Yost pens first novel

After the death of his mother, Lynette, in 2016, Minneota native Dana Yost discovered a box of information and old photos she had kept of her father, Darold Vierhuf.
Yost found the information so interesting that he eventually decided to write the novel "Before I Get Old", that was recently published by Crossings Press based in Minnetonka.
"The book is loosely based on my grandfather's life," said Yost, a 1980 Minneota graduate. "I wrote it in his memory. A lot of things in the book really happened and some of them didn't."
Yost said he worked on the book for two years, with the majority of the time spent on research.
"I revised it a little here and there," he said. "I worked on it when COVID was at its height.
Yost, who now lives in Sioux Falls with his wife, Rae, recently presented his 288-page book at the Minneota Public Library on Dec. 2.
Yost has written two historical books, "1940: Journal of a Midwestern Town, Story of an Era" and
"A Higher Level: Southwest State Women's Tennis 1979-1992", as well as several poetry books. But this historical fiction book is his first novel.
Yost's grandfather graduated from Hendricks High School in 1934.
"He was farming at the height of the depression when farm prices were so low," said Yost. "My uncle was a captain of a yacht on Lake Michigan, so my grandfather quit farming to work on the yacht."