cover image Hot Copy: Classic Gay Erotica from the Magazine Era

Hot Copy: Classic Gay Erotica from the Magazine Era

Dale Chase. Lethe (lethepressbooks.com), $18 trade paper (260p) ISBN 978-1-59021-598-2

Read as they were published, one at a time over the course of eight years, Chase’s stories for gay erotic magazines would not be as obviously similar, but with the structure specified in advance and the characters hardwired into top and bottom personas, an unfortunate tonal sameness dampens the fire of this collection. Collected from the pages of the now-defunct publications Men, Freshmen, In Touch, and Indulge, these works clearly had to fit exacting editorial requirements, and the haphazard sequence of the collection makes it difficult to ascertain exactly when Chase began to develop her own style. “L’Artiste,” in which a painter captures a sexual act as it is happening, demonstrates a desire to explore the artistic side of erotica; the act of writing it is explored rather brilliantly in “Jumpstart,” in which a writer’s imagination provides as much sexual energy as the act itself. Gems such as “Falling,” which manages to be at once scorching and full of pathos, are scattered throughout, but the majority of the collection mostly demonstrates Chase’s ability to write to her editors’ specifications. (May)