INTRODUCTION

Romance. It’s the emotional component of the erotic. Sucking and fucking are the easy parts. The hard part is falling in love. That’s what this collection is all about—the many ways one man woos and wins another. Sometimes it lasts for one intense hour. Sometimes it waxes, and then wanes. Sometimes it lasts forever. However romance happens, however long love lasts—a heartbeat to a lifetime—it’s a wondrous thing.

It happens in Jay Starre’s “Fucked on Kilimanjaro” as two hot men climb the cold slopes of a mountain. It happens in J. M. Snyder’s “Henry and Jim” when two old men reflect on years gone by. It happens in Max Pierce’s “Viva Las Vegas” when a man in a tuxedo redeems a disastrous date. It happens in T. Hitman’s “The Bike Path” when companions forever take a ride together. It happens in Shanna Germain’s “Coming Home” when two boyhood buddies reconnect while hefting bales of hay.

It happens in Jack Fritscher’s “The Rush of Love” when a muscle admirer plays all night with a muscle god. It happens in Natty Soltesz’s “A Not-So-Straight Duet” when teen boys cross over a very queer line. It happens in Dale Chase’s “The Empire Room” when hearts connect while mourning. It happens in Rob Rosen’s “Gone Fishing” when a dream man is lost then found again. It happens in Kal Cobalt’s “The Belt”—at the end of a belt.

Sometimes romance is a fairy tale: that’s one magical part of Shaun Levin’s “Boyfriends: A Triptych.” Sometimes the memory of romance hurts: Simon Sheppard explores that pain in “Falling.” Sometimes ghosts from the past have the power to shape a couple’s future: Jameson Currier imagines just that in “The Country House.” Sometimes love heals, truly heals: Victor J. Banis illuminates the possibility in “The Canals of Mars.” Sometimes the flame of romance flickers: Jason Shults confronts that reality in “What the Eye Reveals.” And sometimes the world conspires to snuff out the flame: Matthew Lowe writes heartrendingly about two boys in love and their wistful fate.

Sex happens in our lives, and some of the sixteen stories in this collection are as sexually rough as they are romantically tender. Whether rowdy or mushy, though, these tales celebrate the coming together of souls as well as of bodies—the wonderful possibility of happily ever after.

Richard Labonté

Calabogie, Ontario/Bowen Island, British Columbia

September 2007