JL KING PART 2: 'Down Low' author/activist launches new book series

*Author JL King created a firestorm of controversy with his 2005 book "On the Down Low - A Journey into the Lives of Straight Black Men Who Sleep With Men."

Upon giving the low down on the down low, King became the poster boy of such behavior, but he's since given up the life and now he's now even taken a different direction with his latest tome.

King's new novel, "Love on a Two-Way Street," is the first in a series that promises to have readers wondering if it might be more than just a work of fiction.

"So many people wonder if gay writing is fiction or non-fiction," King observed. "And since I've had the opportunity to move in a lot of celebrity circles, I've met a lot of men who have lived double lives. In the world of sports, in the world of politics, and in the world of religion, [there are] a lot of powerful men who live double lives, but because of their money and their status, they are never looked at as men who live on the DL."

So King decided to take a little of his inside knowledge and wrote a story about a very powerful entertainer that goes by the name of Juice.

"I talk about his climb to [the top] by using his looks, his power, and his money to have both men and women and to use all that to develop a group of other men who have secrets and how he controls their lives by using what they really want out of life and to have them sexually."

King told EUR's Lee Bailey that the book still down-low themed because his name has become synonymous, to his dismay, with the DL.

"Once you write a book as powerful as my first book, it's hard to get out of that genre," he said. "It's the only thing that people want from you."

King revealed that his fan base of the women seem incredibly intrigued by men on the down low.

"Women are so turned on about two men having sex," he said. "They don't like it, they hate it, and they don't want to hear it, but at the same time they can't get enough of it. So I decided to write a very drama-filled book that will take the reader on a journey into a life of power, money, and sex."

Still, as intrigued as his readers and audiences have been, King said that the book has very few DL elements. However, the author and AIDS activist said that he is well aware that in general, the book will come across as being about just that.

"The DL part is very small. It's probably less than 5 percent of the total book, even though the readers will make it 95 percent," he said. "Because of everybody's interest in that behavior, it will come across as being a book about that."

Nevertheless, no matter what you call it, King promises that his latest is a real page-turner.

"It is a book that will have you captured," he said. "I've always been a story teller. I knew back in the day that one day I would be able to write a very good story. So I took everything I had in me and put it on the pages of this book - from the characters to the storyline."

Speaking of characters, King also said that his main character might remind readers of an actual music star. The author won't say whether or not his character is based on a chart topper, but he did not deny that people might be inclined to make some assumptions.

"If you could imagine Puffy, Jay-Z, Jermaine Dupri, Suge Knight, and Usher and everybody you can imagine that's big and put them in one individual, that is who my main character would be. And the love of his life would be Mary J. Blige, Beyonce, and Rihanna all combined together," he suggested.

Is it fact or fiction? That's just what King wants you to decide, and to keep wondering. "Love on a Two-Way Street" is available in stores now, and the second installment is expected next year. In the meantime, King has headed out on a book tour in support of the new novel, but, in King's modus operandi, he's put a little twist on it. Instead of just discussing the book and signing copies, King's book tour is more about talking to his audience about relationships.

"The book is about love. It's about relationships," he explained. "We're inviting women to come out and meet me," he planned. "We'll have a conversation about relationships. We talk about why men do what they do; we talk about why men and women don't come together; we talk about the fantasy love that turns out to be the devil himself. That's why my character, Juice, looks like he could be the perfect catch for any woman, but in reality, behind all the beauty and the body and the money - he is truly evil."

Additionally, King will talk with audiences about the number one question he's asked whenever he's on tour or at speaking engagements - What are the tell-tell signs of a man on the down low? King has even released a DVD called "The Top 10 Signs of Down Low Behavior."

"If I don't say anything about sexuality, if I don't say anything about the DL, 99.9 percent of the time, the first question is, 'What are the signs?' So I'm going to bring that information on the tour."

However, the most important thing, according to King, is that he'll be talking about HIV/AIDS awareness and making responsible choices.

"I just want people to know that we live in a time that HIV is taking its toll on the African American community in a huge way," he said. "We all need to be more responsible, we all need to know our status, and we all need to join this fight so we don't continue to impact this deadly disease to the next generation."

For more on JL King, his new novel, his new DVD, and his book tour, go to his website at www.jlking.net.

CHRIS ROCK'S EX WRITING TELL-ALL: Kali Bowyer still insists son is actor's seed, despite DNA tests proving otherwise.

*Although DNA tests have showed that Chris Rock is not the father of her 14-year-old son, Kali Bowyer still claims the teen is the product of a fling she had with the comic several years before his marriage to Malaak Compton-Rock.

In the press release for her book "Hollywood Child," Bowyer claims her past included "a hot affair with racy comedian Chris Rock." Her life, according to the release, "started crashing down all around her," until "getting pregnant with Chris' son saved her life."

Rock's attorney John Mayone reminded MSNBC.com that the Georgia court has already concluded that his client and Bowyer's son have no biological ties. "There is a final judgment. This is not Chris Rock's child. It's been fully litigated, and that includes DNA testing."

Bowyer, however, says she is moving forward with her allegations in the book because she wants to continue fighting the paternity question in California. Mayone dismisses that possibility.

"The time for appeal has long since passed," he says.

No book publisher was named in the press release.

"When I was in an unhappy place in my life, I always wanted to be kidnapped," she says in the magazine's August issue. "I just wanted a way out, but I didn't have one."

That is, until she met Nick Cannon.

"He sort of kidnapped me and took me on a helicopter ride. Then he re-proposed," she says, referring to his initial proposal a few days earlier that she let slide by.

"We really kept the whole relationship aspect of it quiet," she says. "I think we didn't want to give people a chance to be like, 'What are you doing? What are you talking about? This is so quick...are you sure?'"