RonVitale

Contact Me

Interested in interviewing me about writing, my fantasy novel "Dorothea's Song," what it takes to create and run a podcast? Drop me a line:

Phone: 1-201-467-4962
E-mail: ronvitale[at]yahoo.com

For the Media:

• Audio promo for "Dorothea's Song" (length: 1 min. 5 secs)
• PDF of "Dorothea's Song" (file size 1.27 MB)
• Listen to "Dorothea's Song"
• Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/ronvitale

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Welcome

What is RonVitale.com? RonVitale.com (formerly www.losoil.com) contains various samples of my writing over the years.  I've rummaged through the old files and decided to archive everything from the first story I wrote when only a young boy in grammar school (complete with crayon drawings!) to my most recent commentary and writing articles.  Losoil.com was named after Mohan the Wise's (a character in my novel "Dorothea's Song") magical tower.  In Losoil, there are many wonderful and amazing rooms filled with many exotic items.  I thought the name "Losoil" would adequately reflect my own writings over the last several years and would be a good namesake for this Website.
Definition: Losoil The name, translated from the ancient elvish, means Snowstar. Losoil is the name of Mohan the Wise's magical tower that I dreamed up when I wrote the first draft of my novel "Dorothea's Song" when I was 16 years old. Interested in seeing my hand drawn maps from back in the '80s? Be sure to visit the "The Realms" pages. Remember, I'm not an artist, but a writer. Be kind--I was only 16 years old when I drew those maps and typed up the descriptions.
Mission Having written a wide variety of pieces in the last several years, I wanted to consolidate my work onto my own Website, and share my writing with others. In time, I hope to add more sections that describe my novel "Dorothea's Song" and my second book "Amelion's Song" (currently at the first draft stage). I also wanted to create a Website in a blog format so that I could easily react and respond to current events, interesting news, or whatever else might catch my fancy.  So, welcome to Losoil.com and I invite you to explore my work. I've always believed that writing is an exercise in sharing one's vision with the world. No matter how polished or articulate a piece of writing may be, the author's transferal of his/her vision to the reader in order to inspire and engender thought-provoking discussion is the quintessential goal.  Of course, writing can also be just plain old fun. Enjoy.

Reflecting

Life is a rather precious and special thing. That might sound a bit trite but with my daughter having been born only two days ago, it's a bit funny how life changes and priorities shift. Yesterday my biggest goal was bathing my daughter for the first time. Well, cleaning up her full head of hair in the attempts to comb out died mucus and blood from her birth. She cooperated rather well, crying as I had expected, but also urinating in the baby tub I had her in. I turned to look back at the rest of her tiny body (20 and a half inches long) and saw all this yellow "water." Then I realized that I had forgotten how babies pee at any drop of a hat or temperature (the water I had poured on her head was too cool).

I wanted to take a moment just to reflect. Reflect on life, mine, my family's and the interconnected web around us. Learning to be a father all over again, is different, new, and a change. I had never imagined in growing up that I would be a father to a daughter. The challenges (just different than being a father to my son) are interestingly vast as I can relate to my son since I'm male. But the gender gap between my daughter and I is interesting to note as I fear that a pink wave of Barbie will soon descend on her. It's bad enough that my son is in love with everything Disney, including the Princesses! Now in a few short years my daughter will be caught up in the rush too. I half joke about that, but what I am serious about is the father daughter bond. I did not have a sister and didn't grow up hearing my sister talk about a father/daughter dance or fears of her getting pregnant when a teenager. Being a boy, fears of pregnancy are still "out there" as a boy can experience that moment but not physically. The issue is still not part of you and I think that life will be a bit more introspective as the immensity of fatherhood--to a girl--washes over me.

I was driving back from the store yesterday and I realized that the Supreme Court might change the law and make illegal the right for women to have an abortion. And I didn't know what I felt about that. Would I want my daughter to have the right to choose even though I'm against abortion? And then thoughts sparked alive in my imagination, linking up to weave a web of life in front of me, stretching out far into the future. I realized that I needed to champion women rights to help fight for my daughter's well-being. For her to choose what she wants. I just hadn't thought of life from that perspective before when my son was born. Yet maybe these thoughts will temper me and the reflection will enable me to grow to learn more about who I am not and become more--in the hopes of being a better father for my daughter. These thoughts are what I'd like to reflect on, keep close, hold tight within me, and relish my new role as father to a beautiful daughter.

An Open Letter to My Son

Dear Son:

I wanted to share this story with you.  Hopefully, one day you’ll grow up, go through my writings and stumble over this little gem.  As your dad, I thought you’d like to learn a little bit about me.  Let me freeze the moment in time: You turned 2 years old a few weeks ago.  Last night your mom put you to bed and you had some separation anxiety problems.  Being out of daycare for a week has thrown you off your schedule and you’ve been afraid to go to bed at night (or to take a nap).  Good news first: I heard that you did great on going to your first day back to daycare and that you had slept until 7:15 a.m. this morning.  I wish I would have known that last night so I would have had some hope.  Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way.