There's the million dollar question that you won't want to ask of Des Birch. Let's find out why...

Have you ever returned from vacation and have somebody ask you how it was? Have you ever returned from work and have someone ask how your day has been? How many times have you given a one-word answer to these questions? Often when I am relaxing, my wife Julie notices my fixed stare which she attributes to my being in ‘Storyland’. If the TV is on I might be gazing at the screen but she knows I am not watching it. Then I might stand up and head for my computer, writing for a time before returning to Julie’s ‘welcome back’ smile. How has my day been? Exciting, torrid, frightening, loving, exhausting........, but never just OK.

I work in an engineering company with murderers, rapists, drug barons etc, for my colleagues are the real people on which I base many of my characters. I live in a world over which I have complete control. Perhaps my daily work is just a fantasy and Storyland is the reality. Julie of course is the wonderful dream.

Being the wrong side of fifty, I have experienced much of life’s up’s and down’s. I also see cycles taking place in which young people experience the same challenges as we did in the struggle for the rite of passage into adulthood. I began to wonder how other species handled this, when a Storyland trance came over me and I eventually emerged with the idea for my YA book Beyond Dark Waters in which a little boy enters five different species, learning lessons from each. It was such fun to write and each day I would complete a section and read it to Julie and Elliott (an elephant, but you will have to read Different Eyes if you want to meet him). I was lucky enough to win an award for this book and it is my crowning achievement to date. I had written 110 pages of the sequel when this torrid, violent story of drug barons, torture and revenge came hammering on the inside of my skull, ready written and demanding to be put down in words. I told it that it was in a queue and that anyway I had far too much on this year, but to no avail. I’m now 70 pages into it and it seems to have calmed down a little, allowing me to study for the final part of my BSc Hon. Stories can do that!

So who am I? I am a father and a grandfather. I have a basic science degree and I have also spent a couple of interesting years in Europe teaching English. I believe in living life to the full. I currently have three novels and one book of short stories in E-format and paperback. Am I rich? Ha ha ha! I’ll never be rich; I like living too much and I need to be around real people who have problems that money can’t solve. I feel I am very lucky indeed. I have a loving family, great friends, a life full of intrigue and the ability to share that life with the world. Come and join me on Amazon and on my Facebook site.

As always, if you like what this author has to say in their guest spot, please patronize them by clicking on their book on the sidebar. I make absolutely nothing off your purchase through this site. I'm just glad to have them stop by and hope you get some pleasure from meeting another author.

 
Ever seen the movie, The Priest?

Well, whether you said yes or no, it doesn't matter, haha. This book isn't based from the movie, unless I'm living in the Twilight Zone or something. But, that doesn't mean the book or the movie are bad. Well, I thought the movie could've been better, but that's me. 

Anyway, I'm trying to give the thunder to Monica La Porta...though I believe I'm failing miserably. So, before I damage things any further, here's a word from our wonderful guest:

Hi, my name is Monica La Porta and I’m honored to be L.A. Tripp’s blog guest today.

I was reading L.A.’s posts and one in particular got my attention. He wrote about problems in life, passions, and the fact that unless you’ve reached the abyss you’d never know what you hold dear. Three years ago, one morning, I woke up and decided I wanted to write a novel. I had been sleep walking for a while, then a friend’s illness and the despair following her loss reminded me we are here for a short period of time. I know, it sounds cliché, but it was my cold shower. I had wanted to write for the longest time, but never sat down and start tapping on the keyboard. That morning, something clicked inside my rusted brain and I thought, “It’s going to happen.” Three years later, almost eight finished novels, one published, I can’t go a day without writing. I knew I liked it—I kept a journal and felt happy any time I conquered a difficult passage—but I didn’t know it would be my passion.

When I started writing my first novel, I knew I wanted people to read it. The language challenge immediately presented itself. Which one to use? My native Italian or the more international English? I went for English. The idea is to reach a larger number of potential readers after all. In order to write in a language I learned to speak when I was already in my thirties—not one’s prime when it comes to learn languages in general—I rebooted my brain and the way I lay out my thoughts. I’m pleased to say that the first story I wrote is still unpublished, but lucky number six has been released into the Amazon wild a few months ago. Three years and slightly more than seven hundred thousand words later, I’m still here, tapping on this battered keyboard, happy to be able to do so and knowing it is a privilege.

Recently, I was asked why, among all the stories I’ve written in those three years, I chose to embark in the publishing voyage with The Priest. To answer that question I have to confess I am an unrepentant thinker. It’s not something I developed with age, I was born with it. Some would say it’s a curse, I say it’s liberating. I like to think about how things are, why I like them or why I don’t. I like to think that if you let knowledge possess you, you’ll eventually become a better person. A more tolerant person. I think.

Two years ago, news frequently focused on acts of bullying against kids seen as different because of their sexual orientation or simply because not conforming to the norm. At the same time, the idea that women could procreate without men’s contribution was being discussed as a possibility. I started imagining a place like our Earth, but where society had gone a different way. What would happen to this alternate Earth? The flash of inspiration hit me and I gave birth to an idea, as L.A. said in another post. The Priest is the first in a trilogy, The Ginecean Chronicles, and is set in a dystopian world, Ginecea, where women are in power and men are enslaved. Heterosexual love is deemed a perversion. Why start my career as a writer with a title condemning any form of racism and sexism? Because life is transient and if I could have only one shot at publishing my words. I want them to count. I want them to be my legacy. Verba volant, scripta manent.*

Thank you, L.A. Tripp for having me.

If you would like to know more about me, click here. This is where I talk about my hobbies and sometimes also about my writing.

If you want to take a look at The Priest and read an excerpt, click here. Don’t you think my cover artist did an exceptional job with the cover?

*Oral words fly, written words stay forever.

Monica, the honor has been mine.

As always, if you like what this author has to say in their guest spot, please patronize them by clicking on their book on the sidebar. I make absolutely nothing off your purchase through this site. I'm just glad to have them stop by and hope you get some pleasure from meeting another author.