Purple Prosaic: December 2013

Bittersweet: Nocturnal Emissions is a collection of Alessia Brio's diverse erotic & flash fiction. Many of the short stories collected here are also available as free downloads, and some also make an appearance in fine flickering hungers. There is previously unpublished material included, but it is only a fraction of the collection. This publication is primarily a herding of stories into one corral.

INTRODUCTION

Writing is easy; you just sit down at the keyboard and open a vein.

The quote above is a modernized version of one that has been attributed to several sources. Regardless of its origins, I find it intriguing.

When I began writing erotica and poetry, I had just emerged from a decade-long bout of major depression, and I was obsessed with a fantasy.

Hence, writing was easy. I wanted—no, I needed—to bleed. Writing was my catharsis. It gave me somewhere to store my feelings so the passion would not overwhelm me or the despair drown me.

I lucked upon a vibrant online community of writers, many bleeding themselves, with whom I bonded. One of them now lives with me. Others I count as my dearest friends. We have bled together, been emotionally naked together, enjoyed the solace of shared pain.

Much of the material in this collection was written during my Literotica years, while I was pouring raw angst onto the page. I honed the art of the craft as I healed. I learned that the veins I opened needn't be my own. I had the power to create characters with their own pain. That's when I became a writer instead of "merely" a bleeder.

CONTENTS