Proud Editor Moment – the Good Sex Awards

I texted my sister last night, “Just had a panel of like 25 sexperts agree with my editorial decisions twice. (Two stories from Erato are Good Sex Award finalists.) Feels great!”

And it does.

I’m actually not sure of the number of sexperts involved–the Good Sex Awards has an awe-inspiring list of judges, some of whom I have giddy “Omg did they read and like the story?” feelings for, some of whom I hadn’t known of before. I don’t know if they all read for every category, but I get the impression they each had a lot of reading, because my circle was buzzing with authors excited to submit their stories to the Award.

Full disclosure: I submitted two pieces myself, previously published in anthologies and magazines outside of NSP, neither of which were finalists. But that’s okay. The competition was steep and high-quality!

Enough about me. After all, I can’t take a lot of credit–just enough to feel proud that two stories I (and my co-editors–I can’t take all the credit even for this part!) read and was like “Wow, this is great, I want to publish it and share it with other readers” also produced that “Wow, this is great!” feeling in some other readers.

Frankly, I’m probably just lucky these two authors decided to submit their stories to Erato before some other lucky editor snapped them up.

But putting together Erato had its rough moments, with a staggering personal loss right in the middle of the project that sometimes had me wondering if we’d make it through. Part of what kept me going was the quality and significance of the stories we had to publish. So this moment feels…vindicating? Hopeful? It’s the part of the biofilm where they can stop rolling and freeze on my smiling bright-eyed face cuz we’re on the right high note.

Anyway–

Big congratulations to Jem Zero and D. Fostalove, whose stories “A Study in Circuits and Charcoal” and “Touch” from Erato are finalists for the Good Sex Awards!

“A Study in Circuits and Charcoal” is a finalist for Best Feminist Sex. You can read it here and read Jem Zero’s interview about zir story here on our blog

“Touch” is a finalist for Best Sexy Talk. You can read it here and read D. Fostalove’s interview about his story here on our blog.

Finalist stories are candidates for the Good Sex Award’s Readers’ Choice Award. Voting runs until June 20. You–yes, you, dear reader–can check out all the sexiest stories on The Good Bits website and fill out your ballot here!