What do you think?
Rate this book
The Burning Pen: Sex Writers on Sex Writing
In this groundbreaking work, contemporary writers of erotica reflect on how their work originates, how their sexuality shapes their words, and, more important, how their words have affected their sexuality. Patrick Califia-Rice, Fack Fritscher, Cecilia Tan, Thomas Roche, Carol Queen, Felice Picano, Shar Rednour, Laura Antoniou, and Simon Sheppard are just a scattering of the names brought together by noted erotica writer M. Christian to deliver an eye-opening, thought-provoking examination of the craft of writing about sex, which includes each writer's favorite erotic story as an illustration of this group's diverse approach to sexuality and language. M. Christian is the author of Dirty Words , Eros Ex Machina, Midsummer Night's Dreams, and Guilty Pleasures, and the editor (with Simon Sheppard) of Rough Stuff.
- GenresNonfiction
264 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2000
About the author
M. Christian
135 books80 followersM.Christian is - among many things - an acknowledged master of erotica with more than 400 stories in such anthologies as Best American Erotica, Best Gay Erotica, Best Lesbian Erotica, Best Bisexual Erotica, Best Fetish Erotica, and many, many other anthologies, magazines, and Web sites.
He is the editor of 25 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others.
He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, and Coming Together Presents M.Christian, Pornotopia, How To Write And Sell Erotica; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, Fingers Breadth, and Painted Doll.
He is the editor of 25 anthologies including the Best S/M Erotica series, The Burning Pen, Guilty Pleasures, The Mammoth Book of Future Cops and The Mammoth Book of Tales of the Road (with Maxim Jakubowksi) and Confessions, Garden of Perverse, and Amazons (with Sage Vivant) as well as many others.
He is the author of the collections Dirty Words, Speaking Parts, The Bachelor Machine, Licks & Promises, Filthy, Love Without Gun Control, Rude Mechanicals, and Coming Together Presents M.Christian, Pornotopia, How To Write And Sell Erotica; and the novels Running Dry, The Very Bloody Marys, Me2, Brushes, Fingers Breadth, and Painted Doll.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 27, 2007
A combination of erotic fiction and essays on writing erotic fiction. Quite fascinating and useful for someone like myself who wants to write erotic fiction.
February 6, 2015
definitely NOT a "groundbreaking work" in any sense (mind-numbing more like).
With a couple of exceptions, none of the fourteen contributors seem to know how to write anything (let alone anything sexy). I'd be surprised if they could sign their own names (quite frankly). Anyone looking for (philosophical) insight or (creative) inspiration would do better to phone the Samaritans straightaway, Oyoi!
With a couple of exceptions, none of the fourteen contributors seem to know how to write anything (let alone anything sexy). I'd be surprised if they could sign their own names (quite frankly). Anyone looking for (philosophical) insight or (creative) inspiration would do better to phone the Samaritans straightaway, Oyoi!
August 22, 2019
There is a man working today who wants to change the face of erotic literature. I've met him. I've watched him softly climb up to a dusty stage and rip into his audience with a reading of one of his exquisite short stories. The audience didn't just sit there, either. They listened. Why? Maybe because he put the Eros of the story into a new setting. Or maybe he just found a way to write a story that could combine sex, matches, and gas leaks. Did it matter? The audience didn't think about any of this. They just listened. They learned what good erotica can sound like. M. Christian was succeeding in his task that night.
But that's just his writing. That was just proof that writing intelligent erotica could be done. With the publication of The Burning Pen, he's lifting up a corner of the bed sheets for us to get a peek behind those stories. And not just his, either. The finest of the genre have stepped forward willingly, like our beloved seven samurai, to sacrifice everything. To tell us what drives their hands to scrawl the paper with erotic words. To reveal whether or not it's done with mirrors, or if the poor character really was sliced in half with a thirteen inch cock.
But it is easy to be fooled. I think there's a bit of the Coyote in M. Christian. He teases the reader with a compilation of writers and their accompanying essays, then seduces us with the stories which accompany them. Among the literati involved in this experiment are the likes of Felice Picano, Carol Queen, Patrick Califia-Rice, Cecilia Tan, Simon Sheppard and Thomas S. Roche. In all, there are fourteen different writers involved, including M. Christian himself. A bakers dozen, plus one, to challenge your perceptions and titillate your thought centers.
Whether you're an aspiring erotica writer, or just a lover of the genre, you'll love what these contemporary writers have to say. You'll learn how wild, normal, or sincere they can be. But in the end, no real secret is truly revealed, any more than they are by masked TV magicians. Maybe there is no magic. Maybe they simply create. Does our seductive editor realize the trick he has played? I think he does, and it slips out in one simple sentence near the end of the book. "If you are not a writer, you can't understand. How could you?"
Because, quite frankly, in the end it really doesn't matter. The Burning Pen is worth every word, as a unique look at a soft underside of the writers who are crafting some of the finest erotica of our time. The stories are pretty damned good, too. Another success for M. Christian, specifically, and for the genre in general.
But that's just his writing. That was just proof that writing intelligent erotica could be done. With the publication of The Burning Pen, he's lifting up a corner of the bed sheets for us to get a peek behind those stories. And not just his, either. The finest of the genre have stepped forward willingly, like our beloved seven samurai, to sacrifice everything. To tell us what drives their hands to scrawl the paper with erotic words. To reveal whether or not it's done with mirrors, or if the poor character really was sliced in half with a thirteen inch cock.
But it is easy to be fooled. I think there's a bit of the Coyote in M. Christian. He teases the reader with a compilation of writers and their accompanying essays, then seduces us with the stories which accompany them. Among the literati involved in this experiment are the likes of Felice Picano, Carol Queen, Patrick Califia-Rice, Cecilia Tan, Simon Sheppard and Thomas S. Roche. In all, there are fourteen different writers involved, including M. Christian himself. A bakers dozen, plus one, to challenge your perceptions and titillate your thought centers.
Whether you're an aspiring erotica writer, or just a lover of the genre, you'll love what these contemporary writers have to say. You'll learn how wild, normal, or sincere they can be. But in the end, no real secret is truly revealed, any more than they are by masked TV magicians. Maybe there is no magic. Maybe they simply create. Does our seductive editor realize the trick he has played? I think he does, and it slips out in one simple sentence near the end of the book. "If you are not a writer, you can't understand. How could you?"
Because, quite frankly, in the end it really doesn't matter. The Burning Pen is worth every word, as a unique look at a soft underside of the writers who are crafting some of the finest erotica of our time. The stories are pretty damned good, too. Another success for M. Christian, specifically, and for the genre in general.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews