Polly Frost

This is a series of sophisticated but hilarious sketches by Polly Frost about popular and Net culture. It’s light and fun reading, poking fun at writers, Facebook, theatre, commercialism, dieting, celebritydom, software to write novels. These are obvious targets of satire, yes, and the humor is so topical and trendy that I wonder if it could have been written 6 months from now. Most take place under a Manhattan backdrop, with a love/hate relationship towards technology, publishing and the bohemian lifestyle. Among my favorite stories were “Final Paper You Want From Me” (a college girl dreams up new and crazy social networking sites), Reblock Yourself the Polly Frost Way (seminars to teach people to resist the impulse to write) and My Dog Breeds (an illustrated guide to dog breeds for today — such as the iDog). Frost and her husband Ray Sawhill are the writers behind Sex Scenes, sexy audio stories about Hollywood.

PS, I read a lot of these pieces on the bus while standing up!… (más)

This was a tongue in cheek look at those situations in life that are best looked at through the eyes of a clown, unless of course they are the scray creepy variety and then let's just switch it back to an image of a fun house mirror. From diets to dreams, love and self diagnosis, there's at least one topic if not more that will have you chuckling, grinning, perhaps even guffawing for a few moments out of your day...and who couldn't use more smiles? There's even a one that addresses people like us...those afflicted with one or more wide spread "conditions"...perhaps you've heard of them? Blogaholism? Twitteritis? Status Update Disorder? (LOL.)

Recommended read for older teens through adults...there's a mention or two not quite for the younger set (not to mention an image or two created that are harder to erase than others...*shudders*). Certainly a good book to grab when you're looking for a break in your otherwise serious day...… (más)

Just in case a blurb at the front of the book from Ron Jeremy saying “If I directed some of these fantasies, I’d either be the world’s greatest adult-film director… or I’d be in jail.” isn’t enough to get you to check out this book of ten supernatural erotica stories let’s move on to a proper review.

It’s amusing that Frost starts this collection out with a virgin sacrifice/Catholic school girl combo, “The Threshold”. Frost doesn’t just pop main character Cameron’s cherry, she takes the reader out of their normal world and over her own threshold into another world. In this tale Cammie must chose between the weird, magical promises of a girl who might just want to do her harm and promises of a special, extraordinary life over the fate of becoming just as ordinary as her mother. Best of all is the unanswered question Frost leaves behind, making the reader wonder whether the real story was a girl’s voyage into womanhood or whether a greater story was lost to teenage passion.

“The Orifice” is a wild, startlingly sexy tale of fetishes. It’s more than that, because the characters are more than just their piercing/pain fetishes. Frost manages to take something considered “weird” and “freaky” and not just explain it to readers but to make it sound incredibly appealing, amplified by creating a world where the wildest sex dreams can come true.

“The Dominatrix Has a Career Crisis” is about a horribly self absorbed woman who suddenly learns that coasting by on artificially inflated self esteem and glorying at other peoples’ misfortunes will only take her so far. The transition from the previous story, an incredible erotic piece, to this one is a bit jarring. This is almost a social science fiction piece in the speculative commentary vein of Jennifer Pelland and Paolo Bacigulpa. Despite it’s obnoxious main character it’s amusing, and a complex tale with an erotic BDSM flavor.

Addressing sex addiction to the point of making it a squiggly, wet, separate creature “The Pleasure Invaders” follows a desperate cop, addicted to the erotic touch of seemingly unintelligent aliens and yet charged with stopping the important of this contraband. Frost nails the addict mentality, threading even the non-sexual parts with a heightened sense of eroticism that puts the readers directly into a mind obsessed.

With “Viagra Babies” Frost keeps to the science fiction flavor and continues from sex addict to what happens to those naturally resulting from sex addiction. After a pandemic of Viagra street use humanity gave birth to urban legend quality monsters. Children born from the hypersex unions are medicated and isolated lest their supernatural sexual powers drive the Normals mad. Viagra Babies also die shortly after turning eighteen, a hallmark that both the main characters are quickly approaching. A dark science fiction spin that pits sexual heroes against a twisted evil, it’s also the only story with a male main character.

From there Frost delves into the speculative realm of horror with “Imagine It” a disturbing, dark tale amplified by its fierce eroticism. Here Frost journeys into a mental mystery, the female rape fantasy. Traveling on a dagger’s edge between the powerlessness of the act itself and the perception that all the power is with the female if she or her gender can make a male so out of control that he seeks to take it back, Becca, a best selling sex writer, has been objectified by her readers, herself and even her therapist. She finds confronting and conquering her feeling most liberating, in terribly unsettling ways.

Following it up with a softer take on horror is “Playing Karen Devere”, a tale of a Hollywood lesbian couple who play more than screen parts after they have several close encounters (in the name of research) with a sexy, empowered female serial killer on death row.

“Test Drive” thrusts us back into the future, where the trend of the porn industry pushing technology to new heights (like it did with VHS and camcorders) continues. By this point humanity has completely lost its gender identity in its seeking of pleasure and perfection. Blake is a sex toy maker looking for something new and different in a very satisfied world. Her business partner’s latest sex video unleashes a monster that’s been long forgotten–The Male Libido. This tale is touched with humor and an amusing dose of irony.

“Visions of Ecstasy” takes us back to horror with a paranormal tale of a psychic who tries to save a woman destined to die in her search of a sexual thrill. But neither the man she thinks is a killer, nor the woman she thinks is the victim are quite what they seem. This another hot little fetish tale that’s perfect for the asphyxiation crowd.

Finally is “Deep Inside” a legend-inspired tale of a “voodoo penis” and the drive of males and females to find the perfect substitute for each other. This one is a more ordinary tale, the characters and history glanced upon in favor of a plot with a dark end.

These tales are surprisingly good, but more than that, they’re humorous and insightful as well, not just about what people do, but exploring through sex why they do it. Titillating and erotic, sure, but Frost also makes sex one more aspect of the human mind, not merely about the body and instincts.… (más)