I don't have much formal training as a writer and it's hard for me to pinpoint my influences. These probably range from popular song lyrics (my first major "literary project" was to write a full-scale musical at age 17 -- script, music, and lyrics), to hallucinogens, to the sex zine revolution of the early '90s. In terms of specific authors in the "literary canon," I enjoy F. Scott Fitzgerald, Virginia Woolf, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and all the dystopian stuff (Orwell, Golding, Huxley, etc.). Novels about animals are another influence (Watership Down, The Incredible Journey, Call of the Wild, Charlotte's Web, etc.). Elsewhere, that range of novels or bios about crazy women (Sybil, Three Faces of Eve, the Bell Jar, I Never Promised You A Rose Garden) warped my mind early on as well. Xaviera Hollander (the Happy Hooker) was an early influence on my sex writing and sexuality. OUT OF THE CLOSETS, INTO THE STREETS (an early gay / lesbian anthology edited by Allen Young and Karla Jay) was also seminal.  Also flannel. It would be very difficult for me to write if I couldn't wear flannel at least some of the time.  Here's an official bio, which I have placed here for anyone who needs a blurb they can select from for press or other media:  Bill Brent is the author of THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO ANAL SEX FOR MEN (Cleis Press, 2002; published in French as LE PLAISIR ANAL [pour lui], Editions Tabou, 2006). His fiction and essays appear in over 30 anthologies, including EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT SEX IS WRONG, THE BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 1997, BEST GAY EROTICA 2002 and 2004, BEST S/M EROTICA, TOUGH GUYS, BI GUYS, ROUGH STUFF plus its sequel, ROUGHED UP. H is essay "Martin Luther Goes Bowling" appeared in EVERYTHING YOU KNOW ABOUT _GOD_ IS WRONG, and a 12,000 word sex-and-drugs memoir in ENTANGLED LIVES: MEMOIRS OF 7 TOP EROTICA WRITERS. He co-edited the BEST BISEXUAL EROTICA series with Dr. Carol Queen, the second volume a Finalist in the 14th Lambda Literary Awards. His articles have appeared in the San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Bay Times, other magazine, P.O.V., and at GoodVibes.com. He has authored several chapbooks of his poems, short prose, illustrations, and photos. For details, or to subscribe to his email newsletter, click on the "Newsletter" link in the upper right hand corner of this page. Otherwise, you can drop him a line at GetLitBoy AT gmail.com.

publisher, Black Books, San Francisco CA (founded June 1992)