Current mood: contemplative

My new book A Vampire in Waikiki was published at midnight and I am very excited about this one, because it was inspired by a true story. My publisher challenged me to write a M/M vampire book and to be honest, the M/M part was easy since that's all I write. The vampire part had me stumped. I had never written one and was worried about the whole idea of messing with accepted legends and lores.

Then I had Christmas Eve dinner with a friend, a lovely woman who is in her 50s and looks younger thanks to punishing body workouts at the gym. She knows obviously that I'm a gay man, and asked me if I had heard of a certain gay porn star.

Well, I had, and listened breathlessly as she told me he'd hit on her at the gym. I don't want to say his name here since he has now quit the biz and is in AA and trying to make big changes in his life. So, let's call him Joe.

The fact that she is 20 years older than Joe, and a woman on top of it, kind of stunned me. In his last two movies, this muscle bound top turned bottom and let me tell you've I've watched him get fucked and I've watched him eat a man's cock and ass with relish. He is gay. Sorry. GAY.

"But he's gay," I kept saying.

"No," she replied matter of factly. "He's gay for pay."

Before they had sex, I suggested she watch a few of his movies.

"I'm not watching those, they're disgusting," she snapped. I begged her to use rubbers. At least if they had safe sex I wouldn't worry so much. I felt this was going to end badly but her nether regions were on red alert. The forbbiden gay fruit and all that jazz.

They had sex a couple of times and she swears it blew her panties into the next room because it was so good. Well, I would hope after banging some of the hottest guys in the porn world a time or two he'd know his way around the human body, but I knew my friend was circling the block for a world of hurt.

Gay for pay. Does it exist? Well, like I said, I've watched this guy's movies and not having any type of special attachment to his sexual status personally, I could swear he's gay. At the very least, he's bisexual.

I was very clear with my friend that she wasn't going to get her rosy-hued outcome. Some people can deal with bisexuality, but it's a tough enough road to make a relationship work when you're gay or straight, let alone when you can't decide. I tried to give my friend a visual image to help her understand my logic. It's like being in a car on the freeway. You have to pick a lane to drive in; you can't straddle two.

Each time she and Joe had an encounter, she'd call and tell me about it. I was fascinated frankly only because of who he is, but it did not honestly sound like he was trying to start a relationship with her. It all sounded tawdry and gross. He wanted a quickie while his boyfriend was at work. She was having a hot time in the bed he shares with a man.

Then she found out [checking his text messages] that he was doing this with a few other women from the gym. She was devastated. Like I said, this guy Joe has some problems. The one I feel truly sorry for is not my friend, but the gay boyfriend, who works hard, thinks he's got himself a sexy, troubled former porn star boyfriend that he is fully supporting. A sexy, troubled user of a boyfriend who can't wait until he leaves the house to do all kinds of things.

I could have predicted things with Joe would have ended badly for my friend, except that he is still in her life and she now helps him financially and puts up with a lot of crap without any of the 'benefits' she used to get. This is where the idea for A Vampire in Waikiki came from.

He puts the bite on people who genuinely care about him. He's an equal opportunity fucker-upper. He may or may not be gay but now he's in AA, he can't sleep with anybody which is probably a good thing because he can't hurt anyone, man, woman, gay or straight, for a year - if he sticks to the program.

I finally met him and would have been dazzled by him because he is still looks gorgeous and he's thoroughly charming, but I knew what he was doing to my friend. Besides which, she told him about A Vampire in Waikiki and he'd put off meeting me because he thought I might be mean to him.

We actually get along very well and the few times we've met, he is either a total pussycat or a complete jackass. I put a lot of his bizarre behavior down to a crushing Meth and alcohol addiction. On good days he was a sweet guy, on bad days, you wanted to be ready with a stun gun.

Joe has never read my books - "What, me read?" was the first thing he said to my friend when she told him about me.

When we first met, he worked as hard at seducing me as he did her and over dinner, acted like I was the most riveting thing alive. I felt very bad for my friend, especially when I got him to admit he's bisexual. I didn't strong arm him, I didn't do anything other than gently suggest he should be honest with her.

At least now she has some facts and is starting to see more of the real man underneath the layers of bullshit. He left us in the middle of our meal to go on a date - with a man - and my friend was left in a puddle of tears. As we waited for the valet guys to bring us our cars, she looked up at the perfect full moon hanging low in the sky and I put my arms around her.

"You know, what, AJ? You know what's good about all this?"

"What?" I asked her.

"You got a great book out of it!"

Aloha oe,

A.J.

Currently listening : Maestro By Taj Mahal Release date: 2008-09-30