How writers write about sex

And the character masturbates...

Lulu spreads the lotion over her body, and the dusky, chocolate-colored skin glistens, thirstily absorbing the oil from the cleansing substance.  Her flexible body quivers under the warmth of the massage, the epidermis throbs as it is stroked by the caresses from her own hand, now descending to her groin and stopping, hesitatingly, anxiously, at the edge of an immense appendage which the hand squeezes and abandons in sudden bursts, intermittently, going as if from fury to repentance...

So last night I read the first story in Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles.  The story, from which the above masturbation scene was taken, is titled "Lulu or the Metamorphosis," and it's written by Jose Alcantara Almanzar. 

Almanzar, as some of you may know, has a distinguished career in writing and teaching, but I couldn't stop the giggles as I read of the throbbing epidermis (plain "skin" can't suffice?), the immense appendage (am curious...how big is "immense?"), and the furtive, indecisive hand that first caresses and then squeezes and abandons in sudden bursts (ouch!).  Goes to show you even a self-pleasuring scene can be tough to write in a realistic manner.  But that may just be my take on it.