A Veteran from Kimballton has written a fictional novel based on the life of a Vietnam veteran. Steve Heuton is the author of “Back in the Day” about two young men growing up in the 1960’s. Heuton says “It starts about the end of their junior year of high school, goes on to their senior year as they chase girls, hot rod around and play football. They do pretty good at everything and they are on top of the world. Then they are drafted and end up going to Vietnam. It’s a long fall from top of the world to the bottom and they crawl back out again.”

He says parts of the book are true and happened to him or friends of his. Heuton says the book was inspired by an English professor in college.  “I graduated from college about two weeks before my 30th high school reunion and had an engineer’s degree. My English Professor told me I had a gift and I should get out of engineering and into journalism. The rest kind of came to me as the years went by and I figured I better do it before I forget everything.”

The story inside “Back in the Day” is quite moving from the highs of being rock stars in high school to the lows of the war. Heuton, a high school graduate from Elk Horn and Vietnam Veteran, says he is dedicating the book to Veterans. “The book is dedicated to the men and women who served in Vietnam and we need to be thankful for all those men and women.”

“Back in the Day” will hit bookstores set to be released in stores and online December 31st, 2013.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)