Fritz Klein passed away on May 24, 2006. This is the last interview he gave, just before he learned he was ill. The interview was conducted over dinner and email in March and April of 2006. I knew Fritz personally since 1993 when I organized some speaking engagements for him as part of the Bisexual Speakers Bureau in New York City. Fritz was one of the happiest and most joyful people I have ever known. He was a pillar of the bi community for over 30 years, since 1974. The bi community and myself personally will miss him deeply.

Q. You've published several books but this is your first novel...when did you decide you wanted to try your hand at fiction?

A. Many years ago -- I began it in the '80's. It took three years to finish and then I tried to get it published. Seven publishers declined it so I put it in a drawer -- very typical things for writers to do. About five years ago, I went back to it and for two years --not full time-- I edited it and tightened it to make it better. I had help from an editor friend in New York. After I finished editing it, I presented it to Haworth Press for whom I am editor of the Journal of Bisexuality. After a year of back and forth negotiations with an editor of theirs they accepted it.

Q. What was your writing schedule like? Were you disciplined about it or just spontaneous?

A. I was quite disciplined: two to three hours every morning I would sit at the computer and write.

Q. One of your two main characters, Paul, becomes a psychiatrist but is also an accomplished actor. Have you ever dabbled in acting? Was there someone who inspired a character with two very different but simultaneous professions?

A. I dabbled in acting in a small way. In 1963 I played two small roles in Lysistrata in Sydney Australia. I also took a class in improvisation. I never considered myself an actor. There was no one I have known personally who I based this character on with two professions but I have always thought that the two careers are very complementary and help each other.

Q. Your other main character comes to see Paul, the psychiatrist, because he is bothered by his constant erections and is continually seeking sex several times a day...basically he is a sex-addict. You named this character "Randy." Was that a little "author's joke?"

A. Yes - I wanted to get a smile from the reader that his name fits him both for better or worse.

Q. One of your main characters has trouble getting it up and the other can't keep it down! It's an interesting contrast for a novel. How did you come up with that idea?

A. I liked the idea that the therapist learns from the patient, also, not only the patient learning from the therapist. Paul, learns from Randy how to be more sexual while Randy learns from Paul, his therapist, how not to make everything about sex...that there are other ways to relieve anxiety.

Q. You wrote the chapters on Paul in the third person but in chapters about Randy you switch to the first. Most novels are written in one or the other but not both...what prompted that choice?

A. I wanted to differentiate between the two main characters, especially as they are both men and because I skip back and forth from one to another. I did it to help the reader differentiate who we are talking about.

Q. The character, Paul, speaks several languages. You've done a lot of traveling; do you speak other languages as well?

A. Yes, I speak German fluently, a little Yiddish, very little Italian.

Q. What made you want to set part of the book in Switzerland? From the book, you seem quite familiar with Swiss culture, especially the food, as well as the landscape. How much time have you spent there and how have you acquired that level of familiarity?

A. I lived in Bern, Switzerland for 6 years studying medicine. Psychiatry was actually my second career. I already had an MBA but realized I didn't want to continue on that path. When I came to that decision I had passed the deadline to apply for medical schools in the USA here so I applied to Bern and got in.

Q. What language did they teach in at your Swiss med school?

A. In German - not the Swiss dialect but what they called "High German".

Q. Did you know the language already? How did you learn it? How did you have the chutzpah to apply to a medical school that didn't teach in your own language?

A. I was born in Vienna so until the age of six I spoke German. When the family moved to New York I only spoke English but felt comfortable in learning the language once again. I spent some months in Hamburg to study the language so when I began medical school I had a basis of German. I kept studying it diligently especially the first year there.

In addition, many of the textbooks were in English which helped a lot.

Q. In the book, Paul attends a Passover seder at his mentor Carl's apartment that includes Easter egg decorations. My family celebrated Hannukah and Christmas--at least the secular part of Christmas: a tree, Santa Claus and presents. Where did your family fall on the jewish continuum when it came to observances? Would they have made those kind of combinations or considered them blasphemous?

A. They were Orthodox Jewish so, of course, they would not do or think of such a thing.

Q. Randy committed one of the worst crimes in a jewish family...he marries a shikse! (yiddish term for non-jew.) Can you say shikse for a guy or only a woman? Is there a comparable term for a guy?

A. A gentile man is called, "goy" and a gentile woman, "shikse."

Q. His mother threatens to sit Shiva for him-the ultimate threat in a jewish family. Can you explain sitting Shiva?

A. The Orthodox way for ritual grieving in the Jewish religion is to sit "Shiva" for seven days where mirrors are covered; one tears the clothing you wear, usually in the lapel; no music or shows, etc. and you sit at home--usually the parent's home, if possible, if a parent has died. If they do it while you are still alive it's like saying "you are dead to me."

Q. As a bisexual person, did you ever worry about this kind of threat?

A. No, I personally never worried about it in my family that they would do that to me though the threat is always there in the background.