My name is Luther Guin, and I became an Author essentially out of boredom.

I am a retiree from the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development. I spent thirty-five years doing things like changing tires on state owned equipment, and distributing fuel to this same equipment. But the last twenty-five years I was installing and repairing signs along the Loiuisiana state highways, in the area in which I lived. All of those years, it never occurred to me that one day I would be writing, anything. Then in 2013, after 35 years, I retired. I never regretted it for a moment, but out of boredom, I was eating all the time. That was when I knew I needed to do something. I bought, and read a book. It was Drew Brees’ autobiography, “Coming Back Stronger”. For those of you who don’t know who Drew Brees may be, he was the star quarterback for the New Orleans Saints, in the NFL.

 Upon finishing that book, it occurred to me that I could write something like that. Now, I'd never done anything very noteworthy, that is, it would be a miracle if my story would never sell anything. Nobody wants to read about a retired state employee. I knew MY story wouldn't sell, and I was pretty sure I couldn't write a story as an observer/narrator, but I figured if I invented a character, and then pretended that I was that character, I could write that character's autobiography, even if he, and his story never really existed. That was when I created Xavier Lysten. A quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs football team. A player who had to overcome a very serious drinking problem and a prison sentence, to become a Super Bowl winning quarterback. It was my first attempt at creative writing, and it was published now defunct, Tate Publishing company.  The book never did very well, but that didn't bother me too much, because I wrote a book , and I was very proud of myself. Tate publishing doesn't exist anymore, but Lulu publishers absorbed it, and it's now available as an eBook.

My first book XL7-The Story of Xavier Lysten, but along the way of completing it, something new popped into my brain. An Idea for a science fiction novel, and I can write it the same way as XL7. Completely in first person. It took me about two weeks to outline it, about a year and a half to write, and another three years to finish editing. I published it with Outskirts Press. The book didn’t do nearly as well as I believed it was going to do, but that that doesn’t change the fact that the book is a very good book.

In my teens, I’d heard stories of unidentified flying objects and how some or all of these objects are visiting our planet, from different parts of our galaxy. I’d even heard that there exists certain evidence that some of these beings who may be piloting these vehicles, (or their ancestors) have been visiting Earth for many centuries. This got me to thinking: How would people from a different era, comprehend the fact that there may be intelligent life on different worlds, or for that matter, that there may even be other worlds, beside the one on which they are currently living? An even bigger question would be, how would a person from a humble background, handle being forcably taken aboard one of these vehicles? My novel, BIG ORANGE FLYING DINNER PLATE, attempts to answer this question, but in an entertaining manner.

Although my book is entirely fiction, it is written in first person. It’s as if my main character, Charles Brady, is an honest to God, early twentieth century, Alabama farm hand, and the story, BIG ORANGE FLYING DINNER PLATE is actually his autobiography. Except for a very select few people, he’s been keeping his story a secret for his entire life, and now, in the year 1960, he’s decided to tell the world just what he had to live through.

The story is listed as science fiction, but it’s a little more than that. It also details his life outside his his five years inside the spacecraft that he dubbed a big orange flying dinner plate, (because he just didn’t know what else to call it). It includes his life after his first encounter with these beings, his life as a maker of an illegal alcohol product, during prohibition, his relationship with members of the Chicago mob. A relationship which includes running for his life, after a very unfortunate event. It also includes a love story. Something you don’t see in too many science fiction novels.

  When I first began writing the book, I thought about all the science fiction books that I'd read while growing up, and how there was rarely the human touch. Yes, the books I'd read, always contained a certain amount Human involvement. Enough involvement to keep readers engaged, but not the kind of involvement that many readers enjoy. I know I'd always wondered what someone may have been thinking about, in certain situations.

There’s also the alien touch. The Aliens in this story are not the type of aliens that want to kill all the people on Earth, and pillage all of our resources. They’re scientists. Scientists who are here to study us, the way Earth scientists, study animals in the wild, and they have been studying us for a very long time. A study of which they have no intention of ending, anytime soon. I also included a chapter dedicated to detailing these aliens’ back story. something about which I have some gotten very favorable comments.

My future goals for this book are pretty much the same as the goals of any author who’d spent a great deal of his time creating something that he or she believes is worth the readers’ time to sit back and enjoy. If the reader is a fan of science fiction, but also has a certain like for historical fiction, with an occasional humorous line, I have no doubt in my mind that that particular reader will love this book. my Amazon Author’s page is www.amazon.com/author/lutherguin
Thank you Author’s Lounge for giving me this wonderful opportunity.

---

The following is one of my Amazon Reviews.

I recently finished reading The Big Orange Flying Dinner Plate by Luther Guin. Considering my interest in aliens and extra terrestrial beings, I was intrigued as to how people of a century ago perceived the concept of a possible interaction.

The beginning of the book started well enough as it described the main character and the encounters which he experienced along the way. His dealings with family, with friends, with The Mob, with bootlegging and the women in his life took him in a direction that lead him to exactly where he was supposed to be. Along the way, the author keeps you interested in his daily activities and how he deals with life itself.

On top of that, his being “captured” and his interactions with alien forces are met with intrigue and hope.

Without saying too much, it coincides perfectly with real life events of the generation as well as that of the explanation behind Area 51.
Towards the end, I found the book riveting as it captivated me for the final 50 pages to the extent that I could not put the book down. The author wrote the last section with alacrity and at such a pace that the reader became a “page turner”.

I would recommend this book to people of all generations and ones who are not only interested in aliens but also in modern 20th century events. The authors ability to weave the story between the two provided for a very entertaining story all the way to the end.