by Jenna Citrus
2020
Based in Indiana, Jenna Citrus is a multifaceted force of nature. The range of her creative abilities is stunning as well as inspiring, all linked with a kind of playful sensuality, a sense that healing and spiritual acceptance is inherently interwoven with art, movement, imagination, and the body. She designs and sells a range of accessories, prints, journals, clothes, tote bags and more directly from her website; as well as offers meditation challenges online, fuses her love for dance performance with original music for on her YouTube channel, and supporters to her Patreon page can nurture her continued creation of poetry, photography, and other artistic media. When does this woman sleep?
In addition to all of the activities above, Jenna also finds the time to create her own erotic content, from modelling and performing to writing. Her slender yet potent volume, 10 Sexy Stories to Tell in the Dark, weaves together not only written episodes of succinct sensuality, but also includes eleven original images that display a sensual view of femininity and the body. Some of the images here are clearly of Jenna, and most of them are "soft core" and artistically framed: we may see just her neck or her stomach, or perhaps we see her with someone´s fingers in her mouth. Other images feature her with another woman, either facing away from us or touching one another on a bed. Shot with a soft-focus and frequently in black and white, there´s a kind of calm classicism to these images, as if the viewer were invited to contemplate the beauty and mystery of the (female) body.
A similar atmosphere permeates her stories, too. Each entry is short, succinct, and sensual. There are no names to the dramatis personae in each of these tales, making it easier for the reader to imagine themselves inside the story and the action. The photographic images, combined with the words, make this erotica particularly evocative, providing concrete images and distinct people to focus one´s fantasy life on.
Like other media within Jenna´s online and artistic universe, these 10 Stories are also playful and celebratory. A playful threesome spontaneously emerges out of laughter and camraderie in "Our Story", while "Hot Tub" explores all of the possible permutations of sex between two women and a hot body of water. Each section of "The Arrangement" focuses on different (and inventive) groupings between a quartet of men and women; while "The Power of Lovers After Infidelity" emphasizes forgiveness between a couple. Like the art, yoga, and dance practices on her other websites, consciousness and sensuality permeate Jenna´s erotic writing. For her, it seems like sex--with men, with women, with both--are all part of the pleasure of living, the joy of being able to connect with another´s energy through touch, wetness, and shared energy. Whether the lights remain on or off, 10 Sexy Stories to Tell in the Dark invite us to take off our clothes and dance, either alone or with someone else.