Got a Minute? - book discontinued by Cleis Press Inc. - review by Emma (Girl With Fire)

Because this is an anthology as opposed to a novel there are many contributing authors for this book (45 to be exact). Their backgrounds and lifestyles are all over the map, but hopefully I can give you the highlights on a few of them.

Shanna Germain (Squeaky Clean, Muff Diver, How To Spank Me)- "With a whole lot of writing years under her belt (or her collar, depending on the day), Shanna’s poems, essays, short stories, novellas, articles and more have found homes in hundreds of magazines, newspapers, books and websites. She’s even garnered an award here and there, including a Pushcart nomination, the Rauxa Prize for Erotic Poetry and the C. Hamilton Bailey Poetry Fellowship. She keeps her ego in a tiny glass jar and feeds it drops of sea water and baby crickets so that it will never outgrow its cage." Exerpt from Shanna's Blog Bio

Cate Robertson (A True Story, Come From Behind, On Your Back)- "After years of self-pleasuring with her own smut, Cate Robertson is edging her way out of the closet as a writer of literary erotica. To conceal her identity as a teacher and writer of educational materials, including a successful series of children's books, she will not engage in full frontal exposure. Yet. Cate lives in Canada with an accomplished handyman." - Bio Exerpt from ScarletLetters.com

Alison Tyler (What She Hath Deserved, A No-Win Situation, The Last Good-bye) - "Called a trollop with a laptop by East Bay Express, Alison Tyler is naughty and she knows it. Over the past 20 years, Ms. Tyler has written more than 25 explicit novels, including Learning to Love It, Strictly Confidential, Sweet Thing, Sticky Fingers, and Something About Workmen (all published by Black Lace), as well as Rumors, Tiffany Twisted, and Melt With You (Cheek). Her novels and short stories have been translated into Japanese, Dutch, German, Italian, Norwegian, and Spanish." Bio Experpt from SonyEbookstore

Other authors and their work in this book are...

Steven D. Rogers - Flashers, A River With Two Mouths
Helena Black - Pink
Saskia Walker - A Quick Dip, Hungry For Love
Marie Potocyzn - The Other Side of Sleep, The Covers of Books
Xan West - The Test, Alley Obsession
Nick Santa Rosa - His First
Rachel Kramer Bussel - Hired Hunk, The Perfect Season
Teresa Noelle Roberts - French Postcards, Fondue Night, The Best Cure For Jet Lag
Clare Moore - The Rider
Aimee Nichols - Wake Up Call, The Window
Michael Hemmingson - The Vague Language of Sex, Bart and Randi
Jeremy Edwards - Every Night
Rakelle Valencia - Truck Stop Quickie
Jocelyn Bringas - Case of the Hornys, Pleasing
Laura Marks - Swim
L.A Mistral - The Interior Virgin
Brooke Stern - When My Boyfriend Is Away
Tenille Brown - As She Was Told
J. Sinclaire - Water Love
Sasha White - Flying
Debra Hyde - Marks, Reviewed
Jolie Du Pré - Tasting Kate
Tsaurah Litzky - Run In
Jordan Casillo Price - Gloria
Sharon Wachsler - Perfect
Gwen Masters - The Writers Muse
Jolene Hui - Study Break
Andrea Dale - From Bitter To Sweet
Joel A. Nichols - Saturday Afternoon Steam
Bonfils - The Magazine
Justus Roux - Watch And Wait
Jan Cross - Transformations
Kate Laurie - Holly`s Fantasy
Lynn Burton - Short-lived Lace
Sylvia Day - Salacious Robinson
Inga Mahn - Backroom Sally
Katherine O`Halloran - She Lives Alone
Kate Vassar - Research
Bonnie Dee - Nails
Thea Hutcheson - Fencing With Discipline
N.T Morley - What Kind Of Slut Are You Anyways?

Got a Minute - 60 Second Erotica contains 60 short stories about quickies. These stories may only take a minute to read but luckily for the participants (yes I know they are fictional, but I still care) most of the quickies contained in them would take more than a minute to play out.

Here are a few exerpts from the book....

The Other Side of Sleep - " He kisses me high on my shoulder blades - my "wings" he calls them, which I love - and then brushes hair away to find my neck and ears. From the bottom of the house the coffee pot clicks on and begins to brew."

Hired Hunk - "Dana instinctively handed me our bottle of lube. Tom nodded a silent thanks, then let me squeeze some of the cold, clear liquid onto his palm. My gaze flicked from his cock to his face as Dana began fingering me, adding more and more, until I felt stuffed full."

Study Break - "I could feel her giving in, her back relaxing into the chair. Her skin tasted of peaches and cream, the lotion she used every morning. The tinge of sweat glazing her skin made my pussy damp."

The writing styles vary from author to author, just as you would expect them to. This means there is a lot of variety in both content and tone. Whether you enjoy script style writing, or a more formal style, badasses, bookworms or bohemians, you shouldn't have any difficulty finding SOMETHING in this book you approve of.

The cover of the book is attractive; not incredibly discreet, but not entirely graphic either. It features a topless couple (m/f) kissing, they are seen through a door which has been left ajar, part of the door, frame, and wall take up about 50% of the cover space. The womans breasts are artfully covered by strategic placement of her lovers arm, and the title bisects their waists. To make a long story short, it is pretty vanilla; if you read it in public people will know that at the VERY least you are reading erotic romance, but probably will not assume that it is graphic erotica.

The book is an average sized paperback, (8"x5.5" 240pg). The cover, front and back, is well organized and attractive. The pages are nothing fancy, made of the same grade paper you will find in about 85% of books these days and the binding seems strong. If you keep it out of the bath water, and don't sit your coffee mug on it, this book should last you a while (at least long enough to get through it several times over). It comes complete with a forward, introduction and an "about the editors" section.

After learning just how much work goes into editing and organizing anthologies, I decided to veer from my norm and read this anthology in order, from cover to cover. I found that although I didn't enjoy EVERY story (and didn't expect to), I did enjoy how well the stories flowed from one to the other. I had no trouble transitioning from one to the next, and at no point felt that the book had veered off in some direction that I hadn't expected, even though the tone and subject matter of the short stories varied greatly.

I would say that I probably enjoyed about 70 - 75% or the short stories in Got a Minute, though I do have a few favorites. If I had to choose three I would absolutely recommend reading they would be The Rider, Truck Stop Quicky, and What She Hath Deserved.