Anthologies I dream of editing

Maybe it’s the full flush of our submissions period (260+ authors have sent us a truly uncountable number of stories, and there’s still a week to send more in!). Maybe it’s quarantine. But I keep coming up with ideas for erotica anthologies.

Reading submissions has shown some interesting gaps in the genre. That and spending my downtime browsing Reddit–specifically subs like AITA and relationship advice ones–has made me once again aware of how desperately we need better narratives about sex.

• Also, the fact that we have more wonderful submissions than we can ever fit into one anthology is inspiring me to think of Erato II already. There are some alterations to the guidelines that would make short-short fiction more competitive, but basically everything in our Easy Sells category will remain a priority.
• One thing I can’t get enough of in NSP submissions or anywhere else? Pegging. The one thing I haven’t found an anthology 100% focused on? Pegging! (An exception is the Turning the Tables anthology from Storm Moon press, which was great, but came out several years ago and only contains four stories.) So what do I want to edit? An anthology of the best pegging erotica! I don’t think it’ll be a New Smut Project title necessarily (the focus is narrow for NSP, which aims for ambitiously inclusive anthologies), but maybe a project of my own? Accordingly, I’ve added a list for my MailChimp newsletter specifically to send out alerts about anthologies I’m editing. You can subscribe here.
• All those cyborg and sex robot stories we received in the first flush of Erato submissions had the editorial team and our friends brainstorming about what makes a good instance of that subgenre. And, hey, He, She and It and The Silver Metal Lover both turned me on… Anyway, my partner and I struck upon the most important part of any anthology: an excruciatingly punny title. AI <3 U is maybe coming to some bookstore somewhere near you at some point in the future, but at least now the title is burned into your memory.
• Speaking of science fiction, Erato has received a lot of awesome F/F spec fic. Enough that one could put together a strong anthology of just that. And has anyone? Sapphics in Space? Again, the focus is a little narrow for NSP, but it might be a good choice for someone to pitch to a publisher who does themed F/F anthologies, like Bold Strokes Books or Cleis Press. That someone doesn’t have to be me, and if you take this idea and run with it, it’s a gift, not a theft.
• My co-editor Guinevere Chase asks only two things: “couples with different libidos, making it work with lots of love and understanding and excitement and creativity” and “authors making love to the language like their characters are making love on the page”. For that second topic, I haven’t yet come up with a concise brief or pitch–Guinevere’s is really good on its own–but I do have the title: Cunning Linguists.
• As for couples with different libidos–okay, here the Reddit reading is getting to me. Straight people, among others, desperately need to be more creative. I don’t mean swinging-from-the-ceiling kink extravaganzas (I don’t not mean that either), but just a realization that intimacy other than “penetration to mutual orgasm” does count as sex! Enter Alternative Options, a spiritual sequel/younger sister to Between the Shores, which will feature couples who enjoy “nontraditional” sex or kink because things like vaginismus, erectile dysfunction, mixed libidos, lowered ability to orgasm as a side effect of medications like antidepressants, fear of pregnancy, the reality of how arousal works for many people, etc. make the “penetration to mutual orgasm” model a poor fit. And/or just because they don’t like that model. I’m not a huge fan myself, and I like it less and less by the day as I (productivate on Reddit’s misery subs) see how being trapped in it makes people miserable for little good reason.
• I’d want the final antho to be inclusive of all genders & sexualities, with each story subverting the Norm (though the Norm itself more or less assumes a cisgender heterosexual couple, it’s not like LGBTQIA+ people aren’t also expected to conform to it–“Which one of you is the man,” etc. By which they mean “Surely the long-haired vegetable never wears the strap-on” [click through for full quote from Mae Martin’s routine]. As a longish-haired vegetable myself, I resent that). So this antho can include a nonbinary person and their male partner where one of them has erectile dysfunction, or an F/F story where one or both partners take an antidepressant that makes orgasm less likely, or vice-versa for either of those pairings & concepts, along with a F/M couple where her arousal nonconcordance means she’s not wet or ready enough for penetration but still wants to enjoy intimacy and pleasure. Stuff that can affect you even if you’re not aiming for PIV (or penetration at all).
• Speaking of subverting norms, I remember Alex Freeman and I once brainstormed an NSP anthology of Billionaire Erotica for the Rest of Us–basically anything but maledom billionaire/femsub ingenue pairings. Has the time for that passed? Or might it come again?
• Anyway, by this point I’m just spitballing with no intended follow-up, but speaking more of breaking rules: a collection of 35 short stories (not necessarily erotica) that each depict a heroine breaking one of The Rules (or a rule from its many sequels) would be on my to-read list SO FAST. Not all of the stories would be happy–some of The Rules actually are good advice, like “Don’t expect a man to change” or “Don’t date a married man” or “Love only those who love you”. But they’d all be absolutely fascinating. And I really want to be a fly on the wall when someone breaks Rule 31, “Don’t discuss The Rules with your therapist.
• (That rule is such a red flag that a red flag parade just broke social distancing orders to march down my street.)
• On the one hand, I’m not 100% sure how one would break rule #1 and be “A creature like any other,” but apparently a “Creature Unlike Any Other” is “always stylish, smiling, fit and feminine” which…doesn’t exactly break any molds. Maybe a story about a frumpy, grumpy, but goodhearted tomboy who makes friends with other women who share her interests? “We ARE like other girls, and that’s okay”?

Wow, when I write it all out like that it is quite a list. What do you think? Would you want to read one of these anthologies, or write for one, or edit one?

For updates on any of these projects–which might not come for a while, since editing Erato is still my first priority, plus my day-job copyediting–you can sign up for the New Smut Project newsletter, if they turn out to be NSP projects. OR for any anthos I edit in the future, wherever they come out from, you can subscribe to my newsletter specifically for updates on “Anthologies Edited by T.C. Mill”. Neither are going to bombard your inbox frequently, but you might get some good news in times to come.

Conversely, do you want to edit or claim some of these ideas? I’d appreciate it if you dropped a line letting me know! And maybe you’d be interested in having a slush reader and copyeditor on your team? tc dot mill at yahoo dot com — I’d love to hear from you!

(Though, not to be greedy, but I’m a bit territorial over Erato II for obvious reasons, as well as Alternative Options, Cunning Linguists [Guinevere should have first dibs on editing those concepts] and Best Pegging Erotica. Not that I don’t want to read someone else’s take on an anthology that overlaps with the ideas–Erato was created partially because I loved flash anthologies like Five-Minute Erotica, and I want to edit a pegging erotica antho in part because I have trouble finding as much pegging erotica as I want. But I’m also going to be doing those myself, almost certainly, in the next few years. Knock on wood, bow to the alter of the Muse, etc.)