Product Description

Trysts is the first collection of dark fantasy fiction with gay characters by Steve Berman.

Berman has assembled thirteen (thus the triskadecollection of the subtitle) evocative stories, all of which revolve around the central theme of the 'tryst.' But these passionate hookups and romantic encounters range from the eerie to the horrifying to the wondrous.

Trysts offers readers dark and quirky tales from a distinctive voice in gay fiction.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #946780 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 164 pages

Review
"All in all, "Trysts" is a marvelous collection and a surprisingly adept debut for Berman." -- The New York Blade

"If you've never understood the allure of short stories, Trysts will be a fantastic start. Consider it a must-have." -- Echo Magazine

"Steve Berman has a unique voice and style... missing from the gay fiction, as well as the dark fantasy markets." -- Midwest Book Review Bookwatch Volume 2, Number 8

From the Publisher
Trysts has received two nominations (Best Other Work and Best Short Story) for the 2002 Spectrum Awards, which are sponsored by the Gaylactic Network and created to honor works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror that deal positively with queer characters, themes, and issues.

From the Author
When was your last tryst? I often wonder... those ever-so brief encounters tend to last in memory far longer than the time spent in the embrace. Often my imagination revises past passions, not so much improving them but changing things... what if the boy spent the night, what would we say in the morning? Or if I watched him inhale the smoke from a cigarette hungrily, like he was feeding on each wisp? Fantasy, in my mind, extends beyond the simple act of wanting another's body next to yours.

The curse of being a writer works as a blessing for readers - my imagination never lets anything in my past rest, and now and then something worthwhile is put on the page. My hope is that, when you explore all thirteen stories in Trysts, emotions are touched and some of your own distant affairs are remembered.

Customer Reviews

Queer in every sense of the word!
I had heard of Steve Berman�s fiction collection, Trysts, at Amazon.com, and it sounded interesting. Matt Bauer�s striking artwork on the cover caught my interest even more.

As the words he chose for his title and subtitle suggest, Berman can find something obscure or archaic, then turn it into something wondrous and unpredictable.

While Berman will certainly appeal to fans of modern horror writers like Clive Barker, his writing seems more like a reshaped, updated, and gay-themed version of Edgar Allan Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Like those 19th century authors, both of whom helped shape fantastic fiction, Berman can use a few suggestive words, emotions, or images to spawn entire worlds of fear, dread, and awe. But also like those writers, he makes us want to keep exploring the dark forests of the human mind, to see how the experience will affect us.

Of course, in Berman�s case, we mostly find modern landscapes, such as run-down apartment buildings that house demons, spiders, ghosts, and seductive hustlers. Or we find familiar situations that many gays can relate to, such as a young gay man who worries that he might not be as attractive as his gay buddy or the men in one of their favorite magazines.

These stories aren�t always dark. They can be hopeful or erotic, and they�re sometimes even funny, though Berman often adds to the intensity by mixing the fearful with those more positive elements. I loved these thirteen stories by Steve Berman, and I hope he won�t stop with the �Triskaidecollection� that introduced me to his work.

We can now find many writers that bring the �gay fiction� genre into the sub-genres of science fiction, fantasy, and/or horror. I�ve barely started exploring the works of such writers, but I consider Trysts a great place to start!

Trysts is creepy, fun and queerly strange stuff,a great book
Well, it's been a little bit since I've read any gay books, so I thought it was time. I had Trysts on the shelf for several months and pulled it down for a closer look. Once I started this book of short stories, I pretty much read them all thru. I like to read short stories and interject them into my novel and non-fiction reading, but these were too interesting, odd and funly strange. I especially liked the last set of stories that are all tied together and take place in small altered pockets of America. A strange event has caused certain areas to Fall, making them into twisted realms filled with magic, monsters and rag tag groups of people looking for something, be it love, drugs, sex, acceptance.

My favorite story in the bunch was Finn's Night, which really didn't have any fantasy to it at all. It is a spin on Huck Finn and takes a gay gambler into youngins and mixes him up with Huck and a lady conartist. Very interesting, funny and romantic in an oldstyle way. Very different from anything else you'll tend to read.

Cries Beneath the Plaster was one of the creepiest. A man turns tricks into a work of art...until the art comes to life. This one was very strange and creepy, but I won't say anymore as to spoil it.

Other stories in this book of 13, take on a prostitute ring that isn't quite what it seems and the john that gets taken into a dark circle. A youth makes a perfect man out of cuttings from magazines and then runs into him...kinda... and then there is the secret desires that only a ghost can reveal thru a Ouija board.

Some I liked better than others, of course, but all had twists on life, love and loneliness; drugs and sex; youth and desires. All had a queer tone or directly queer character and then put them in odd and bizarre situations. I recommend this as good queer reading. Girls, you should like it too as a few stories have lesbian characters as well.

So find Trysts by Steve Berman...and have a freaky night.

Found it, bought it, read it, liked it!
I found this book when I happened to meet Steve Berman at DragonCon back in 2002 and during a chat he skillfully talked me into buying it :)

Trysts is a cool little book. Steve has labeled it "a triskaidecollection of queer and weird stories" (yes, that's 13 stories) and I think that description fits pretty well.

Some of the stories reminded me of Twilight Zone plotlines gone horribly, horribly wrong (and that's saying something!), while others were almost traditional horror stories like I grew up reading in those big Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. Sure, they were "queer and weird" (and I don't think Twilight Zone would have gay men and lust in the middle of most stories) but Steve certainly has a handle on the basics of horror!

One of the main themes, maybe even the theme of the story collection seems to be that of a character or a group of them stepping away from normal life (either willingly or by accident) and getting sucked into situations or whole worlds which are just scary -- painful, corrupt, wrong, immoral, or just not part of the normal world, instead belonging to a dark side of life, from which the characters can't escape.

One story, "Cries Beneath the Plaster," has an artist seeing his own creations (and past misdeeds) coming after him in revenge. Several of the stories take place in a nameless city where large sections have somehow changed, so they are now "Fallen" areas where people live in madness, magic, corruption, and are just generally no longer living the safe, happy lives they were before.

My favorite story in the book is "Path of Corruption." Reminding very much of Storm Constantine's stories, "Path" tells the story of a young gay college student in New Orleans who step by step abandons his safety and propriety to join up with a male prostitute. And it's not just that he ends up basically living in a whorehouse, but that the man he's with, the men in the house, aren't just ordinary whores but more like a cult. The story ends with a shattering scene of whores carrying out a ritual half-way between an H.P. Lovecraft story and something in Storm's Grigori series!

This is a great short story collection and one I'd strongly recommend to people looking for horror and dark fantasy with some queer content and/or sex mixed in. Go out and hook up with Trysts!