A native Californian, Dale Chase began making things up as soon as she discovered her imagination.  Around the same time she took up a pencil and began drawing. The creative spark had ignited at age four and over the years has grown to a steady and unquenchable flame.

 

Early on, the things Dale made up were not put to paper but were incorporated into childhood play. Pretend was a favorite past time and cowboys a favorite subject since Dale had fallen early on for a television cowboy.  Bob Steele had dark curly hair, a handsome face, and slim build—her first love and she was maybe five.  When playing cowboys with neighborhood children, each child taking the role of a well known hombre, Dale's creative drive insisted that each not only tell which cowboy they were but describe the clothes worn, how many guns he carried, the name and color of his horse.  Only then would Dale continue with the pretend.  Cowgirls were never considered as it never occurred to Dale she couldn't be a cowboy.   She spent many a happy day as Bob Steele and often carried the role to the dinner table where she delighted in remaining the cowboy while her parents thought their little girl shared the meal.  Likewise, at night Dale imagined herself to sleep by creating cowboy stories.

 

Dale was never at a loss when there were no children to play with.  She could create cowboy dramas by herself or turn to drawing.  A comic book fan—funny ones, no superheroes—she found she could copy the panels with great accuracy.  She also drew from the Sunday funnies. The artist was thus born and for much of her life Dale worked in pencil, drawing from photographs, newspaper ads, comics, and sometimes the real world.  She still has a picture of her house drawn at age 16. She now draws, paints, sculpts in papier mache, and creates art from found objects.

 

The middle part of Dale's life shall occupy one brief paragraph.  This great detour took her from high school into marriage and two children, to divorce and entry into the business world, to a brief second marrage in her thirties, the sole benefit of which was a move from the Los Angeles suburbs to the San Francisco Bay Area where she still happily resides.

 

In her teens Dale began writing down the stuff she was making up but it wasn't until she was 21 that she seriously considered publication.  She and her husband were motorcycle enthusaists—Dale rode her own Triumph—and so her first story went to a motorcycle magazine.  She was paid $30 for "Black Rainbow" which appeared in Motorcyclist magazine.  From that point she enjoyed eight years of stories published in such magazines as Motorcyclist, Cycle World, and Cycle.  Ironically (or sadly?) Dale was paid more for her later motorcycle stories over thirty years ago than she has ever been paid for her gay erotica.

 

Dale finally exhausted motorcycles as subject matter for her fictioin.  She had written adventure stories, funny stories, even a ghost story.  It was time to move on.  Long a reader of novels, she began to write one, ushering in a long unpublished period during which she honed her skills.  There were eight novels over many years and all too often the agent's or editor's letter praised the work then added "but in today's commercial marketplace..."  Last she checked, this remained a mainstream mantra.

 

It must be noted that Dale never formally studied writing. She did not attend college and in high school avoided literature classes in favor of business English courses—something she has long regretted.  She has learned her craft by reading and by writing.  Her reading included Writer's Digest magazine which she read for over 30 years, mostly for company, and occasionally for some tidbit of craft.  As with any effort, be it a musical instrument, a sport, or a literary effort, practice is required and the years of writing, while never considered practice, were just that. Dale believes writing cannot be taught.  While the craft can be passed from one to another, the creative spark that must drive the effort is inborn.  Dale likes the story of the young man who asked the great Beethoven how to become a composer and Beethoven said he had no idea. "But you are a composer!" the young man said.  Beethoven nodded.  "Yes, but I never had to ask."

 

In late 1997 Dale noticed a call for submissions in Writer's Digest magazine:  a small gay publisher looking for erotic short stories.  This gave Dale pause as she had always written men easier than women. Some friends had read her latest novel to their gay men friends who had remarked at the accuracy of Dale's portrayal of the sexual appetite of a 24 year old man.  This remained in the back of Dale's mind and when she read the call for submissions, it nudged forward.

 

Dale sent for a copy of the magazine looking for stories but found an unappealing pulp.  But her interest was stirred so she looked into the marketplace and found Men magazine—slick and colorful with three stories.  She read the stories and said to herself "I can do that and I can do it better than that."  The stories had great sex scenes but were encumbered by boring leads and little character development. So Dale sat down at her computer to write her first gay erotic story.  What to write?  Her son was a pizza delivery man so she thought to make a story around pizza delivery.  Once envisioned, the story poured out of her in two hours of what became the most exciting writing experience of her life.  She titled it "Pizza Man" and sent it to Men magazine.

 

By the time Men magazine accepted "Pizza Man" and changed the title to "On The Run"  Dale had sent them three more stories which they immediately accepted. She kept writing, kept submitting, and in the first three months of her new writing life they accepted six stories. Dale was into the gay fiction adventure that continues over a decade later.  She counts gay writers as some of her dearest friends, regularly attends the Saints & Sinners Literary Festival in New Orleans, and has a fine time all around.  Her children are proud of her accomplishments.