Interview with Gregorio Giungi

Published 2014-07-15.
When did you first start writing?
Sincerely, at the age of ten. By the end of the primary school, the school staff promoted a literary competition among the children, designating an historical theme. It was about the partisan war in Italy during the II° World War, as I can remember…Well, my work won that competition, making my teacher say quite enthusiastically I would become a writer. Her appreciation had some positive influence on my further choice, I guess :-) 
What is the greatest joy of writing for you?
Writing gives me a profound sense of freedom and self-realization. Nothing as writing gives me such an intellectual or even spiritual gratification. It also heals the diseases of life, I believe. To write is therapeutic, somehow..I started writing this novel in a very bad moment of my life, I’m honest, and it aided me a lot...Actually, when I finished the first draft of my novel, I felt much better. Beyond all of that, writing is objectively an aesthetical exercise, either. A beautiful narration is an artwork, a creation of beauty, indeed..the great joy coming from it is the same for every artist, I suppose.. at least if you feel you’ve done a good job! To create something beautiful is the best revenge one can take on a bad Fate.
3) What is your best preferred moment of the day for writing?
During the night. Much to my wife’s regret I am a night writer, no doubt about it, as well as a night animal in the overall wider sense. I mean, I can also write creatively during the morning, but it’s a huge effort..I can do it, but I detest it. I am really prolific in the night, and I’ve always been that: both at the High School and the University I was a night student, while in the morning was only a cheap student. Today I am a night writer and in the morning I’m a cheap administrative manager. Thank God I’m on duty in the afternoon too, otherwise my office would be lost.
Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?
I was born in Ancona – Marche region, central Italy – a not-so-much-pleasant seaside little town on the Middle Adriatic coast, with a low water pollution rate and a reasonable suicides rate. There I grew up, fighting against tediousness, a rather oppressive family and young hooligans. I think that my writing was quite conditioned by the need of evading a negative everyday life. Very likely my fantasy itself was developed by this overall necessity of positive feelings, thus helping my creative imagination to grow together with me. Now I’m trying to use it productively :-) 
Who are your favorite authors?
Well, I should have a list somewhere…:-) All right, I think I have to name Stephen King before everyone else – I appreciate his narrative style most of all – but immediately add Clive Barker, Glenn Cooper, Andrew Klavan and Dean Koontz. I’m also fond of science-fiction, where the first names coming to my mind are Philip Dick and Philip Josè Farmer. In my library you can also find Neil Gaiman, Terry Brooks and Marion Zimmer Bradley, as well as - of course :-) - the Lord of the rings by John R.R. Tolkien. Indeed, I feel attracted by the fantastic literature either, and I don’t exclude that I might even write a fantasy novel, someday...
6) Your novel is focused on one of the bloodiest wars ever fought. What is war for you?
Like Lev Tolstoj, I believe that the concept of ‘war’ synthesizes in itself both the concepts of ‘world’ and ‘man’. To talk about war therefore allows me to express my ‘Weltanschaung’, my vision of Humanity and Existence, and it takes his shape through Enea’s mouth: “In its horror war is a triumph of Truth, bringing to light all the greatness and all the pettiness of man. And since man has many limitations, pettiness appears more frequently than greatness. Sometimes, with apparent inconsistency, even within the same person.”
7) Did your military experience in Afghanistan have an influence on you, while writing this novel?
Well, yes...In that country, as a military guy, I too survived some of “those days”, when I didn’t know if I could see their evenings. Those days were few, I have to mention, nevertheless I experienced either the “game of dice” sensation, when you have to score at least a 6 at all cost… Most of all, it helped me in giving Enea, the protagonist, his vision of the men at war and his final considerations about the human existence.
What do your fans mean to you?
They mean everything :-) I’m not a cryptic writer. I don’t write for myself and a selfish appreciation. I write for my readers, and it’s their appreciation I’m looking for. Please believe me, I never forget it while on writing.
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Books by This Author

Il regno della polvere
Price: $7.50 USD. Words: 37,920. Language: Italian. Published: April 7, 2016 . Categories: Essay » Author profile, Nonfiction » Biography » Military biography
Afghanistan 2006-2008. Una visione realistica, ironica e pungente - ma soprattutto nuova - del teatro operativo della lotta anti-insurrezionale condotta dalla Coalizione occidentale, nell'esperienza "speciale" di un ufficiale dell'esercito italiano in missione con ISAF. Ed un'analisi, infine, del quadro geopolitico e militare afghano con un pronostico sui possibili sviluppi nel futuro più prossimo
Tales From The Parlour and The Trenches
Price: $4.99 USD. Words: 71,300. Language: English. Published: June 15, 2014 . Categories: Nonfiction » History » War, Nonfiction » Biography » Personal memoir
Historical novel mainly set during the First World War. Elicited from a biography, this true story is a rude, politically incorrect insight into the war deeds, occurred on the Italian front, through the eyes of Enea, a young aristocrat who'll become adult and wise (or perhaps precociously old) after his baptism of fire and blood