Reading Diary: 2 New Self-Pub Erotic Shorts I Tried This Week

 I keep my reader's diary to share my recent reads, new discoveries, and favorite books. I don't accept requests to review books, or reader copies, from authors. Nothing here is a solicited review.

Last week I stumbled upon the amusing story of erotic adventures with video game building blocks, and being the curious kitty that I am, I went ahead and 1-clicked this beauty:

I've gone in for this type of absurdist erotic humor before, as I've mentioned, when I tried out Taken by the T-Rex. I always hope these stories will be sexy as well as funny, since they're obviously meant to be parody. Even erotic parody, though, ought to have a solid sexual content warning and have done the footwork to deserve it. For that matter, humor still needs to be well-written, to really earn its stripes. T-Rex, alas, was not. And that was disappointing.

Tetris Blocks, on the other hand, was actually a good, fun read. It is a very short story, but it doesn't take a lot of development to get its point across.

And the best thing about it, I think, is that it's very aware of itself as a parody. As a satirist, Delaney knows what he's doing. Because let's face it, a large number of self-published books are terribly written and have no style. Delaney takes a jab at this right off the back when the very first lines of the story are, "Christie looked in the mirror and adjusted her glasses. She noted that her hair was red and her eyes were grey."  I almost closed the book right then, seeing as this blatantly bad threat to the 4th Wall and the art of showing is, in fact, such a constant problem in amateur stories I wasn't immediately sure it was done as parody. The rest of the story, however, employs satire just as smoothly, leaving me with a feeling that I was actually reading something quite smart. There's also a pleasant amount of inside joke and social commentary for those who play video games.

 I think the immediate question is, how are we to expect a character to have sex with Tetris blocks? I'm not going to get into the literal logistics but Delaney's description worked just fine for me. The sex, while somewhat absurd, is nicely done. It's fun, too; I like the main character quite a bit, and the blocks themselves are fully-fledged, speaking characters. The world is, dare I say, charming.

So if you're curious about these sexual parodies, this is a good one to start with. I really enjoyed it and it was quite colorful. I may even pick up the other shorts in Delaney's series, too. 

I also picked up another short erotic read on impulse this week: Ginny's Lesson, by Anna Bayes.  This is a short F/F BDSM, and with a cover like that I couldn't resist. 1-Click, done.

No regrets. This story, while short, was lovely, sexy, sweet, and hot. For a tale of only 20 pages it's polished and well-paced. The characters are darling, their relationship endearing. And--as should be the case with any story of this nature--it definitely hits a hot spot and sent me to bed with very sweet dreams.

It's so nice to have a read like this on hand before bed. Ginny's Lesson is, in my mind, exactly what an erotic short story should be.  An easy read with a rich story, pleasantly in-depth without being overly detailed or slowed down by extra, unnecessary fluff. It's a testament to the author; a good way to get a glimpse at Bayes' writing style and imagination before moving on to her longer works. She's on my TBR list for sure now, and I'll be keeping Ginny's Lesson it in my immediate library to go back to.