Well said, Sacchi!

I liked "Taking the Toll" and "The Therapist and the Whore"

It is pretty stream of consciousness but thanks for appreciating!

The pronouns sometimes trip me up in real life. Or get me kicked. I have no problem with people who've presented as trans as long as I've known them, but one close friend was a certain pronoun in my mind for so many years that I sometimes stumble, and a mutual friend is authorized to kick me in the ankle when I do.

I hope it will. Transgenders and genderqueer persons are very often forgotten. It is good to know someone made a movement to write something about them

I always wonder what someone like that would prefer. I don't want to offend.

Yes, definitely good memories!

Kandl, it's entirely a matter of what the person in question wants. Even in a story.

Yeah, that's one thing that must be really tricky for the people in that situation.

On the one hand---I totally understand why it's important to be able to choose pronouns that fit who you are!

On the other hand, I'm an old-fashioned pedant (I don't say that proudly, it's just kind of... the way I am.) and when I'm the chair of a committee I make people call me "Chairman Antipova," because even though I have a vagina and am a girl, I think the words "chairwoman" and "chairperson" sound awkward and ugly. Same thing with humankind---in my mind, our language has evolved so that when I say "mankind" you know I mean "men, women, and children," because the word "humankind" is cumbersome and I don't like it.

So, it's totally just a personal preference when I'm reading. If I were to meet people who went by atypical pronouns, I would call them by what they identified with. Same as I call people who prefer to be addressed as "Chairwoman" "Chairwoman." But if I'm reading a story, I'd rather stick to pronouns that are easy to pronounce in my brain.


Did anybody else get distracted by the pronouns in those stories?

Or am I a pedantic brat? I feel kind of bad for not whole-hog siding with people making a political stand.

Well, you have to use whatever pronoun the person you’re referring to has chosen for himself/herself/themse lf/emself/umself/etc. as it's extremely closely tied to one's sense identity. As for the individual choosing that pronoun, well, that's hard. My friend tried out a bunch over the course of a few months; a bit like trying on pants, but more personal and more important, in a lot of ways.

exactly, I feel like plenty of niches in erotica have their beginnings and are almost hidden from public view. It's a real tragedy, I found more love and feeling in this book than any of the Twilight books combined.

I love the blurring of the lines on gender that were presented in this book. It's helped me understand a community in sexuality i'm not that familiar with. Truly fascinating!

Huzzah!

Quick description? My brain loses track of titles quickly.

Hi Willow!

Can you tell me what email you've been using to contact me? I did a search for Willow Wand and the email you posted on your Eden profile, but i have no emails from you!

I checked the spam folder to, so we've got a disconnect somewhere - I want to make sure we touch base!

Ooooo "Taking the Toll,' that was a good one.


and my list grows longer.

I'm bigender myself. I also know a lot of transmen. Most of the time they are the nicest people on earth. If you just ask usually we have no problem talking with you about pronouns

Wow- that is an excellent review, very thoughtfully done. Glad the books are holdin up for ya!

Oh! I should clarify, the pronouns that had me confused as I was reading were

"hyr"
and
"zir"

Honestly It makes me think of Rupaul. If he is dressed as a woman I say she and if dressed as a man I say he.

I think it is safe to say no one at Eden or Cleis ever thinks that. Seriously. Never.

Thanks, Kat, for providing the perfect time for this. Giselle Renarde (who has a story or two in my upcoming anthology Girl Fever) told me this about writing "The Therapist and the Whore":


"The inclusion of my story "The Therapist and the Whore" in Take Me There was one of my greatest honours of 2011. When Tristan got in touch with me about submitting a story, I had just emailed "The Therapist and the Whore" to Rachel Kramer Bussel, who also has a story in this collection, for an anthology she was editing. I pretty much never pull a submission, because the last thing I want to do is waste an editor's time, but I had a gut feeling this story belonged in Take Me There. Luckily, Tristan and Cleis agreed. (Sorry again, Rachel!)

I'm over the moon every time I read another glowing review of Take Me There, not just because the book is well-received, but because it's so visible. I started writing trans and genderqueer stories when my girlfriend, who is trans, told me she'd never read any erotic fiction about trans people that appealed to her. In fact, she said everything she'd ever read really turned her off. She wanted relatable, well-rounded characters, not glorified fetish objects. So I got to work. Since then I've produced a lot of trans fiction, but it's a niche market. Even when my own trans erotica anthology "My Mistress' Thighs" won an honourable mention in the 2011 Rainbow Awards, sales still just bumbled along. I think a lot of readers conceptualize trans erotica as something weird and "not for me." Take Me There is really breaking down that wall. I'm so delighted people are reading Take Me There--trans people, cis people, queer people, all people. It deserves the visibility it's earned.

Thanks!"
Giselle

Its the story about the MtF who goes on the work holiday cruise with a guy from work and then later they get together and she has her first real orgasm with anal penetration.

Oh interesting! Thanks for sharing!

Sending you a message on Eden

"They" feels easy and natural to me, even if it goes against what my third grade grammar teacher would have said.

Lol. I found more emotion in the excerpt than the Twilight books.

Gender in itself can be blurred. I play with my gender all the time. There are some days where I will feel very dysphoric and feel the need to "switch" genders but most of the time I can flip flop when I want

Someone who comes into my cafe is transgender and I try to be sensitive to how I refer to them (It's a huge change and I don't want to belittle that or mock it by using the wrong adjective). Some people aren't like that though, their view is so black and white that if they can't safely put it in a category then they don't want anything to do with it.

That's what I really liked about this book, it remained sensitive (not sure if that's the right word to use but I will go with it anyway) and made itself very identifiable to it's reader, no matter who they are or what they identify with.