Rick Lenz Bends Time in 'Hello, Rest of My Life

Veteran Broadway, television and film actor and now author, Rick Lenz, joins us to discuss his novel, Hello, Rest of My Life. While not quite autobiographical, the book is loosely based on Rick and his wife, Linda, who have been married 40 years. His novel tells of the romance between film actor, Danny Maytree, and Samantha, a woman he meets on a blind date. After falling in love, Danny chooses Samantha over his career and gives up his ambitious desire for Hollywood stardom. Things shift years later when, after decades together, Danny is in the midst of writing a novel and is somehow whisked away from Samantha, transported back in time to 1974, and given a second chance to live the life he had always dreamed of. “It’s still the same Hollywood, but he’s now without Samantha, …that turns it all around, and then from that point on all he wants to do is to get back to Samantha…” Rick also discusses the spiritual element in his book. “I really do believe we are all of one spirit, in a way, and at least that’s the way we were intended to be, when we are behaving ourselves and are nice to each other, and all those things like kindness and love.” With Danny, the spirituality “becomes part of his time travel, sort of, methodology… along with, you know, physics… physics and metaphysics… I think that they all intertwine anyway.”

When describing his transition to writing, he thought, “I really liked the writing more than I liked the acting.” He also talks about the harshness of being critiqued by other writers, self-publishing his first novel, and his love for his late, beloved poodle.