Issue 15 - April 2008

Who We Are

A few weird and wonderful facts about the staff and contributors of Forbidden Fruit.

	Editorial: Founder Fiona Glass Fiona lives in a pointy Victorian house in Birmingham (UK) with one husband, one visiting cat, several tropical fish and far too many spiders. She's been writing homoerotica for about ten years and had stories published by Torquere Press, Chippewa Publishing, Sultry Heat Publications, Velvet Mafia, and Sigil: Volume 2. Her first novel, Roses in December, a gay paranormal romance, has just been published by Torquere Press. One Degree of Separation, an e-book collection of eight poignant gay love stories, is also available from Torquere. Website | Yahoo Group | Email Editor, Organiser & Administrator Marg Whitfield Editor Liz Nicholson Liz has retired and can’t imagine how she ever found time to work as an English teacher, Trade Union Activist and Equal Ops writer/researcher/lecturer. She has now decided that the pen (or keyboard) is mightier than the daily commute and spends her time writing, reviewing and editing fiction that addresses the same issues. She also spends too much time reading Forbidden Fruit and other magical literature online. She lives in the UK in a partially restored 17th century house with a wildlife friendly garden. Other interests include travel, history, art and folksong. Editor Alex Hogan "I’ve been writing ever since teenage-hood when I first discovered the joy of escaping into stories, and of perhaps showing the world my own unique view.  Influenced early on by such writers as Mary Renault and D H Lawrence, I hope to try and capture some of the beauty they do. Having been lucky enough to grow up in the 1960s and escape all the hang ups of the 50s, and the returning conservatism of the 00's, I like to examine the difficulties some people have when faced with the challenge that society’s rules don’t fit them. And I also like to write quiet, gentle love (and at times erotic) stories about two people of the same gender.  I grew up in rural Australia and currently live in a small town on the outskirts of Melbourne, a major city in Australia.  I live there with my husband and two kids, one an autistic boy, the other a shy and beautiful teenage girl, who I home-school. Website Editor, Webmaster, Advertising Nigel Puerasch Nigel has written 4 novels and is working on another 4 in a number of genres.  His short novella, Redhead, was published by Aspen Mountain Press in March as part of an anthology.  In between writing romantic gay and bisexual fiction, he is a partner in a funds management and financial advice business, plays the clarinet and sax, spends far too much time reading, and spoils four little dogs who share his home with his wife, and when they're home, his three grown-up children. Website | Google Group | Yahoo Group | Email Editor  Stanley Ridge Stanley Ridge, a native New Yorker, has for over 30 years made his home in the Midwest, where he teaches in a small liberal arts college.  He also works as a literary translator.  His life as a professor and scholor, father of two wayward sons, owner of a large, friendly dog, and for over five years partner of a beautiful man, keep him very very busy.  He devotes much of the little spare time he has to writing and somewhat less of it to his duties on the editorial team of two m2m on-line literary magazines.  He likes to travel and has spent nearly a quarter of his life abroad, mostly in French-speaking countries. Email
	Fiction: Ally Blue Ally Blue used to be a good girl. Really. Married for eighteen years, two lovely children, house, dogs, picket fence, the whole deal. Then one day she discovered slash fan fiction. She wrote her first fan fiction story a couple of months later and has since slid merrily into the abyss. She likes it there. It’s hot and sweaty and brimming with yummy man-love. Ally’s husband supports her unusual habit in spite of thinking she’s a few sandwiches short of a picnic. Her very first novel, Forgotten Song, is now available from Loose-Id. Website L E Bryce L.E. Bryce was born in Los Angeles, California and has never lived anywhere else.  She has a Masters in English Literature from California State University, Northridge, and currently works as an English teacher.  Her Jewish mother, two dogs and passel of cats help her keep her sanity.  She is a regular contributor to Forbidden Fruit Magazine, and is the author of two books, Snake Bite and Other Dark Homoerotic Fantasies and Those Pearls That Were His Eyes. Journal | Email Devil Kat Devilkat lives just outside of Berkeley, California with (surprise!) two cats, Spyder and Neko.  Oh, and one husband, who is tolerant of her addiction to slash although his tendency to read over her shoulder while she writes is sometimes annoying.  (It's the snickers at every mention of body parts which annoy!)  She started in the Stargate fanfic kingdom about 4 years ago and is known as the Queen of Works-In-Progress, but is hoping to actually wrap up her mighty epic "Wizard and Warrior" by the end of this year (seems a comfortable margin!).  Of course, she must battle her addiction to playing the Sims2 and Rose online to actually accomplish this feat. Website Parhelion Parhelion, who otherwise leads a placid existence in New England with an amiable spouse and too many books, has had stories published in the e-zines Jack and Forbidden Fruit, as well as at Torquere Press. More original historical fiction by Parhelion can be found at the author's Website. Website Alyx Shaw ::Taps microphone.:: Is this thing on? Ah, okay. Hello everyone, I’m The Magic Rat, known also to some as Alyx J Shaw. I have worked in radio and written for a couple small newspapers, and I’ve had the privilege of working as an extra for ‘X-Files’ and ‘The Sentinel.’ Primarily however I am a writer. Currently I write for ‘25%’, doing articles and reviews. I also do an original series there called ‘Even Fall.’ I have a site called ‘Ex Libris’ where I post my Lord of the Rings fan fic, and an original WIP called ‘A Strange Place in Time.’ I have one dog, a very noisy cat, a pet duck, and three tarantulas. One of them is a Brachypelma Vagans named Haldir, whose hobbies include falling off of things, stuffing her feet into her mouth, and slipping head first into her water bowl. When I’m not busy wondering if my arachnid needs a shrink, I write, paint, make mead, drink mead, smoke cigars, play video games and go to science fiction conventions. Oh, and I used to work as a security guard. Don’t you feel safer now? Website Jules Jones Jules Jones is a materials scientist, whose publications from the day job are probably of interest to at least three people. On the "write what you know" principle, much of her erotic romance is science fiction and fantasy. Jules has had short stories published in Clean Sheets, Fishnet, Suspect Thoughts and Ultimate Gay Erotica, and several novels and novellas published by Loose Id. You can find Jules online at the address below. Website Anel Viz Anel Viz returned to his childhood passion of writing at age 60, and looks forward to making it a full-time occupation when he retires.  He enjoys experimenting with literary forms, and has wirtten in a wide variety of genres, including verse, prose poems, short stories, novellas, portraits, humor, and belles lettres, which have appeared in a number of on-line and in-print publications.  He is currently revising his first finished novel and hopes to see it published. Contact Don Bellew I first published my stories on the Men On The Net Erotic Stories Archives then decided that lust was not enough and started my own Google News Group as a writer using sexual content to investigate other facets of character, personality and experience. I grew up in the American deep south, joined the navy and trained as an engineer. I also paint and write poetry. When the steel plant I managed failed in an economic slump and my marriage ended in divorce, I moved to California where I managed an art gallery. After the death of a much loved gay partner there, I returned to the south and worked for the Postal Service. Now retired (with three grandchildren), I write and paint instead of working. My stories often deal with men drawn into conflict with what they need and what they want to be. I write where humanity collides with the masculine role; my ideal would be to help readers see the humanity first, allowing the plumbing to become, rightly, a secondary concern. Feedback is, as yet, my only pay, and I love discussing my stories. Find more don bellew stories than you will want to read at the link below and please, respond to any story directly to me at this email  J E Mountney J.E.Mountney is the pen name of a British writer who enjoys fantasy, sci-fi, magic realism and romance, sometimes in that order. Website Victor J Banis A resident of West Virginia in the U.S.A, Victor J. Banis is the acclaimed author of more than 150 published books and numerous shorter pieces in a career spanning nearly half a century. Among his most recent works are Lola Dances (MLR Press): and Spine Intact, Some Creases (Wildside Press), a memoir. Website Barry Eysman Some people have November born in their souls.  They do not run from it, but toward it.  Sometimes love happens to them and then it ends,  to be replaced by new love, but not for those November people.  My writing is a winding country road and it leads future to past, in one arching glissando. One of my favorite places was at Joel's house  on Friday nights where we read books and talked and dreamed our big tall dreams, and I fell in love forever.  Another of my favorite places as a child was the town library.  Especially in deep November.  For like calls to like.  The library was magic.  It was Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar.  It was Sherlock Holmes. It was Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer, and Brett Halliday's Michael Shayne.  It was quite and softly lit and I could find the Lost World, years before I became adrift in a lost world wide as tomorrow would ever be, in these eyes at least.  Love and books and stories and poems and dreams mean to me Joel.  He is, of course, Teft, in my story. I sing him all my life. Writing is, for me, a pathway home, under a darkened sky, cold wind blowing, snow in the offing, as I head to the place I've never really left and thus belief will occur again. This is my bio. Thank you for reading it. And thank you for reading my story. I hope very much you will like it. Take care, Barry Eysman Damerel Damerel is happily ensconced in a small market town in the English countryside where she spends her time reading and writing slash fiction, gardening, and dreaming up names for the next guinea pigs with whom she will share her life.  Sadly, that pesky working for a living thing intrudes occasionally into this idyll.  She also has an inordinate love of Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels and what might politely be called cult television shows. Website J A Zecca J. A. Zecca is a journalist who has spent many years writing for New York LGBT nightlife publications.  This is his second  published work of fiction.
	Non Fiction: Hayden Thorne Hayden Thorne frequently reviews GLBT fiction and films. Other reviews can be read at his website
	Art: Marlana Little is known about the mysterious Marlana Kendall, A.K.A Strega, Aioakina, Smash Hamster. When asked about her background she simply grunts and points southward without much explanation. It is known that she has been developing her artistic skills since a very early age, coloring furniture and painting her unicorn collection black...so they could be evil unicorns. Her appreciation of 'yaoi/gay' pairings stems from the belief that love, in general, is beautiful and is never tainted by race or gender. She has a devoted love or human anatomy, culture, and the pursuit of intellectual conquests. For more art visit the website below - where she contributes regularly for the brilliant authoress and her dungeon. Website Pira Pira is a self-taught, Canadian artist who works in numerous mediums, from acrylics to graphite ~ the bottom line being having fun with the material. A lifelong fan of anime, manga and the Japanese aesthetic ~ it is reflected in her artwork ~ strong outlines, with a contrast between bold colours, delicate internal linework and fluid compositions. She likes to think she graduated from the School of Kindergarden Design and intends never to grow up! Website Eve Le Dez Eve has an ongoing love affair with pencils and other art supplies - and definitely prefers Adam to prefer men anyway. Her obsession with art goes way back, a not so recent chance discovery led to her slash addiction: the combination of Tolkien's writings, Peter Jackson's movies and LotR slash proved to be too tempting a playground to ignore. She has played there for almost four years under the nom de plume "Nellas of Doriath". Now, she has decided to take the step into the real world, challenging herself to draw round ears again for a change. Website | Email Shallow Shallow is the artistic half of Mya's psyche. When she's not writing smut, she likes to illustrate it. Living outside of Washington, D.C. during the day time she works her government job during the day and retreats back to the workshop at night to create.