Author Bob Smith on 'Selfish and Perverse'

Comedian-turned-author Bob Smith remembers being both excited and scared when he first ventured off on a boat into the frigid, always-lit wilderness located in the outskirts of one of Alaska's few gay-friendly outposts, Anchorage.

"I had just been to a benefit in Anchorage and met all of these great people," he says rattling off a list of his then newfound Alaskan buddies which includes a gay salmon fisherman and a lesbian who started her own polka band. "I was working on an article for Out Magazine about gay people in Alaska and my friend Brad (the salmon fisherman) told me I had to check out more than just the big cities and go into the bush."

Smith, cautiously taking his friend's advice, traveled as far as the Bering Sea. Since his initial visit in the late '90s, he's been back 12 times.

"Whenever I'm up there, it's like a constant buzz of happiness," Smith says phoning from his home in Manhattan's Hell's Kitchen. "A lot of people I met in Alaska said they visited the state when they were younger and fell in love with it. If I was in my 20s, I probably would've done the same thing."

The comedian, who was the first openly gay stand-up comic to perform on the "Tonight Show" in the early '90s, harnesses his passion for the last frontier in "Selfish and Perverse," a fish-out-of-water love story that pays homage to the breathtaking, yet quirky, beauty of Alaska.

"I didn't want to write about a bunch of gays guys in West Hollywood or in Chelsea," he remarks, "That's been done."

"Selfish and Perverse" follows Nelson Kunker, a 34-year-old, unemployed sketch comedy writer who travels to Alaska for some one-on-one time with his hunky new beau, Roy Briggs, a rugged archaeologist and part-time salmon fisherman.

Armistead Maupin, author of the "Tales of the City" series, calls the book, "a thoroughly seductive and satisfying read. It makes you laugh, it makes you horny, it makes you want to fish for salmon."

Smith says he was floored when Maupin agreed to give advanced praise for "Selfish and Perverse." "That was a big deal for me because people said he rarely agrees to do blurbs for upcoming books," he adds.

While Maupin and "The Object of My Affection" author Stephen McCauley praise "Selfish and Perverse" for making them laugh out loud, don't be misled into thinking the book is nothing but comedic one-liners.

"People hear you're a comic and they automatically think it's stand-up comedy in a book," Smith says. "I wouldn't want to read a book that's just stand-up comedy."

The 48-year-old writer continues, "I keep the two completely separate. Both my comedy and fiction writing involve my sense of humor and have a humorous point of view. However, my book is a comic novel. It's not a comic monologue."

As far as being pigeonholed as a gay fiction writer, as opposed to being labeled simply a comic novelist, Smith admits he had initial reservations.

"They're going to pigeonhole you somehow," he concludes. "This novel is a comic novel first and a gay novel second. Whether it's my stand-up act or my writing, my philosophy is if you do good work all of that other stuff that comes along with it really doesn't matter."