Congratulations to Linday and RJ. Sacchi will be in touch soon to arrange delivery of your new books!

I usually begin my posts about new anthologies with the introduction I write for them, and I’ll do that here, since after all that was my best shot at describing the book in a short space. This year’s introduction, though, is much shorter than most I write, only because I’m allowed a limited total word count, and I wanted to squeeze in a bit more story content. So here goes, and then I’ll ramble a bit after that.

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Introduction

The Best Lesbian Erotica series has been making our pulses pound now for twenty-two years. Some girls who weren’t even born back then are old enough now to read erotica—and to write it. The title has changed, beginning with the 20^th Anniversary Edition—this year’s is The Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 2—but the aim is the same: to present the best lesbian erotic short stories of recent years. “Best,” that is, in the eye (and imagination, and sensual responses) of the beholder. For an anthology it also means not only the best-written work, but the most varied, intriguing, downright hot short stories that can be fit together into one balanced, absorbing book.

The choices are, of course, entirely subjective on the part of the editor, so here are just a few hints as to what pushed my buttons this year. The settings range from a Korean restaurant to the Mojave Desert to a comic book store to a silent-movie theater. There are all ages, from young students to seasoned self-identified dykes to elders whose fires still burn fiercely. You can find love and romance, power exchange, over-the-top sex toys, a superheroine, a Prohibition-era detective, and much more. And, of course, there is sex as varied and vivid as the settings and characters; explicit, often inventive, sometimes transformative, always steamy. Each story is distinctive in its way. Don’t try to swallow too many all at once; take time to savor your favorites. Getting there is half the fun.

So what pushes your buttons? I hope you’ll find it here, and even discover buttons you didn’t know you had. Or zippers. Zippers are hot, too. Variety can be the spice of lust.

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Now for some rambling. I published my very first lesbian erotica story in Best Lesbian Erotica 1999, and in nine more through the years. Every time I write the new version of the title, numbered volumes instead of years, I wince. I understand the publisher’s reasoning, and at least one book store manager has told me she agrees; tagging the books with their years makes them seem dated after that year, like magazines, while in fact all the stories from all the years are well worth reading. But I still wince at seeing the titles these days. Way back in 1999 I had no thought of ever being an editor for the series, but I did eventually edit more than a dozen themed anthologies for that publisher, and the time did come when I was tapped for editing, so far, three volumes of BLE—I’m currently taking submissions for the third—just in time for the change in the title. Others may take over editing future volumes, and in fact DL King edited Volume 2 in 2017 after my 20th Anniversary edition in 2016, which is fine with me. I place a high value on variety. Plus when someone else edits the book, I can submit stories of my own, which I’d never do as editor myself.

When I sent out that first lesbian erotica story its acceptance amazed me, which makes me extra-happy these days when I receive submissions from other new writers so good I decide to use them. I’m also exceedingly happy to get submissions from writers I’ve known and admired for years. I’ll close (almost) with the new book’s list of Contents. Maybe you’ll recognize many of the writers, and maybe, if you read the book, you’ll find new ones you like just as well or better. Maybe you’ll even think of writing and submitting yourself. My Call for Submissions is all over the place, including on my blog, www.sacchi-green.blogspot.com, and on Facebook, www.facebook.com/sacchi.green . In both cases you may have to scroll down a bit.

Here’s the lineup for Volume 2:

• Six Dates     AD Song
• Arm’s Length     Theda Hudson
• Mojave     Dena Hankins
• Super     Heather Day
• Silent Passion     Rose de Fer
• Bicycling Puts the Fun Between Your Legs     Janelle Reston
• The Diary     Emily L. Byrne
• Relics     Sarah Fonseca
• Fine Lines     M. Birds
• The Sale of Two Titties     Nanisi Barrett D’Arnuk
• Shaved     Pascal Scott
• Strawberry Surprise     Anna Watson
• Cinema Fantastique     Victoria Janssen
• Origins     Amanda Rodriquez
• The Lady Inventors’ Club of Kink     Andrea Dale
• Prove It on Me     Cara Patterson
• Eat at Home     Louise Blaydon
• The Truth about Tara     Annabeth Leong

Now I’ll really close with an offer of a free copy of Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 2 in paperback, the winner to be randomly chosen from commenters on this post, AND a free paperback copy of my Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year 20^th Anniversary Edition, winner to be similarly chosen. Shipping only to the USA, Canada, or the UK.

Buying link (the new book is out in Kindle now, and comes out in paperback on December 12.)

https://www.amazon.com/Best-Lesbian-Erotica-Year-2-ebook/dp/B071R25KDX/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1511310112&sr=1-7

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Sacchi Green (sacchi-green.blogspot.com, http://www.facebook.com/sacchi.green) is a Lambda Award–winning writer and editor of erotica and other stimulating genres. Her stories have appeared in scores of publications, including nine volumes of Best Lesbian Erotica, four of Best Women’s Erotica, and four of Best Lesbian Romance. In recent years she’s taken to wielding the editorial whip, editing fourteen lesbian erotica anthologies, most recently Wild Girls, Wild Nights, Me and My Boi, Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year 20^th Anniversary Edition, Witches, Princesses and Women at Arms, and Best Lesbian Erotica of the Year Volume 2, most of them from Cleis Press. Sacchi lives in the Five College area of western Massachusetts and makes occasional forays into the real world, usually for readings in places like NYC. She also posts on alternate Mondays on Oh Get a Grip, a group website for ten erotica writers with plenty to say.  http://ohgetagrip.blogspot.com