That I am frequently moved to put fingers to keyboard by the men that cross my path is not exactly my best-kept secret.  That I occasionally write about hot sex and plenty of it, then, shouldn’t shock you, either.  Sex and sexual attraction are defining elements of the gay experience, and critical components of most gay relationships, and therefore key to the telling of any good gay story, whether it’s expressly romantic or not.

Like many gay writers, I found inspiration, acceptance, and my first publishing successes in the world of erotic storytelling.  I feel like telling our sexiest stories helps us flip the script on those who would paint us as immoral and socially destructive, and assert control over the narrative around who and what we are.  Instead of letting my sexual proclivities and activities be perverted for political gain, I get to own them.  To use them to entertain, and perhaps to inspire, and to ensure that they are not twisted or misrepresented.  OK, they might be a little bit twisted, but I’ll be the one to twist them, thank you very much.

I am proud to have an erotic body of work, and will build on it as I continue to write; when the dust (and applause, natch) settles after my novel comes out this November, I hope to publish a collection of erotic shorts, both old and new.  With an eye towards distinguishing my steamier stories from my writing that might have broader appeal (or read: that I can share with my parents), I write erotica under a nom de porn.  Because of a now-ancient association, of which I won’t bore you with the details but which, I assure you, is sufficiently hot, I chose for my alter-ego the handle “Mike Bruno,” and he quickly came into his own.  He is counted in one collection as among “the best writers in the genre,” and my favorite Amazon.com reviewer said of one of his stories, “I would consider reading more M/M erotica if it is as good as this one was.”

Shane Allison is an editor after my own heart, and usually themes his anthologies (cowboys, surfer boys, Nice Butts) in a way that hits me just so.  Mike Bruno is super-excited to be a part of his upcoming collection of true erotic stories, Men on the Make, due out in August 2014.

Mike Bruno’s erotic stories can be found in these collections:

“Birthday Boy” in Daddies (Richard LaBonte)

“The Copilot” in Gotta Have It: 69 Stories of Sudden Sex (Rachel Kramer Bussel)

“The Swimmer” in Brief Encounters (Shane Allison)

“Behind Bars” in Nice Butt (Shane Allison)