Eat Me

I asked the writers in this collection to share their recipes of seduction: Vida Bailey: There are some foods that bypass my taste buds and seem to affect a deeper place in me-Indian food, coriander, pumpkin pie. Food is something we share an enjoyment of on the same level as we share an enjoyment of sex. We worry about its preparation. We serve it up with pride, as an offer of love, of thanks, of seduction. To have someone cook for you is to be given a gift of being looked after, and the gift of their vulnerability and hope at the same time. Jax Baynard: Food and sex are both life-sustaining. We are a little confused in this society. We think it's about money and possessions. But if the money and the possessions are all you have, you aren't doing that well. I've had a few run-ins with the money. It's not always a pretty picture, though of course it is always seductive. Shanna Germain: This story got its start the year I worked at a farmers' market. I rode my bike there early every week to set the place up-it was just me, the farmers and all of the berries, cherries, melons and tomatoes. Between the sweat and the dew, we all glistened in those pre-dawn hours, and it always felt like a magic, sensual place of hands and bodies and food and hunger. In this story, I wanted to capture the inherent sensuality of that time and experience, to explore the what-might-have-beens. Sommer Marsden: My mother told me to never play with my food. I've never been a very good listener. Thank goodness because some lovely locally grown carrots gave me very dirty ideas for my very dirty story. N.T. Morley: Partially because it's what sells and partially because it is my own favorite dynamic, I write about male dominants and female submissives a lot, with female-female domination scenes thrown in. This never gets tiresome to me because I love it, but I occasionally need to keep my chops up and write about submissive men and dominant women. "Early Girl and the Cherokee Purple" is also a variation for me in that it inhabits much more of a realistic world than most of my novels, so it was fun to write for that reason. I hope readers enjoy it. Merry Stanshall: Oh, it is a true story. But don't tell my husband (discreet titters). He might not think it's as amusing as I do. Sophia Valenti: When I was in college, a tall lithe blonde girl who I barely knew invited me to a party at her place. It wasn't an elegant affair, or even a housewarming party as in my story here. It was more of a ragtag all-night rave in a Lower East Side squat-albeit a decently furnished one with utilities. When I asked what I could bring, she did indeed request honey, so that was my inspiration for "Home Sweet Home." What actually happened that night? Well, I'll leave that up to your imagination. Aisling Weaver: I originally wrote "Steak" in response to a hashtag challenge on Twitter. The point being to write a piece based on the word given. The other challenge was to make it a flash piece, to deliver something hot and short in a short span. It's taken some practice to get to that point, but I'm getting better! Food and sex have always gone together in my mind. Eating should be a sensual experience, and as such flows easily into sharing pleasures of a different sort with a lover. Read these stories with a mate, over a gourmet meal, at a fast food joint, with a Mai Tai in hand, at your favorite bistro, sipping a shot in the dark, dipping a fry in Heinz 57, in your own foodie way. What I'm trying to say is that there is no correct recipe for pleasure. That's the way I cook, anyway. A pinch of this. A dab of that. I make up the recipe as I go along. Now, will somebody pass the salt? My margarita's all naked. Salut! XXX, Alison Tyler