Sweet Dreams / Golden Years

Born in Portland, Maine, John Preston was an influential author of fiction and nonfiction, dealing mostly with issues in gay life. He was a pioneer in the early gay rights movement in Minneapolis. He helped found one of the earliest gay community centers in the United States, edited two newsletters devoted to sexual health, and served as editor of The Advocate in 1975. He was the author or editor of nearly fifty books, including such erotic landmarks as Mr. Benson and I Once Had a Master and Other Tales of Erotic Love. Preston's writing was part of a movement in the 1970s and 1980s toward higher literary quality in gay erotic fiction. He was an outspoken advocate of the artistic and social worth of erotic writings. His nonfiction anthologies, which collected essays by himself and others on everyday aspects of gay and lesbian life, won him the Lambda Literary Award and the American Library Association's Stonewall Book Award. He also wrote the "Alex Kane" adventure novels about gay characters. These books, which included Sweet Dreams, Golden Years, and Deadly Lies, combined action-story plots with an exploration of issues such as the problems facing gay youth. Preston was among the first writers to popularize the genre of safe sex stories, editing a safe sex anthology entitled Hot Living in 1985. He helped to found the AIDS Project of Southern Maine. In the late 1980s, he discovered that he himself was HIV positive. He died of AIDS complications on April 28, 1994, aged 48, at his home in Portland.

The Alex Kane Missions, Books 1 & 2 - Meet Alex Kane. In Vietnam, the only lover he had known had been killed by a homophobic coward. With his physical prowess and the financial backing of his former lover's family Kane's sorrow turned to action, and he is resolved to fight back against anyone, anywhere who dares to challenge the dreams of gay men.

In Sweet Dreams, someone was daring to mess with young gay men in Boston. Danny Fortelli, a high school senior and superb gymnast, gets caught up in a drugs-and-prostitution ring exploiting gay youth. Boston's South End had become the epicenter of violence driven by a corrupt elite. Enter Alex Kane to alter their plans forever.


In Golden Years, Joe Talbot, long retired and now widowed, dreams of an easier life in a gay retirement community that sounds too good to be true. But when his young friend Sam, left behind in New York, begins to suspect the "golden agers" are being mistreated, the news reaches Alex Kane's financier. Kane jumps into action, gaining the support of a local cowboy plucked right out of the Old West. These evil doers won't know what hit them when Alex Kane and his Cowboy ride into town!


A celebrated series of superhero adventure stories written for a general audience by bad boy John Preston whose journalism and fictional writings brought leather and bondage scene mainstream. This new edition includes a foreword by Philip Gambone (As Far As I Can Tell: Finding My Father In World War II).