by Sonya Chung

We were delighted to see a feature last month at Poets & Writers called “5 Over 50 Reads“—spotlighting

five debut authors over the age of fifty—Desiree Cooper, Sawnie Morris, Paul Vidich, Paula Whyman, and Paul Hertneky—whose first books came out this past year, and who stand as living proof that it’s never too late to start your literary journey. Here, we feature excerpts from their debut books.

Here at Bloom, we were particularly gratified—we’d already featured Cooper and Whyman—to see (or hope, at least) that we’ve been influencing public conversation around the “when” and the “how fast” of literary creation.

This past July, at Politics & Prose Bookstore in Washington, DC, I also had a chance to meet and conduct a conversation with Paul Vidich about An Honorable Man—his taut and confidently written debut, a literary thriller set during the 1950s, in and around the CIA’s espionage program of that era.  Here is an audio recording of that conversation, in which we had a chance to touch on several “bloomy” topics.

The full recording is 50 minutes long.  If you only have time for segments, here is the breakdown:

P&P’s Intro:  0:00 – 2:45

Paul’s reading:  2:45 – 12:10

Conversation w/Sonya Chung: 12:25 – 40:20

Q&A with the audience: 40:25 – end

Congratulations to Paul and all five of these exceptional authors.