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Thursday, April 16, 2015

Why I picked it: "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis in Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica

This is the first in an occasional new blog post series called Why I Picked It, where I'll share why I picked a particular story for one of my 50+ anthologies (yes, my site's books page needs updating - I'm on it!). I'm starting with "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis, the closing story in my new anthology Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, out now in print and ebook.

comeagaincover
Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica


pinkvibrator

This was the closest approximation I could find online to the pink vibrator telling the story, though I imagine the narrator vibe is a bit of a lighter shade of pink

Ellis was a new (to me) author, and this story, out of the many submissions I received, stood out because, well, it was from the point of view of a vibrator! How could I not be intrigued? Here's the opening paragraphs:
From "My Life as a Vibrator" by Livia Ellis

I come into existence on a Thursday in a factory in the Guangdong province. My first sensation is of touch. The firm yet well-seasoned hands of my maker, Hui Zhong, have smoothed and stroked my pearlescent pink silicone shell. Although I will never know, I can guess from the brief time we spend together that she is a woman who takes immense care with everything she turns her attention to. I particularly like the brilliant red of the scarf that covers her steel-wool hair. The intense scrutiny of her glaucoma-wrecked eyes misses nothing. I know truly for the first time what it is to live when she slips the pair of C batteries into my innards and gives my bottom a trial.

I whirl, I jiggle, I shimmy, I shake. I do what Hui Zhong built me to do—I vibrate. For the first time, by doing what I was built to do, I make someone smile. I please her and I please her well.
I loved how this unique viewpoint added such a humorous and interesting voice to the story and the book as a whole. It made me think about sex toys in a new way and allowed the author to approach telling her story from a different angle than you'd get it if was told by any of the human characters, who wouldn't be present for the toy's entire journey.

Plus it featured two women having sex with each other, which I wanted more of in the book (there are many heterosexual stories, as well as a few bisexual ones, one transgender man and one gay male erotica story, if I recall correctly).

It also is in first person present tense, which most of the stories in Come Again are not, though "Vegetable Love" by Susan St. Aubin, "Prickles" by Elizabeth Coldwell and "Gift" by Dena Hankins are. Here, I think it works so perfectly, because we get to follow the vibrator from China to the toy's eventual home (I almost wrote "her eventual home," which shows how closely an object as narrator can affect a reader).

You can read all of "My Life as a Vibrator" and the 23 other stories in Come Again: Sex Toy Erotica, available from:

Amazon

Kindle ebook

Amazon UK

Kindle UK

Barnes & Noble (Bn.com)

Nook ebook

iBooks

Kobo

Books-a-Million

IndieBound (find it at your local independent bookstore)

Cleis Press

The only brick and mortar store I know currently has it in stock, and signed copies at that, is Red Emma's in Baltimore. It's on its way to Charis Circle in Atlanta and Early to Bed in Chicago. Want to see it on your local bookstore and/or sex toy store's shelves? Ask for it! I will blog, Tweet, Tumble, Facebook and generally promote any store carrying the book that I know about. If you see the book at a local store or I missed any places you can buy it, email me at rachel at comeagainbook.com and I will update this post and the book's website!

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1 Comments:

At April 16, 2015, Anonymous Elizabeth SaFleur said...

Okay, now I have to read this. How clever.

 

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