To Elisa (comment #9)

Answer From 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.