Why a book of erotic stories?
Because no one in India had come out with one yet.
What was the reaction of writers when you approached them for erotic stories?
Excited. Curious. One or two shied away but most of them were eager to do it.
Isn’t erotica just a fancy term for porn?
No. Porn leaves nothing to the imagination while erotica excites the imagination.
Why do Indian writers invariably end up winning bad sex awards?
Because they haven’t read this book as yet. None of the writers in this collection have won it or are likely to.
Your contributors are mostly young—what happened to the more established writers who’ve made a mark with their writing on sex?
I did ask some older writers but they were too busy or didn’t want to do it. Anyway, my stress was not on generation but on quality.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in putting together this collection?
Writers taking their time to deliver. But when it came, the writing lived up to my expectation. I hardly rejected anything, no more than three or four stories.
Is this generation of writers less hypocritical about writing on sex than previous ones?
I think so, yes. Unquestionably.
Is there a difference between how men and women writers tackle sex?
You can often tell the difference between male and female erotic writing. But the lines got blurred—two women in this book have written brilliantly from inside the skin of a male.
Is it easy to write about sex?
These writers write confidently about sex despite the difficulties they may have had.
For a book of sex stories, why is the book jacket so discreet?
We wanted a cover that would excite curiosity rather than satiate it.
