any).

But I know I need to take a break, because my spreadsheet notes are literally reading “she gets hella laid” and “power tools: yes!”. It’s cold and windy and foggy outside; a perfect SF night. I’ll listen to the wind chimes, and read some more erotica. And I’ll try to stop blogging for a minute; I’ve turned into a post pig over at SF Metblogs. (I did, however, get a very complimentary email from a seriously famous local media magnate about my work there. Made my day.) Problem is, fewer things are more satisfying to me than writing. That’s how I end up at home on a friday night, with you as my date.

Image: by Jake, from last sunday’s Maker Faire 2006.