The Piano Lover

David Wales’ life as a cocktail pianist in New Orleans’ French Quarter during the mid 1950’s is complicated by two beautiful young women; Julienne deVille, a wealthy Creole owner of an art gallery, and Aurora Alonzo, a fiery Mexican folk guitarist who experienced a horrendous childhood. Two beautiful older women attempt to control these three for their own secret reasons; his boss, Valentina Sciciliana, and Justine Moreau, a Parisian immigrant who lives in a menage a trois with two young men. Two gay entertainers, a Russian puppeteer named Dimitri Lebedov and a bi-racial choreographer named Alex Pienas, recruit David to write the score for a musical they hope to take to Broadway, the premise of which is that God is a woman and is unhappy with human behavior. God sends an angel named Gabriel, who plays a cornet and looks and sounds like Louis Armstrong, to recruit a pianist in a gay bar to write songs that voice her complaint in order to save the world. Add to this a beautiful female impersonator as one of the musical’s stars, a slender young Korean female hired as the musical’s publicist, and the world famous nightclubs and restaurants of New Orleans as a backdrop to showbiz intrigue and romantic adventures that border on pornography, but are so beautifully written that menage a trois and gay sex seem only natural and thoroughly fulfilling.William Karl Thomas was Lenny Bruce’s only writing collaborator, so it’s no surprise that Thomas’ work walks on the wild side. His past includes being a cocktail pianist in ’the big easy’ circa 1950’s, and his past works are said to ＂read like a Bogart script.＂ All his works include gays and interracial characters. The body of Thomas’ work, both fiction and non-fiction, hits the high points of America’s 20th century social evolution, and this novel, more than most, intimately explores the gray areas between the gay and heterosexual worldsAll Thomas’ books are available in print and digital E-editions. Educators and libraries should note that the main body of Thomas’ work covers the high points of America’s 20th century social evolution with historical accuracy and couched in a dramatic literary style more palatable and entertaining than conventional history books. Subjects covered by his books include The Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Civil Rights Era, the First Amendment crusades of the 1960’s, disability issues in America, New Orleans & Gulf Coast history, Italian communities in early Chicago history, Afro-American film star history, mid century Hollywood film-TV-nightclub history, Southern culture, and the American psyche during the 20th century. His first book is a memoir of his ten year collaboration with the most controversial comedian of the twentieth century titled ＂Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet,＂ and was published in its first edition by Archon, its second edition by Media Maestro, and its Japanese edition by DHC Corporation of Tokyo. His second book is a memoir of his childhood in a Gulf Coast town in which Tennessee Williams lived and wrote about, and was where Hurricane Katrina made landfall in 2005, and is titled ＂The Genteel Poor.＂ His third book is a novel based on his wartime experiences in Korea titled ＂The Josan And The Jee.＂ His fourth book is a novel, ＂Cleo,＂ based on his media experiences in Los Angeles during the turbulent civil rights era of the 1950’s and 1960’s. His fifth book is an anthology of 12 short stories, ＂Hollywood Tales From The Outer Fringe.＂ His sixth book is a biography of a charismatic woman and her inspiring life as a polio survivor titled ＂A Place For Us.＂ His seventh book, ＂The Candy Butcher,＂ is a biography of screenwriter/film producer Frank Ray Perilli, who created films such as ＂The Doberman Gang,＂ ＂Harlow,＂ and more than a dozen other cult films.＂ Details and excerpts of all his books are available on the publisher’s website at http: //www.mediamaestro.net

William Karl Thomas was born 1/25/33 in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, a small Gulf Coast town in which Tennessee Williams lived and wrote about in his works. In 1951 Thomas married his former high school teacher and, after a four year childless marriage, was divorced. His checkered background, before ending up on the West Coast, began in 1951- 1952 as a nightclub pianist in New Orleans French Quarter, included in 1952-1953 being a map draftsman at the Army Map Service in Washington, D.C., in 1953-1954 serving a year of combat in Korea while in the U.S. Air Force, and in 1954-1957 finishing his 4 years in the Air Force while serving in El Paso, Texas; Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Oxford, England. His screen writing collaboration with Frank Ray Perilli began in New Orleans in 1951 and led them through Juarez, Mexico in 1956, and eventually to Holywood where Perilli had begun to manage the then unknown Lenny Bruce in 1956. Bruce admired Thomas’s multi-talents which led to collaborating in a variety of capacities including comedy writing, screen writing, album cover photos, cinematography, theatrical booking, publicity, and more in a collaboration that lasted ten years until Bruces’ death in 1966, as chronicled in Thomas’ memoir, ＂Lenny Bruce: The Making of a Prophet.＂ Thomas’ life and work cover the historical high and low points of the twentieth century; the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict, the Civil Rights Era, the battle for First Amendment Rights, and the rights of people with disabilities. Both his fiction and non-fiction provide accurate historical background, often with reference and annotation, and therefore provide excellent reading materials for history and social studies. Reader reviews vary from ＂Possibly the best book I’ve ever read＂ (＂The Josan and the Jee＂) to ＂My students were lured into the history of the Civil Rights Era by the sensuality in Thomas’ work＂ (＂Cleo＂). Thomas spent twenty years mostly in Hollywood as a screen writer, cinematographer, industrial film producer, photographer, journalist, and public relations executive. His work in these fields led him on extended six month periods in Tucson, Arizona; New Orleans, Louisiana, and Jamaica, West Indies. He currently lives in Tucson, Arizona, where he occasionally teaches writing and film production at a local community college, and continues work on a variety of book, film, and media projects. His latest works can be reviewed at http: //www.mediamaestro.net