+review. wanderlust
wanderlust: 14 erotic travel tales plume 2005

carol taylor
+brook stephenson

Travel.

We all do it. Most of our travel is either for play or work. But that is day-to day-stuff. Sometimes, when we sort of can’t take anymore of this routine, we get an urge to do something different, something exciting. We want to go someplace that is new and different from the place we always are. And that urge expands globally. Travel for pleasures sake right?

Right.

What, you don’t know black people travel?

We get out and go somewhere just as fast as anyone else. Not all of us, like any social ethnic group, but more should. Carol Taylor shouts that in the introduction to her new collection of stories Wanderlust: Travel Erotic Tales. Best known for the Brown Sugar Erotica series, Taylor decided to take her readers on a trip via the imaginations of fourteen dynamic wordsmiths of award wining literary fame and best selling commercial success.

Wander

When was the last time you stepped out and took a wrong turn on purpose? When did you last go “in search of” for the sake of? When did you last let adventure take you? For most of us, the answers would be “can’t remember” for all three but what if the answer changed yesterday? What if yesterday you turned around and decided to do something different. What if you wandered? What if you planned an entire trip where, if you did anything at all, you were wandering into something new?

If you did, you might have wandered past any one of the characters in these stories. They might have been on the plane next to you like the characters in Tracey Price Thompson’s story Hawaii five-Oh!. You could have been in the Caribbean and walked the beach that set the stage for Sandra Kitt’s story The Fixer. If you took a cruise, you might be on a haunted ship like Nina Foxx’s Rule of One Thousand. Who knows?

You, me, us; we are all complex three-dimensional beings with urges, emotions, opinions and the ability to reason and so are each of the characters in these stories.

As much as the travel is emphasized, the emotional and mental strain of relationships is explored as well. Miles Marshall Lewis illustrates that angst so damn well in Irresistible. On top of that he set the backdrop of his story in Paris (his current residence) and Madrid. Could there be some fact to this fiction? Yes, because like all good fiction, some part of it really happened. Do I know for sure there is some fact to it? No. Regardless though, if I had an award for 2006, this story would be in the running. So would PinkTiaraRainbws by Sekou Writes, The Southernmost Triangle by Preston L. Allen, Just Another Day by Deep Bronze and Blackberries by Nalo Hopkinson.

Why? Easy answer. Each one of those stories is a layered work that spins tales-inside- tales and like a Spike Lee Joint, everything is important and relevant to the main story line. On top of dealing with whatever situation they are in socially, each of the characters has sexual appetites to fulfill that are at once unique and personal. In addition, they are social because they all share them with someone - or some thing. This sharing either heightens the experience and strengthens bonds or exposes selfishness because some folks just do not like to share.

When blending travel and erotica you end up with people that look, think and breathe like you and I, get stressed over the same things as you and I, and still have to be sexual beings with sexual appetites and indulge in sexual acts, like you and I. That is just the setting which is why this collection is so enjoyable. You never know how freaky the next person might be and you might discover a few new levels of freakiness in yourself.

You read and tell me what I am talking about because I am revealing none of these stories in detail. I respect the work enough to say READ IT so you can enjoy it as I did.

Brook Stephenson is the Literary Editor of Nat Creole. He has penned articles for various national publications including King Magazine, XXL, and Black Issues Book Review.