I was amazed to find that Trish Thorpe's recently published autobiography – Fisheye: A Memoir _ is out of stock on Amazon (more on the way!), meaning the demand overshot the anticipated supply.
Tell us about your childhood, early life and family.
My parents divorced when I was 10. That's when my home life really spun out of control. My Mom's alcoholism worsened and her Hollywood fantasies escalated. My Dad's cruelty to my brother amplified (I was the athlete of the family and my brother was the tinkerer), and my sister and I retreated to our own separate worlds. Mine was full of sex and drugs and guilt.
After writing my book "Fisheye," I can look back on my growing up years as "the California dream” gone horribly wrong.
How good or bad was your education?
In line with my Mom's quest to live the "good life," I went to private schools in Bel Air and Beverly Hills for grade school and high school. After that, I attended U.C. Berkeley for college where my own addictions spiraled. I did manage however, in between binges, to receive a BA degree in English literature. In Fisheye, I wrote in detail about my personal challenges during my latter years of high school, my college years, and beyond. I also discuss my predisposition to keep moving forward against all odds.
What twists and turns did life take after college?
I spent about seven years after college continuing my drug addiction and wandering through love affairs trying to figure out where I belonged. I finally ended up partnering with another woman who took me in and nursed me back to "semi" health. She and I had two children together (same sperm donor).
Once I quit drugs and became a mother, I realized I was horribly mismatched with my partner. We split and continued raising the kids together in the same community but in different households. It was a daily challenge but all turned out well. The kids, now 21 and 24, are happy, healthy, educated, productive people and are the best of friends.
How about the beginning of your career?
I worked in Silicon Valley IT communications for many years while raising my son and caring for my dying mother as a single mother. Working in IT corporate communications, although the pay enabled me to raise my son on my own, really wasn't something I aspired to or was interested in. Knowing that my passion for writing was still inside me definitely kept me going.
Article comments