Publication Date: May 5, 2008
Format: Paperback
US $14.95
CAN $16.00
UK £8.99
ISBN: 9780786720804
ISBN-10: 0786720808
Published by Running Press
These 21 stories by erotica pioneer Cecilia Tan show the breadth of what's possible in the human erotic imagination. Ranging from the mildly titillating to the transformative, the stories travel from familiar bedrooms to faraway planets and magical realms. From a lonely woman who finds her perfect lover lurking in a bookstore, to a college student who discovers her own hidden magic, from the erotic awakening of a goddess, to the sexual adventures of goth girls with attitude, the stories mix the sexual and sensual with intriguing plots and settings. The follow-up to the groundbreaking collection Black Feathers (HarperCollins, 1998), White Flames celebrates sexuality through both body and mind, with stories that are not shy of carnal subjects and which highlight their importance to the characters in question. These are the pinnacle of twenty-first century women-positive, sex-positive literature. Modern gothic, seductively surreal, startlingly different, these stories are reprinted from a wide range of sources (including Best Women's Erotica, On Our Backs, Hot & Bothered, and many others) and also includes several never-before-published tales.
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Excerpt: "In her collection White Flames: Erotic Dreams, Cecilia Tan is passionate about erotica.
She writes with authority and creates an authentic sense of place, whether the story is about
cruising, the Asian sex slave trade, Goths, gay bars, baseball, music, psychotherapy, archeology,
mythology, futuristic technologies, or adventures in space. A great many of the stories have
unnamed narrators and are told in first person. It appears the anonymity is deliberate, to
allow the reader to "become" the character, or to experience the author's fantasies.
I kept reminding myself this wasn't a memoir."
--The Fix
Excerpt: "Take a moment and step in the mind of Cecilia Tan and see her dreams,
her very naughty dreams that is. Taking a break from her running a business,
editing, looking for hot new writing talent, Cecilia Tan has written a collection
of erotic short fiction that is as diverse as her talents suggest. Cecilia Tan has
an eye for science fiction and fantasy writers and where she draws that insight from
is evident in reading this collection. Stories vary from modern day romance with a
twist to a goth princess getting her unspoken desires met and then
over to ancient spirits fulfilling dark needs on us unaware mortals.
If you have yet to pick up a Cecilia Tan book and experience her writing and editing,
this is the one that will make you want to go back and read the ones before.
You will not be disappointed."
--The Triskelion Society
Excerpt: "Cecilia Tan is an original writer. Her stories blend sci-fi, fantasy and erotica
better than any I've read and this collection is another brilliant example of her gift.
I have to admit that before reading her work, I wouldn't have ever thought I would enjoy this genre.
It's stories like [Drumbeat], along with her obvious way with words, that make Tan's
collection stand out from many others. She takes on alternate realities, different
genders, bdsm and more with great success. Not every story will do it for you,
but you have to respect her for writing them so well. This is a must-have for those
of you who enjoy science-fiction and fantasy. I also recommend it to erotica fans
that are looking for something that will excite your imagination and test your boundaries."
--Hot Movies For Her
Excerpt: From a writeup on the IN THE FLESH reading series: "The small basement lounge was packed for the previous event with amorous
gay and lesbian couples lining the bar, cliques composed of various gender and
sexual identities and a group of nervously pacing men, obviously tourists to things
overtly sexual and LGBT. No pervy little boys in sight. To celebrate the happy,
healthy, slippery sex that was about to be described in loin-tingling detail,
the tables offered free candy and delicious chocolate cupcakes. The lineup was stuffed to the brim...
Cecilia Tan, reading from her new collection White Flames, told a hilarious story
about exploring a uniform fetish with a member of a marching band,
to great laughter and a few inspired shivers."
--New York Press
Excerpt: "What's the difference between pornography and erotica? One definition might be that pornography, written primarily for men, is geared to get a reaction from the sex organ between our legs. Erotica, on the hand, can be for both men and women, and is geared to the sex organ in our heads. Another definition might be the writings of Cecilia Tan, whose well-polished and artful prose is most definitely erotica. ... There's no question that Cecilia Tan's stories are not for every taste, and those who prefer their phallic symbols to be rockets rather than actual phalluses should give White Flames a pass. However for those willing to take a chance on something unusual, Tan offers sharp, concise and often witty prose, and continues to take the genre in new directions. The stories may stimulate the sex organ in your head, but it will be in ways that stimulate your imagination as well." --The Internet Review of Science Fiction, reviewed by Dan Kimmel
"Cantabrigian scribe Cecilia Tan [is] one of the nation's best-known enchantresses of the erotic fiction genre."--The Boston Phoenix
"Tan can write erotica and combine it with... almost anything and make it completely alluring, arresting, and entirely believable."--True Review
"Inventive and playful, Tan exhibits great imagination."--Penthouse.com
"[Her] best work fuses [fiction] with sexual practices beyond the norm. Amy Tan it ain't." --Harper's Bazaar Singapore
"Tan's marvelous descriptive abilities ... reach out of the page to the reader with a tremendous urgency. There's something for everyone here." -- Paramour Magazine
"Tan herself is writing about many other things when she writes explicitly about sex: the influence or people's placement in social class and gender, race, and power groups in influencing sexual attraction, sexual practice, and sexuality." --New York Review of Science Fiction
II. Modern Love: The vagaries and complications of desire in millennial America
The Hard Sell (from Fatbrain.com)
Thought So (from Best Women's Erotica 2003, Cleis Press)
Baseball Fever (from Starf*cker, Alyson Publications)
III. Mythic: Fairy tales and legends make echoes in the archetypes of my eroticism
The Little Mermaid (from Aqua Erotica, Crown)
Rite of Spring (from Wet: More Aqua Erotica, Crown)
Bodies of Water (from Hot Women's Erotica, Avalon Publications)
Dragon's Daughter & Hall of Mirrors (from To Be Continued, Firebrand Books)
The Lady In Black (not yet published)
Storm Rider (from The Wildest Ones, Alyson Publications)
Sleeping Beauty (not yet published)
IV. Disconnect: The most intriguing place can be the gap between two people, the negative space created that makes us think something is there, but no matter how well sex seems to connect us, people remain separate
Just Tell Me The Rules (from Aqua Erotica 2, Melcher Media)
Halloween (from Slave, Venus Books/Ballantine Books)
Balancing Act (from Blithe House Quarterly, Winter 2000 issue)
A Tale of the Marketplace (from The Academy, Mystic Rose Books)
V. Queer As Folk: Because even if I'm not, my characters can be Kinsey sixes
Drumbeat (from On Our Backs magazine, also Uniform Sex, Alyson Publications)
Lip Service (from Best S/M Erotica, Black Books)
VI. Technophile: What's not sexy about robots and space ships?
Gyndroid (not yet published)
Now (from Viscera, Venus or Vixen Press)
The Spark (from Periphery, Lethe Press)
Excerpted from the Introduction:
"Such a fraught word: 'fantasy.' It seems to carry two distinct connotations. When someone 'fantasizes' it's assumed we are talking about sexual fantasies. But 'fantasy' in the bookstore is the shelf where the elves and wizards sit, as well as the science fiction, robots, and spaceships. The stories I write seem to inhabit the space where fantasy meets reality. Sometimes that means the erotic fantasy that would never 'really' happen. Other times that means a story that uncovers the magical world that intersects the 'real world,' or a glimpse into the future. But when I tend to do that, eroticism tends to leak through. If I had to make a stab at a lit-crit explanation, I'd say my subconscious thinks the 'normal' state of sexual repression in real life needs cracking open, and sometimes the cracks come in the erotic lives of the characters, sometimes in the 'reality' they inhabit, and sometimes both."