Happy 90th, Len Lamensdorf! ("The Crouching Dragon," 1999)

[leno...@yahoo.com]

An attorney, he grew up in Chicago and now lives in Santa Barbara, California.

http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/l/leonard-lamensdorf/
(book covers)


About "The Crouching Dragon":

"In 1959, William Montreux, 14, lives with his mother and abusive
father in Bonville, France, near the site of the Normandy invasion in
1944. On the hill above the village is a rundown castle known as the
"Crouching Dragon." On occasion, unusual sounds and smoke come from
it. Willi is drawn to the mysterious structure and eventually meets
its reclusive resident, Roger Guiscard. From him, the teen learns that
his mother and Guiscard worked for the French resistance during the
war. Other students are drawn to the castle and embark on a
restoration project that includes displaying collections of World War
II weapons as well as medieval spears, swords, and armor held within.
Simultaneously there is a cattle-rustling operation in the area and
the mayor blames Willi for the missing animals."

Excerpt about the adult novel "Gino, the Countess and Chagall":

"Fresh on the heels of winning the 2000 Benjamin Franklin Award for
Young Adult Fiction for The Crouching Dragon (a Harry-Potterish bit of
magic realism set in a haunted French castle), comes a slightly more
grounded use of European art, amour, architecture, and aristocracy in
Gino, a sturdy soufflé of a Tuscan-rags-to-Parisian-riches tale of the
guileless, itinerant artist who grows from a frightened soldier in
1943 to a liberating genius of art, and is heralded by André Malraux,
Picasso, and Chagall in a 1969 induction ceremony of the French
Pantheon..."


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072822/
(about the 1975 movie "Cornbread, Earl, and Me," which he wrote - it
includes Laurence Fishburne)


From "Contemporary Authors":

"When asked what I do, I sometimes say, 'I am a lawyer by profession,
a regional shopping center owner-builder by trade, and a writer by
choice.' The fact is, who I am, what I am and what I do, are all the
same: I am a writer. I have been one since my first-grade teacher,
Mrs. Moore, sent me to the principal's office with a poem I had
written. I have never wanted to be anything but a writer--of
something. Across the years this had included school and college plays
and novels--especially novels. I do not favor any particular genre,
but have assayed stories ranging from the college world to business,
young adult fantasy-history to humor-satire, modern art to sports,
mystery, adventure--you name it.

"The beauty of the modern technological revolution is that, although I
have had publishers like Simon & Schuster and Dell in the past, I no
longer have to whine and plead with agents, publishers, and the like--
and eventually lose all control over my work because I'm neither
Stephen King nor John Updike. For a remarkably reasonable sum of
money, I can publish and promote my own works, as I am presently doing
with my wife Erica, under the aegis of SeaScape Press. I can work with
a profound sense of joy and achievement. I will have no control over
reviewers, distributors or booksellers, but the Internet gives me the
means to reach at least part of the market directly. There is no
guarantee of success, but what fun it is!...

"Recently I wrote The Ballad of Billy Lee, a solo show with original
songs. Billy Lee was an African slave who served as George
Washington's valet, but was in fact his closest companion in war and
peace. Eighteen years younger than Washington, he was a superb
horseman, a bold soldier, and a literate aide, responsible for
George's most important papers at the Continental Congress and the
Constitutional Convention. He was freed at Washington's death and was
the only slave individually mentioned in the great man's will--given a
lifelong pension and all his living expenses. Lee's unflinching
courage and unswerving loyalty clearly had a powerful impact on our
first president, helping to greatly change his views on slavery, and
his eventual condemnation of it as a crime against man and God."


WRITINGS:

NOVELS

* (Under name Leonard Lamensdorf) Kane's World, Simon & Schuster
(New York, NY), 1968.

* In the Blood, Dell (New York, NY), 1974.

* Gino, the Countess, and Chagall, SeaScape Press (Santa Barbara,
CA), 2000.

* The Stolen Scrolls, SeaScape Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2001.

"WILL TO CONQUER" SERIES OF NOVELS

* The Crouching Dragon, SeaScape Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 1999.

* The Raging Dragon, SeaScape Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2001.

* The Flying Dragon, SeaScape Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 2003.

PLAYS

* (And executive producer) Cornbread, Earl, and Me (screenplay),
American International Pictures, 1975.

* (And songwriter) The Ballad of Billy Lee (solo show), first
produced, 2001.

"Also author of three-act plays The Guest House (based on a nonfiction
book of same title), first produced in Provo, UT, at Brigham Young
University; and The Survival Game."


Lenona.

[leno...@yahoo.com]

http://www.lenlamensdorf.com
(his site, with photo)

He wrote two other books for adults, including a thriller.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YnvGJ1aDV2M
(short video - mostly audio - about "The Story of George Washington's Favorite Slave")


Lenona.

[leno...@yahoo.com]

https://www.forewordreviews.com/books/contributors/len-lamensdorf/
(reviews of five of his books)