Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Dirty Whisperings in Your Ear: Violet Blue Reads “Picture Perfect”

Sometimes you publish a story and then you get your check and/or your contributors’ copies and that’s the end of it. But sometimes the fun continues and that’s what happened with my story “Picture Perfect.” This was my first print publication in erotica and it originally appeared in 2004 in Violet Blue’s best-selling anthology Taboo: Forbidden Fantasies for Couples. It was subsequently reprinted in Maxim Jakubowski’s Best Mammoth New Erotica 5 which came out in January 2006. This fall I was contacted by the Italian publisher Arnoldo Mondadori asked for translation rights for the story. Wow, my first international appearance and in the “language of love” itself! Soon afterwards I was sent a copy of the book called Best Erotica 2006 which includes many other stories from Maxim’s anthology as well as BAE. My story is now titled “Impeccabile” which I think sort of loses the pun, but hey, who am I to complain? As a translator myself, I know you have to make some sacrifices. I’ve found that the Italian version of the story sounds much better if you wave your hands around as you read. But there’s more good news!

In January Violet Blue made a podcast of the story which you can access here. Violet reads the original English version, but her low, sexy voice definitely adds a new and exotic dimension to the experience. One of the reasons I like erotica is editors like Violet Blue. She is the embodiment of the term “sex positive”—she makes it all so cool and fun and possible. I’m sorry to hear the next volume of BWE will be her last, because you can always count on her to edit an inspiring collection that will put a big smile on your face, for more reasons than one!

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