Bring on The Phantoms

Bring on the Phantoms is a mind-blowing, information-packed conspiracy/thriller/LGBT novel that revolves around the predicament of the blackmailed NJ Governor, a glamorous and witty transsexual cabaret star, and an unrelenting investigative reporter who explode the secrets and mysteries behind 9/11 and sexual politics.

NJ's Governor, Kevin McCreedy, is caught up in snowballing corruption scandals and impending 9/11 litigations, since both NY and NJ are joint owners of the World Trade Center property whose politics have become a landmine.

At the center of the novel, like the eye of a tornado, is Marguerita LaLouche, a foxy, gorgeous transsexual performer and the Governor's personal friend. LaLouche has known her journalist friend Paul Russo since high school when she was a he, and together they move through an explosive clandestine backstage political labyrinth. Never underestimate the power of sex for brokering salvation!

Paul Russo is working on a novel, and when he comes back East he lands a job in the Governor's office and begins uncovering highly confidential information about the internal and foreign intrigues behind 9/11.

The Governor's situation is further compromised because, against overwhelming public opposition, he has hired an Israeli National Security Advisor, and although married, his same-sex relationship with Josh Loeb will lead to blackmail. Sexspionage will force his resignation.

However the Governor's crisis turns out to be a lightning rod for LaLouche, who comes to his aid unexpectedly, which leads to a magical connection. Though she's secretly having an affair with his Police chief, which helps her get insider information, and despite being exposed on Page Six, she triumphs when she lands a movie offer to star as Christine Jorgensen, who in 1953 put sex change on the map in screaming worldwide headlines.

Paul Russo connects the dots that cloak the defining event of our era and unmasks the devious smokescreens that conceal the revelatory domestic and international machinations behind 9/11 to reconcile its unresolved and untold mysteries. Don't you think it's time to find out the real inside story?

Her stage name was Margarita LaLouche, abbreviated professionally to LaLouche. She was rumored to have had some assignations with the Governor and was known to accompany him on his jaunts, hitting the underground network of trendy nightspots, Village clubs and infamous sex haunts—The Pole, The Black Cat and Sluggers—she had even accompanied him to the fights. She was a social magnet, knew how to dazzle a room simply by entering it, stopping and looking around with a slightly foreign air, subtly contrived. I was intrigued watching her operate.

When she stepped into the limelight, or cozzied up to a stranger, I noticed how she decoyed her flamboyance as sophisticated charm, and posed deceptively as if making an understatement. She had uncanny, underground smarts. The prize-winning heavyweight boxing champ, Pedro San Pietro, who also had recently become a part of the Governor’s entourage, sat riveted in a tight jacket, showing off his hulking shoulders and biceps, all eyes.

Roly-poly and nebbishy New Jersey Sewer King, Hyram Scroggins, stoked his crusty cigar a bit nervously and the Port Authority’s prestigious, hard-hitting corporation counsel, Jesse Calabrises, sat next to my boss, Steven Piltcher, the Governor’s Chief of Staff, with a wide Cheshire grin. LaLouche might have suspected the Governor knew her secrets as she (I later learned) knew his.

Bring on the Phantoms: “This is an interesting and topical political thriller, and I enjoyed its hardboiled qualities.”……..Jonathan Galassi, President and Publisher, Farrar, Straus & Giroux

Bring on the Phantoms: “The writing is energetic and well-paced, the story moves along brightly. As a whole, clever, witty and interesting… The characters are smartly-delineated and FUN! Their interactions take the bizarre and mundane and shake them together in a hi-jinx cocktail meant to entertain. A frothy romp with serious overtones… Laugh-out-loud situations and lines. Strong and forceful… The energy is so alive… the way you’ve styled the dialogue works well too.” …….Dina von Zweck, author of Mica’s Brain and former Director of Publishing at CBS Inc.

“Kenneth King‘s writing is inimitable… poetic, surprising, energizing, intricate, wry, resonant and marvelously full of word wit.” ……Sally Banes, author of Terpsichore in Sneakers

“A profoundly original mind from the beginnings of his professional career… brilliant writings.” ……Richard Kostelanetz, Dictionary of the Avant-Gardes

“…dancing on the page… intellectually highwired.” …..Jill Johnston, Footnotes: Six Choreographers Inscribe the Page

“King’s linguistic processes are exhilarating, not to say occasionally hilarious. Dense with movement and/or words, they explode and reconfigure the familiar, crack syntax open, invent startling words.” ……Deborah Jowitt, author of Jerome Robbins: His Life, His Theater, His Dance

“Readers who stumble across Kenneth King’s first book, Writing in Motion: Body—Language—Technology, may decide to pay more attention to their feet, if not their language. Poets, in particular, may find themselves unexpectedly captivated by this dancer’s idea of how to get around in a line of type. King adopts a playful prose style that… derives partly from his sensitivity to the moment when exposition interferes with spontaneity, obstructing the natural tendency of words (and movement) to shoot of in unexpected directions… His book provokes as many questions about reading as it does about writing… His successors have their work cut out for them.” ……Nancy G. Moore, PAJ (formerly Performing Arts Journal)

“…every page of this collection of his essays and performance texts swims in an intellectual stream where the water runs thick and swift. Steeped in Marshall McLuhan, Susanne K. Langer, Marcel Duchamp (and a dozen other philosophers), as well as the language of this own body, King surveys a wide range of subjects… [H]e is capable of flashing a devastating wit. By perusing these fifteen pieces, the reader can synthesize a deeply personal aesthetic.” ….Dance Magazine

“Writing in Motion makes a significant contribution to both the artistic and critical investigation of the relationship between dancing and writing that has been so provocative in recent years.” …Peggy Phelan, author of Mourning Sex and The Ann O’Day Maples Chair in the Arts, Stanford University

Wendy Perron, author of the recently released Through the Eyes of a Dancer (Wesleyan U Press) and the former Editor in Chief of Dance Magazine posted this blurb about Phantoms on my Facebook page: “Great book. Racy, smart, surprising, and educational. Everything you ever wondered about walking on the wild side.”