DIRK VANDEN: "Pioneer of Gay Literature"

All Together, the complete All Trilogy, is available here for Kindle, and from loveyoudivine Alterotica in ebook formats.
It includes the revised versions of I Want it All, All The Way and All is Well. Plus for my fans you can download a FREE pdf Mental Movie treatment of I Want It All! Click here.
Down The Rabbit Hole (the revised edition of Leather) is available from Amazon in print, and loveyoudivine Alterotica in ebook formats.
The following notes are about my books, with how and why they were written.

I have been called 'A Pioneer of Gay Erotica,' so the published reviews and comments are legitimate parts of Gay History and not merely attempts at my own self-promotion - although, they are admittedly that, as well. In 1995 I was encouraged by several sources to try to get the All Trilogy republished. Gay historian, Gayle Rubin, wrote a letter to me which read, in part: 'I just want you to know how much these books have meant not only to me but to many of the men I've known and/or interviewed. Despite the fact that the books have been so long out of print, they are fondly remembered and quite influential.' She urged me to get the trilogy reprinted and I happily decided to follow her advice. The whole book-writing-publishing episode from 1969 to '73 seemed like a sex-dream where you wake up just before ejaculating - and then can't finish. Like un-cumming! It had seemed like a closed, exciting-but-painful chapter of my life, without the desired ending. I was hoping that republishing the books would reopen that door for me. Maybe this time would be more satisfying.
It wasn't.
As the republishing project took shape, I re-read the books - for the first time in twenty years - and decided that I wanted to change a few things. I was planning to revise all three, so some changes were made to make the three works more of a whole. When I WANT IT ALL was written in 1969, I had no idea it would be part of a series. When the publisher asked for a new novel, he suggested a sequel, and I decided to make the story about the best friend of the hero of the first book. I intended to call it ALL THE WAY because of a certain sex-act in the next-to-last chapter. Instead, for a reason I can't remember, the publisher called it ALL OR NOTHING. Upon re-reading, I decided that the main characters in the two books were too similar. They both swore like sailors and that characteristic seemed more appropriate to the character in ALL OR NOTHING, so I cut much of the gratuitous profanity in I WANT IT ALL.
Also, I realized that I had no Black characters, so I changed one of the minor but pivotal roles.
The two versions of I WANT IT ALL are still the same story, with the same events and eventual outcome; they're just different. I prefer the new version.
What followed publication in 1995 was almost-total-rejection, severe depression, psychotherapy, bankruptcy and a change of occupations: from Gay Author to File Clerk. Thirty years ago my books were banned in Canada! Last year a Canadian publisher, Arsenal Pulp Press, Vancouver, republished Richard Amory's SONG OF THE LOON, one of the most influential Gay books ever written, (see my review on www.amazon.com) and included in a critical appendix, two of my Gay magazine essays about Richard and his groundbreaking book and our doomed attempt to start an all-Gay Publishing Company! (It also features a fascinating & informative Introduction by Michael Bronski.) Thanks again, Richard Love, aka 'Amory,' for your support and all-too-brief friendship! His website is www.RichardAmory.com which is manned by his son, Cesar Love. (Who is not Gay.) If you haven't read Richard's excellent reviews of other Gay books of the time, PLEASE take the time right now to go there and do so.
Most recently, one chapter from I WANT IT ALL was just reprinted in a collection called 'HOMOSEX: Sixty Years of Gay Erotica,' by Simon Sheppard, and www.simonsheppard.com. Also available on Amazon.com, Bolerium.com, Alibris.com and your local Gay bookstore.