#musings, #news

end of summer, back to school?

#musings, #news /
A woman with pigtails, a white crop top and knee socks, and a red and black plaid tie and skirt constituting a fetish take on a school uniform sits astride a chair, looking provocatively at the viewer

The new sub liked to think he was a Dom, but he was wrong. I can always tell.

(yeah, yeah, technically it’s not til the equinox, whatever)

I teased “Woman of Steel, Men of…” as the second of three “Dark Polly” tales. I really prefer the romantic side of erotica, but for … reasons … it’s been hard to get there lately. “The Forbidden Archive,” with alien robots gayly banging in the radioactive ruins of Earth a century or so from now*, was too dark for its intended market, so you don’t get to see that one quite yet. (Believe it or not, as much as I’ve published this year, there are several stories still looking for the right home.) But a fourth “Dark Polly” story, “The New Sub,” that whoomped up out of nowhere and took me unawares. Read it at Exceptional Erotica!

*hopelesspunk?

#stories

woman of steel, men of …

#stories /
A close up of a woman's lower torso and upper thighs, against a blank background. She's wearing a fetish outfit. A very short, glossy latex skirt with metal buckles is visible, and thigh high stocking with scalloped tops. She's wearing lace gloves. The image has been licensed from Deposit Photos.

Image from Deposit Photos

Live at Exceptional Erotica as part of “Bound for Summer,” this (with “Uncanny Valley of the Fae”) is the second in a trio of darker-than-usual stories from me this summer.

The “Zeta-Men” universe was cooked up by a writer going as “Rex Schmutzig” to explore superhero shenanigans that didn’t center BDSM, but I think he was mostly reacting to all the woman superhero in peril stories.

This is me reacting to two things: a writer recently opining that they’d like to see a big-powered superhero portrayed somewhere between “death metal” Snyder and “nearly-twee” Gunn, and me realizing that Polly wants “beyond twee.” The softest, most baby-faced of heroes, who needs to be topped so tenderly and mercilessly.

But also a longstanding grudge about that Larry Niven essay, which starts out like it’s going to be sexy-fun but is deeply mean-spirited. Young Polly read a lot of LN before they could parse or understand the politics, and there was a lot to unpack and unlearn later.

I wanted to write a playful rebuttal: a powerful male hero topped, with impact play and pegging! Fun for everyone! And I did, mostly, but then another guy demanded entrance to the party, and the Mistress turned out to have an agenda of her own.

Hope you like it.

#musings

goodbye, Tom Lehrer

#musings /

Polly loved Tom (1928-2025). First and foremost for his for his deep catalogue of snarky, wordplay-filled, and frequently subversive songs, but jeez, he released that entire catalogue into the public domain! Also, he beat GenAI introducing false citations into papers by decades.

I formerly embraced the word “smut” for my work in no small part thanks to his song of that name. “I do have a cause, though,” he quips in the spoken introduction on That Was the Year that Was. “I’m for it.”

It’s catchy. It made a deep impression on Young Polly.

But romance author Suleikha Snyder has made a deep impression on Current Polly, arguing that the word smut is harmful to both the erotica and romance communities. I’m convinced, largely because I think the term “clean romance” is harmful and hurtful to anyone writing any other sort of romance. “Unclean romance?” No thanks.

(Ditto “wholesome,” but that’s a whole ‘nother thing. If you call your romance “clean” AND “wholesome” Polly knows they’re not safe around you.)

So I am pulling up stakes as a resident of Smutland. Henceforth find me in, uh, Eroticalia, I guess.

#news

polly news

#news /

I was the July “Editor’s Choice” at Exceptional Erotica! I had to take a pic of the page for posterity 😉

The July Spotlight from Exceptional Erotica highlights the stories with the most claps, most reads, and editor’s choice. “He Watched Me Fuck His Best Friend” by Kaylee Price got the most claps, “Shared on the Sea: My Husband Let His Friends Use Me” by Sophie-Louise Clarke” got the most read and MY “Uncanny Valley of the Fae” was the editors pick, WOO

And! Excerpts from my story “To Stone, Turned” are featured on episode 59 of the “All the Filthy Details” podcast. Find it on Soundcloud, or wherever you listen to podcasts, to hear some quite filthy details. I don’t love being referred to as she/her, but is heady to hear my words spoken aloud by someone else. (Among others, this episode also features Christian Pan who also appears with me in the Summer Teases 2 anthology—and of course you can read both part 1 and part 2 of the unexpurgated “By Stone, Turned” on Medium.com)

#collections

polly jolly christmas

#collections /
The cover of “Polly Jolly Christmas” shows a subdued image of someone’s legs wearing red & white stockings or socks as they lie underneath a Christmas tree adorned with white balls.

“Polly Jolly Christmas,” a compilation of 4 variously queer and previously published holiday tales, is available direct from me at itch.io or from various ebook retailers :

  • “Frozen Conflict” originally appeared in the anthology Seasons Teasings: Snowbound Seductions
  • “Better Not Pout” originally appeared with Exceptional Erotica at Medium.com. This version is even queerer!
  • “Kramping, His Style” originally appeared in Shousetsu Bang*Bang issue 106 (under the pen name Cattus Politterarum)
  • “Screwged” was originally published on Smashwords (under the pen name Penny Lumiere)

Scroll to Top

Polly Liticat

nerdy, feminist erotica, usually queer some way. they/them.

Skip to content ↓