Published Books by Ray Spengler
READING CAN BE SO MUCH FUN THAT SOME MIGHT THINK IT'S SINFUL
ALWAYS YEARNING
Yes, I'm a private pilot, currently inactive due to both medical issues and financial ones. But I had owned my own puddle jumper a few years back, as did my older brother. And, together, we enjoyed many fun and challenging times.
The work attracts readership from a relatively small market, especially as the content is e-mail based. Hence, self-publishing was used to preserve the detail and intensity of those memories.
Private pilots, commercial pilots, or any other interested reader, please visit MY MEMOIR for more details as well as to read an excerpt from the book.
Also available at amazon.com
A published press release is shown below.
BROTHERS'
LETTERS INSPIRES
NEW BOOK
A collection of e-mail between Ray Spengler and his brother, Al, provided much more than pleasant family memories. They provided Ray Spengler with the inspiration for a book.
Spengler, who lives in Statesville, recently published "Always Yearning," a book chronicling piloting adventures that he and his brother shared over the years.
The e-mail reminded Spengler of the good times he and his brother shared during a five-year period, and he believed they could be more than nostalgia.
"I realized there were a lot of good stories there," he said.
The Spengler brothers’ love of aviation comes through in the book.
Al Spengler had been a private pilot for many years. His wife was traveling in her job, and he bought a plane to help facilitate those travels.
Ray joined his brother on occasions for pleasure flights. "I was charmed by the whole idea," he said.
So he started looking into getting his private pilot’s license, then he bought his own plane.
During a five-year period, the two brothers flew to 26 states and landed at 108 airports. They e-mailed each other, describing their adventures and destinations. Ray Spengler filed the e-mail in a box, and put them away.
After happening upon the letters, Spengler decided they were more than travelogues.
For October 1997 to July 2002, Spengler assembled 239 electronic messages and wrote them in book form. Writing was a new adventure for Spengler, an electrical engineer.
"I had very little experience in writing. I’m not a writer," he said, but his organizational skills as an engineer helped him put the book together.
He said the book, which progresses from Spengler’s introduction to flight, to the private plane crash that killed John F Kennedy Jr. in 1999, to the events of Sept. 11, is not about the dangers of flying. "It is rather, our embrace of the desire and respect for the challenge of flying," he said.
After compiling the e-mail and letting his wife, Robbin, edit his work, Spengler decided to publish the book via the Internet He said he was somewhat wary of the medium, having heard some horror stories about online book publishing.
But, in the end, Spengler chose Infinity Publishing Co., and has been pleased with the result. He is embracing the idea of writing more.
"I think I will write another book. I actually enjoyed the process," he said. His next book will be a fiction effort, possibly with aviation as a background.
"You have to stick with what you know"