On the same day I learned that Alyson Books was moving up the publication date of my novel, First You Fall, a funny, sexy mystery about a male hustler living in New York City, I was elected president of the Parent Teacher Association (PTA) at my son’s elementary school.
The contrast was a little stark.
So, what’s a nice suburban dad like me doing writing a steamy mystery about a young hottie who practices the world’s oldest profession?
Let’s start with my deep love of mystery novels. One of my favorite series is by Janet Evanovich. Her Stephanie Plum books feature a plucky, often inept investigator who spends more time on the men in her life than she does solving her cases. I always enjoy how her books combine mystery, humor and romance.
Someone, I thought, should write a gay character whose investigative adventures are as funny and romantic as Stephanie’s. So, I did.
But first, I had to figure out what my lead would do for a living. Stephanie is a bounty hunter living in Trenton, NJ. Her job brings her into contact with a bunch of amusing and eccentric personalities. What could my protagonist do that would lead him to similarly interesting characters?
The idea I kept returning to was: Why not make him a hustler? It’s a profession that’s fascinated me since 1977 when, at the tender age of fifteen, a made-for-TV movie changed my life.
It was called Alexander, the Other Side of Dawn. It’s predecessor, Dawn, came out the year before. Eve Plumb, who, distractingly, I had grown up with as “Jan Brady,” played the titular Dawn, a teenaged runaway who becomes a prostitute.
At the time, there were a bunch of telefilms like this that were meant as cautionary tales for young people who might otherwise fall into lives of alcoholism, drug abuse or crime. The baby-faced Linda Blair usually played the lead, but sometimes other career-challenged former child stars stepped into the brink.
In any case, I loved Dawn. Even as a young teen, I recognized campy melodrama. Like most of the movies of this type, it only served to make me more interested in the illicit activities it decried.
Imagine, then, my delight when I heard that a sequel was being made about Dawn’s boyfriend, who goes to LA to find his missing girlfriend only to, you guessed it, wind up as a prostitute himself. A male prostitute! Who sleeps with other men! My fifteen-year old heart almost beat out of its chest.
I don’t remember much about the movie, but I remember the lesson I learned - that the best way for a kid like me to get laid was to peddle his papayas on the street. Alexander, The Other Side of Dawn was like my instructional manual for The World of Gay.
I’m glad I never actually worked up the nerve to turn tricks. In real life, hooking’s a job for grown ups. But there’s a part of me that remains fascinated by the romantic allure of the male hustler. Why don’t we see more of them?
The archetype of the female prostitute with a heart of gold is well established in books and movies like Pretty Woman, Risky Business, The Owl and the Pussycat and even The Happy Hooker. Depictions of male sex workers, on the other hand, are somewhat harder to come by (I’m sure there’s a pun in that somewhere, but let’s not go there, OK?).
So, I explored that role in my first novel. Kevin Connor, the protagonist of First You Fall, is a smart, savvy sex worker who provides a valuable service to his customers. He’s also sweet, funny and yes; he has a heart of gold.
So, in reality, while I may be a long-partnered father of two living in the suburbs, volunteering at my Unitarian Universalist church and serving on the PTA, in First You Fall, I got to enjoy a very different kind of life. If you’re in the mood for a funny, sexy mystery about a young guy with the kind of job they don’t prepare you for in college (well, at least not on purpose), you can, too.
If you do, will you let me know what you think? You can find me at www.scottshermanonline.com. Thanks!
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