Maltese & Ekkel

FROM THE PEN OF INTERNATIONALLY BEST-SELLING AUTHOR WILLIAM MALTESE, BASED UPON THE ARTWORK OF DUTCH ARTIST JOHAN EKKEL... ...comes this power-house male-on-male short-story collection, from MLR Press, with quality reproductions of the original drawing or painting that specifically inspired each story. Says Maltese, best known as one of the vanguard writers of m/m fiction who launched its "Golden Days " in the sixties, with close to 200 books published since then, "Johan did two portraits of me for my Artists 'Do' Author William Maltese art collection. After which, I bought several other of his pieces without me as their subject matter. When he brought his black-on-white sketches, many of them erotic male-on-male, for my look-see, from which my inspiration came for most of these short stories in MALTESE/EKKEL, I was simply blown away." These resulting stories, each tailored to complement the one inspirational illustration with which it is accompanied, take the reader into the world of male-on-male love, sensuality, passion, sex, vengeance, retribution, redemption, salvation, and even murder ... with ... surfer-types, their bodies perfect and tan, on the beaches of southern California (Boy on the Rainbow Towel) ... physically fit Army vet returning to the sun-lit shores of a private island on the U. S. east coast (Man of War) ... a handsome matador trying to squeeze in love between the confining dangers and death he confronts weekly on the hot and blood-soaked sands of the Spanish corrida (Reines in Spain) ... the stealthy and sinuous werecats possibly masquerading as mere jungle cats as they perform nightly on the sawdust of the center-ring circus cage (MANEATERS) ... the unwitting aliens, with strong and boxy physiques, who perform their mating rituals on a brown-earth stage for the curiosity of unseen observers (I SPY, I SPY)... These and more of the MALTESE/EKKEL collection offer a sensuous smorgasbord of delicious "Maltese" reading fare that, with their "Ekkel" visuals, by way of dessert, will turn you on to exceptional writing and exceptional artwork as never before. Or, better yet, just turn you on ... period.