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Welcome to the World of
AARON TRAVIS

“It is better to be cruel for love than for hate.”
—Thomas Burnett Swann


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Dear Friends:
All the writings of Aaron Travis are the intellectual property of the author and are fully protected by copyright around the world. These works are my livelihood. If you know of any unauthorized electronic versions being offered for reading or download on the internet, please let me know. Thank you!

GET YOUR HANDS ON AARON TRAVIS:
Aaron Travis’s provocative “Confessions of a College Sex Slave” appears in the anthology COLLEGE BOYS edited by Shane Allison. Read the first page.
A search on Aaron Travis’s classic (but out of print) BIG SHOTS at Google Books came up with something called snippet view...and produced a collection of “common terms and phrases” that reads like a weirdly poetic distillation of the whole Aaron Travis experience—even to the last word. See it here.
Aaron Travis’s scorching tale of a submissive student and a cruel master, “The Fratboy & the Faggot,” appears in the anthology ROUGH TRADE edited by Todd Gregory.
Aaron Travis’s “Exposed” is included in the anthology LEATHERMEN edited by Simon Sheppard. Read the first page.
Aaron Travis’s “Blue Light,” appears in THE BEST OF BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 2008, the 15th (and final) installment of the landmark series. From vanillaimpaired.com: “‘Blue Light’ had me in a frenzied reading state, I just couldn’t get enough of it. It made Edgar Allan Poe look tame. A sexually charged supernatual thriller. This was my favourite story in the book, perhaps because it sated my dark mind.”
Aaron Travis’s most famous story, the supernatural thriller “Blue Light,” appears in the anthology HOMOSEX: 60 YEARS OF GAY EROTICA, edited by Simon Sheppard. From dudepost.com: “This long story may be the single most original, hair-raising and viscerally tingling piece of short gay erotic fiction ever written.”
Aaron Travis’s “Eden” appears in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW GAY EROTICA, edited by Lawrence Schimel. This early novelette, about a truckdriver and a young hitchhiker crossing the American West, is one of Travis’s personal favorites.
Aaron Travis’s brutal novel of gladiator sex, SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE, was reprinted by Haworth Press in 2006. Haworth was sold, canceled its fiction line, and the book is already out of print...but used or new copies may be available at Amazon, and you can read a hot preview at Google Book Search.
Aaron Travis’s notorious “The Hit” (“For those who like it dangerously rough,” warns Publishers Weekly) appears in Susie Bright’s BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 2003. The story was voted #1 in the BAE readers’ poll of the best erotic stories of the last ten years.
Aaron Travis’s “Backstage With the Bulldogs,” set in the outlandish world of pro wrestling, appears in the anthology HIS UNDERWEAR, edited by Todd Gregory.
Not one but two of Travis’s classic wrestling tales appear in the anthology FULL BODY CONTACT — the hauntingly romantic “Johnny Laredo” and the outrageously satirical “Backstage With the Bulldogs.”



With Li’l Rick at
Folsom Street Fair, 2001

AARON TRAVIS’s first erotic story appeared in 1979 in DRUMMER magazine. Over the next fifteen years he wrote dozens of short stories, a serialized novel (SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE), and hundreds of book and video reviews for magazines including MACH, FIRST HAND, MANSCAPE, HOMBRES, ADVOCATE MEN, MANDATE, BLUEBOY, STUDFLIX and STROKE.

Travis stopped writing erotic fiction in the early 1990s, but continued to review gay videos for ADULT VIDEO NEWS until 2001. You can read one of his typical reviews here, and link to more of his reviews via this Google search results page.

Click here to read an interview from THE AUSTIN CHRONICLE.


AARON TRAVIS
BIBLIOGRAPHY

Virtually all the Aaron Travis stories were published in collections issued by Badboy Books during the 1990s. Those titles are now out of print. Easier to find may be certain anthologies that include Aaron Travis stories. In the Bibliography below, click on cover images or underlined titles to check availability at Amazon.com.

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•I• Novel •I•

SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE, Alternate Publishing trade paperback, illustrated by Cavelo, 1985; Badboy Books paperback, 1992 (two printings, different covers); German edition (Der Gladiator), Magnus Buch, 1994; Japanese edition, Byakuya Shobo/Lavender Romance, 1994; excerpt published in A CENTURY OF GAY EROTICA, Masquerade Books, 1998; Haworth Press paperback, 2006.




•I• Chapbooks •I•

AARON TRAVIS’ WRESTLING TALES, Mr. X Press, 1989. Illustrated by Rader. Contents: “Backstage With the Bulldogs,” “Big Boy’s Revenge,” and “Breaking In Baby Face” (all later included in the collection TAG TEAM STUDS)

AARON TRAVIS’ WRESTLING TALES 2, Mr. X Press, 1991. Illustrated by Bill Ward. Contents: “Confessions of a Pro Wrestling Sex Slave,” “Bossman: The Interview,” and “Johnny Laredo” (all later included in the collection TAG TEAM STUDS)

HOLLYWOOD HUNKS IN THE RAW (with Claude Mauser aka John W. Rowberry), Vidfile, Inc., 1989.




•I• Short Stories Collections •I•

THE FLESH FABLES, Fire Island Press trade paperback, 1992; Badboy Books paperback, 1994. Contents: “Blue Light,” “Eden,” “Crown of Thorns,” “Kudzu,” “Getting Timchenko,” “Do As the Romans Do,” and “Jonah and the Whale” [read an online review by Dusk]

BEAST OF BURDEN, Badboy Books paperback, 1993. Contents: “Beast of Burden,” “The Fratboy and the Faggot,” “Academy,” “Latrine Marine,” and “Slave”

BIG SHOTS, Badboy Books paperback, 1993 (two printings, different covers); Japanese edition, Byakuya Shobo/Lavender Romance, 1994. Contents: “Beirut” and “Kip” [An edition said to have been published by Top Shelf Productions, April, 1994 is cited at various places on the Internet; if you have information about this edition, please contact Aaron Travis]

EXPOSED, Badboy Books paperback, 1993. Contents: “Body Shop,” “Confessions of a College Sex Slave,” “Bully,” “Exposed,” “Cop-Hungry,” “Big Dick: The Interview,” “Body Beautiful,” “Insatiable,” “Pillow Talk,” “The Adventure of the Ragged Youth,” “A Roman Scandal,” and “To Each His Own”

IN THE BLOOD, Badboy Books paperback, 1995. Contents: “Steel,” “The Man With the Biggest Cock in the World,” “Wire,” “The Man Who Got What He Wanted,” “New Year’s Eve,” and “In the Blood”

TAG TEAM STUDS (with Clay Caldwell), Badboy Books paperback, 1997. Includes all stories from the chapbooks AARON TRAVIS’ WRESTLING TALES and WRESTLING TALES 2 plus “Pile On Matt!”




•I• Interview •I•

“Writing as ‘Aaron Travis’ ” in WRITING BELOW THE BELT: CONVERSATIONS WITH EROTIC AUTHORS, ed. Michael Rowe, Richard Kasak Books, 1995; reissued as a Hard Candy paperback, 1997




•I• Short Stories in Anthologies •I•

“Backstage with the Bulldogs” in FULL BODY CONTACT, ed. Greg Herren, Alyson, 2002; in HIS UNDERWEAR, ed. Todd Gregory, Haworth, 2007

“Beast of Burden” in THE BEST OF THE BADBOYS, ed. Michael Lowenthal, Badboy Books trade paperback, 1995; in WANDERLUST, ed. David Laurents, Badboy Books, 1995; in German translation as “Das Lasttier” in AUF HOCHTOUREN (German edition of WANDERLUST), Bruno Gmünder, 1997.

“The Big Shot” in THE BEST OF THE BADBOYS, ed. Michael Lowenthal, Badboy Books trade paperback, 1995.

“Blue Light” in FLESH AND THE WORD, ed. John Preston, Dutton, 1992; excerpted in QUEER SPIRITS, ed. Will Roscoe, Beacon Press, 1995; in HOMOSEX: 60 YEARS OF GAY EROTICA, ed. Simon Sheppard, Carroll & Graf, 2007; in THE BEST OF BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 2008, ed. Susie Bright, Touchstone, 2008.

“Breaking In Baby Face”in FLESH AND THE WORD 3, ed. John Preston, Plume/Penguin, 1995; in FLASHPOINT, ed. Michael Bronski, Richard Kasak Books, 1996; in Dutch translation (as “Babyface inwerken”) in SLECHTE JONGENS, Prometheus, Amsterdam, 1995, reissued as a Satyr paperback, 1997.

“Confessions of a College Sex Slave” in COLLEGE BOYS: GAY EROTIC STORIES, ed. Shane Allison, Cleis, March 2010.

“Do as the Romans Do” in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF GAY EROTICA, ed. Lawrence Schimel, Robinson (England)/Carroll & Graf (USA), 1997.

“Eden” in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW GAY EROTICA, ed. Lawrence Schimel, Constable (England)/Carroll & Graf (USA), 2007.

“Exposed” in LEATHERMEN, ed. Simon Sheppard, Cleis, 2008.

“The Fratboy and the Faggot” in HEAT: GAY EROTIC FICTION FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST, Fire Island Press, 1990; unauthorized, uncredited, bowdlerized reprint (as “A Hazing Tale”) in HOT BOTTOMS: THE SPANKING MAGAZINE #61 (May 2000); in TOUGH GUYS, ed. Bob Brent & Rob Stephenson, Black Books, 2001; in ROUGH TRADE, ed. Todd Gregory, Bold Stroke Books, 2009.

“Getting Timchenko” in FLESH AND THE WORD, ed. John Preston, Dutton, 1992; in Dutch translation (as “Pak Timchenko”) in ECHTE JONGENS, Prometheus, Amsterdam, 1995.

“The Hit” in THE BEST OF THE BADBOYS, ed. Michael Lowenthal, Badboy Books trade paperback, 1995; in THE BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 1996, ed. Susie Bright, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 1996; special “Best of” reprint in BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 2003, ed. Susie Bright, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster, 2003

“Johnny Laredo” in HEAT: GAY EROTIC FICTION FROM THE AMERICAN SOUTHWEST, Fire Island Press, 1990; in FULL BODY CONTACT, ed. Greg Herren, Alyson, 2002.

“Slave” in FLESH AND THE WORD 2, ed. John Preston, Plume/Penguin, 1993.


 WHAT THE CRITICS SAID

Curious Affairs of Athelton Bartelby: “About halfway through the anthology [HOMOSEX: 60 YEARS OF GAY EROTICA], I stumbled across Aaron Travis' ‘Blue Light’: a paranormal, nearly epic erotic tale of submission, domination, and sexual witchcraft. I was breathless nearly the entire way through it, as the story built, as the psychologies of its main characters became more clearly defined and pulled me into them, and, of course, as the epic evening of sex unfolded in a Texas attic between two muscular doms, as one forces the other to submit to him with a variety of...arguably quite disturbing tricks. It was, and is, precisely what I think good erotica is, i.e., a story that not only makes its readers turned on, want to masturbate, and come, but, through its evocative use of language and seductive creation of fantasy, of pushing that fantasy to its very limits, that's what good erotica is.”

Susie Bright (interviewed at Self Awareness): “When people ask me what great erotic literature is, I say: It's a matter of taste—and memory. But if you are looking for expert craft, you couldn’t go wrong with Henry Miller and his Land of F***; Pauline Réage’s Story of O; Steven Saylor writing as Aaron Travis...They take my breath away.”

Susie Bright, Salon: “In BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 1996, I included a little reader survey...The top vote-getter was a story by Aaron Travis called ‘The Hit’...‘The Hit’ isn’t just a hot episode, it’s a crime story [that] owes as much to films like THE UNTOUCHABLES and the unsparing viciousness of Martin Scorcese’s movies as it does to THE STORY OF O...By the time I panted my way to the last page of Mr. Big’s blowout, my heart was pounding, and it wasn’t because I’d had an orgasm. I felt aroused though, in a weird mix of sex, fright and amazement. Damn, what a good yarn!” (from the 9/97 edition of Salon.)

Adam Begley, New York Observer: “ ‘The Hit’ [in BAE ’96] punishes the reader with an itemized account of sadomasochism at work. The sadist is Vince, a well-hung mafia hit man...The masochist is Kip, a buff 19-year-old hotel waiter. Vince brutalizes Kip and Kip loves it, even when the pain and terror and humiliation seem about to swallow him whole. Mr. Travis may have no higher ambition than to assist a vigorous S&M stroke, but his detached tone and his refusal to explain or justify his characters’ behavior is most refreshing -- if we dare call a long night of sexual torture refreshing.”

Susie Bright, in her introduction to THE BEST OF BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 2008, calls “Blue Light” “perhaps the most fantastic supernatural erotic thriller ever written...I couldn’t go to sleep from reading it, and then I couldn’t rest until I published it!”

Marcy Sheiner, San Francisco Bay Guardian: “ ‘Blue Light’ [in HOMOSEX: 60 YEARS OF GAY EROTICA] is a story I will remember for the rest of my life: it glues the impossible and the plausible together through the invocation of intense sexual energy.”

Sam Garcia, Clean Sheets: ‘Blue Light’ [in THE BEST OF BEST AMERICAN EROTICA 2008] is a “creepy and compelling erotic horror story...in which two men explore what it truly means to own your slave...”

Michael Bronski, The Guide (Boston): “In ‘Blue Light’ [in HOMOSEX: 60 YEARS OF GAY EROTICA] -- a story which has become a classic -- Travis creates a contemporary supernatural masterpiece as frightening as anything H.P. Lovecraft or Stephen King ever wrote. The underlying horror of the story is not what happens to the narrator...but our own fears of losing control of our sexuality.”

Killian Melloy, EDGEBoston on SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE: “A dangerous, seductive that takes place at the crossroads of erotic fantasy and political thriller. Travis arrays his characters — gladiators, slaves, Roman senators — in artful configurations, and then allows them to venture into charged sexual territory, taking the reader along for a journey that is sometimes unsettling, sometimes rapturous, and always gripping.” —

Ed Sikov on SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE: “A hot, tense novel that pumps ancient Rome for all it’s worth — rival gladiators and their magnificent spears, compliant eunuchs and their cleansing tongues, twin Germanic slave-princes and their sweet, abused nipples: Depravity, depravity, depravity! With an artist's eye for detail and a historian's knack for accuracy, Aaron Travis had his way with me from the first sweaty page to the heart-stopping twist at the end. He's a real master in the best, most dominating sense of the word.”

Michael Bronski: “Since its original, serialized publication in Drummer magazine more than twenty years ago, Aaron Travis's SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE has gained near mythological status in gay male erotica...smart, psychologically astute, and beautifully written. With the dangerous leanness of a James M. Cain noir crossed with the cathartic violence of a Japanese horror film, Aaron Travis taunts and goads us to places we long to go, but are afraid on imagining on our own...Has all of the trappings of your typical sword and sandal porn fantasy...but Travis brings this all to life with an energy, and an accumulation of salient psychic and emotional detail that stuns us...Literature that is compelling, provoking, and sexually exciting...A high point of gay male writing in the second half of the twentieth century.”

John F. Karr, Bay Area Reporter (San Francisco): “With hardly a pause, SLAVES OF THE EMPIRE torments us from sex scene to sex scene, each building higher than the one before, all satisfying, original, and leading surely to the hair-raising last chapter.”

Etienne: “I have never written a fan letter before, but I just finished reading your story ‘Beirut’ [in BIG SHOTS]...Seldom, if ever, have I been so aroused by a piece of erotic fiction as I was when reading your story...a masterpiece of its genre.”

Lars Eighner: “ ‘Getting Timchenko’ [in FLESH AND THE WORD] is the finest thing I have read in years, possibly ever. The only thing wrong with it is the byline isn’t mine.”




Thanks for visiting.
To contact Aaron Travis,
click here.