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Bill Lee began his fiction career with explicit gay pulp novels published as "work for hire" by Greenleaf Classics, San Diego, in the early '80s. His main interest was in exploring and describing the ways in which sexual feelings mirror the deeper personality structures of men, especially gay and bisexual men. Later he switched to short stories as a greater challenge where he could encapsulate personality development in a 3000-word vehicle. This allowed the further development of his own wry style, frequently displayed by a unique-twist conclusion especially evident in his leather-S/M stories. It was these stories that gave rise to the trademarked slogan, "One Hand Books for Two Fisted Men" and the now-famous icon of the leather man reading a book Although the seminal Leather Rogues is now out of print, the short stories are still available for downloads from the GLB Publishers web site at www.glbpubs.com/ebindexss1.html , and the print version of Rogues To Remember is available at a neighboring page, www.glbpubs.com/rogrem.html .
There was one frustration: no one would publish bisexual men's fiction. The "rule" of gay fiction writing in those days was to exclude women, "except for a doting mother in a few restricted scenes," or some such; the straight press would not tolerate a man touching another man except with his fists, it seemed. Neither the gay or lesbian communities would accept a man who had sex with women, nor did they accept women who responded sexually to both women and men.
Bisexuals, only beginning to emerge as individuals and to form groups, had no fiction voice. Bill Lee's novel, Bi Ranchers Bi Mates, (now available at www,glbpubs.com/bitoc.html ) gathered dust on the shelves until GLB Publishers was established. The historical bisexual novel, Different Slopes, (available on the same web page) came next. Perhaps the best is yet to come.
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