You, Fascinating You, a novel based on the epic story behind a timeless love song, will soon come full circle on the stage as a dramatic musical. Author Germaine Shames returned to her roots in Theater to write the book and lyrics. Because music resides at the very heart of this story, she knew that she needed to attract an exceptional composer.

She found Federico Ferrandina on Stage 32, a global network of working artists, and was struck by the elegance and timelessness of his compositions, and by how they subtly echoed elements of the music that was so much a part of her protagonists’ lives.

Federico earned degrees in Classical Guitar and Composition before branching into film scoring, his current specialty. His songs and orchestral pieces grace film and television soundtracks in Italy, the United States, Canada and Poland. In October 2012, he won two Global Music Awards for his pop song “What We Are” and the instrumental “Paradigma.”

In the following interview, he shares his love of music and story.

—What first drew you to a life in music?

I was born in a family of musicians. My mother was a piano teacher, my grandmother a violinist, and my great grandfather the conductor of a military band, as far as I know, but maybe this is not an exhaustive answer. I mean that the exposure to musical stimulation since my tender age had probably brought a particular propensity to music, but I think I started feeling music as my main expressive horizon when I was about 11 years old, completely bored by classical piano lessons, and I discovered the Beatles and the whole rock culture that taught me what is a musical emotion. I know that’s a paradox, but only after this did I learn the real deepness of so-called classical music that I was obliged to study since I was a child. Maybe I had to reach it my own way (some say that growth presupposes transgression…).

—You divide your time between Rome, Italy and Los Angeles, California. How does this double life influence your music, and what career opportunities does it afford you?

My frequent travels and stays in California started just after the achievement of the Global Music Awards. It’s a quite new thing for me, so it’s hard to say, but in L.A. I had the chance to meet and work with colleagues from the film music industry that influenced a lot my musical thoughts. My practical methods of writing are changing too, not to mention the wonderful and inspirational independent musical scene of Los Angeles, swelling with new ideas and sounds that immediately captured my curiosity.

—You have won awards both in Italy and globally, produced CDs, placed songs in film and television… Which achievements as a musician and composer give you the most satisfaction?

They’re all tiles of  the same mosaic. I get some sort of satisfaction when I know that my music has been able to share my emotional message with someone; it happens in different ways and circumstances. You Fascinating You, the musical, is a good example.

—What drew you to You, Fascinating You?

I was contacted directly by writer Germaine Shames, who found my music on the Web and asked me to work with her on this musical. I accepted almost immediately. This story speaks to me in such a deep way, and I love everything that deals with ballet and dance, a passion of mine.

—This musical tells the story behind the timeless Italian love song “Tu solamente tu” by Neapolitan composer Pasquale Frustaci. How would you describe Frustaci’s music? Does it bear any resemblance to your own?

Pasquale Frustaci is known, above all, as a songwriter. We can consider his songs as pop songs of that age, with clear references to Neapolitan folk melodies, but they immediately reveal a deep knowledge of late Romantic music in the harmonic movements and a smooth influence from jazz (Gershwin, Cole Porter, Berlin…) with rhythmic elements from Latin American music (Tango and Beguine). These same features coming from both classical and jazz music that converge into a Mediterranean conception of melody belong to my music, too. I’m always searching for my own way to make these soundscapes dialogue.

—What are you finding most challenging about composing the score of You, Fascinating You?

I want to create a sound horizon that evokes early 20th century music (pop and classical) yet is able to speak to contemporary audiences. The challenge is to experience music from a past age by way of a contemporary sensibility. It must engage the irrational and unconscious part of the audience and drive them to the heart of You, Fascinating You.

—What are your hopes for this project? 

I hope that this history reaches people and touches their intimate feelings. You, Fascinating You is a chance to reflect on our past and mistakes, on our dreams and love.

Visit Federico’s Website

Federico on IMDB

View Federico’s YouTube Channel

Hear Federico’s Music on SoundCloud

Hear THE SONG that started it all!

Silk and Subterfuge…

For the past several years I have been dancing with a shady male alter ego, channeling his dark visions and lofty ideals into novels, and hiding my double identity from all but a few close friends. In short, dear reader, I am the mind and soul behind the mysterious Casper Silk, author of Hotel Noir.

How did Casper Silk come into being? At the end of the ‘90s my brother, author Laurence Shames, encouraged me to write a novel set in a hotel—sound advice, given my background as a roving junior exec for Hilton International. A first draft of Hotel Noir began innocently, even playfully, but soon took an ominous turn. Alongside the fussy frivolity of resort living spawned a Doomsday cult worshipping my sainted namesake, Germaine.

From that point on, the novel ceased to resemble anything I had written in the past. Though literary, it leaned toward genre; though dealing with intimate and emotional themes, the writing had a bracing “masculinity” about it.

My then publisher, McAdam/Cage, had first option on Hotel Noir. An editor there rejected the book, saying that he had expected a female protagonist and implying that I had breached some unwritten literary rule of gender jurisdiction.

A decade would pass before the novel was finally published.

Then things got interesting. Critics began comparing Casper Silk to such immortals as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Graham Greene, P.D. James “on steroids,” Thomas Mann and J. G. Ballard. These references imbued Hotel Noir’s reviews with a sort of reverence. No one questioned Silk’s gender. My directly authored works, in contrast, though consistently well reviewed, have never drawn comparisons to male authors of renown—or to any male author, for that matter.

It feels so good to be Casper Silk, in fact, that I hesitate to unmask. For the first time since beginning to write nearly three decades ago, I feel fully valued as an author.

I don’t profess to understand why gender apartheid persists in the 21^st century. That it does is disheartening. For as long as it does, however, pseudonymous doubles like Casper Silk will find a way into the literary mainstream through some crafty combination of talent and subterfuge.

I, Germaine Shames, look forward to the day when talent will be enough.

View on YouTube.

Download a free excerpt of Hotel Noir.

Read a review of Hotel Noir.

Hotel Noir can be purchased at Pale Fire Press and worldwide at most major online book retailers.

Ironically, we were attracted to Hotel Noir for much the same reason as editor Lexy Bloom, who said of an early version, “I’m thoroughly intrigued by this novel, though not necessarily for straightforward reasons. I think what has hooked me is that it doesn’t seem like anything else.”

Here is a taste of what early reviewers have had to say about Hotel Noir:

“A noirish combination of F. Scott Fitzgerald and early P. D. James on steroids, as told by a narrator who knows how to weave a web and pull you in without your realizing that you are caught. An intriguing literary crime novel filled with wonderfully zany characters Agatha Christie would have killed for.” Sam Millar, NY Journal of Books

“I was not far into the book when I drew the comparison of Hotel Noir to Death in Venice.” Charlie Courtland, aka Archie Standwood

“Compellingly readable throughout… the whole book is a delight.” Jack Chapman, author of Watching Marilyn

“Like all really fine mysteries, this gem of a novel goes far beyond the age-old question of whodunit. It explores—in lush and moody prose—such abiding themes as the power of place, the ache of unrequited love, and the stranglehold as well as the ambiguity of memory. The Hotel Noir and the weird island of St. Germaine where it is situated end up seeming less like geographical locations than like mileposts on the tortured but occasionally ecstatic journey of the human heart.” Boswell, B&N

What do YOU think? More and more, it is ordinary readers who decide which books fail and which succeed, and ordinary readers who will have the final word about Hotel Noir.

With our first title, You, Fascinating You, continuing to draw raves, and our second and third moving briskly through the pipeline, time and again this blog—Selected Fictions, we call it—has been placed on hold. We would like to think our books speak for us. If books are to find readers, however, they must be spoken about and that’s what we intend to do here.

As a micro-publisher dedicated to smart readers, Pale Fire Press looks for unforgettable stories and writing that is a cut above. In our list leader, You, Fascinating You, author Germaine Shames marries the two. Based on a true story and meticulously researched, You, Fascinating You has been named “Editor’s Choice” by the Historical Novel Society.

The book has an epic backstory:

In 1944 at the height of the worst carnage the world has known, a mother in Budapest, Hungary put her only son, then seven years old, out on the street with a pillow, a last morsel of bread, and the boy’s baptismal certificate. The mother was Jewish, the son Catholic.

Fifty years later the son, Cesare Frustaci—by that time an American citizen with a family of his own—contributed a video-taped oral history to Yale University and then sent the tape to author Germaine Shames. It told the story of his mother, ballerina Margit Wolf, who, banished from the stage by Mussolini, inspired a timeless love song only to fade from history without a trace.

Many readers have asked why Shames chose to tell this story as a novel.

“Following years of research,” the author explains, “questions about my protagonist’s personal life remained unanswered. Had I written a nonfiction account of the story or a biography of its protagonist, the reader would have been left to mull the same enigmas that kept me awake nights. As a storyteller it became increasingly clear that I needed to bring the reader behind closed doors into those private corners where drama finds its fullest expression.”

We believe Shames made the right choice. To quote a recent review, the novel makes history “achingly personal.”

But doesn’t the novel also lie?

“Regarding the story’s authenticity,” says Shames, “anything of historical import in You, Fascinating You is true, and anything fictionalized serves a higher truth and purpose.”

Readers deserve nothing less—and they know when an author hasn’t reached high enough. Publishers live for those rare moments when a book rises up from the slush pile and transports us. You, Fascinating You is one such marvel.