Simon Sheppard: Best Gay Erotica 2012

SIMON SHEPPARDis the Lammy Award–winning editor of Homosex , and the author of Sodomy! , Hotter Than Hell , In Deep and several other sex-drenched books. His work has also appeared in more than three hundred anthologies; astonishingly, this is his eighteenth appearance in the BGE series. He hangs out smuttily at simonsheppard.com.

RAFAELITO V. SY( rafsy.com) was born in Manila. He earned his BA from Tufts University and his MFA in creative writing from Cornell University. His 2005 novel, Potato Queen , is about the segregationist relationship between Asians and Caucasians in the San Francisco gay community.

MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE( mattildabernsteinsyc-amore.com) is most recently the author of a sassy and salacious novel, So Many Ways to Sleep Badly . Her newest anthology, Why Are Faggots So Afraid of Faggots?: Flaming Challenges to Masculinity, Objectification, and the Desire to Conform , will be out just in time for Valentine’s Day 2012.

DIRK VANDEN( dirkvanden.net), born Richard Dale Fullmer, grew up a Mormon in the small town of Vernal, high in the Rocky Mountains of northeastern Utah. From 1969–1973, he published seven gay novels (including the All trilogy), several of which are still available on the web at outrageous prices.

RICHARD LABONTÉ( tattyhill@gmail.com), when he’s not skimming dozens of anthology submissions a month, or reviewing one hundred or so books a year for Q Syndicate, or turning turgid bureaucratic prose into comprehensible English for the Inter-American Development Bank or the Reeves of Renfrew County, Ontario, or coordinating the judging of the Lambda Literary Awards, or crafting the best croutons ever at his weekend work in a Bowen Island recovery center kitchen, likes to startle deer as he walks terrier/schnauzer Zak, accompanied by husband Asa, through the island’s temperate rainforest. In season, he fills pails with salmonberries, blackberries and huckleberries. Yum. Since 1997, he has edited almost forty erotic anthologies, though “pornographer” was not an original career goal.

LARRY DUPLECHANis the author of five novels, including Blackbird and the Lambda Literary Award–winning Got ’til it’s Gone . His first novel, Eight Days A Week , was banned from the Illinois State Penal System for being “without redeeming social value.” As you read this, he is very likely studying New Testament Greek or reading a gay erotic comic book on his iPad.

Copyright © 2012 by Richard Labonté. Introduction copyright © 2012 by Larry Duplechan.

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 by Cleis Press Inc., 2246 Sixth Street, Berkeley, California 94710.

eISBN : 978-1-573-44767-6

For Asa, my own BGE

“Bryce Canyon” © 2011 by Eric K. Anderson, reprinted with the author’s permission from Black Fire: Gay African-American Erotica , edited by Shane Allison (Bold Strokes). “Training Tyler” © 2012 by Jace Barton. “Sunday in the Park” © 2012 by Jamie Freeman. “The Robin Club” © 2012 by David Holly. “Translations” © 2012 by Roscoe Hudson. “Touched” © 2011 by Dale Lazarov and Kardyman. “Foreigners in Sitges” © 2012 by Shaun Levin. “Delivering the Goods” © 2012 by Anthony McDonald. “Commerce: A Not Very Cautionary Tale” © 2012 by David May. “Three Boys and a Boat—or Possibly Five” © 2012 by Tony Pike. “Your Jock” © 2012 by Simon Sheppard. “For Jordan” © 2012 by Rafaelito V. Sy. “Before the Plane” © 2012 by Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore. “Once Upon a Time, in 1969” © 1969 by Frenchy’s Gay Line and © 2011 by Dirk Vanden, excerpted and revised with the author’s permission from I Want It All (loveyoudivine Alterotica, 2011).