Rough Trade
'Rough trade' once signaled a risky encounter with dangerous straight men who were 'gay for pay.' In the almost forty years since Stonewall, 'rough trade' has come to mean everything from S/M to wrestling to violent rough sex. Some of the top male erotica writers have penned their own hot, sexy versions of the term, producing some of the hottest, nastiest, and most dangerous fiction ever published.
Jonathan Asche, Dan Boyle, Bill Brent, Dale Chase, M. Christian, Todd Gregory, Greg Herren, Adam McCabe, Kelly McQuain, Christopher Pierce, Neil Plakcy, Nic P. Ramsies, Max Reynolds, Jay Starre, Cage Thunder, Aaron Travis, Greg Wharton, and Logan Zachary.
Rough Trade
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Rough Trade
Edited by
Todd Gregory
2009
Rough Trade
© 2009 By Bold Strokes Books. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 10: 1-60282-092-9E
ISBN 13: 978-1-60282-092-0E
This Electronic Book is published by
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
Po Box 249
Valley Falls, New York 12185
First Edition: August 2009
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Todd Gregory
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design By Sheri (GraphicArtist2020@hotmail.com)
Table of Contents
Introduction
The Fratboy and The Faggot - Aaron Travis
Daddy’s Boys - Nic P. Ramsies
Best Little Whorehouse - Jay Starre
Hiring David - Jonathan Asche
Close to Home - Adam McCabe
The New Boy - Cage Thunder
Giovanni - Logan Zachary
Sold to the Highest Bidder - Christopher Pierce
Under the Table - Dale Chase
Real - Bill Brent
Frisco - Greg Wharton
The Hard Way - M. Christian
Tricked - Jonathan Asche
Dinner Party - Jay Starre
Oh, What A Friend I Have in Jesus - Todd Gregory
Leaving Fresno - Max Reynolds
Missionary Road - Neil Plakcy
I Am Not David - Dan Boyle
Wrestler for Hire - Greg Herren
Blueboy - Kelly McQuain
Contributors
Introduction
Danger Ahead
The notion of rough trade predates Stonewall and the gay rights movement. In those days, when gay bars were hidden from public view, deeply closeted men slipped in and out with secret knocks and used code words, dreading the horror of a possible police raid that would destroy their lives. In the almost forty years since the riots that changed the face of being gay in America forever, finding sex with another man has, for most, become incredibly easy. Almost every city of a moderate size has a gay bar, an adult bookstore, or a park where cruising for sex can be accomplished with moderate ease. The Internet and Web sites like gay.com, manhunt.net, and myspace.com, with their almost uncountable chat rooms, have taken most of the danger and fear out of finding sex partners.
Yet the term rough trade remains a part of our gay vernacular, even if today most people don’t really understand what it means, or even what it meant. In those days before Stonewall, trade meant, basically, a man cruising for sex—a sex partner; as in “I’m looking for trade.” It also designated a certain kind of man; one who was willing to take money in exchange for sexual favors. Some men were willing to let you suck their dick for twenty bucks; hence, you “traded” money for sex. The addition of rough to trade meant danger of a physical kind rather than just the societal kind of being outed; someone who either liked sex to be rough (what we would call today “S&M”) or would beat up their paying customer after taking the money—sometimes without even the desired, bought and paid for act taking place. Rough trade was code—stay away from that one, unless you can explain away bruises, a black eye, and a fat lip.
When I was asked to do this anthology, I was a little hesitant at first. I wasn’t sure what exactly the theme of the book would be, given that rough trade is such an amorphous term; it means different things to different people—and some have never even heard the term before. But on second thought, I realized that the very lack of a true definition of the term was a selling point. What does rough trade mean to different writers, and what kind of a collection would I wind up with, once I asked people to come up with a story built, simply, around the term? What kind of inspiration would they find from the title of the book? So, I deliberately left the call for submissions vague—and when writers would send an inquiry asking for something a little more clear, my responses were different. “Gay for pay,” I would tell one, while telling another, “sex for hire.”
There are two stories in this book that I specifically asked for the right to reprint: “The Fratboy and the Faggot” by Aaron Travis and “Blueboy” by Kelly McQuain. The Travis story, once you read it, is pretty self-explanatory: I don’t think there is another story anywhere that could possibly typify rough trade as well as this one. Kelly’s story I originally read in Harrington Gay Fiction Quarterly, and after I finished reading it, it haunted me. I couldn’t forget the story, and when I signed the contract for this anthology, I immediately e-mailed Kelly and asked if I could use it. Thanks to both Aaron and Kelly for graciously allowing me to use their stories.
And so it went; I started getting all of these marvelous stories about sex; some from the perspective of the buyer, some from the seller. Nic P. Ramsies’s “Daddy’s Boys” takes the reader into the world of a lovely young man who needs money, and turns to the oldest profession to make the rent. Max Reynolds shows us the world of the illegal immigrant, working in the fields of the San Joaquin Valley, who learned his trade south of the border from the gringos in “Leaving Fresno.” Jonathon Asche tells the tale of a gay couple’s unusual anniversary gift to themselves in “Hiring David”—well, perhaps it’s not that unusual, but it’s not listed in the Macy’s registry! (Maybe it should be.)
I could go on and on—but we’re wasting time here. Why are you reading this when you could be reading something making your dick hard?
Turn the page, and enter the world of Rough Trade.
Todd Gregory