NB: It’s not at all uncommon, at least in my readings of anthologies. (Dreadful self-serving to put your own story in an anthology I know, but needs must in this case!) I’m quite thankful for that image kickstarting everything, because my story was an eleventh hour piece to fill the slot of a writer who pulled out, and the writing process was powered on that picture in my head. After that there was lots of conscious writer-graft to fit that image into a cohesive story somehow. My story in Threesome spun out from one single image (three people naked on a woodland floor at night) and developed from there. I very rarely approach stories with any related thought as to what design might accompany it later down the line, but I do tend to write – or start to write – with a strong visual image in mind. I always talk about my formative years stapling together stories I’d written into books as something that lead to me being a writer, but I probably spent as much time making bad photomontages of Harry Potter art, and somewhere along the line I learnt some things, I guess. MB: Oddly enough, design was never something I thought of as my ‘thing’ until very recently. MB: Ha, that’s very kind of you! And I’m British, so nice is in my blood, along with tea and gravy. All the visual art I’ve seen you produce is stunning. I’ve spoken with poets before about how their sense of lyricism and musicality influences their prose writing, but I’m curious if the same holds true for you and your design talent? NB: You have an incredible visual talent as well as being a talented author and editor (which, if you weren’t also quite nice, would be really annoying, by the way). He’s funny, talented, and one of the best design artists I’ve met.įew sexual fantasies are as potent or lasting as “the threesome” – as an adolescent, the first time you saw a hot couple walking hand in hand and you wanted to follow them back home and into their bed, as an adult when you discover that your partner has been fantasizing also about the bartender at your favorite club.Įditor Matthew Bright, no stranger to threesomes himself, has invited twelve authors to write stories that range from the sweet and romantic to erotic and playful and even a bit depraved.

If you’ve not “met” Matthew, you’re in for a treat. As a sit-down isn’t really possible (he’s from my native land of Britain) we had a back-and-forth e-mail discussion.

Matthew Bright is the editor of the upcoming Threesome: Him, Him and Me erotica anthology from Lethe Press.

Clockwork Cairo by Matthew Bright