Book Reviews by Ashley Lister

• Surrender by Vonna Harper
• Dying for It: Stories of Sex and Death Edited by Mitzi Szereto

I went to the circus last week. Not a traditional circus with scary clowns and incontinent elephants. This was described as: a stunning circus musical experience.

And it was.

High-wire acts, acrobats, trampolines, laser displays. Every other performance happened high in the air without the benefit of safety nets or harnesses. The girls wore costumes so skimpy I thought they were camel-toe-tastic. The guys wore tight Lycra and showed more while fully dressed and on stage than I display in the shower. (My wife commented that the guys weren’t sporting the "sizeable equipment" she had expected. I explained that they were all sporting very sizeable equipment, she was simply used to something larger than they were able to provide).

A trio of jugglers came on stage and left me dizzy with their antics. Batons, balls, hoops and a variety of other objects hurled through the air with lightning speed in a display that was sensational. My hands hurt from clapping and my eyes hurt from trying to follow who was throwing what to who and wondering how the hell they’d managed to catch it.

And, all the time I was watching the jugglers, I kept thinking: they’re good – but they’re not as good as Vonna Harper.

For those of you who don’t know, Vonna Harper is author of more than fifty published books. She has been lauded for writing fiction that is fabulous, orgasmic and emotionally satisfying. But, above all else, she is a literary juggler and her performance with Surrender had me on the edge of my seat.

Surrender, Vonna’s first title from the Aphrodisia imprint of Kensington Books, is two related stories linked together in one volume. The narrative begins when we meet the story’s heroine—Asia.

Asia has just been fired from her job and we meet her as she is trying to come to terms with a life bereft of her beloved work. Asia tries to take solace with one of her solitary fantasies and the reader discovers that beneath the sexy surface of this story’s siren, there are many finely crafted and credible layers. Asia is later snatched from our recognisable world and transported to a fantasy island of domination and submission. But instead of simply writing to titillate, Vonna continues to explore Asia’s drives, desires and motives.

And this is where Vonna’s juggling really comes into play.

Balancing the fantasy element of the story; maintaining the eroticism; writing about each character so the reader cares about their fates; and keeping the pace sufficiently tight so it’s impossible to put the book down without reading one more page: Vonna Harper deftly juggles every element of this well told story to present a complete and dazzling show.

Surrender continues with the story of how Ferren fares on Surrender Island but, rather than spoil the dynamics of how these two stories are interwoven, it’s enough to say that Vonna provides a satisfying read for those who like their BDSM intelligent, inventive and hot.

You can learn more about Vonna at www.vonnaharper.com.

There isn’t much I can say about Mitzi Szereto that hasn’t already been said by either the more important UK newspapers or the BBC. She writes the finest literary erotica and currently compiles anthologies that are groundbreaking in their content. She also hosts workshops on writing erotica that have received international acclaim.

These facts are already known.

However, it isn’t so widely known that she is an avid consumer of potato chips. I have only known a few women who can put away as many bags of crisps as Mitzi, and none of the others can boast the painfully thin figure that she possesses or the same porcelain complexion. Usually crisp consumers are fat bloaters with skin like greasy sandpaper. Mitzi however, remains elegantly slender and has a skin so soft it would make any supermodel jealous.

And, while I could forge a tenuous link between the killer capacity of salted fat-filled potato chips and the sex and death theme of her latest anthology, I think it is more poetic to linger with the image of Mitzi feasting on another family-sized bag of Walker’s Salt & Vinegar as I talk about Dying For It.

Dying For It is a sensational collection. Admittedly I’m slightly biased because it does contain a story by my all-time favourite author (Ashley Lister). But I’d have to say the same thing if this anthology didn’t include one of my stories.

As with all of Mitzi’s anthologies, she’s scoured the globe for writers who can provide the combination of quality and style that make for her typically eclectic and devastating blend. Contributors are based in such far-flung places as England, California, Germany, Greece, Miami, Nairobi, Canada and Blackpool. Her hard work and effort have paid off with this very impressive tome.

Sex and death aren’t naturally linked in everyone’s thoughts yet Mitzi’s introduction shows how these two events are regularly tied together through literature, opera and contemporary film. She then goes on to present a volume that shows how some very impressive storytellers combine these two powerful themes.

With contributions from critically acclaimed authors like Niall Griffiths, Vicki Hendricks and Kelley Armstrong (as well as Tobsha Learner, Clare Colvin and Lauren Henderson) the book is replete with tales that break the mould of the conventional erotic story.

All too often authors of erotic fiction censoriously avoid the taboo of the grave. But in this collection the veracity of the connection between sex and death is presented in ways that can be shocking, moving, humorous or simply sexually exciting.

Lisabet Sarai’s "Stiff" is a delightful tale of a widow and an undertaker’s assistant that is replete with tongue-in-cheek humour. Teresa Lamai’s "Reflex Doll" contains a cunning blend of cleverly crafted characters and compelling construction. Marcelle Perks and Kevin Mullins have worked together on their story "Underneath" to present a grisly piece that is richly told, compelling and dark. In Mitzi’s own story, "It’s All Right Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)" we find out what happens when a wife helps her husband to end his midlife crisis.

The variety of styles is endless. The different approaches taken by each author show a clever mix of the romantic, the gothic, the humorous and the literary. Admittedly this is not an anthology for the fainthearted. But, for those who want to discover an anthology that is truly cutting-edge, you could not fare better than Dying For It.

Ashley Lister
September 2006

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"Ashley Lister Submits" © 2006 Ashley Lister. All rights reserved.

About the Author:  Ashley Lister is a UK author responsible for more than two-dozen erotic novels written under a variety of pseudonyms. His most recent work, Swingers: True Confessions from Today's Modern Swinging Scene (Virgin Books; ISBN: 0753511355), a non-fiction book recounting the exploits of UK swingers, is his first title published under his own name.
Ashley’s non-fiction has appeared in a variety of magazines, including Forum, Chapter & Verse and The International Journal of Erotica.  Nexus, Chimera and Silver Moon have published his full-length fiction, with shorter stories appearing in anthologies edited by Maxim Jakubowski, Rachel Kramer Bussel and Mitzi Szereto.  He is very proud to be a regular contributor to ERWA.
Email: Ashley Lister
Website: www.ashleylister.co.uk

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