QUEER FEAR
Introduction by Michael Rowe

QUEER FEAR is, at its most elemental point, an anthology of gay-themed horror stories primarily aimed at gay and lesbian horror fans who have grown up, as most of us have, never seeing ourselves represented in horror fiction or films without our sexuality making us either freaks or victims. In this book, you'll meet a wide array of monsters, both traditional creatures of the night like vampires, werewolves, and zombies, as well as all manner of evil magic and urban terrors. The gay sexual orientation of the characters--be they the victim or the aggressor-- is a starting point, indeed a given, against which the horror or the story is arrayed. But make no mistake--this is not a series of politically correct stories geared to making a gay readership feel good. These are full-out horror stories, and their aim is to terrify, to cause the reader--gay or straight--to question reality as he or she knows it.

There has never been an anthology like QUEER FEAR. Traditionally, horror fiction has been a primarily straight literary enclave, usually featuring a male aggressor and a female victim, or occasionally a rogue "killer female" who has stepped out of her traditional decorative role. When I was growing up in Ottawa, Ontario in the 1970s, I watched my peers' lives reflected in the horror fiction and film I adored, but the closest thing I ever saw to the sexual orientation I was discovering in myself was the occasional, disposable, sexually neutral or "invert" character, usually a creepy loner, who was never the killer but was usually suspected of the most awful evil. He was generally dispatched without a second glance, and the audience chuckled inwardly at the absurdity of a boy so weak and "weird" being strong enough to be the killer.

Not so in QUEER FEAR, where, for instance, a group of gaybashing teenage boys might pick the wrong victim one night, and find themselves facing a creature older than time; or where the ultimate "psycho lover" might dispose of all his competition by simply, literally, wishing them away; or where a young goth boy might discover a "real vampire" and realizes that the Anne Rice fantasy is far less painful than the reality; or where a man who has lost his lover in the bloody heart of urban violence might search for the ultimate peace of forgetfulness, then return transformed in the light of a bloated October moon, with only the memory of his pain, and a hunger for vengeance...

"These stories," says internationally acclaimed horror author Poppy Z. Brite, "are variously savage, tender, funny, and always whip-smart. We're here, we're queer, we're scary!"

Vamps and Weres
There is no shortage of images of lesbian vampires and gay villians. For years, the movie industry only showed us as "monstrosities" or as evil "perversions". But now that we slowly are seeing a wider spectrum of portraits of gays and lesbians, we are feeling more at ease about camping up and playing with those very images.

For example, check out Buster Wilde, a comic strip about a gay werewolf. There is also a great list of gay and lesbian Vampire movies at Queer Vampires.

But not only are we laughing at ourselves, we are also delving into darker eroticism. Queer Fear is a male counterpart to the popular Lesbian Vampire anthologies by Pam Keesey. So here is a challenge. Can any of you guys come up with an recipe to match the one below?

Lesbian Vampire Garlic Pasta

Lesbian Vampire Garlic Pasta with Fresh Herbs
By Pam Keesey

• 1 pound pasta
• 6 quarts water
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 8 to 16 cloves garlic, coarsely minced
• 2 cups fresh basil and parsley, finely chopped
• 1 to 2 cups cream
• Lemon juice
• Freshly ground pepper
• Freshly grated Italian or Argentine Parmesan