Today is my day of the virtual book tour for Rachel Kramer Bussel’s Please, Sir. One thing you should know about me is I’m not a big erotica lover.  I find most of it to be bland and the same story written over and over with different characters.  However, Rachel Kramer Bussel’s anthology isn’t typical erotica.  The first thing I noticed is that Rachel, as an editor, did an excellent job.  I like 85% of the stories in the book, which for being an anthology trying to appeal to a wide range of audiences, is an amazing percentage.

Please, Sir is made up of 22 stories from different authors.  Since I’m not usually an erotica reader, I wasn’t familiar with anyone who wrote a story other than Rachel Kramer Bussel herself.  The stories range from a little over one page to around ten pages, so you can either sit down and relax with the book at home or read a story in the taxi on your way to work.  Either way there will be something that will fit your tastes and time frame.  I usually found myself reading 2-3 stories and going back to doing whatever it was I should have been doing instead.  It only took around 15 minutes of my time and really provided me with a mental break.

For you to really get a feel of the book, I’ll post some parts of the introduction written by Rachel Kramer Bussel:

If you ask me, submission is an art form. It requires dedication, focus, commitment and desireæand there’s no single way of doing it. It’s about unlocking something within yourself so you can reach beyond your normal limits, exposing your body and soul in order to go somewhere you cannot get to alone.

I had a lover who always told me that the key to life is “High risk, high reward.” The same is true about kink, and this is evident throughout the stories in Please, Sir, which explores female submission and male dominance from the sub’s point of view. When these characters take risks, they are rewarded…even when those rewards look like “punishment.” They are rewarded in all kinds of ways, from being bound to being praised to being choked, spanked or put on display. They are rewarded by being tested again and again.

Rachel goes on to speak of the authors of these stories and how they all have a different and unique view of erotica and submission:

The women in these stories approach submission in different ways. Some, like Tess Danesi’s protagonist in “I Breathe Your Name,” live on the edge of fear and get off on pushing the limits with their masters, though they don’t always know where their boldness will take them. Some of these women are drawn to the charisma of a born leader, one like Krav Maga instructor, Dominic, in Emerald’s “Power over Power.” Jackie, his student, has been watching and fantasizing about him, but when he finally acknowledges her sexually, she is caught off guard:

I trembled, wanting to touch him but feeling frozen. Still looking at the ground, I nodded.

With characteristic efficiency of motion, he reached with one finger and pulled my chin up. A shudder ran through me as I felt his poweræthe power I saw in every move he made, that he exuded at the front of the class, that he spoke when he told us what we were capable of, that coiled and expelled from him whenever he slammed any part of his body into the punching bag. This was the power that lived unquestioned within him, so seamlessly that it was as though it wouldn’t exist without him.

Others don’t expect to be getting kinky at all, like the “Mommy’s Boy” in Doug Harrison’s story, where tables get turned in a most delightful way. In Lisabet Sarai’s “Stroke,” a woman risks getting kinky at work in order to realize her dream:

I just stood there, petrified by mingled fear and excitement. If anyone discovered us, I’d lose my job. I’d never work as a nurse again. Five years of education down the drain. But this might be my only chance. The chance to make my fantasies real.

The lesson there, and in all of these stories, is that there is risk involved in submission. I don’t mean the physical risks, but the emotional ones, the ones that require a leap of faith, a knowledge that what you are doing may unnerve you, confuse you and scare you, even while it makes you wet and eager and ready for more.

If you haven’t picked up a copy I highly encourage you to as it’s a great book!