Tough Guys: Stirring Stories of Rock-Hard Sex

by Bill Brent (Editor), Rob Stephenson, Jack Fritscher

Tough Guys is a no-nonsense, hands-on collection of stories that PROBE the depths of edgier sex play between leathermen, hustler boys, marines, thugs, martial artists gone haywire, rednecks, fratboys.... Here, fearless fantasies crash into brutal realities with powerful results.Tough Guys features many classic Tough Guy * Aaron Travis' scorching tale of a fraternity god taking control of a submissive new student* Larry Townsend's ruthless story of a burglar who finds a whole lot more than he intended in the basement of the house he's trying to rob * Jack Fritscher's sensual portrait of a good boy turned very bad boy by the misfortunes of war and rotten influences * M. Christian's sneaky, Southern-fried depiction of a hunky pimp in a sleazy New Orleans hotel* Fledermaus' sadistic saga of Nazi bastards and kinky Russian dancing boysTough Guys is also brimming with sexy stuff from newer * Taylor Siluwé's story title, A Taste For Cherries, speaks for itself * Kurt Hoffman's evil fairytale about a prisoner who gets more than he bargained for from his Warden and the Devil himself * Thom Nickles` twisted look at what happens when bored rich boys find wayward street boys at the mall * Steven Schwartz's glimpse into the head of a sex-crazed martial artist * Ian-Andrew McKenzie's gnarly humor in telling how a little jealously does wonders for keeping your redneck boyfriend hot and spicy This anthology is perfect for venues catering to a clientele that enjoys gay male erotica. There are few new hard-edged gay erotica titles in print, and this book fills that niche. It is released as a companion to TOUGH Down and dirty dyke erotica (1-892723-12-3).

Genres: Erotica, Gay Erotica, Gay

300 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2001

About the author

Mr. Brent was involved in the Bay Area bisexual, BDSM, Black Leather Wings radical faerie, and pro-sex literary communities in the 1990s. He published The Black Book – one of the first queer and alternative sexuality directories – and edited or contributed to more than 30 erotic anthologies. Bill Brent, a prolific author of sex-positive literature and a member of San Francisco's alternative sexuality communities, died during the weekend of August 18-19. He ended his life by jumping off the Golden Gate Bridge after a long struggle with depression and chronic pain. He was 52.

"Bill was a leader in the fin de siecle San Francisco erotic and sex radical renaissance in countless ways," said author Susie Bright, former editor of On Our Backs. "He published so many great people, he was endlessly generous, and a devoted literature person in every way."

Mr. Brent was born July 17, 1960, and grew up mainly in the East Bay. Recalling his less than happy childhood he once wrote, "[San Francisco] was my home away from home, that suburban hell where I'd spent most of the 1970s in a deep depression knowing that I was a freak, a rebel, an outcast every time I boarded the bus for the lunatic asylum called high school."

Mr. Brent attended San Francisco State University in the late 1970s, where he studied theater arts. He got involved in the punk rock scene and began to frequent gay sex venues in the city. After college he performed with Bay Area drama groups, tap danced, and helped start a theater company.

In the late 1980s Mr. Brent began volunteering with San Francisco Sex Information. Noting the lack of a comprehensive compilation of sex-positive resources, he produced the first of six editions of The Black Book in 1992, which he described as "a resource for everyone sexual in the 'other' category – everyone who wasn't married and having children, basically."

"Bill lived his whole life never apologizing for two important things: who he was and what he was into," said longtime friend and colleague Thomas Roche. "He didn't hide his bisexuality from the gay community. Now many people prefer the less restrictive, more inclusive, and for many more descriptive term 'queer.' But Bill is one of the people who helped invent that queer identity, well before it was fashionable. He helped show a bunch of people just how much their own rights to their own identities could matter."

Mr. Brent started a small publishing company, also called Black Books, while supplementing his income with temp word processing and freelance desktop publishing gigs. As "Uncle Bill" he wrote an advice column for Anything That Moves, the first national bisexual magazine, and in 1993 he began publishing his own sex magazine, Black Sheets.

"Bill was a wonderful writer, but to my mind his greatest importance came in the way he created queer/bi/pansexual literary community," said Carol Queen, founding director of the Center for Sex and Culture. "He introduced many new writers via the zine, readings, and anthologies, and many of them remained close even after Bill left the Bay Area."

"Bill had a particular knack for befriending difficult people, 'unlikable' people, people who were stubborn and opinionated, the awkward and the shy and the clueless," added Black Books colleague Lori Selke. "This is a big part of what made his community-building so successful."

Black Books was not financially lucrative, and to raise funds Mr. Brent started producing the Perverts Put Out reading series – which continues today – and hosting Black Sheets pansexual play parties.

"Bill threw the kind of sex parties where you would find people around a snack table talking about geometry in the garden," said author Kirk Read. "His social world encompassed all genders and all generations. I watched him bring writers and sex pigs into communal settings and I took notes."

"In the 1990s, as the emerging mainstream gay media championed same-sex marriage and gays in the military, Bi

Reviews

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

This early paperback anthology is a much more substantial volume than several that I've bought lately in ebook - lots of stories, and several really good ones. Plus, this anthology has Larry Townsend's amazing and hot "Stockholm Syndrome" which is the earliest m/m stockholm syndrome story I ever read and still my favorite.

In particular, the Aaron Travis story is disturbing and excellent, and I also really enjoyed the M. Christian 'What Ails you'.

The table of contents are:
Foreword: "What Is It About Rough Trade?" Patrick Califia
Introduction: Rob Stephenson and Bill Brent
"The Jealousy Game" Ian-Andrew McKenzie
"Leather Dreams" Dominic Santi
"A Taste for Cherries" Taylor Siluwe
"Uptown. Downtown." Mischa Laurent
"What Ails You" M. Christian
"Disciplined Lover For a Marine" Doug Rice
"Punks: A Transgression" Simon Sheppard
"Craning" Steven Schwartz
"Sebastian" Doug Harrison
"Fair Use" Charles Anders
"Monsters: Wrath So Surely Aimed" Bart Magma
"How Buddy Left Me" Jack Fritscher
"The Warden" Kurt Hoffman
"Sneakers!" Thom Nickels
"Bandidos" TruDeviant
"The Stockholm Syndrome" Larry Townsend
"Four Stars" Karl von Uhl
"East Meets West" Bill Brent
"Wounds" B.J. Barrios
"Dance Master" Fledermaus
"The Frat Boy and the Faggott" Aaron Travis

[Zach · Rating 2 out of 5]

A story was great, Uptown, Downtown was hot and the last lines made it even hotter. Most of the rest were plainly written as if even the writer was just hitting the notes but not really caring if they came together. They all have the ‘hot tough guy’ they all have the guy that wants to kneel (after being forced in some stories) but none of the others really came to life for me.

[Flibertigib]

good variety & goal, but i wasn't too impressed with the writing quality of this collection. bad enough that i stopped reading it, though i suppose others might like.

[Kidrocket]

good variety & goal, but i wasn't too impressed with the writing quality of this collection. bad enough that i stopped reading it, though i suppose others might like.