Introduction to Dirk Vanden E-books

Dear New Reader:

None of my books are "politically correct." In 1969-‘71, when I Want It All , All or Nothing,
and All Is Well  were originally written, condoms were for birth control and fetishists. Gay Men
didn't wear rubbers. Not the Gay-Bikers and blue-collar-Cowboys I hung out with! The characters
in my books engage in high-risk sex without batting an eye, and if that offends you in these days
of safe sex, I sincerely apologize! In those days, no homo-sex was really "safe," but we naively
assumed that anything we caught — from crabs to syphilis — could be easily cured!
Nobody imagined AIDS was right around the corner.
     In those days, Tricky-Dick-Nixon was President, Handsome B-Movie-Star Ronnie Reagan was
"Acting" Governor of California, where I lived (just like now!) "Queers" were unarguably sinners or
mentally-ill or both, and I was an angry-defiant-young-disenfranchised-gay-man-on-a-mission with
a forum: my books were popular and I was committed to aggressively "telling it like it is!"
(Drugs, fetishes, fisting and all!) My "Message"was and still is simple: "We're not just about Sex,
we're about Love, too!"
     But, we were still criminals in those days, so we did all sorts of crazy, stupid, self-destructive things
we shouldn't have done. We were "Headed for Hell in a handbasket"anyway, so why the hell not?
We were damned if we did and damned if we didn't! (That is still true for most religions today.
Fortunately, the social majority isn't as religious as it used to be.) It wasn't until 1976 that Californians
decided that consensual homosex wasn't a punishable crime. Ten more years would pass before
most of us had even heard of AIDS. Amazingly, those were the days of our innocence! They were
"the good old days" but nobody knew it! We were defensive and defiant. We had no civil rights.
Vice Squad sweeps in gay bars were common. "Stonewall" had yet to happen. Harvey Milk had
yet to be elected (then assassinated by a Twinkie-Monster!) The"sexual revolution" had just barely
begun. Richard Amory's Song of the Loon* had started a publishing explosion of explicit "erotic"
gay novels called "fag hots" by the editors at Greenleaf Classics, Amory's first publisher and mine.
(I called them "Gay Romances," but they wouldn't print that!) My editor wanted "hot sex on the first
page and as often as possible thereafter — the kinkier the better." Most of my books were
deliberately intended as masturbation fantasies for the Levi's/Leather crowd. (There were no
such things as "Leather-Communities" then.)
     When I wrote I Want It All, in 1969, I had just met and fallen in love with a gay man who looked
enough like me to be my brother! Herb Finger** was 3 years my junior and Art Director for
Fireman's Fund/American Insurance, in San Francisco. Many thought we were twins, or at least
brothers, and we had great fun cruising places like The Stud and Febees and The Ramrod.
We made-out*** like bandits! We were living together, up on Buena Vista Terrace, with our deck
overlooking The Castro. The story was based on his favorite sex fantasy: being gang-raped by
cowboys — and on us, of course. We had an "autograph-orgy" when it was published!
     I have been persuaded to "e-publish" I Want It All, All or Nothing and All Is Well because
they are supposedly "classics of the genre," but are no longer "in print." They were very popular
when originally published, in 1969, '70 and '71, and received excellent reviews in the gay press,
all across the country — and in England; I understand I was banned in Canada — but only a few
thousand copies were printed and sold — and most of those buyers are probably dead now —
of AIDS, most likely. From time to time my books can be found on the web, but they're very pricey.
If you're not a Collector, try these e-versions. GLB Publishers will put them into the Gay History
Writers Project in the original versions, publisher's omissions and all, in the order they were written
and published: I Want It All, 1969, All or Nothing, 1970 & All Is Well, 1971. They are called
"The All Trilogy" in several Gay Literature reference books including The Gay & Lesbian Literary
Heritage, Henry Holt, 1995.
     But I want to make it emphatically clear: some of the sexual acts I've described herein are
dangerous and should never be practiced in reality! You'll know which ones I mean. This book
is intended as entertainment only — a nostalgic, erotic look at the way things used to be —
in the "Good Old Days" — and must not be construed as an encouragement or license to
practice unsafe sexual acts, or to use dangerous drugs, including alcohol and tobacco.
Masturbation seems to be the only "safe sex" these days, and, as I've discovered, correcting
the proofs, the scenes are still hot! And, they still come as often as possible!
     Please be advised: All of my books contain scenes involving the use of "drugs" of one kind
or another. Those "drugs" were an integral part of the gay scene I was living in during the late '60s
and early '70s. That's how it was in those days -- at least with that particular contingent of gay men
that I wrote about. Those were "Hippie Times." To ignore that aspect of gay-life-at-that-time would
have been dishonest. But drugs are not the main emphasis of my books. That emphasis is
absolutely on "Coming-Out"and accepting yourself, whatever road you took to get there.
"Halucinogens" such as LSD and Mescaline are used as catalysts in the main characters' search
for themselves. But if the use of "Drugs" bothers you, please don't read my books. They will make
you angry, and that is not why I wrote them.

Dirk Vanden/Fullmer, November13, 2005

*Song of the Loon by Richard Amory has just been republished by Arsenal Pulp Press in association
with Little Sister's Bookstore, Vancouver, BC, with an introduction by Michael Bronski and reprints of
two newspaper articles of the time by Yours Truly. Check it out. It's Gay History!

**Herb Finger died of AIDS early in the morning of January 22, 1987, in our home in Fair Oaks,
California, after we had lived together 18 years. He had just started an amazing second career
as "Sacramento's Celebrity Chef," inventing menus for 3 different Sacramento-area restaurants,
when he contracted HIV in 1984 and was forced to stop having anything to do with cooking for
the public. I Want It All is still dedicated with much love to Herb!

** Back in the Olden Days, when I was making-out, "making-out" meant "Going-all-the-way,"
"Home-Run!" "Hole-In-One!" Not just kissing, or messing around! If it confuses you, reading
about my characters "making out," imagine my confusion while watching current television:
School kid: "Oh, yeah, we were making-out by the water fountain at recess!" Like "Gang-Bangs"
used to be Gay Orgies!

Dirk Vanden/Fullmer