BRIDGEWATER, Va.- On Sept. 17, Lou Pugliese presented his novel “Blame It on the Moon,” based on his life experiences, but there is more to Pugliese than just being an author.
“Blame it on the Moon” follows Richard Eugene Craft as he lives in a house that used to be a field hospital during the Civil War. Weird things start happening in the house and “Richard researches them and acquires interested parties along the way from a dog, to a potential love interest, to Civil War historians and anthropologists who will assist in digging up the past, figuratively and literally.”
At his talk, Pugliese described how his journey of life inspired him to write this book. While he came up with the setting in his head, he had some help when it came to the little details.
“My sister does paranormal,” Pugliese said. “I talked to her about all of the different equipment with her to make sure I knew.”
Pugliese also took inspiration from people in his life to make his main characters Richard and Aubry. “Richard may be partially me,” Pugliese said. “Audry physically is inspired by the Cami from ‘Two and a Half Men’,” however, he clarified this, “As a whole character, no neither one of them really had a person.”
Pugliese also spoke about his jaded past and how it affected him.
“I have been in lifestyle choices that put me in places and with people that were not the best choices ever,” Pugliese said. “I have slept in my car for lack of anywhere else to sleep. I have met people who eat out of dumpsters and think all of those things are good things because it helps me recognize that a lot of people are not bad people, they just don’t have any other options or choices at that point in their lives.”
He also gave an insight into what got him into his first career in the car sales business.
“I started working in the car parts business and that just kind of took off,” Pugliese said when asked why he started working in the car business. “I knew it was a job that I could work as a career and it became an awful lot more career than I ever anticipated.” Pugliese worked his way up to a Senior Manager position at Toyota.
Lou then retired from his position at Toyota and found his way to Bridgewater College to teach business.
Pugliese said that his favorite part of Bridgewater was the “students that would choose to hang out with [him].”
“I tend not to take myself very seriously and I love it when I find like-minded people who are okay with that,” Pugliese said. “But yeah, very much the students.”
He retired again, this time from Bridgewater College, to pursue his ultimate dream: becoming a writer. He mentioned that he thought it would be easy, but it was not. Pugliese also tackled some of the questions many new writers tend to have such as how to deal with writer’s block. “I write from inspiration,” Pugliese said, describing how he deals with writer’s block. “Usually, I seem to be by dreams so that is my inspiration. If I am not feeling the next step, I’ll write something I know has to happen.”
Pugliese has certainly had an interesting journey into writing, from working as a bouncer to a successful author. Pugliese’s work is truly a story for the books.
