TULLIO DERUVO

Tullio DeRuvo is the man behind the Grande Noce project, and the author of some of the books promoted on this web site.

Imagine a guy who leaves a fulfilling career as an executive in the computer business (the last 8 years of which as Managing Director of the South Europe subsidiary of software maker Trend Micro) to write books. How would you define him, brave or crazy? One way or the other, there's nothing one can do: that's the way he is.

After completing his study in Italy and two years as a missionary in the US, Tullio chose a different route from what his teachers had suggested. They sponsored a literary activity, he chose to work in Information Technology.

It took him 14 years to repent and go back - almost 40 - to his first love: writing fiction.

Father of 4 and coordinator of a group of teen agers in his religious community, Tullio has dedicated his first novel to this critical age group, convinced that a book for the youth must be fun, but also intelligent and profound. This is how “A TREE NAMED JOSHUA” came about, an adventure novel intertwining three stories - that unwind in different times - holding back until the end before revealing what links them together. All this dressed with the unusual relationship between a boy and the forest trees, which will suggest to him - literally - the solution to the problem that is consuming his friend.

FRANCESCA TORCASIO

Francesca is not a writer, nor is she normally involved in literary activities. Her world is the world of paintbrushes, pencils, pantones. With degrees from the Art School and from the Istituto Europeo di Design, when the life of a mother allows she devotes her time to watercolors. Sometimes she designs covers for international publications, others she unleashes her creativity painting faces, flowers and children.

Francesca contributes to the project with watercolor paintings that are reproduced on art paper and autographed, and will create book illustrations; right now, she's working on her new project: a calendar with 12 unpublished watercolor illustrations. But don't make the mistake of calling her a painter. She's a graphic designer, she can accept to be called illustrator, at the most.