TWO SIDE OF LOVE, ONE WRITER: WILLIAM MALTESE

di elisarolle

This interview is born at the end of the post I have published about William Maltese. All the questions are made by the readers, and William Maltese has answered with passion and humor.

The post is here:

http://romancebooks.splinder.com/post/12078643

1) Erastes: Very interesting!
I wish I could learn to be prolific, William. Any tips as to how to make myself more so?

William Maltese: In my case, becoming prolific, at the very outset of my career, was merely the result of having a publisher who would publish just about anything I wrote. The more I wrote, the more I was paid, the more I could spend. So, that was decided incentive to keep on writing, and keep on writing a lot, and keep on writing fast. There was the added advantage of not having to spend too much time proofing a manuscript, in those days (nor did the editor spend much time proofing, either); I started writing erotica back in the days of pulp fiction, when some books (although certainly not mine) were full of typos and not really considered “literature”, because they were obviously more concerned with satisfying the prurient interest of the reader than in being grammatically correct.
Now days, publishers of “pulp” fiction no longer in existence, the incentive that I had is no longer there. Today’s publishers usually make it a point NOT to publish the same author more than once or twice a year, just because to do otherwise gives the impression that the author is producing inferior work on an assembly-line basis. (Actually, there was the same problem in the old days, which is why I ended up with over twenty-six pseudonyms over the course of my writing career).
I can say that my reputation of being prolific is sometimes (but not always) the result of my having not thrown away anything I’ve ever written. I’ve kept just about everything, including manuscripts that some editor or another told me was, “Pure, unadulterated crap!” So, sometimes, like quite recently, when I find myself being asked by several publishers to provide “something for them”, it’s easy for me to grab something from my already existent stockpile of stuff that I’ve never thrown away. By revising what I have on hand and/or reworking it slightly, I end up with a lot of stuff published at once (one man’s shit is another man’s fertilizer), which often makes me seem prolific when it’s only a case of my having capitalized upon work that I’ve already done.
I can also confess, although I’m not quite sure if this is good or bad, to being an author who really doesn’t consider what I write as Gospel. I mean, there are authors who labor over each and every word and are so reluctant to change anything, that editors don’t like to spend the time or bother. Once I finish a book, I’m usually so damned bored with it, I don’t much care what an editor does with it as long as my check is in the mail. My boredom also making me what to get through with a book quickly, or less it won’t (yawn) get finished at all.
All of which just means that most of the “things” that have really accounted for my prolific output aren’t in place today; which leaves me, I’m afraid, a little unqualified to make any recommendations. Except, maybe, to write…write…write…and hold on to everything you do write, even if it doesn’t immediately find a publisher.

2) Anna: Hi William,
I'm very impressed !
I'd like to ask you a few questions ;-)
first: how do you manage writing under so many different pseudonyms? It's just a matter of changing the name on the cover, or you have to modify also your writing?
second: you wrote under more than one female pseudonyms - btw Anna is also my name ;-) - is it different, or must be different, the way you face the plot and the characters?
Don't you risk to be too manly in your style which is supposed to be feminine?
third: I'm very interested in your "female" books, you wrote some romances for Harlequin, - I must try to get my hands on them! - are you going to publish some other contemporary or historical romance in the next future?
fourth... - we're approaching the end don't worry :-) - which one, among your many pen names, do you prefer? and why?
fifth: which is William Maltese's masterpiece to William Maltese? which is the book he would never bother to write again?
... ah one more! Does the name Lambert have a special meaning for you?
My congratulations! Hope you will be passing by again now and then!

William Maltese: Hi Anna,
No reason to be impressed, I take off on my underpants one leg at a time, like anyone else, and… Oh, you mean, you’re impressed by my writing!
Only recently have I been putting out all of my books, no matter what the genre, as “written by” William Maltese; this includes all the books I originally published under pseudonyms, many of which are being released over the next twelve months by Wildside/Borgo. Granted, there will still be a few with the proviso “William Maltese writing as Willa Lambert”, but those will be exception to the rule. I’ve long thought if I’d received credit, from the get-go, for all the books I’ve written, that I’d be more famous (or rich) today. Not that I crave fame and/or riches, mind you. Well, okay, more money is/was always appreciated.
As for my having taken on all of those pseudonyms in the first place— (1) A publisher usually just didn’t want it to look like I was its only author. Actually, I WAS one publisher’s only author, but it looked like he had four in his stables. (2) I’ve been published in so many genres that a conscious effort was made to separate those genres by using different pseudonyms for each. When I wrote a heterosexual sadism-masochism novel as William Mauser (which I have), it might have been confusing for a reader of that book if a sweet romance like HEART ON FIRE came out under the William Mauser name, too. The S&M reader would buy expecting an S&M book but get a nice and innocent love story. Color that S&M aficionado as potentially fit to be tied! Likewise, I wouldn’t publish a gay adventure under my Anna Lambert pseudo for the same reason.
I never chose a new name because of any change in writing style; I never did change my writing style because of any pseudo. In fact, for a long time, I didn’t even think I had a particular writing style, until I was approached by a university professor who wanted to know if I’d written a particular book (with a pseudo), because the style was so “like” mine.
As I’m a firm believer that every guy has his feminine side, and every gal has her masculine side, I never did really try consciously to change my writing style when writing “for” men, “for” women, “for” gays, “for straights”. That said, I do tend to make men more blustery, more aggressive, more apt to use swear words. I do make women more polite, more sensitive, less likely to get angry, less apt to do something without first thinking about it. And (all boasting aside), I seem to have done a good job of “universal” writing, because I never have been called out for writing too “butch”, or for writing “too much like a girl.” I have been accused (by heterosexual women) of being gay; how else could I so “successfully plumb the female psyche” (although what “being gay” and “female psyche” have to do with one another is beyond me).
As William Maltese (writing as Willa Lambert), there will be released, sometime soon, in English-language, all three of my SuperRomances for Harlequin, and all three of the sweet romances I did for Carousel. Also, I’m busy writing, a contemporary romance, THE HEART MUST CHOOSE, which will be published by Wildside/Borgo sometime the first of the year (only because I can’t write it any faster).
Which pen name do I prefer? You know, I don’t think I’m particularly fond of any of them (although I obviously DO like the great name of Anna). This is why I’m finally lumping all of my pseudos under the William Maltese byline, these days, and letting the readers figure out for themselves which of my books are “for” them and which of them aren’t. From the beginning, I would have preferred just one name, but it’s only after long years of writing that I finally have the clout to have a real say in the matter.
William Maltese’s favorite book? (Notice, please, how I avoid the term “masterpiece” — although thank YOU very much). I think I actually like the very fun, very short, no-brainer, gay books: DIARY OF A HUSTLER (just re-issued by MLP PRESS), and SLOVAKIAN BOY (published in English by Green Candy Press and in German by Bruno Gmunder). I just think too many books get too bogged down in angst and in trying to be literate. I love light and frothy, and that’s actually, yes, I do believe, my preference, by way of William Maltese books, too. As for my favorite William Maltese hetereo book, that’s probably my LOVE’S EMERALD FLAME by Willa Lambert (soon to be reissued by Wildside/Borgo as “by William Maltese, writing as Willa Lambert”). I’ve always had a particular fondness for South America, that I think favorably comes out in this book (by the way, just released in m/m format as BEYOND MACHU by Haworth Press).
Of course, I’m particularly fond of my children’s book DOG ON A SURFBOARD AND THE REST OF THE ADVENTURE by Billy Lambert (but that’s another story).
What book would I prefer to have never written? Presently, I wouldn’t chuck out any of them, because they all brought in money and, from the get-go, I have been in the writing business for the money. That said, there was an admitted time in my life, that I regretted having written the heterosexual sadistic-masochistic novel, SS & M. I kept that one in a deep-dark trunk for a good many years, guiltily thinking it was just too sadistic, too horrible, too unpleasant, too channeling-the-Marquis de Sade. It has only been recently, the editors at Wildside/Borgo Press having persuaded me to bring it out of the dark and into the light, that I’ve come to realize the book is so sadistic, is so horrible, is so unpleasant, is so violent, because the time depicted was so sadistic, so horrible, so unpleasant, so violent.
“Lambert” have a special meaning for me? Only in that I know someone who’s a really great person of the same name.

3) Elisa: Ciao William.
I want to ask you if you have never had trouble with censorship, especially with your romance novel (because I suppose, with the erotic one you have had less trouble...)
I'm thinking on it cause you have written this sentence in From this Beloved Hour:

> "Their conversation had moved from phoenixes to hawks to pigeons. At least she could say he was consistent, even if he did have a one-track mind."

And in the italian version I think there is not a so subtle double meaning about the speaking of various type of birds...

William Maltese: You know, Elisa, I’ve not really had any direct trouble at all with censorship (knock on wood!). Even my really erotic books haven’t directly experienced the brunt of any right-wing campaigns to have them banned or burned.
When I first began writing erotica in the 60’s (the heyday of pulp fiction here in the U.S.), there had just been a whole series of lawsuits as regards pornography laws and authors (more so the publishers) who were judged to have written porn. At least a couple of authors I later came to know quite well were involved, some of them spending time in jail for their efforts. Then, later, one of the publishers I wrote for (Greenleaf Classics), went out of business because of a lawsuit it lost (a genuinely bizarre story) which charged them with publishing pornography. But neither I, nor my work, has ever been singled out specifically, maybe because I always tried to distinguish my books as erotica (sex with an attending plot-line), from porn (sex without a plot line). Plot lines always very important in apparently providing a book the benefit of a doubt by making it something other than just porn for porn’s sake (providing it with that all-important socially redeeming quality).
Nowadays, of course, a lot of the risqué stuff I wrote in the beginning is the same as you can find in mainstream fiction. And sex is so common in books (published in places like the U.S., Great Britain, even Germany) that I’ve personally not had any rampaging hordes of offended people pursuing me up the mountainside to my castle--don't I wish I owned a castle (a la Frankenstein), with intents to do me bodily harm.
That’s not to say that my books haven’t, as part of the whole erotica genre, been censored, somewhere along the line. For instance, you’ll not find all of my books in libraries (wouldn’t want to corrupt the youth who have access to library shelves and library cards, now would we?!).
And just last week (or, maybe, the week before), Laura Baumbach, m/m writer and publisher [her MRL PRESS just released my DIARY OF A HUSTLER (can a guy find true love in the sex-for-hire industry?), and who will soon be releasing my m/m novel GOLDSANDS (converted from my m/f Harlequin SuperRomance FROM THIS BELOVED HOUR), and my TUSKS (converted from my m/f Harlequin SuperRomance LOVE’S GOLDEN SPELL…)], really got dumped on, censorship-wise, at a Romantic Times Convention in Texas. RT members, mainly m/f authors and publishers, really took offense to Laura and m/m writers (I wasn’t personally there, but I might well have been — certainly some of my books were along for the bumpy ride with Laura). There was a whole series of nasty occurrences that included harsh words, banners being secretly taken down and concealed in deep corners, promotional material missing, books not being ordered and not arriving as they should have… And, I guess, that’s not the first time it’s happened (and probably won’t be the last).
So, it’s not as if censorship doesn’t still rear it’s ugly head, on occasion, or that there isn’t a regular band of bigots here in the U.S. ready to scream from the pulpit that writers, like I, are corrupting the youth of America (and everyone else). It’s just to say that I somehow seem to have escaped any personal singling out (maybe because I’m so bloody charming and all of my work is so socially redeemable?!).
As for your censorship in Italy, I haven’t a clue, especially since your country has such a viable reputation for being filled with so many attractive and sensuous people. I suppose, I could do the obvious and blame the church, since it has such a high profile in Italy, but Spain for years was a strictly Catholic nation and it even nowadays has its own m/m publisher. So, you're better able to judge what’s going on in your country, because I haven’t a clue. For some reason, though, the subject of sex just seems to scare the crap out of a lot of people, no matter what the country.

4) Cristiana:

> "No reason to be impressed, I take off on my underpants one leg at a time, like anyone else, and… Oh, you mean, you’re impressed by my writing!"

AH! AH! AH! My boss is watching me very bad!!! I'm burst to laugh like a dumb!!!
To this point I must read one of yours books.
Still thanks for the laugh Mr. Maltese… on monday it is worth double.

William Maltese: Cristiana,
Humor, I think, and have always thought, is a major part of everyone's life (or, it should be). But, why, I wonder, do I always get so many laughts in the bedroom?

5) Anna:

> "No reason to be impressed, I take off on my underpants one leg at a time, like anyone else, and… Oh, you mean, you’re impressed by my writing!"

Yeah... hahahahah ... that was the -original - meaning!
I'm going to read your old harlequins very soon - guess how ;-) - After those titles, has harlequin never asked you to write something more? I think in italy publishers will never be ready enough for m/m fiction and romance...(maybe less than readers) but, have you never thought about rewriting some of your m/m stuff into f/m ?
Thanks for your answers :-)

William Maltese: Anna, I was delighted to find out, just the other day, that there are still available in Italy the used copies of my Harlequin Italian-language editions. This site's (see me bow down!) "Web-mistress Elisa" was kind enough not only to make me aware of one Italian edition of mine that I didn't even know about but to send me a copy of it for my personal collection.
As for Harlequin ever asking me to write more -- or my asking Harlequin to let me write more -- what happened was that, as so often happens in the here-today-gone-tomorrow world of publishing, Harlequin had a power shift that saw not only my personal editor leave the company but the company's Senior Editor leave--at one and the same time. Rather than attempt to adjust to that change, I merely moved on to do other projects with other publishers, including the three sweet romances I did for Heritage House (writing as Willa Lambert) which will soon be re-issued by Wildside/Borgo Press.
As for me converting some of my m/m stuff into m/f, it has already been done. Whenever a m/f publisher checks in with me to ask -- "Hey, William, do you have anything we can add to our Fall schedule?" (which has happened on occasion) -- and I only have a m/m manuscript available (which has happened on occasion), I always make the change to fit the request (same if an m/m publisher wants a book and I've only available a m/f manuscript). As long as a book has a good plot-line, I always find the genders of the characters, and the sex acts performed by those characters, pretty much interchangeable (except, of course, for some obvious anatomical differences).
A reason, of course, that you won't find me presently doing all that many m/m-to-m/f conversions on my own is that I'd need an m/f publisher ready to publish such conversions; it's mainly been the m/m publishers providing me with those opportunities, lately. Maybe that will change; I certainly can hope so.
And, of course, I've such a full writing schedule, at the moment, by way of books I've already contracted to do, that I need more time before any m/m-to-m/f can occur.

6) Andreina: Wow Mr. Maltese!
You are very nice!
I find your life of writer very long, many compliments, but for me that I love to read it is never too much!
Thanks to be so available, with the little time you have!
Some (many) of the books you have written I can't read cause I don't speak english, but not many time ago I have had in my hands one of yours book!!! if I find it again I don't leave it. ^__*
As far as the many pen names that you have used, today it is not more so, in fact when we like a book by an author, we go hunting for all his books, it will be so also for yours books.
I think that the style of a writer is unique, and I have to admit that I notice if a book of one of the authors I love is written by another author, the personal style I think is equivalent to the digital prints, don't you think?
Read what you have made in your life it has been a lot interesting for me because you have visited so many places, all that it can be found in your books, who has read them will know it, but at the end, if I'm not indiscreet (Italian are very curios!) I would want to ask you if you would re-do all that you have made, I know that it can seem banal but the answer I find is sometimes more interesting of the question!
I hope you will want to be our host also in the future!

William Maltese: Thanks for all of your compliments. Nice ones can just about get you anything -- in my book (a little pun, there).
As regards style, I think, yes, all writers do have a distinctive style, which makes for the kind of writing their readers enjoy (and others don't enjoy). And while I'm able to recognize the style of others, I have difficulty, as mentioned, in recognizing my own (although I have been told my "style" does exist). I do know that I have a penchant for lots of hyphenated adjectives, and I overuse, on occasion, italics; all of which gives my editors migraine headaches).
Would I do it all over again? Probably, I would. If just because I too well know that I'm stuck with what I've done, whether I'd like to change any of it or not; no use crying overs spilled milk; it's all water under the bridge.
That said, if I had the chance, I would probably try to be a little more patient with people, try to be a little kinder, try to be a little more loving and forgiving. I'm a Gemini, and though I don't particularly believe in astrology, I do find myself easily bored and can, on occasion, be less than diplomatic and even hurtful in showing that boredom.

7) Cris: Hello Mr. William,
Like Anna also I'm very impressed by your way to write, and for a precise reason.
I have always asked to myself if the romance written by the women, for a public generally feminine, were true, I explain myself better… being written by women they succeeded to pick the pure male point of view of the protagonist or they were exclusively feminine fantasies and desires become true? This since reading novels written by men, seems to me that the things are substantially different.
And now as an answer to my questions you jump outside and in little words explain the matter indicating the feminine side of the man and the masculine one of the woman. According to you, all it is reduced to dosing sensibility and expectations? Or the love concept is so universal that both men and women behave themselves in the same way, dream the same things and wish them?
Shortly what it goes well for a woman in love goes well also for a man?
Till now I have believed that there were deeply distinctions… maybe I mistook.
Thanks for this opportunity that you have given to us and I would be very happy of an answer.

William Maltese: Cris,
Notice that I said I thought there was a feminine “side” to all men, and a masculine “side” to all women (anyway, I hope that’s what I said). None of which means that men have all sides, tops, and bottoms (no pun intended, there) that are feminine. Because, I do believe, yes, that there are many differences between men and women that go far beyond the fact that men posses a certain “something” that’s particularly vulnerable, especially when swimming nude in any body of water containing fish out for a snack.
Men, I truly do believe, are definitely more out for sex for the sake of sex. They see a woman, “any” woman, and their inclination is to mate.
Women, sex important, too (child-bearing always in mind, though), I think, have a tendency to sit back, before getting down to the nitty-gritty with any guy, to try and figure out all of the favorable and negative qualities in a man which might be passed on by the genes to any offspring that may (or may not) result from a sexual encounter. Women prefer their sex with at least a little bit of emotional involvement, even if it doesn’t always require an attending proposal for marriage and/or an engagement ring on the finger. You see it all of the time in nature, wherein the female of the species doesn’t consent to sex with just every Tom, Dick, and Harry to appear on the scene. She usually waits for the guy who’ll provide her with the most of what she wants in a man. Well, okay, in most of nature, it’s the weaklings that get beaten off by the butcher studs, but with “civilized” human beings that kind of natural selection doesn’t always happen, making it particularly important that a woman decide who’s out there “for her” and whether he can provide her with what she wants, emotionally and physically. Therefore, for women, sex is a more cerebral thing — at least in my opinion. Women think a lot; men just jump on in (and or “on”) and think about it later (if they think about it at all).
I think that for a women to write successfully from a man’s perspective (and it has been done), and for a man to write successfully from a female’s perspective (and it has been done), the authors have to have done at least a bit of observation of human nature. Frankly, I know men who couldn’t any more write from a woman’s perspective (in fact would think it emasculating to do so), and I know women who couldn’t manage a successful write from a man’s perspective (agghungggh, all of that testosterone and other ape-like stuff). Certainly, any author, to write from another gender’s perspective, has to have a knack for doing it, and/or has to make a concentrated effort to take notes, or they’ll be found out for sure, especially since there are so many female readers thoroughly convinced they can spot female perspective written by a man, and so many men who are certain they can spot male perspective written by a female.
I’m always surprised by how men and women like to think their gender is something to be horded and not to be shared, like the rituals of some secret society known only by those who are members. I’ve had women’s mouths drop all of the way to the floor when they’ve discovered I’ve written a book they thoroughly enjoyed. Some of them take it graciously, with a laugh and a smile, and a “Jeez, you did fool me.” Others don’t take it nearly as well, get downright who-gave-you-access-to-our-private-secrets belligerent.
I truly believe that there is no man who will ever completely know a woman, or a woman who will ever completely know a man (which is a good thing, because a bit of mystery is important in any relationship). What I am saying is that there are certain qualities both genders do share. And there are certain qualities they do not share that can be discovered if one is only prepared to take the time and make the effort to search them out. Take the time, make the effort, and I think truly enjoyable books — by a man for a woman — by a woman for a man — can and are written.

8) Anna:

> "And just last week (or, maybe, the week before), Laura Baumbach (...) really got dumped on, censorship-wise, at a Romantic Times Convention in Texas. RT members, mainly m/f authors and publishers, really took offense to Laura and m/m writers (...)There was a whole series of nasty occurrences that included harsh words, banners being secretly taken down and concealed in deep corners, promotional material missing, books not being ordered and not arriving as they should have… And, I guess, that’s not the first time it’s happened (and probably won’t be the last)."

That's a shame!
One can agree or not, like or not, appreciate or not, but I think this kind of censorship is more outrageous than whatever it wants to censor.
I have read some erotic and romantica novels and I found out some are really well written, with interesting plots.
I've never - yet - read a m/m, just because I'm not so interesting in reading sex and love relationship between men (ough... how can I identify myself with the heroine being loved by the heroe, if there isn't any?), but this is a matter of tastes, not rules.
It never must be a rule.
Don't we forget homosexual relations where common in ancient persia and greece - just to quote a few - "the cradle of civilization".

William Maltese: You know, Anna, I’ve been surprised by just how many women read and write m/m, these days.
Back when I first started writing m/m and m/f erotica, they were only two distinct readership groups recognized — gays and straights. There was the anomaly of f/f which was assumed aimed not at lesbians, strangely enough, but at straight men. Although, I have been told by lesbians that those early f/f books were obviously written by men for men, and had absolutely nothing to do with “real” lesbian relationships. Today, there is an entirely separate and large lesbian readership group with books written by lesbians and aimed toward that particular audience.
Quite aside from the fact that, especially since I’ve written from just about every gender’s and every sexual orientation’s perspective, I agree that just because someone doesn’t personally advocate a certain type of writing (or life-style) that doesn’t give them the right to keep others from participating. Surprisingly, though, there are still a lot of people who don’t hold to that way of thinking.
You might find it an interesting aside (although maybe not), that a lot of women who figure themselves not “into” m/m sex are still taking the plunge, at least as far as reading one or two of the genre, if only because so many men for so long have found f/f sex fascinating (and nonthreatening); today’s woman figuring turnabout is fair play.
Personally, I’m up (no sexual innuendo to be inferred) to trying just about anything once. Twice, though, especially if I didn’t like it the first time, is something else again.
That said, you know what you like. And why try escargot when you prefer veal?

9) Jules Jones: Thanks for that interesting post, William. I've seen bits of the history before, but it's fascinating to see it laid out by someone who was there -- and I'd had no idea that anyone had suggested m/m to Harlequin that early.

William Maltese: Jules…thanks for the thanks.
I sometimes forget that, having been certain places at certain times and gleaned certain information, not everyone was right there with me, getting the same scoop and perspective on things.
As for Harlequin, if you think they’re conservative now, you should have seen them back before SuperRomances and their new imprints, when they were merely a reprint house for Britain’s Mills and Boon. Actually, they’ve come quite a ways, by way of making their books, their stories, and their sexual content more in align with most social mores most of the world over.
Even back when I was there to help them launch their more realistic and original work, the people in charge, behind the scenes, were more enlightened than the company’s staid reputation might have led anyone (readers included) to believe. People like George Glay, then the Senior Editor, was genuinely open to new ideas, even if he wasn’t ready, yet, to set the company on a pathway that would blaze the trail for m/m romance publishing.
A lot of a publishing company’s attitude is dependent upon the people in charge, and that in-charge can go from liberal to super-conservative in one change of an editor; as I mentioned, changes in editorial staff happen more frequently than most people realize, so whether or not a writer’s work gets attention, or finds acceptance, or ends up lost in the slush pile, often depends upon the luck of the draw.