#SaturdaySpotlight is on William Vietinghoff & Long Conversations, Old Regrets

Good Morning!

Well we're a week past Easter and a full month, more for some, into stay home and social distancing. Many are receiving their stimulus checks and/or increased unemployment benefits. Are you rejoicing in every new day the Lord makes or are you grumbling and complaining? Remember, this is your choice. Scripture tells us as a man thinks, he is and the power of life and death is in the tongue....so be aware of what you're thinking and saying because you're framing your future with your thoughts and words!

Today we welcome an old friend with a new book. William Vetinghoff visited us back in 2015 with his book, The Interceptor Program. Today, he returns with a brand new book so please give him a huge, warm, WELCOME!

As is probably true of many older men, Bill Vietinghoff toyed with the idea of writing a novel based on his life. The joyous, ironic, and often troublesome events he experienced might make interesting reading. But what would be the most engaging way to organize and present his memories? He wondered if there was a genre of that category, books written by men based on memories. The reference desk at the library couldn't help him. So he devised a plot. The main character, Steven Ribman, has the same problem. He is inexperienced in writing and can't conceive of a book structure. He dreams a woman approaches him in a coffee shop. The name she gives him is Bernice. She claims she overheard him talking about his need for a plot idea. She suggests that his main character meet her from time to tome and they share memories that he writes about. He is convinced, tries it, and discovers he is able to put a story together. But he comes across evidence that his dream woman may actually exist. A search begins for the identity of Bernice.

Excerpt: "Four weeks ago, his preoccupation with the front page of the morning newspaper waned and he casually turned to the obituaries—something he usually avoided. There, in small font, were the condensed biographies and praises for men and women he did not know. He looked at the stamp-size portraits of the deceased. He imagined his features there. Which of the few decent photographs taken of him recently, showing him timeworn and weathered, will be chosen? But then it might be more flattering to include, as was often done, a photo of him as a good-looking young serviceman in his sailor suit, the dress blues with the snow-white cap square on his head, per regulations. What will the words be under his photograph? He couldn’t imagine his life’s story being condensed into a couple of paragraphs. It was at that moment, with a vision of, maybe, a fifty-word eulogy that he knew he had to explain to someone what had happened to him growing up and growing old. But how to do that? His deliverance came in the resolution that the explanation of Steven Ribman would reside in a book, a place where people could find him after he was gone."

Sounds interesting Bill!

Long Conversations, Old Regrets can be purchased at Amazon.

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.

Bill wonders if his plot might be the only one of its kind in the world. He leaves a request for any future readers of his novel who are aware of similar plots to contact him or make a comment, with book title, on this Saturday Spotlight, He would like to compare the approaches.

Leave a comment folks, and let Bill know if you've written or read a book similar to Long Conversations, Old Regrets!

Hope you enjoyed today's spotlight and will check back weekly for Wednesday Words with Friends and Saturday Spotlight.

Until next time take care and God bless.
PamT