Drew Valla

Drew Valla's attempt to answer that question took two years, 247 pages and countless hours of writing.

And he's still working.

Last year, Valla completed his first novel, "A Shade of Gray," which takes place in 1961 in the fictitious small town of Bellington.
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Now, Valla is working on a sequel that shows Matt still grappling with painful memories in his early 20s.
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"People have been criticized for speaking out 20 years later," Valla said."But the reality is if you talked about it 20 or 30 years ago, people wouldn't have believed you."

Valla said he had an acquaintance who received criticism for publicly announcing he was molested by a priest years before.Valla said it was one of the first major accusations of pedophilia the Catholic church faced.

Though Valla said the main character is not based on a real person, he did say he was inspired to write the book after seeing the man break down during a poker game.

The man had become a "victim of silence," he said, and Valla dedicated his book to those people.The tribute also says, "Children need to be seen and heard -- always."

The town of Bellington is loosely based on Torrington, where Valla grew up, he said.Like the Torrington of his childhood, Bellington is a small New England town with many factories.But Valla says the content of the book is not meant to resemble Torrington.

Valla now lives in Woodbury and owns Deepwood Nursery on Main Street North.He lives with his wife, Kathleen, and his daughter, Lauren, both of whom are school teachers.Valla's son, Kieran, is a film major at Hofstra University who hopes some day to write a script for the book one day.

Valla is also the junior varsity girl's basketball coach at Nonnewaug High School.

Trying to balance a busy schedule didn't impede his writing, Valla said.While he wouldn't give up time with his family or basketball players, Valla says he "didn't mind skipping a few crummy TV shows at night."

"He can really focus on something for a long time," said his wife, Kathleen."He just worked on it whenever he had time."

Kathleen said she knew her husband worked hard, but didn't expect the final result.

"It was shocking," she said.

Drew is an avid reader, but never mentioned an interest in writing a novel.And he never had work published.

Kathleen, who served as an editor through the writing process, said she was impressed with her husband's debut.
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The library has invited Valla to hold a book signing and discussion about the writing process at the library on Sunday at 2 p.m.

"It will be an opportunity for aspiring authors to hear about the process," she said.