Coming Together Presents: M. Christian

Introduction

During my last decade as a reader, reviewer, and editor, I've probably read at least five hundred erotic stories. Out of that vast number, a mere dozen or two have stayed with me -- stories whose originality, emotional intensity and consummate craft kept them fresh and memorable long after the other tales had faded from my mind.

Quite a few of these outstanding tales were authored by M. Christian.

He knows how to write stories that haunt you, stories that make you laugh and make you yearn, stories that create new worlds populated with exotic and surprising creatures. Stories that you remember. Whether he is penning cyber-punk or satire, gay romance or lesbian smut, his vivid characters hang around after the covers are closed and the lights are out.

I was delighted when Chris agreed to assemble a collection of his stories for the Coming Together Presents series. As I worked on this book, I was reminded yet again what a creative and versatile writer he is. Coming Together Presents: M. Christian ranges from the leather bars of San Francisco to the deserts of Mars. The characters include rock-and-rollers, dykes with attitude, horny office workers, tortured artists, inter-galactic lawyers, even Mona Lisa. The atmosphere is tough and gritty in one tale, lyrical in the next, and teasingly tongue-in-cheek in a third.

One of the things I like best about M. Christian's erotica is his expansive view of sexuality. His characters are not prisoners of their labels. They grow and change in the course of the story, and that change might involve crossing the artificial lines between straight and gay, femme and butch, dominant and submissive. Although he's straight, Chris writes remarkably convincing gay and lesbian erotica. I suspect that, like me, he believes that sexual orientation is a continuum and that most individuals, regardless of their genitalia, have both male and female components in their sexual make-up.

The other aspect of his fiction that always impresses me is his emphasis on the experience of desire in contrast to the activity of sex. Don't misunderstand me--this book offers lots of steamy, satisfying sexual encounters. However, it is not primarily a book about people fucking. Rather, M. Christian's stories tend to be about what people want--or think they want. A recurring theme is the character who discovers unexpected desires focused on unusual objects.

If you are reading this at all, you are probably eager to get into the stories themselves. I won't delay you much longer. I do want to say a word about the charity M. Christian selected to receive the proceeds from this volume: Planned Parenthood. For close to a century, Planned Parenthood has offered a commonsense approach to women's health and well-being, based on respect for each individual's right to make informed, independent decisions about health, sex, and family planning. PPFA is a health care provider, a source of in-depth, factual information and an advocate for women's reproductive rights.

PPFA is controversial because of its defense of abortion rights. As M. Christian wrote on my blog last December:

"Yes, Planned Parenthood has become a kind of pariah, a pretend-it-doesn't exist organization, but this is why it needs as much financial and emotional support as it can get: they are fighting for everyone to have access to sexual information and reproductive health but also for women to be in control of their own bodies.

"But more importantly they are the resource for those who need them most, those who must face the truth of who they are, and if they truly can either have, or give someone else, a worthwhile life."

I wholeheartedly agree, and I'm honored to be able to make my own small contribution to the organization by presenting the work of M. Christian.

~ Lisabet Sarai, editor