Caresses Soft as Sandpaper — subtitled "A Collection of Amorous Ramblings and Rotted Erotica" — is the first book of Catalyst's writings ever published. While some sources reference the chapbook as "[being] reproduced in the first section of [his book] Cottonmouth Kisses," the claim is not entirely correct. As a matter of fact, of the 31 poems, two pen and ink illustrations and one photograph by Catalyst that appear in Caresses Soft as Sandpaper, only five poems — "Actions Speak," "Scorch," "Those Final Moments," "Anything," and "Yeah, Sure" — were included in Cottonmouth Kisses.

Instead, Caresses Soft as Sandpaper is one of three sections in Cottonmouth Kisses. Conversely, that section contains three poems and a short story that were not — and are not — among the compendium known as Caresses Soft as Sandpaper.