Story scent: Incense burning in a freshly cleaned bedroom

Play on repeat while reading: Florida Kilos– Lana Del Rey (Or the entire Ultraviolence album in true Tumblr fashion)

“Sex is cool, but have you really understood somebody? Have you ever felt that person feel safe with you? That’s the real juice.”

Erotica has existed for as long as humans have been capable of wanting each other on paper. Ancient civilisations carved their fantasies into pottery and temple walls, the Japanese perfected nude woodblock art centuries before the invention of the camera, even Victorian England (history’s favourite prude) secretly mass-circulated pornographic novels behind velvet curtains.

“Smut”, in other words, is not new. It’s simply desire finding whatever medium is around.

kxsalt is part of that lineage. This Tumblr blog* amassing 150 stories, some hitting you in the chest, and some that are just straight-up filthy, first took shape about two years ago in the quiet, raw aftermath of a breakup– a moment when creativity is often forced to metamorphosize.

A Little Origin Story

Miles, the mind behind kxsalt, grew up in a house overflowing with books, art, and the kind of creative chaos that makes storytelling feel like second nature. “My parents painted and made films,” he says. “Theatre and mythology were just.. around. So I was writing stories super young. It just felt normal.”

A friend, or perhaps a rebound, he was seeing at the time, loved Tumblr erotica, so he began reading stories aloud to her. He quickly realised that he could improve the quality with his own skillset, that he could write something better, and more importantly, tailor them specifically to her. “So I started writing these stories really just to flirt,” he says. “And then they blew up.”

One morning, lying in bed beside her, he checked his phone: hundreds of Tumblr notifications. “It was really cool, because it wasn’t something I manufactured. It felt organic and sincere.”

His readership is overwhelmingly women, many of whom assume he is one. “I get a lot of people who are like, ‘Wait, you’re not a woman?’ And honestly, I take that as a huge compliment,” he says. “But it makes sense. I’m audience-first. Most erotic fiction is consumed by women. So if I want the biggest audience share, that’s the group I write toward. But also, emotionally, that’s where my stories live.”

The Female Gaze (and the Guy Writing For It)

Miles writes fast, about 600 words an hour, and can finish a story in two hours. He rarely edits his work, as posting on Tumblr has taught him to release perfectionism. “I’d rather publish it and move on,” he says. If it doesn’t meet my standard, I throw it away and write the next one.” For him, the hard part isn’t the writing, but finding the emotional core of a piece. The answer can emerge in all sorts of moments: during meditation, in day-to-day conversations, or even a contemplative bus ride.

He developed his approach to adult fiction from writing directly for the people closest to him: friends, past lovers, even the occasional commission. Through all of it, he learned to listen to what fantasy meant to their bodies, their histories, and their inner dialogue.

“I’ll ask people, like, “Okay, logistics aside, safety aside– what’s the fantasy you’d want to act out? What do you want to feel in that moment?’ Because sex is mostly about the feelings we’re trying to experience. Once I understand that emotional box, then the story writes itself. And the funny thing is, people will tell you the truth if you just ask.”

Though he once identified firmly as a Dom¹, writing from the sub² or bottom-leaning perspective for two years straight impacted him in ways he didn’t expect. These particular stories ask that he take on feelings and roles outside his own experience, expanding his understanding of intimacy.

Boundaries and Blank Spaces

Almost no one in his daily life knows the URL of his blog, though many know he writes erotica. Additionally, he is the first to admit some of his archive could hit a nerve with a potential new partner. He jokes, “It’s not really a first-coffee situation to be like, ‘Here are 50-100 stories about incest, potentially.”

It works both ways; anonymity protects the reading experience, he says: “If people knew what I looked like, it could affect their ability to enjoy the story.” He prefers the reader to fill the blank space with their own fantasies. Characters rarely have names, and settings are minimal, letting desire take centre stage. Pornography, meanwhile, leaves far less to the imagination.

We Have To Talk About Porn

Before we dove into the nuances of porn and erotic media, the conversation turned toward the darker side of the adult industry (I personally love bringing up this subject around men): the way mainstream websites such as Pornhub can normalise objectification, feed addiction, and reach young viewers long before they understand consent or intimacy.

He agreed that porn can be harmful, but for reasons that go beyond morality. “I think the issue is that porn is the only sexual education a lot of young people get,” he told me. “They’re subject to the algorithm and what is being served to you. I think they’re victims of it.” Miles, interestingly enough, can take photos or GIFS as the seed of a piece. “I’ve definitely seen a GIF, and it gave me some kind of feeling, and then I took that feeling and put it into a story. It can be the way someone touches someone, a facial expression, a moment of hesitation.”

As mainstream porn becomes increasingly commodified and algorithm-driven, written erotica can demonstrate the appetite for something slower and more intentional. These stories speak to readers who are exhausted by performative dating, digital detachment, and superficial intimacy. It can act as a refuge, a place where fantasy is not an escape from our emotions, but a way into it.

Behind The Groundskeeper

Among his 150+ stories, one stood apart during the interview, The Groundskeeper. It is beloved by women and men alike. Which, for smut, can be rare.

The Groundskeeper follows an ageing, aching man who has quietly resigned himself to loneliness until he crosses paths with a younger woman who refuses to see him as invisible. She doesn’t submit to him; she wakes him up. Without the predatory tropes so common in age-gap fantasies, the story sheds light on being chosen, seen, and wanted for who you truly are.

On the other hand, the heroine’s role resonates for a different reason. Not just the taboo, but the tenderness. There’s a unique thrill in seeing the best in someone, especially when they can’t see it themselves. To breathe life into a fire they thought had gone out.

“I love that one,” he says. “Because it flips the usual age-gap dynamic. Usually, these fantasies are focused on the older man’s power… how alluring and young the other person is. When the older person is depicted, it’s often predatory or creepy.”

“There are a lot of burnt-out men in their forties and fifties,” he continues. “Guys who are carrying around so much fatigue and life pain. And they’re just trying their fucking best. I see them in my martial arts gym… going through divorces, raising kids, feeling life pass them by. So I wanted to write a version of that man who’s given life again, not because he has power over someone young, but where the younger person makes him feel worthy of love. That’s the ultimate male fantasy.”

Last Thoughts Before You Go Touch Grass

Talking to Miles made it clear that erotica, at least the way he writes it, isn’t about shock or taboo. It’s about attention. It’s about the small moments that make intimacy feel real, something that begins long before bodies touch. It’s equally clear to see that the past two years have been a period of rebirth for the writer: meditation, healing, spending time with his cat. “That loneliness… It’s all over my stories. Not in a sad way. But in a longing way,” he told me. “Writing was a place where all the other stuff didn’t matter because, for a moment, I’m just a person who makes dirty stories.”

After the conversation, I started to understand that erotica isn’t an outlier when it comes to the world we’ve built. We’ve always written about the boundaries we’re afraid to cross in real life: power, danger, transgression, the thrill of wanting something we shouldn’t. Psychologists call fantasy a “safe simulation space,” a place where the brain rehearses intensity without real-world consequences. Philosophers describe it as a state of consciousness in which a person is both the subject and object of desire. I, the reader, call it hot.

*TW: This 18+ blog is fiction, and not necessarily an accurate depiction of real-life sex or kink. Actual sex involves consent practices and sexual health tools, which may be omitted in his work for storytelling purposes.

¹ a willing adult who, within a consensual dynamic, holds power during a sexual encounter, guiding the experience for the submissive partner (called the “sub”)

² a willing adult who, within a consensual dynamic, temporarily or permanently relinquishes control and power to a dominant partner (dom)