Page 55 - Reader's House Magazine Issue 49

Lenny Cavallaro’s “Sherlock Holmes and the Mysteries of the Chess World” is a captivating blend of mystery and chess history. With masterful storytelling, Cavalla- ro brings Holmes and Watson into the enigmatic chess realm, unraveling intriguing cases with wit and logic. A must-read for mystery lovers and chess enthusiasts alike!
idea fascinating.
On a deeper level: I do not write for fame or fortune. I am apparently prompted by some deep, psychological imperative, and various elements thereof simply move through my sub- conscious mind (i.e., dreams) and materialize on the page.
So much of your fiction is historical in nature. How did you approach blending historical accuracy with creative storytelling?
I first engage in careful research. Once I know what needs to be conveyed, I find it easy to adapt it to the relevant characters and let them develop the material as it fits the plot.
As a concert pianist and composer, you adhere to 18th and 19th-century styles. How does your passion for classical music shape your narrative voice and themes in your literary works? Do you find parallels between composing music and writing prose?
Great question! As a composer, I consider melody the most important element. Similarly, as a writer, I find plot is of paramount importance, with dialogue often propelling the action. However, readers will not find long, extended, descriptive pas- sages. I’ll leave them to Wagner!
You have had some difficulties with censorship?
True! For example, Barnes & Noble lists two paperback volumes of my series: If Music Be the Food of Love and Paradise Regained
and Lost Again. However, the ag- gregator that distributes my digital books reported that B&N would not sell them, because I had run afoul of some or other algorithm. I even wrote an expurgated version of the first title, called The Lovers and the Curse. It’s on Amazon, Payhip, and
Lenny Cavallaro masterfully combines diverse disciplines, creating rich, multi-genre narratives that captivate and challenge readers’ imaginations.
I have not used hypnosis as literary material, but I usually slip into trance when writing. Moreover, I have worked with hyperempiria (a sister-disci- pline) to enhance creativity.
In your series, The Passion of Elena Bianchi, you present the readers with romance, hard-core “kinky” sex, classical music, the Holocaust, the Mafia, psychic phenomena,
and hypnosis. How do these diverse interests influence your writing, and do you find that they intersect in your creative process?
The process begins with my dreams, which spawn both literary ideas and musical themes. Indeed, some details of my series (The Passion of Elena Bianchi), notably the power of Beethoven, arose di- rectly from dreams, and that giant’s “Kreutzer Sonata” dominates the first novel. My interest in the Trojan War gave rise to Trojan Dialogues; in Sophocles, to one of my Two Oedipal Plays; in Shakespeare,
to the other drama! My first book (non-fiction), Persona Non Grata (updated in Superstition and Sabo- tage) was with chess grandmaster Viktor Kortchnoi, and I later wrote Sherlock Holmes and the Mysteries of the Chess World. Other works involve boxing and karate.
Smashwords, but not on Apple- Books, Barnes & Noble, and many other sites.
The situation is asinine. For ex- ample, I wrote Simone, a conjectur- al sequel to Bataille’s masterpiece, The Story of the Eye. I placed it
on Amazon and Lulu, but I can’t even try the other retailers, despite the fact that many sell works by Bataille and the Marquis de Sade. There’s incest in Dafoe’s Moll Flan- ders; horrible maiming in Shake- speare’s Titus Andronicus, statutory rape in Nabokov’s Lolita...but the algorithms came gunning for me!
How have your views on digital publishing changed over the years?
I am profoundly grateful for the marvelous opportunities authors have today. The “Big Five” are pretty much a “closed door” for us poor mortals, and small publishers are a mixed bag. Thus, we need the self-publishing option.
The downsides (in addition to censorship) are the inconsistency
of Amazon itself, and the need to market constantly if one wants any sales. Moreover, people don’t real- ize that they never actually “own” the ebooks they download. They cannot donate them to libraries, pass them along to friends, or sell them second-hand. Certain “blockchain” publishers presumably address these issues, but they work with cryptocurrencies, about which I have moral reservations due to the energy consumption. Nevertheless, my overall impression of digital
is favorable, and I think it will improve.
and an esoteric notion of reincarna- tion called “soul fractions.” What prompted you to put so many topics on the plate?
Given my diverse interests,
I suppose the combination was almost inevitable! Of course, I soon learned that it is much more difficult to market a multi-genre work, in part because readers tend to focus on individual topics. The scenes of loving, consensual sadomasochism “turn off” some readers, yet there are not enough of them for those in- terested in erotica. “Soul fractions” have never been developed in a work of fiction, although I find the
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