Karen X. Tulchinsky and James C. Johnstone, co-editors of the Queer View Mirror 1 and 2 anthologies, each went on to produce successful books about gay and lesbian desire in 1998: Hot & Bothered (for the girls) and Quickies (for the boys). Hot & Bothered was particularly successful, selling out its initial print run before the book was launched. In response to an obvious demand for gay erotica, Tulchinsky and Johnstone have each edited sequel anthologies: Hot & Bothered 2 and Quickies 2.

Tulchinsky and Johnstone share a similar approach to compiling their respective books: aim for diversity with stories that are under 1,000 words. As Johnstone mentions in his introduction to Quickies 2, each story “is like a snapshot” of a different aspect of queer sexuality. The drawback to this survey approach is that many of the contributors to both collections are not writers – and sometimes it shows. Most of the stories in these collections read more like braggart-style letters to the Penthouse editor.

Tulchinksy eases us into Hot & Bothered 2 with politically oriented stories such as Terrie Hamazaki’s “That Boy,” about a lesbian mother who wonders whether her lesbian daughter is straight, and Russell Baskin’s “Desire Beyond Gender,” about the sorrow of losing a partner to a sex change operation.

Things get a lot kinkier with some stories about the seduction of straight females. In Elizabeth Rowan’s “Bride,” the betrothed is seduced by a woman she meets moments before walking down the aisle.
Rough sex, illicit sex, and sex in bizarre places are also hot topics; with venues such as the laundromat (“A Sudsy Affair” by L.M. McArthur), the ladies room (“Deflower” by Rosalind Christine Lloyd), and a train (“It Happens Like This” by Deb Ellis).

If you have no idea what lesbians do behind closed doors, then you may find “High Noon in the Middle of Spring” by Nilaja Montgomery-Akalu and “Femme Seduction” by Mary Midget informative.

Quickies 2 has a nostalgic quality that contrasts it with the tough predatory behaviour often described in Hot & Bothered 2. Stories such as “Elysian Fields” by David Lyndon Brown and “Here at St. Peter’s Prep School” by J. Eigo relive the first moments of high school desire. “Random Acts of Hatred” by George Ilsey and “A Date With Ray
Ray” by Tom McDonald deal with the hypocrisy of straight homophobia. Several of these stories include graphic sexual description and are set in such cliché homosexual haunts as saunas, locker rooms, public parks, and washrooms.

Many of the Quickies 2 contributors play with the written word, including Alan Mills, whose story “Damien” is written in run-on sentences and bp Nichol-style lower case letters, and Roy Roston, whose “Naked Night” plays with different typefaces.

Ultimately, the stories in both collections succeed in creating a portrait about desire. Many end on a depressing note with a sense of regret, unrequited love, bitterness, confusion, sorrow, frustration, and revenge. Most describe moments of sexual glory that ultimately leave one feeling empty and more convinced of the rarity of true love.