Interview with Konrad Deire

    Recently, I got the chance to interview the esteemed author of gay fiction, Konrad Deire. Here he is!

  v   1. How did you get your start writing gay fiction and erotica?

Well, it all started a lonely evening in summer 2009 on facebook. I was chatting with some new gay friends and one asked me to do ‘virtual sex’. Of course I was horny, the boy from Australia, Brian, was 19 and smashingly handsome, he asked me what I would like to do to him and I just moved more and more into details, settings and sensations. Useless to say that it was beautiful and achieved for both of us the desired ‘results’ (lol!). 

But, most startlingly, Brian, never ceased to compliment me for my writing skills’ and he was the first to suggest to ‘write’. Of course I got a taste of virtual sex and I did it more and more, testing my ‘skills’ all over the globe. The success and compliments repeated themselves and I finally got the courage to write. My very first story, which is still on-line [https://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=135801578139&topic=10998] was a mock-up on Harry Potter’s gay discoveries at Hogwarts with Ron and Draco. I posted it on a new facebook group and within 2 weeks I had 15.000 registered members. Growing by a thousand a day. My next step was to write more and more and send my short stories to the fans for free. The success clearly was putting me over the edge. I was writing between 1 to 3 short stories a day and never seemed to run out of new ideas. The response was unbelievable. Unfortunately facebook shut down my group for pornography. At first I was devastated, but I started again. (and restarted 10 more times as I got canceled in continuation.) I also made fb friendship with other gay erotica authors, Cosmic Bulgeman and Marshall Thorton, who both have been an inspiration and a marvelous source of intel. 

Finally a very good friend of mine, an Italian publisher of alternative medicine books unveiled to me the mysteries of self-publishing and pointed me towards Amazons e-books. Sales at the beginning (February 2010) were slow but picked up towards November 2010 and literally exploding over Christmas. I had placed a wonderful bestseller “Memories of a pussy boy” which was really making tons of sales and royalties. I even started to dream to be able to live just from my writing. Most unfortunately the ‘Pussy Boy’ series deals with the coming-of-age story of a young boy who gets into high end prostitution and has wonderful adventures, but in the US any description of sex for underage characters is a taboo and unluckily about that time Amazon faced lots of criticism for a guy who had published a guide for successful pedophiles on the kindle readers. Amazon stepped up their censorship and got me into the net. They canceled 15 out of 52 published works of mine, among them almost all my bestsellers. It was a tough blow, but if these are the rules, I have to follow them, haven’t I? Anyway I republished a good part of my canceled works on smashwords and they are again available [https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41572]

I wanted to be a writer for all my life. Back in high school I had a fantastic teacher in German literature, she taught me more on life than my own father. I am a native German, but live in Italy for almost 30 years now since I was a teenager. English is not my main language. However, working and living in Asia for a good part of the year my English skills slowly improved. Being a recognized author in English is sort of the best compliment I could ever receive. Of course I get sometimes the critics that for example I mix up the UK English and the American English, but luckily this happens rarely, most of my readers are more interested in the content and the next phrase than to stop on semantics.

2.     2.   What inspires you?

I am a very lucky person. I am born and grown up in the most beautiful places in the world. I have traveled far and well. Genetically I am equipped with a fantastic memory, for example I can recall every image and every dialogue of any film I have ever seen. I get my inspiration from anything. It can be a picture, a news article, a story heard from a friend, a personal experience. All my books are auto-biographical and contain important parts of myself, my deepest dreams and thoughts. Once I start with a setting and build the characters, they just spring to life and move by their own force, I am merely an observer describing what ‘they’ are doing. Sometimes I feel schizophrenic. For example my characters in “A room with a view” [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00507GGRO] or “the Spring” [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052U6DNQ] are so much alive that I can feel them inside me like my own soul.

3.     3.   I've read a few of your beautiful gay love stories. Which ones would you say are your personal best and why? 

Well, that’s a tricky question, my readers prefer the more pornographic stories like ‘pussy boy’ [https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41572], according to my friends my best is “Playing Rachmaninoff in my heart” [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00378L6WI] which has also been published in paper back at Ravenous Romance in an anthology called “I kissed a boy”, or “la ville lumiére” [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00378L6OG] both of these are more epic journeys of a young gay character from denial to desire, from desire to love.

4.     4.  What do you hope to accomplish with your writing?

Well, as I said before, my dream is one day to live from writing. People who live from their own creativity are the luckiest people in the world. My stories are a roadmap to a happy and fulfilled gay life. Most of my readers are young (18-25 is the main group), I am getting lots of wonderful feed-back from them and it is always nice to see how my stories inspired them to improve their life. For example in my story “the gay ashram” [http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004M5HIAO] I venture into solving many of the pains, the guilt and doubts which trouble gay people. Besides of being one of my most graphic and explicit novels (lots of group sex) it contains wonderful insights into the psyche and fundamental differences on how to live and develop our gay identity. As all my books it also has a wonderful Hollywood-style finale which keeps the reader happy.

5.     5.  If you had one wish, what would it be?

I am looking forward to be a 100% writer, doing it as a full time job, living from it and giving all I have got.

Nathan, the world is changing, the New York Gay Marriage acceptance is an important milestone, because ‘if you make it there, you make it everywhere!’. I hope that in our lifetime the whole world will embrace gay tolerance and acceptance. As you know I live in Italy, gay marriage is a taboo here, due to the influence of the church; my boyfriend of 16 years lives in Bali which is part of Indonesia a predominantly muslim country with 0-tolerance for gays. I want to marry him and live together legally, the only way to do it is to go and live in another more tolerant country, or of course make a trip to Canada, but  besides being symbolic, the piece of paper has no legal value where we live. 

I hope that my writings will in some part help to build the acceptance of gay love and gay people throughout the world.

End of Interview

Konrad Deire's books are available online at Amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=sr_tc_2_0?rh=i%3Astripbooks%2Ck%3AKonrad+DEIRE&keywords=Konrad+DEIRE&ie=UTF8&qid=1312077934&sr=1-2-ent&field-contributor_id=B0046HUKOO

Why I love Lady Gaga

Recently, the state of New York has legislated gay marriage into law. I could not be happier. The gay rights movement is in full swing and it'll only be a matter of time before full marriage equality will be instated in every state of the country.

In many ways, the gay rights movement parallels the civil rights movement in the 1960's.  They were both grass roots movements that gradually gained steam and became national movements that influenced the course of history. I wait for the day that the President signs a national bill into law that ensures equal rights for all Americans.

Equality also has a personal meaning to me. Yes, I am a young gay man, so gay marriage affects me personally, but equality also means something to me on a deeper level, deep within my psyche.

When I was 14 years old and in junior high, a classmate caught me checking out other boys in the locker room after gym class. He asked me (and these were his exacts words), "Nathan, you're not gay or anything, are you?" Now, I wasn't a flamer nor was I obvious, but I definitely was gay.

My face all red, my heart pounding, I stammered, "No, no, of course not."

"Good," he said. "Because I hate those faggots, like Steve. My dad tells me they're full of AIDS."

Embarrassed that he had caught me checking out other boys, I nodded along, barely listening to his hateful speech. I felt guilty for not standing up for gays and lesbians and for Steve (who was my best friend at the time and the only one who was out in our rural, conservative junior high school), but I didn't want any trouble from the hater, who happened to be the school bully.

So, I high-tailed it out of the locker room.

But the nagging feeling of guilt persisted all throughout college. I should have stood up for my own kind, defended them or even admitted that I was gay, but I didn't. Instead of fighting, I fled the locker room. I felt like such a coward.

Why did I have to hide my sexuality? Was I not proud of who I was? Of course I was, but revealing my sexual preference would have gotten me in trouble. I was fearing for my life. I had heard about cases of gay bashing, like the Matthew Shepherd case. I wanted no part of that. I just wanted to live my life in peace, without fear that an intolerant, prejudicial meathead was waiting for me around the corner with a baseball bat.

But still, the feelings of guilt and cowardice have followed me all these years.

What does this have to do with Lady Gaga, you might ask?

She is a fighter. She stands up for equality. She stands up for those that have to hide, for fear of retribution and gay bashing. We need fighters like her on our side to say and do what so many people are afraid to say and do.

I remember watching her speech at the National Equality March in 2009. Her eloquence and passion brought me to tears. There was something about how much she cared for the plight of gays and lesbians all throughout the world that made me not only admire her, but gave me the courage to stand up for myself and others.

After watching Gaga's speech that day, I ran into that old bully on campus. Instead of turning around and fleeing like I did in junior high, I confronted him head-on.

My heart racing, I said, "You're an ignorant idiot. Gay people are not full of AIDS. And yes, I am a proud gay American."

The shocked look on his face made my feelings of guilt vanish. They festered there after all these years, now, they were gone.

I thought he might hit me, but he turned around and walked away. I never saw him again.

A proud smile spread across my face as I went home.
I stood up for myself.
I did not have to hide anymore.
And it was all thanks to Lady Gaga and her impassioned speech for gay rights.
It felt like a huge burden had been lifted off my shoulders.

I can't help but think what a better world this would be if everyone was like Gaga: tolerant, accepting, non-judgmental, loving.

Gaga, you rock!

My First Time Reading Gay Erotica

They say you never forget your first, and it's no different for me. My first time reading gay sex was this collection of short stories of fiction dealing with the subject.

I remember reading a story that involved two guys studying for a math test in one of their homes. One of them was really horny and had a thing for the other. The next thing I knew, they were having sex on the ground, enjoying mutual masturbation and using a protractor as a sex toy. It was the hottest thing I had ever read and that was when I knew that I had to become an author of gay erotica.

What about you? When was your first time reading gay erotica? And what happened in the story?

By the way, if anyone knows what the story I read is called (I've already forgotten the title. I just remember the hottest parts. I know - typical, right? lol), please let me know.