Works by
Charles Casillo
(Writer)

Biographies

• Outlaw: John Rechy (2002)
  When John Rechy's City of Night first appeared in 1963, it was greeted with equal parts fanfare and horror. The unapologetically sexual story of a young gay hustler shocked readers with its frank treatment of a subject most knew about but chose to pretend did not exist. Yet more shocking was Rechy's revelation that the book was largely autobiographical. For a street hustler to reach literary fame and widespread acclaim was unheard-of, especially if he was gay. Rechy continued to publish explosive novels, including Numbers, The Sexual Outlaw, and Rushes-even as he continued hustling seedy Hollywood Boulevard-and soon became an integral part of the new literary elite that included Gore Vidal, Norman Mailer, and Christopher Isherwood. In this enlightening biography, Charles Casillo provides an absorbing picture of the outlaw writer, examining the dichotomy of Rechy's life as both a respected author and professor and a tough-as-nails sex worker. Working closely with Rechy himself as well as his family, friends, admirers, and colleagues, Casillo presents a complex portrait of a man who found sexual liberation through prostitution and used it to create a vivid and influential artistic legacy.

Fiction

• The Marilyn Diaries (1999)
  The premise of this new work of fiction is that the diaries that Marilyn Monroe were rumored to have kept in the last years of her life have been found and are being published for the first time - so we are reading her life story as if told in her own words. It is a fascinating tale of triumph and pain, beauty and tragedy, told against a backdrop of a golden age in Hollywood history, the 50s and 60s. It has a cast of characters that includes John and Jackie Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, Elizabeth Taylor, Peter and Pat Lawford, Robert Kennedy, Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty and many others. The difference between this book and other recent works of fiction about the blonde actress is that in this novel Marilyn Monroe comes across as a living, breathing human being - not a cardboard caricature based on characters from her films. This is, however, a book for adults. It is not a Disney cartoon version of a blonde Snow White with cartoon birds chirping over her head. It is the exploration of a complex woman of complicated, unresolved contrasts - a doomed siren that, even beyond the grave, never lost her power to seduce.

• The Fame Game (2006)
  They are three ambitious wannabes, each with an insatiable appetite for celebrity-all grasping, clawing, and backstabbing their way up the show biz ladder.
  
  Meet Mikki Britten. Smoldering, gorgeous, she's got the heat, the talent, and the drive. A promising model she just needs the right people to open up the right doors...and she'll have the acting career she's desperately craved. She'll play dirty to win.
  
  Meet Carla Christaldi. She's the troubled daughter of famed Hollywood director Jonathan Christaldi. All Carla ever wanted was to make it on her own. All she's missing is that magical "spark" that makes people take instant notice. She'll deceive anyone to win.
  
  Meet Mario DeMarco. The sultry hustler with an idea for a screenplay-he's the guy who has cruised through life on his looks, whether it's bedding a man for love or for money. All he's ever wanted is the recognition for the talents that lay beyond the bedroom. He'll barter his soul to win.
  
  Take one fateful party...toss in a chance meeting...stir in a startling betrayal...and suddenly the game has begun-a merciless sport where the rules are constantly changing. The reward for one is the ultimate: fame. The penalty for another: obscurity. The price for the last of them: death.
  
  Dripping with sardonic New York attitude, laced with the seductive glamour of Hollywood, Charles Casillo gives readers a hip, modern-day cautionary tale of just how much our dreams cost us. The Fame Game. Wanna play?

• Boys, Lost & Found (2006) -- Nominated 2006 Lambda Literary Gay Men's Debut Fiction Awards
  This compelling collection explores the tangled inner lives of contemporary gay men. Fiction, memoir, and biographical sketches intermingle in these stories, creating portraits of men longing to connect. Casillo’s people—whether hustlers, writers, models, cruisers, or despondent lovers—are complicated, smart, cool, witty, lusty and romantic. But under their glossy veneers the characters are vulnerable men dealing with deteriorating relationships, promiscuity, and betrayals.