Richard Labonte – författare

Unlike their namesakes in the wild, the bears in this collection are decidedly sexier. Assembled by noted editor Richard Labonté, these tales take readers on a tantalizing tour of a gay subculture that''s sweet and raunchy — and sometimes both at once. Written by the most popular authors in the field of queer male erotica, these stories showcase bears and bear-lovers exulting in the pleasures of scruffy beards, hairy chests, burly bodies, and belly-to-belly sex unfettered by social constrictions.

Whether intricately secured by ropes, locked in handcuffs, or bound simply by a lover''s command, these dangerously explicit stories of restraint will grab you, tie you down, and never let you go. From professionals letting loose their inhibitions on an office retreat to a garden full of earthy ''bound'' delights this cornucopia of kink shows men put in their place and then held there firmly. Featuring some of the masters of gay bondage erotica including Jack Fritscher, Jeff Mann and Larry Townsend.

Whether you like it rough and surly, smooth and sultry, or quick and raw, you’ll find it in Best Gay Erotica 2008. Here are 20 of the hottest and best-written man-on-man sex stories to appear in print this year. In “Underground Operator,” two men on a nearly empty subway platform indulge in forceful, anonymous sex that lets them momentarily forget the stifling summer heat. “Donuts to Demons” finds a self-described “rock'n'roll artfag” searching for a lover “as patient and gifted and generous as he advertised on craigslist.”

Cleis’ Best Erotica series is the best-selling gay erotica series in America and with good reason. It sets the standard for erotic writing with searing action and stories that are smart, edgy, authentic, and wickedly inventive. Designed for your reading pleasure, Best Gay Erotica 2009 includes 20 of the hottest, best-written man-to-man sex stories to appear in print this year. Featuring the works of Simon Sheppard, Jeff Mann, Jamie Freeman, Robert Patrick, and more, these down-and-dirty page-turners showcase unique and in-depth characters that reflect gay lives not often found in erotic stories. From casual hook-ups to highly charged street encounters to dark backrooms, the men in this collection all let their lust and passions loose for all to read and enjoy.

Best Gay Romance 2009 is short fiction at its finest on the subject of love—first love, true love, and love everlasting (with makeup sex, wake-up sex, and everything in between). The romantic possibilities range from a surprising encounter between two blue-collar buddies to a brief airport rendezvous that become something more, and a reminder to us all that it is never too late for love. A self-confessed true romantic, Richard Labonté has gathered a sensational collection of stories about finding love at home, at work, at any age, and often, in the most unexpected places.

An explicit collection of young adult erotica, Boy Crazy explores in heady detail the “first time:” the first time feeling lustful toward another boy, the first time falling into bed with a peer, the first time discovering love with another young man. This youthful collection relishes the thrill of being crazy for a certain boy, for a moment or for a lifetime. In Jere M. Fishback’s “A Beautiful Motorcycle,” a young man shares a hotel room with his sister’s boyfriend and experiences a whole new kind of room service. Guitar lessons give way to instructions of a more amorous variety in L.A. Field’s “Summertime Blues.” Mesmerized by two hot young bikers, Warden finds himself taking a ride on the wild side in Jeffrey Rounds’ “This Is Not Your Country.” These and other stories of sexual awakening vividly evoke the trembling, heart-pounding, sweaty-palmed excitement of the first time.

This incendiary collection contains a wide range of erotic short stories that burns up the pages with unabashed, uninhibited sex between men. Here two young guys'' internet hookup leads to an exhibitionist encounter at a local shopping mall; a boy on the verge of manhood loses his gay cherry to the handyman of a local brothel; a college-bound boy raised by strict Christian parents comes out in the arms of his older brother''s best surfer buddy; and two sexual dynamos have their way with a willing military man. These stories will definitely make you sweat.

Sexy gay stories with a country twang. Something about the country brings out the best – and the sexiest – in a man, and country boys are a special breed. These tobacco-chewin’, cattle-ropin’ icons in temptingly baggy overalls or skin-tight wranglers rank with cops and soldiers as one of the most potent symbols of the naturally masculine male. Sweating and sensual not from the gym but from honest, hard work (and play), they come in all shapes, sizes, and erotic potential. City homos hike the wilds to commune with nature and nature boys. Gay pioneers enjoy rural living and loving. Lonesome queers meet for moonlight trysts in the cornfields. Whether yielding to the rugged charms of that hunky ranger during bear season or skipping the farmer’s daughter and bedding his accommodating son instead, the men of Country Boys: Wild Gay Erotica unabashedly explore the sizzling side of life far from the city lights.

One of the most powerful icons for gay men is the hunky, rough-hewn, authoritative daddy figure, who can offer hot kisses, warm embraces, and a firm hand with equal intensity. This collection of erotic stories reveals the unique sexual and emotional bonds between these older daddies and younger gay men: from twinks hankering for silver foxes to men with the meat of years on their bones mentoring spunky lads just coming out. Everything goes in these stories, from the sexually playful to the wistfully romantic, to hardcore S/M, to role playing, to extreme kink. Written by such masters of the genre as Doug Harrison, Jeff Mann, Xan West, Barry Alexander, Dale Chase, Shaun Levin, and more, these sizzling stories explore the world of men who may differ in age but have the same thing on their mind.

Lambda Award–winning editor Richard Labonté leaves no fetish unfulfilled in this new collection of gay erotica. This steamy collection contains a wide range of erotic short stories for readers with a taste for sizzling storylines and uninhibited, unrepentant mansex. Scott Promfret, coauthor of the Romentics series of gay romance novels, contributes “The Competitor,” in which a hunky athlete unexpectedly meets his match at the gym. Cat Tailor’s rollicking “Delta Boys” finds four randy soldier boys, back from the frontlines, living out their fantasies in a sleazy motel room.

Writers clamor to get into the Best Gay Erotica series because it sets the bar for the highest quality of sexy, gay stories. Richard Labonté is an icon in the field of erotic and romantic writing who has a knack for finding seductive, literary talent. Blair Mastbaum, author, editor, producer, and actor, selected this year's crop, picking top-notch stories that are unparalleled in hotness and excellence. Best Gay Erotica 2010 is the biggest page-turner of them all, with stories running the gamut of gay male sexual experiences, from first times to one-night stands, from long-time lovers to explosive group get-togethers. In "A Beautiful Place," a young male ingenue brings Hollywood to its knees, literally. "The Suburban Boy" reveals that the real magic kingdom in central Florida, where every erotic wish comes true. Contributors include Simon Sheppard, Rachel Kramer Bussel, David Holly, Nick Hudson, Marvin Partridge, Thom Wolf, and Jamie Freeman.

Best Gay Romance 2010 covers every romantic possibility with first love, true love, wake-up sex, makeup sex and everything in between. Richard Labonté has gathered a sensational collection of stories about finding love at home, at work, at any age, and often in the most unexpected places. Contributor David Holly's "meet cute" hook-up in "Guy Sydney," is a thoroughly modern love story, while Elazarus Wills's dramatic "A Companion for the Road" shows that many things get better with age. Trebor Healy's New Orleans star-crossed lovers in "Trunk" encounter voodoo, hoodoo, and an unexpectedly sweet surprise. Each story is redolent with romance, great sex, and characters who are fully fleshed out in more ways than one. Sometimes rowdy, always randy, and surprisingly tender, these tales celebrate the coming together of souls as well as bodies. Whether happily ever after or just a happy ending, Labonté continues to raise the bar on gay love stories.

Muscle Men is a celebration of the body beautiful, where men who look like Greek gods are worshipped for their outsized attributes. Editor Richard Labonté takes us into the erotic world of body builders and the men who desire them. These uninhibited stories are by the masters of the genre, including Jack Fritscher, Jeff Mann, Steven Bereznai, Tom Fuchs, and Ryan Field. At the gym, in the locker room, and especially in the steam room, the hunks who look hard, work hard, and play hard inspire fantasies the world over. Visit the masculine studs of Muscle Men to enjoy a taste of their strength and power.

Since it began in 1996, this groundbreaking series — hailed as “consistently outstanding” by the Lambda Book Report and as “literally orgasmic” by HX Magazine — has delivered the hottest gay male sex writing anywhere. In Best of Best Gay Erotica 3, editor Richard Labonté brings together the most daring, intense, and memorable stories from the series’ past five years. To pull together these intense, insightful stories, Labonté worked together with an impressive panel of judges, making sure this volume was a landmark in gay erotica.

From ruggedly handsome athletes to fresh-faced twentysomethings and ravishing male models, Beautiful Boys is a tribute to the glory of gorgeous gay men. Richard Labonté, master of gay erotica, has gathered sensational erotic stories that explore the undeniable attraction to classic good looks, charisma, and glamour. From sizzling porn bodies, and sultry neighborhood baristas, to sexy boys next door, scorching bathhouse tricks, and sublime Mr. Right Nows, it’s all here. "A Litany of Desire" tracks author Dan Cullinane''s encounters with beauty, and his subsequent desire over the years. Jamie Freeman’s "Bookended by Beauty," is the story of three men: a lovelorn narrator and the beautiful lovers (one older and one much younger) who come into his life and find a permanent place there. David Holly''s "The Solipsism of Narcissus" follows a handsome man who learns to marvel at another man''s beauty, not just his own. For men looking for those classic, Adonis types, Beautiful Boys is their ticket to fun.

Rough and surly, smooth and sultry, or quick and raw in public places — however you like it, you’ll find it in Best Gay Erotica 2007, twenty of the hottest and best-written sex stories to appear in print this year, along with fourteen pages of comics that aren’t for kids. In Jay Neal’s “The Lighthouse Keep,” a stranded traveler stumbles into a ghost story, a murder mystery, and a skin-tingling S/M thriller rolled into one, complete with B-movie storm effects and a gnarled ancient mariner. Cat Tailor’s “There’s More to Kink than Leather” follows a leather daddy as he makes a crucial misstep into a drag bar, where the queens are restless for new subjects. And in Greg Herren’s “Disaster Relief,” a renter whose apartment was flooded by Hurricane Katrina gets some unexpected comfort from a FEMA inspector.

The most seductive stories of love between men. In Best Gay Romance 2008, editor Richard Labonté shows that however romance happens, however long love lasts—a heartbeat or a lifetime—erotic love between men is a wondrous thing. In “Viva Las Vegas,” the narrator casts off his boy-next-door image and, dancing down the grand staircase at Caesar’s Palace into the arms of a handsome stranger, finally becomes the romantic leading man he always knew he was. In the beautiful, nostalgic “Endless Against Amber,” a man recalls a long-ago summer love, before adult life got in the way, “we were just two boys in a beat-up old car like so many others, cruising the neighborhood for a laugh, only one thing on our minds...”

Sexy gay stories set to the irresistible beat of the city. Many a confident urban gay man in the Castro, West Hollywood, and Chelsea was once a wide-eyed newcomer. Every year thousands of young men arrive in these queer-friendly neighborhoods, seduced by city life and its sexual possibilities. In Where the Boys Are, Richard Labonté collects raunchy memoirs and stories about these newly arrived country boys. Here are stories of first times, initiations, bars, backrooms, dance clubs, and parties, reading (or misreading) the codes — and sometimes teaching those city boys a thing or two.

Who hasn't been hot for a jock, or, for that matter, an entire team? Those sweat-drenched Lotharios induce lust in the heart of all and finally receive their due in Hot Jocks, erotic short stories with an athletic theme. Trophy-winning master editor Richard Labonte has gathered a collection featuring tales of inter-athlete lust, the skinny nerd's hots for a jock, and about unavoidable links between sports and sex. Wrestlers, quarterbacks, surfers, swimmers,boxers, soccer players, bowlers, divers, and martial artists: abound. We also venture outside the stereotypical jock box: cross-country runners, MMA fighters, badminton players, speed skaters, weightlifters, archers, rowers - even cricket players can be very sexy.

Richard Labonté is a self-confessed true romantic and it shows — Best Gay Romance 2011 covers every romantic possibility with first love, true love, wake-up sex, makeup sex, and everything in between. Labonté has gathered a sensational collection of stories about finding love at home, at work, at any age, and often in the most unexpected places. Sometimes rowdy, always randy, and surprisingly tender, these tales celebrate the uniting of souls as well as bodies. Each story revels in romance, great sex, and characters who are fully fleshed out (in more ways than one). Whether happily ever after or a happy ending, Labonté continues to raise the bar on gay love stories with compulsively readable great writing on true romance.

Best Gay Erotica 2011 is the biggest page-turner of them all, with stories that run the gamut of gay male sexual experience: from first times to one-night stands and from long-time lovers to explosive group get-togethers. Writers line up to get into Cleis Press' Best Gay Erotica series because it sets the bar for the highest quality of sexy, gay stories. With the the knack for finding seductive, literary talent, award-winning editor Richard Labonté is an icon in the field of erotic and romantic writing. This year's edition is hot-to-trot and globetrotting, featuring stories are incredibly diverse in both the people and the pleasures.

Best Gay Erotica 2006 is a cornucopia of searing man-sex. From the languid, Bolero-paced striptease of a magnificently buff lover in James Williams’s “The End” to the fevered gropings of a skater boy and a pink-haired goth in “DogBoy and the BetaGoth” by Nadyalec Hijazi and Ben Blackthorne, Best Gay Erotica holds something for every wicked taste. In Jeff Mann’s “Daddy Dave,” a lover awakens his gentle new partner’s dominant side by letting him witness a master's skillful savagery. Steven Zeeland’s “Trouble Loves Me” maps a porn director’s odyssey through a vivid underworld of bad boy marines, sailors, and submariners. Edited by Richard Labonté and selected and introduced by the inimitable Matt Bernstein Sycamore, Best Gay Erotica 2006 furthers the series’ reputation for gorgeous storytelling and hot, no-holds-barred sex between men. The book also features an excerpt from Dennis Cooper’s new novel The Sluts.

From hunky father figures to dominant leathermen, Hot Daddies collects stories capturing the erotic dynamic between younger and older men, their emotional connections, and the benefits of sexual mentorship. Contributors include storied master of the genre Jack Fritscher, writing about an 18-year-old's sizzling summer camp romp with both a daddy and his boy; Doug Harrison, contemplating the arousing possibility of a boy with two daddies; and Jeff Mann, exploring the dilemma of a young man torn between the comfort of his long-time boyfriend and the excitement of consensual submission. Erotica veterans Mark Wildyr, Gavin Atlas and Dominic Santi as well as younger authors Xan West, Jamie Freeman and Kyle Lukoff all celebrate the erotic charge that age and experience imparts. This unique collection of erotic stories reveals the sexual and emotional bonds between older and younger men: from boys falling for the charms of a beautiful bear, to twinks hankering for silver foxes, to world-weary men guiding spunky lads just coming out.

Presenting the best of five years of the steamiest, most provocative gay sex writing...The hottest stories from the best-selling gay erotica series in America! "Literally orgasmic." —HX Magazine "A must read." —In Touch "Full of surprises." —Bay Area Reporter "Consistently outstanding." —Lambda Book Report "An eclectic, provocative selection of stories." —Publishers Weekly