#SaturdaySpotlight: William Vietinghoff

Good Morning and Welcome to the last Saturday Spotlight of Jan 2015!

Yeah, I'm finding that hard to believe too, but I'm happy to say our spotlights are filled up for quite sometime with new authors, like the one we have today, as well as old friends with new books!

Today our guest, William Vietinghoff graduated in 1953 from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemical Engineering. At the time, the political and technology movements in the world, generated by the missile race, converged and created an opportunity for Vietinghoff, at the dawn of the space age, to join the ranks of dozens of other young engineers, pioneers in a way, learning on the job how to get a rocket engine to start and run. Over the ensuing years,  Vietinghoff participated in many rocket engine, vehicle, and missile programs: Atlas, F-1, Lance,  Peacekeeper, KEW, and X-33. The Interceptor Program grew from a collection of on-the-job incidents, with some imaginary ones thrown n. Vietinghoff, his wife, Gladys, and his two sons and daughter live in California.

About the book:

This book is written in the format of a movie script to give the readers the feeling that they are watching a dramatic motion picture, along with the corny movie clichés. Orville Pressfit, elderly aircraft mechanic, reports to a television station in Ponca City, Oklahoma where he resides that he has been abducted by space aliens the night before. News reporter Leanne Flambeau interviews him at the airfield. The broadcast terrifies the senior citizens of the community. Even though the abduction cannot be verified and the presence of aliens is denied by the authorities, the report sets off a public outcry and a chain of events that leads to the White House. Thelma Grayfield, the first woman President, is forced to authorize a contract to a major aerospace company to design and build an Interceptor to pursue the alien ships that no one believes exist.

Excerpt: 

CLOSE ON TV SCREEN

 

The screen shows Leanne standing next to Orville. She is looking at the camera with a very sober expression.

 

LEANNE:  I am here with Orville Pressfit, an aircraft mechanic at the Eagle’s Nest airport. Mister Pressfit reported to our station – exclusively – that he had been abducted by space aliens last night. Please describe for our viewers, mister Pressfit, exactly what happened.

 

Leanne turns and faces Orville. She holds the microphone near his mouth.

 

ORVILLE:  I was working here late when the alien ship came over. It was about nine p.m. and the landing strip was officially closed. I was finishing up replacing some spark plugs in that Cessna over there when this huge round dome – I guess you’d call it that – landed. Right there!

 

The TV camera moves away from Orville to show the area on the apron to which he is pointing. There is nothing to see.

 

ORVILLE (off-screen):  A hatch opened, and three aliens came out and walked up to me. They watched what I was doing for a few minutes, looked into some kind of book, and said a couple of words. It sounded like English, but I couldn’t understand. One grabbed my shoulder, pointed at the open hatch in the dome, and pulled me toward it.

 

The TV camera pans back to Leanne and Orville.

 

LEANNE:  Would you describe these creatures as small, with bulbous heads, and large, dark, ovoid eyes? You know – the appearance we’ve heard described by previous abductees.

 

ORVILLE:  Shoot! I wouldn’t call them creatures. And no, they didn’t have bulbs for heads, and they didn’t have dark avoiding eyes. They looked straight at me. They were just guys! They looked like you and me. Well, not like you.

 

BACK TO SCENE

 

Anna, Harold, Ray, and dozens of other shoppers in the department store stare up at the bank of television sets, aghast.

 

ANNA:  Oh, my God, Harold! We’ve got aliens right here in Ponca City.

Well....sounds intriguing and certainly different!  Purchase from Amazon.

Hope you enjoyed this spotlight...Next week (and next month!) we'll be coming to you from Bandera, TX so... See you then!

Take care & God Bless.
PamT