| The Independent
Gay Writer (TIGW) Interviews Prolific Author William Maltese | |
| TIGW:
A lot of your readers think you just appeared spontaneously out of the
blue in 1998 with the publication of your best-selling short-story
collection (now
into its second edition) CALIFORNIA CREAMIN’.
But, according to
queerhorror.com,
your VALLEY OF THE DAMNED — the very
first gay werewolf story —
came
out in the seventies. WM: It was actually my tenth published book, at the time. And, there have been over one-hundred books, by one pseudo or another, since then. Though I first published in non-fiction article format, my senior year in university. TIGW: That non-fiction would have been for the men’s magazine that detailed your real-life adventures hunting for treasure in the South American jungle. WM: Yeah, in the summer between my junior and senior years of college. To this day, I keep getting myself in these butch situations wherein I find myself wondering: “What in the hell am I doing here?” TIGW: You climbed Mt. Rainier and wrote about it. You climbed the Great Pyramid of Giza and wrote about it. You hiked Zanzibar and wrote about it. You trekked Macchu Picchu and wrote about it. You wandered the ruins at Great Zimbabwe and wrote about it. WM: Those last three, respectively, inspiration for my three Super Romances for Harlequin: LOVE’S EMERALD FLAME, FROM THIS BELOVED HOUR, and LOVE’S GOLDEN SPELL. TIGW: Harlequin’s Senior Editor George Glay called you in, because you had a history of published romances and hetero erotica at the time. WM: Three romances for Carousel and numerous hetero erotica. George wanted to update the Harlequin image. It was the eighties, after all, and Harlequin was just still reprinting English publisher Mills and Boon romances with no premarital sex. George figured my crossover expertise would work for them. As it turned out, it did. My Harlequin books, translated into six foreign languages, became worldwide bestsellers. TIGW: Speaking of hetero erotica, is it true you wrote STARSHIP INTERCOURSE? WM: One of the many I assembly-line produced in that genre. TIGW: Which means, you’re straight, bi, gay? WM: Which means, I’ve had sex with men, I’ve had sex with women, I’ve been to bed, simultaneously, with both. Which did I enjoy most? Degree of enjoyment always dependent upon a lot of things: time, place, mood, emotional involvement (or lack thereof). What I really think I am, more than anything, these days, especially since the onset of AIDS, is a voyeur. TIGW: “More voyeur than anything,” what one critic said about the protagonist of your Stud Draqual Mystery Series. WM: My cue, that, shamelessly to plug Book Two, THAI DIED, of my Stud Draqual Mystery Series, just on the stands. Everyone buy it, please!  TIGW: Is Stud Draqual you? WM: Partly, I suppose. Except, I had far less qualms about hopping into bed with my first guy than poor Stud is having. Unlike Stud, I suspect I would have been naked with THAI DIED’s gay mercenary, Jeff Billing, in a New York minute. TIGW: The Jeff Billing character drawn from your black-ops experiences in the Army? WM: Most of my three-year enlistment was spent behind a desk in Personnel. TIGW: The Army didn’t ask, you didn’t tell — about you having slept with men, I mean. WM: Aside from the prevalent myth that anyone who joined his buddies at some local whorehouse couldn’t possibly be gay, there’s a whole protect-each-other’s-ass gay subculture existent within the military structure. But that’s another story. TIGW: You went to Bangkok for R&R when you were in the service? WM: Didn’t just about every soldier stationed in the Orient at the time? It’s a well-remembered live sex performance in a Bangkok club that provided the inspiration for the on-stage sex in THAI DIED. | TIGW:
One critic said Stud’s inability to fess up to his gayness,
even in the
highly charged homosexual atmosphere prevalent in Bangkok’s
sexual
underbelly, had that critic thinking that you and your publishers
calling Stud Draqual Mysteries “gay” is false
advertising. WM: Look, the very reason I decided to write a series is because of the extra time and wordage it provides me for more detailed character development. If we were talking just one book, here, or even a short story, sure Stud would likely be out of his closet by now. But why not let him progress at his own pace? Not everyone, even in this enlightened age where coming out is no big thing for some kids, has an easy time of it. Stud is just one of those people. TIGW: Is it true you returned to Thailand, after the service, in the role of “toy-boy”? WM: (laughs) Jesus! TIGW: I heard “an older woman”. I heard “a lot of first-class travel”. I heard “winters in the tropics, summers in The Hamptons”. WM: It was fun, there, for a time… TIGW: I heard she died. WM: Yes. TIGW: But you kept on traveling? WM: Not quite as much fun when spending my own money, by the way, but, yes, I did keep on traveling. TIGW: To England to help Prowler launch a line of gay books to enhance its bargaining position for the Prowler-Millivres merger. To Germany when Rotbuch Krimi bought German-language rights to A SLIP TO DIE FOR (DESSOUS ZUM STERBEN); you stayed on in Germany to do LUST AUF SCHWEISS for Bruno Gmünder, as well as write your gay cause célèbre erotic short-story “Doppelmörder” for inclusion in Querverlag’s QUEER CRIME. The latter having had at least one mainstream German reviewer call you a “Grand Master of Mystery”. “Doppelmörder” still not translated into English, by the way, right? And, why not publish it in English, what with all of the attention it got in Germany? WM: Maybe it’ll be included in my new short-story collection, tentatively entitled MORE CALIFORNIA CREAMIN’ (sequel to my CALIFORNIA CREAMIN’), due out the first of next year from Green Candy Press. TIGW: Your last two books were published not by foreign but by U.S. publishers. THAI DIED by Green Candy Press, SS MANN HUNT by Writers Club Press. WM: Nine/eleven made traveling less appealing as a pastime. It also made me want my publishers closer to home. TIGW: And where in this total time-line are those infamous “Playgirl” photos? WM: Not yet “Playgirl” photos. Maybe never to be “Playgirl” photos. It’s my understanding, they’ve only been “offered up for consideration”. TIGW: We are talking nudes of you? WM: God, was I ever that young and that thin and that…? Taken a seeming eternity ago, back in those misty beginnings of my porno-publishing career when the ongoing philosophy of my publisher was, “Show some cock, sell some books”. Worked, too, before the photos slipped into oblivion. Now back. To haunt me? Nah! I never looked so good as I did back then, although I didn’t know it at the time. TIGW: True that the guy who tracked the negatives down actually gave you the option of nixing his submission of them to “Playgirl”. WM: As I said: I never looked better. And who knows, even in this day and age, some cock might sell some books, even a second time around. TIGW: Back on the subject of your books. What’s next? WM: A third Stud Draqual book, of course. Don’t ask for a preview, though, because I presently haven’t a clue. MORE CALIFORNIA CREAMIN’, already mentioned. Presently, I’m putting the finishing touches (no pun intended) on a one-hand reader, THE RAVENS CONSPIRACY; I’m seriously thinking of putting the younger me on the cover of that one, in that event I have a couple of old negatives lying around [See Accompanying photo]. I’m in tentative negotiations for a possible Draqual Fashion line of clothes. And can I mention my new website http://www.williammaltese.com that is, even now, under construction, with the help of a genuinely brilliant and to-be-highly-recommended website designer, Carlton Donaghe [contact]. Any relation, do you think, to the TIGW editor? END |
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