Novelist Draws Inspiration from Life Experience

Novelist Draws Inspiration from Life Experience

Twin cities author Christian Koegel has written a novel that was recently published through Lulu.com, the online marketplace for digital content. The novel is based on a multitude of situations Koegel encountered while spending three weeks enrolled in a trucking school in Sioux Falls, SD. The main protagonist was not based on any one character, but a multitude of the local residents and real life tractor/trailer drivers the author interacted with.

Having just finished his undergraduate studies in Creative Writing in late 2005, the author made a rash decision and decided to embark on a vastly different career path. “I was just at a point in my life where I finished college, and was asking myself, ‘now what?’” Koegel explained. A self proclaimed free spirit, the author saw freedom in the open road and enlisted into a rigorous truck driving program in neighboring South Dakota. “Unfortunately, it didn’t work out, there were too many rules and regulations as far as the industry was concerned,” Koegel pointed out, “but at least it gave me a great idea.”

The author wrote the book in six months in 2007, and then took another year to edit and add a “B” story to his manuscript. Based on the feedback he received from friends, family and colleagues, he decided to release it himself without submitting it to any of the more prestigious publishing houses.

At only a pinch over 65,000 words, Koegel’s book barely qualifies as a novel, his marketing angle being that it is a quick, entertaining read. The story centers around a character on the last leg of his career as a driver, the reader follows him from state to state as the mysteries of his life and future are told through flashback and the non-chronological structure of the novel. The author attributes it as a very subjective look at a character dealing with ordinary and extraordinary circumstances. He hopes that truck drivers read the novel and will buy the scenarios as plausible.

Koegel credits Lulu and the driving school he attended for making the book happen. “I set about a career path, but it ended up being a social experiment that was incredibly rewarding.” Although, Koegel’s career as a driver might have come to an end, he looks forward to writing more literary fiction and graduate school. “At least I can say I drove a big rig…on the interstate no less,” he remarked.

“A Need for Charlie” is now available on Amazon.com[1], Barnes and Noble.com[2], and many other online bookstores in the United States, as well as internationally. And of course, it is available on Lulu.com[3].

Lulu.com is the premier marketplace for digital content on the Internet, with over 300,000 recently published titles, and more than 4,000 new titles added each week, created by people in 80 different countries. Lulu is changing the world of publishing by enabling the creators of books, video, periodicals, multimedia and other content to publish their work themselves with complete editorial and copyright control. With Lulu offices in the US, Canada the UK and Europe, Lulu customers can reach the globe.

Christian Koegel is 27 years old and works in Human Services in Saint Paul, MN. He lives in nearby Woodbury, MN with his girlfriend. His book can be found at http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/a-need-for-charlie/5108477.