Bruce Watkins

I am a gay man living with my mate Dan, in Burbank, California for the last fifty years.

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA in very poor conditions. My Mom raised my older brother and me with a little help from my Gramma I made it out of the barrio through scholarships. I did well in school and received my doctorate in clinical psychology. I was in private practice in Westwood California and was an adjunct professor at UCLA in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science. Bravo!

I am now retired from the profession of psychology. I spend my time in a daily regimen of physical exercise, reading, learning the elegant Spanish language, and writing. I have always had a flagrant imagination, and it didn’t take long for me to transfer my psychological theories into the voices of my fictional characters.

I thrive on creating vibrant characters, and then setting them loose to interact with each other, creating the plots of my stories. Like any writer, I write about what I know. Being raised gay in a staunch Catholic family, I have my share of internalized homophobia. Hence, most of my stories are directed toward eradicating all internalized homophobia, both in myself and

more subtly in my readers. I try to make this process fun. My characters are highly seductive in their exuberant romances and sexual trysts. Hopefully, one never quite expects what’s going to happen. That’s the way I’ve spent my life, and I don’t intend to change it. I was raised Catholic with sixteen years of Catholic education, eight of which were with the Jesuits at Loyola High and then Loyola U. My new series deals with guys like me who found themselves to be gay and Catholic in the 1960s.

I premiered my writing in a series called, “Loving Men in the 19th Century.” It takes place at a time when there were no sexual labels. LGBTQ people could move west and explore The US’s manifest destiny among other single men.

Now, I am moving forward in time. I am publishing my new series, “Coming Out in the 1960s.” The first book in that series is Gay Lions. Manny and Tom are straight jocks who have rented a small place at the beach and have discovered they are in love with each other. They don’t know what that means, but they intend to find others like themselves on the campus of Loyola University, where the mascot is a Lion - Gay Lions!

Very soon, I will be publishing all of the books in this series, taking place both at the University level and in the high school.

I am very excited about my new career as a writer, and I hope you want to join me in that excitement.