Time for something edgy. Shanna Germain is one of the best writers in the business (I'm proud to say that she's written for quite a few of my anthologies, and we've been in many together. I' always in awe of her writing.) Here's what she said about "Beneath My Skin".
"Beneath My Skin" is one of those stories that is totally dangerous for me. It's taking erotica and consent and power-play and pushing it just a little farther, a little harder. Knife play is one of those slippery slopes for many people, and especially for publishers.
I've written about knife play before, a number of times, but always with the knife as the fetishized object. But this is the one of the few stories I've written where someone's skin is actually opened with a blade, where the sexual arousal comes from the power exchange that occurs when someone doesn't just hold an open blade in their hand, but actually uses it.
This story got rejected twice -- in both cases, the editors said they loved the story, but were looking for something lighter -- before it found its forever home in Women in Lust. But I knew it was saying something important, and I didn't want to lighten it or change it. To me, it's about that moment when our fears and desires are at war, that moment when we make a choice, where we gain control because we let go.
