John Quentin Wilde

Stories from Vaseline Alley and Other True Tales John Quentin Wilde

Inspired by the wonderful works of David Sedaris, Augusten Burroughs and Armistead Maupin, a new Los Angeles author, who did not start writing until his late 40's, has come out with a collection of eight memoirs/essays and one short poem on a wide variety of topics. The title story humorously recounts surviving his first year in LA when as a young dancer he made questionable choices while living a Bohemian lifestyle with as many as eight other people in a one bedroom apartment, in an apartment complex filled with drag queens, male hustlers, drug dealers, junkies and other marginal characters. Other topics include his accounts of dancing in Michael Jackson's Beat It music video, teaching Pilates to Joan Collins and other celebrities in the mid-1980's and the challenges of working as a physical therapist at a county hospital in a large urban setting. The final memoir, Death in Ft. Lauderdale, is uniquely told through a series of personal messages on Facebook and tells what happened on an ill-fated and tragic trip in 1974 when, as a junior in high school, he went to Florida on spring break with three of his best friends. This collection is also available as an e-book on Amazon.com.