Best Gay Romance 2009, page 18
A building is on fire in Manhattan. A huge blue cigarette, smoking at one end. He doesn’t look at it properly. He still has sleep in his eyes. He sits on the couch and stretches his legs. The curtains mottle the daylight on the floor. He switches the TV off. Puts the glass to his lips. Wriggles down between the cushions.
The poem starts in his chest. Rises up into his throat and fills his head. Flows down his arms—into his fingers. Nietzsche calls it a musical mood. A vibration or a gnat-swarm is how it feels. It has something to do with the screaming trees. This simply isn’t real.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
VIC BACH emerged as a gay and as a gay writer only recently, when he reached his sixties and resolved to get close to another man for once in his life. Kindred Souls is excerpted from an unpublished memoir—An Unlikely Pair—chronicling his binational relationship with a younger Irish man. The author lives in New York City, on the Upper West Side, and has several short stories and a novella in the works. Reach him at vixx@rcn.com.
TOM CARDAMONE is the author of the erotic fantasy novel, The Werewolves of Central Park. His short stories have appeared in several anthologies and publications. “Sail Away” was inspired in part by the novel Joseph and the Old Man, by Christopher Davis. You can read more of Tom’s work at his website, www.pumpkinteeth.net.
ROBERT M. DEWEY says: “Liebestod: Love/Death” is my first published story—though I am in some ways an old hand at the storyteller’s art. In my twenties I was an actor, professional theater director, and theater arts instructor. I received a master’s degree in theater arts from the University of Washington and completed all but my dissertation in the theater arts doctoral program at the University of Minnesota. I also have been a lawyer and served as academic dean for a system of three schools in Minneapolis. Since my retirement, I have devoted much of my time to fiction writing. I am a member of the Loft Literary Center and draw much of my inspiration and motivation from the classes I have taken there. In the past two years I have become fascinated by the famous gay historical figures during the time of Shakespeare—including Christopher Marlowe, King James the First of England, and Francis Bacon. I have been writing a collection of short stories about them entitled Queer Stories and Gay Adventures from Shakespeare’s Time (For Fairies Only!).
JACK FRITSCHER, the founding editor-in-chief of Drummer magazine and its most frequent contributor (1975-1999), has been “romancing San Francisco” since the 1960s as the pioneer author of hundreds of stories and articles, photographer of a thousand published photographs, and screenwriter-director of two hundred videos. The author of twenty books, including Gay San Francisco (2008) and Some Dance to Remember: A Memoir-Novel of San Francisco 1970-1982, he is the surviving lover and biographer of photographer Robert Mapplethorpe, who he introduced to the San Francisco scene. He received the Erotic Authors Association Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007—his fiftieth year in publishing. Visit www.jackfritscher.com.
SHANNA GERMAIN is a poet by nature, a short-story writer by the skin of her teeth, and a novelist in training. Her work has appeared in places like Absinthe Literary Review, Best American Erotica 2007, Best Gay Bondage 2008, Best Gay Romance 2008, Best Lesbian Erotica 2008, The Mammoth Book of Best American Erotica Volume 7, and Salon. Visit her online at www.shannagermain.com.
MARK G. HARRIS was born during the Summer of Love in Greensboro, North Carolina, the site of the Woolworth’s lunch counter sit-ins as well as the birthplace of O. Henry. His work is included in the romantic short-story anthology Fool for Love: New Gay Fiction, edited by Timothy J. Lambert and R. D. Cochrane (Cleis Press). Please visit www.markgharris.livejournal.com.
T. HITMAN is the pen name of a full-time professional writer who lives with his two husbands—the human one and his mysterious, otherworldy muse—in a small cottage somewhere in the wilds of New England. In their home, much romance is made, both on the page and in the bedroom.
DAVID HOLLY, as a bicyclist, has had frequent close calls with city buses, but he has yet to end up in Gay Heaven. His stories have been printed in gay erotic magazines and anthologies. Readers will find some stories and a complete bibliography at http://www.gaywriter.org.
LEE HOUCK was born in Chattanooga, TN and now lives in Queens, NY. His writing appears in several queer anthologies in the U.S. and Australia, and his other work includes poetry, pieces for theater, and art installations. Additionally, he has worked with Jennifer Miller’s Circus AMOK! for many, many seasons. You can reach him at www.LeeHouck.com.
THOMAS KEARNES’s fiction has appeared online in Blithe House Quarterly, Velvet Mafia, Clean Sheets, Night Train, The Pedestal, SmokeLong Quarterly, 3 AM Magazine, Word Riot, and Underground Voices, and in print in Harrington Gay Men’s Literary Quarterly. An atheist and an Eagle Scout, he lives in East Texas.
JAY MANDAL is from southern England. After grammar school, he joined a City bank and worked in Europe. He has written three novels—The Dandelion Clock, Precipice, and All About Sex—and more than two hundred short stories, some of which are collected in A Different Kind of Love, The Loss of Innocence, and Slubberdegullion. He also has written a collection of one hundred flash fiction pieces.
NEIL PLAKCY is the author of Mahu, Mahu Surfer, and Mahu Fire, mysteries set in Hawaii. He is coeditor of Paws & Reflect: A Special Bond Between Man and Dog and editor of Hard Hats. A journalist, book reviewer, and college professor, he is also a frequent contributor to gay anthologies.
ROB ROSEN is the author of Sparkle: The Queerest Book You’ll Ever Love and the forthcoming Divas Las Vegas and has contributed to date to more than fifty anthologies, most notably the Cleis Press collections: Truckers, Best Gay Romance (2007 & 2008), Hard Hats, Backdraft, Surfer Boys, and Bears. His erotica is often found in Men and Freshmen magazines. Please email him at robrosen@therobrosen.com or visit him at www.therobrosen.com.
SIMON SHEPPARD is editor of the Lammy Award-winning Homosex: Sixty Years of Gay Erotica and Leathermen, and the author of In Deep: Erotic Stories; Kinkorama: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion; Sex Parties 101; and Hotter Than Hell and Other Stories. His work also appears in more than two-hundred-fifty anthologies, including many editions of The Best American Erotica and Best Gay Erotica. He writes the syndicated column “Sex Talk” and the online serial “The Dirty Boys Club” and hangs out romantically at www.simonsheppard.com.
J. M. SNYDER writes gay erotic/romantic fiction, has self-published several books in the genre, and has begun to e-publish through Aspen Mountain, Amber Quill, and Torquere Presses. Snyder’s short fiction has appeared online at Ruthie’s Club, Tit-Elation, Eros Monthly, and Amazon Shorts, as well as in anthologies released by Aspen Mountain Press, Cleis Press, and Alyson Books. For book excerpts, free fiction, and purchasing information, please visit http://jmsnyder.net.
NATTY SOLTESZ has had stories published in Best Gay Erotica 2009, Ultimate Gay Erotica 2008, and Best Gay Romance 2008. He regularly publishes fiction in the magazines Freshmen, Mandate, and Handjobs and is a faithful contributor to the Nifty Erotic Stories Archive. He is currently at work on his first novel, Backwoods, from which “Adult” is an excerpt. He lives in Pittsburgh with his lover. Check out his website: http://www.bacteriaburger.com.
SAM SOMMER is the author of Bed & Breakfast, a gay comedy presented in 2008 as part of the NY Fresh Fruit Festival; ’Til Death Do Us Part, One-Act Plays that premiered on Theater Row, NYC in 1997; and Attic, at the Wings Theatre, NYC in 2000. His short stories have been published in numerous anthologies over the years, most recently in Quickies III, short fiction on gay male desire. His Off-Broadway directing credits include: After Dark (1998), Attic (2000), and Summerland (2001), published in Plays and Playwrights 2001—the Best of the Off-Off Broadway Season. He is the recipient of two Off-Off Broadway Review awards for scenic design, for Cowboys and Tango Masculino.
ANDREW WARBURTON is a PhD student specializing in literary theory. Until recently he worked as a copywriter, research assistant, and reporter in London, but moved to the United States to continue his studies. His fiction appears in Hustlers: Erotic Stories of Sex for Hire, Best Gay Bondage Erotica, and Boys in Heat, and his poetry has been published in the queer literary journal Chroma.
ABOUT THE EDITOR
RICHARD LABONTÉ lives on a romantic island off the coast of British Columbia with his romantic husband Asa and their romantic dogs Zak and Tiger-Lily. He reads many books and writes about them; reads many, many short stories and edits them into such anthologies as Bears, Daddies, Boys in Heat, Hot Gay Erotica, Where the Boys Are, Best Gay Bondage Erotica, Best Gay Romance 2008, Country Boys, Boy Crazy, and the Best Gay Erotica series; and with Lawrence Schimel has edited The Future Is Queer and First Person Queer, winner of the 2007 Lambda Literary Anthology Award. Contact: tattyhill@gmail.com.
Copyright © 2008 by Richard Labonté.
All rights reserved. Except for brief passages quoted in newspaper, magazine, radio, television, or online reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published in the United States.
Cleis Press Inc., P.O. Box 14697, San Francisco, California 94114.
“Kindred Souls” © 2007 by Vic Bach, reprinted with the author’s permission from Best Date Ever, edited by Lawrence Schimel (Alyson Books). “Sail Away” © 2008 by Tom Cardamone. “Liebestod: Love/Death Final Aria with Imaginary Music” © 2007 by Robert M. Dewey, reprinted with the author’s permission from Blithe House Quarterly, Winter 2007. “The Calamus Emotion: Love Among the Ruins” © 2008 by Jack Fritscher. “What We Leave Behind” © 2008 by Shanna Germain, reprinted with the author’s permission from Animal Attraction, edited by Vincent Diamond (Torquere Press). “As Sweet by Any Other Name” © 2008 by Mark G. Harris. “One” © 2008 by T. Hitman. “The Pools of Paradise” © 2008 by David Holly, first appeared online in Tommyhawk’s Fantasy World. “Briefly, Forever” © 2008 by Lee Houck. “The Terror of Knowing What This World Is About” © 2008 by Thomas Kearnes. “Chiaroscuro” © 2008 by Jay Mandal. “The Baker” © 2008 by Neil Plakcy. “Finders Keepers” © 2008 by Rob Rosen. “Coming Back to Me” © 2008 by Simon Sheppard. “Afflicted” © 2008 by J. M. Snyder. “Adult” © 2008 by Natty Soltesz. “Starting Over” © 2008 by Sam Sommer. “The Forest of Suicides” © 2008 by Andrew Warburton.
eISBN : 978-1-573-44444-6
Richard Labonte, Best Gay Romance 2009
