“A surreal, impressionistic treat. ‘Leave the smallness’ is my favorite line. Very evocative smut-language. Memorable giant cock. The submissive narrator voice is both relatable and vivid. This payday was earned.”
I’m proud to share “Trick, Treat,” my entry for the Cocktober 2019 SizeRiot Erotica Contest, hosted by the hardworking and talented Aborigen-gts.
Reviews
I appreciate the feedback I received for this story. As always, I’m deeply grateful to my beta readers and everyone who read my work and reviewed it.
The story placed in five of the seven categories:
- “Grabbed Attention from the Start” – tied for 1st place
- “Surprised by Interpretation of Theme” – 2nd place
- “Most Arousing” – tied for 3rd
- “Challenged You” – tied for 2nd
- “Best Represented Cocktober Theme” – 3rd place
What did people enjoy most about this story? Here’s what the readers had to say:
“Fantastic mastery of language. Big fucking, growing giants. Nice touch. “Leviathan cock.” Beautiful. You are a mouth… Beautiful metaphor. Nice work. One of my top three favs.”
“Felt unique, I like this approach as it gave readers something a bit different.”
“Trippy and novel. Definitely a story that I’d read more of.”“Translated almost directly into images in the mind; lots of beautiful language used to describe terrible destruction.”
“Awesome story from beginning to end filled with a tense energy.”
“A signature storyteller at heart here.”
Credit where credit is due
[Update in 2025] Since writing this story, I have become aware of something I wish I had done from the start.
As I write more poetry and find out more about the practices within that writing community, I have learned that there’s a thing poets do when they read someone else’s work and feel inspired to write something of their own. They’ll include a line beneath the title of their new work and say something like, “After Langston Hughes.” This is to acknowledge that the poem you’re about to read was inspired by—or is responding to, or in conversation with—some work of Langston Hughes.
My story “Trick, Treat” is after Danez Smith, who has been called “a poet of the body.” He’s an award-winning genius who writes about the transformative love between queer Black men, against a backdrop of violence and oppression.
At the time of writing my story, I had just finished his 2014 debut book, the sensual collection [Insert] Boy which won a Lambda Literary Award Winner for Gay Poetry, among a half dozen other awards. The poem that I couldn’t stop thinking about was “The Business of Shadows.”
You can read it here and listen to him performing the poem in his own voice.
I need to own that it was harmful for me to not acknowledge this inspiration from the start, especially given the topic of this story.
Though I haven’t earned any money from this story, and plan to exclude it from any anthologies I might publish for profit, it was still appropriative for a white woman like myself to take inspiration from the labor of a Black man. I deeply apologize for not giving credit where credit is due.
To pay forward my appreciation for his work in a way that supports him and amplifies his writing, I am buying several copies of his collections directly from the publisher and will be donating them to Little Free Libraries around my city. I also noticed that my local library doesn’t have hardcopies of all of his books, so I will make donations there as well.
We never know the impact we have on the world. It feels especially true about writing, which can touch another person or inspire revelations for them about their life, their humanity, their place in the world, the sensuality of their body. I am grateful to Danez Smith for his writing.
Ready to read “Trick, Treat”? You have two options to enjoy:
AUDIO VERSION: Listen to a 20-minute author-read version of the story here.
Thanks to Dick, The Micro Giant, for Audio Engineering this piece! Please give him a follow on Twitter, as I wouldn’t be able to do this without his expertise. He takes commissions for anyone else interested in doing audio work, too!
(I plan to upload this audio to Soundgasm.net soon and will update this link when I do.)
TEXT VERSION: Read the full story behind the cut.
