WILLIAM MALTESE: LOVE HURTS PART 2
Author Interview by A. J. Llewellyn
10. What’s the weirdest fan letter you ever got?
You know, I’ve had really very few fan letters in my life and/or letters that panned my writing. I don’t know if that’s because my editors just put most of them in the circular file, and didn’t bother to forward them on to me, or if no one ever got around to writing them, in the first place. This, I think, though, has turned out to be an advantage, because I’ve ended up merely writing what I want to write, with very little feedback either pro or con, from anyone, anywhere, any time, including readers. “Write what you like to write,” is the advice I always give to anyone who asks me for a writing tip.
Readers can usually tell if you’ve enjoyed writing something or if you have just trudged on through it to make a deadline. Even if readers can’t tell, though, why waste time and energy writing something that’s not providing you with personal pleasure — aka …with a raging boner. (The exception, of course, is the end-of-the-process boring-but-necessary proofing which I’ve never found in the least bit fun — unlike some writers who revel in the process)..
11. I didn’t actually mean nasty fan letters. I meant some weird, head case type of email or letter. One of the first I got was an email – from a woman actually – who wanted a photo of me naked on a horse. I thought was weird until I got to the part where she said if I didn’t have a photo of me naked on a horse, a photo of the horse would do!!! LOL. Hey, maybe you don’t have any loony readers? Have you never had anything weird like that?
First off, I was the one — not a woman after all — who wrote asking you for that picture of you naked on horseback. What’s more, I don’t remember letting you off the hook (although it’s not a hook I have visions of putting you on), by saying it was okay for you to skip sending me that photo of you naked and just go for a pic of the horse. So get naked, cowboy, get on that horse, and let me get a camera — after which we can both ride!
AJ says: Wait, wait…my kingdom for a horse!
As for any weirdoes in my life…
There was the letter from the fan who wanted me to get a rubber cast made of my hard penis so he could stick it up his ass, wear it to work each day, and think of me. I diplomatically told him that I simply didn’t have the time, what with deadlines and all, to take the time for the casting, but I hoped he’d enjoy the autographed copy of my book, LOVE HURTS (its title pretty much telling him what he could have expected from using any from-life rubber casting of my erect dick as a butt-plug), that I was sending him. A while later, he wrote back to thank me for the book:
“Dear William. Your book was much appreciated. But as well and as often as I lube it, I still can’t make it fit.”
12. LOL!!!! Okay, now, please tell me about your writing routine. This would be an obvious question for any author, however your output is mind boggling. Do you write every day? Are you juggling books constantly? Do you have any special/bizarre routines to get the muse in line or do you just Do It?
I try to write every day, of course, in that a routine is really good for me in jump-starting my creative juices, especially if I don’t really think I’m up to moving forward on a project. And, I know from experience that some of my writing most enjoyed by other people has been what I’ve written just because I was in there plugging away with a good work ethic.
That said, I’m very good at procrastination, and I can sometimes waste hours doing completely mindless things (like jacking off to Ravel’s Bolero, or to Marte’s Fuck Me), that provides very little income, and which many people would consider a complete waste of time. Then, again, scratch both of those from the mindless-category list, because I used the Bolero jack-off in SLOVAKIAN BOY and the other in SUCKS! FIRST BOOK OF THE DRAQUAL VAMPYRE CHRONICLES.
As for juggling books (I’d much prefer juggling your balls), I’m usually writing just one book at a time, even though I’m often anxious to begin something new. I get confused enough with characters and plot lines in one book without trying to coordinate those with other characters and plot lines elsewhere. The few times, I’ve indulged a sudden whim to stop something in the middle, in order to move, even temporarily, on to something else, I’ve found my return to the initial project finds me without a clue as to where I am or where I’m going; it’s like starting all over again.
Knock on wood, but I usually have more visitations from the muse than I know what to do with. This can be disconcerting, in that I’m usually involved in one project when another idea hits me and, suddenly, I’m anxious to get on with this new project, although I have a commitment to finish the one on which I’m working.
I’ve no really bizarre routines that I can think of, but I do have a tendency to be inspired to write whole books just because of a person, or place, or thing I’ve seen. I spot someone really attractive and I base a whole book around a character who looks just like him or her (maybe my attempt to fuck a beautiful person by proxy, since the moment of initial visualization was too short-lived to act upon?). I visit a geological area like the Matto Grasso of Brazil, and it provides a cornucopia of inspiration (BEYOND MACHU, BLOOD-RED RESOLUTION, LOVE’S EMERALD FLAME, SS MANN HUNT). I hear that the musk from the glands of certain animals is used in perfumes, and I write ADONIS. Things like that.
Oh, yes, I’m really good at writing a whole book based just upon what I consider a really good double-entendre title. Very ironic, in that it’s surprising how many publishers end up changing original titles.
13. I’m leaving the curlier questions for later. Did you notice that? So…your books Diary of a Hustler and Slaves are obviously very erotic, but also well detailed. One of the trademarks of a Maltese book the rest of us can only dream of…how er…well researched are you in the area of hustlers, rent boys and willing, wanton bottoms?
“Curlier?” As in public hair? “Hey, your bush is curlier than mine!”
Anyway … as regards hustlers, rent boys, and willing, wanton — Fuck it to me, big boy! — bottoms…
I’m actually more of a voyeur than a participant, if the truth be out … in … out … in … oh, baby, yes, fuck my tight asshole with that studly big dick of yours! This, I think, may well be what saved me from getting AIDS during the halcyon days when people would and could go to bed at the drop of a pair of pants, or a mere unzipping of a fly, forget the rubber, or would and could strip naked for a roll around in dark rooms with other sexually active people equally turned on by sharing body liquids on greased rubber sheets — just for the pure pleasure (dangerous, as it turned out) of it.
A much repeated story of mine is one the guy who once told me that he was a fan, but that if I didn’t slow down, I’d be burned out by twenty. I was twenty-five at the time.
I do admit to knowing an awful lot of people in the sex business (whether on street corners, via call-boy services, or in front of cameras). I’ve found it fascinating from the get-go (maybe because I have my degree in marketing/advertising), as to how some people can, and some people can’t, successfully market and advertise their own bodies, and the sex performed by those bodies, for profit on the marketplace.
While some prostitutes, male and female, take to the streets out of pure necessity (abuse in the home, for instance), and have a difficult time trying to cope, let alone to survive and to thrive in the sex-for-sale/hire venues, I’ve always been more interested in those select few with innate smarts, some even with college degrees (although, any college degree is more an indication of having had money to spend than it ever is an indication of gleaned intelligence; I tell you that from first-hand experience), who can look upon what they do as merely another business opportunity, without any attending angst, and can make a genuinely successful run for the money.
Having heard so many horror tales of hustlers and prostitutes and rent boys and wanton bottoms whose lives are ruined by selling their bodies, I decided, early-on, to concentrate on just the opposite and stick pretty much to chronicling mainly the lives of those who actually thrive in the business. While I’ve had some criticism that books like my SLOVAKIAN BOY (about the eastern-Euro-twink porno film business), and DIARY OF A HUSTLER (about a U.S. call-boy service), are too Pollyannish and too-seen-through-rose-tinted-glasses in their reporting, I can only just say that there are people out there who do enjoy fucking and sucking, and can deal with doing it for money, and do make good life for themselves from doing just that, without ending up spending the whole latter parts of their lives on shrinks’ couches. Everything has two sides to it, including the sex business, and I’ve just made it my mission to report on some of the less dark and gloomy aspects of what many people think is JUST plain sleaze.
14.You are not afraid to tackle the provocative issues. Your adventure book SS Mann Hunt springs to mind. Did you find any controversy around the release of this title?
You want controversy, how about my m/f SS&M? Now, there’s one of my books so hard-core S&M (although there is a moral to the story), that I had it literally locked away in a deep-dark trunk for thirty years, thinking it would never find a publisher (a lesson to every writer who threw away something thought unpublishable, for whatever the reason or reasons, at the time it was written). I still read through it and shudder at the monster in me that could come up with some of that truly Marquis de Sade shit.
Oh, if only it had been “banned in Boston”, though; SS MANN HUNT as well. Think of the people who would have immediately rushed off to buy it.
The truth, though, is that my life and my work have been (sadly? gladly!) lacking in controversy. I simply don’t get hate mail (maybe I’m too hard to find; maybe everything I do is considered in conjunction with the whole body of my work; maybe I’ve been around so long — so ready, willing, and able to come back with a scathing retort — that people are simply reluctant to express their opinions to this poor old soul).
Whatever, I don’t recall any parents ever complaining about one of my books in local libraries (maybe because none of my books are there?). I’ve never had protestors marching outside during any of my radio or television interviews. Go figure! I guess, I’m just a nice guy who tries his best to be controversial, but who can’t get anyone interested enough to give a damn. Story of my life! Not that I’m anxious to have anyone begin the harassment, at this late point of the game, thank-you very much.
And, you really think SS MANN HUNT is controversial? I know it’s about the Nazis and the Jews, but years after the fact. I’ve always looked upon it as just a nice little love story of two men meant for each other but kept apart by circumstances. Pretty much the plot line for most of my m/m books. Ahhhhh, love … especially in the jungles of the Matto Grasso where SS MANN HUNT takes place.
15.What is your favorite sexual position? In life and in art?
Color me versatile! Although do keep in mind my mention of how I’m easily bored (that does include in the bedroom), and remember that you’re talking to someone who has actually tried all of the postures of the Kama Sutra, although not, admittedly, having mastered all of them (something definitely to which to look forward). Oh, if only I had the flexibility of a dog, I wouldn’t need anyone else but me! Then, again, my lack of flexibility keeps me from complete perfection (just kidding, although maybe not).
So, I like all sexual positions, always looking for new ones, and I enjoy tremendously watching other people in all sexual positions who are, likewise, trying to discover and assume new ones.
Whether or not anyone ever really enjoys bedtime with me, is another story. I’ve been told by many — so it must be true — that I’m way too much “third person” during sex. Meaning, I guess, that I’m more interested in the how of this, and the how of that, and what happens when this happens and what happens when that happens, as a kind of clinical exercise as regards what causes orgasms in the end (pun intended), than I’m ever interested in the spontaneity of love-making.
On behalf of Dark Diva Reviews, I would like to thank William Maltese for stopping by today – a major thrill for all of us. I would also like to thank him for allowing me to shamelessly flirt with him!
Well, thank-you, too, AJ. My pleasure — especially if you’d like to step on over here and join me in stripping down. I feel the inspiration for a new book coming (cumming?) on.
William, I think I just got hard…
Why don’t you let me give you a hand?
Oh, William!
You can find out more about this fascinating man and his work at:
www.williammaltese.com
www.myspace.com/williammaltese
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