I recently had the opportunity to contribute to Licked, a wonderful pansexual anthology of short stories about oral sex edited by Jillian Boyd. One of the other writers to contribute to the anthology is Suanne Schafer, who wrote a moving piece about a lesbian couple dealing with breast cancer (excerpt above).
Suanne was born in West Texas in the midst of the Cold War. She remembers with some fondness that grade school drills for tornados and nuclear disasters were the same: crawl under your desk and kiss your rear-end goodbye. She is now a retired family practice physician and in October 2014 she completed the Stanford University Creative Writing Certificate Program. Oddly, her Stanford certificate is framed and hanging on the wall. Her medical school diploma is still sitting in the closet. She is currently fiction editor of Empty Sink Publishing, a literary magazine.
Enjoy this short Q&A with her!
What’s your story about?
In “Feeding Her,” two women must come to terms with one partner’s breast cancer.
What made you want to write a story for Licked?
I actually thought my story was too “serious” for erotica, but Rachel Kramer Bussel (Passion: Erotic Romance for Women, Best Bondage Erotica, Hide and Seek: Erotic Stories) encouraged me to submit it.
What was the inspiration behind your story?
A line from Allegra Goodman’s The Cookbook Collector in which her male protagonist, George, wants to feed Jess, his much younger love interest.
When did you first become aware of oral sex being a thing people did?
As a teenager eons ago.
Do you think oral sex, in all its forms, gets fair coverage in the media? Or do you feel it’s still something that people need to reconsider their attitudes about?
Oral sex tends to get bad press and be associated with some sense of “deviance.” Oral sex should be viewed as part of the repertoire lovers use to satisfy each other, no different than missionary sex.
Do you like incorporating variations of the act into your stories? Or was it something you wanted to try specifically for this anthology?
I have incorporated variations on most sexual positions in my work; this was my first attempt at writing lesbian erotica.
How can readers stay in touch with you?
- Website: suanneschaferauthor.com/
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/suannschafer
- Twitter: @SuanneSchafer