Hunky Heroes

To say I'm a fan of pop culture and popcorn cinema is probably an understatement. I grew up going to the movies in a small town—well, several small towns actually—in Australia. Movies were my friend, and being a kid in the 70s and early 80s was awesome. There was so much freedom and fun to be had for a kid with a bike in a flat, dusty, country town small enough to ride from one end to the other and stop off at a matinee on the way.

I learned a lot about storytelling in those years: what worked, what didn't, and what made my heart beat faster. And rollercoaster action scenes with hunky heroes and a badass over-the-top villain always made me feel like I was alive. After all, I was a kid growing up gay, watching these hot, heroic hunks with huge biceps save the day—why wouldn't it put a smile on my face! For me those heroes of the 70s and early 80s—their look, their traits, their flaws and their ability to always get out of a tight scrape—became the inspiration for the gay heroes in my novels. Gay heroes who, I thought, were long overdue!

And who was hotter than Sam Jones in the 1980 fantasy sci-fi FLASH GORDON? Blond and bulging in all the right places, both camp and courageous, Jones' incarnation of the football-star-turned-galactic-crusader pretty much turned me gay on the spot! Hell, he even had his own action figure!