Other Wasilla resident has strong Hastings ties

Sarah Palin may have introduced the country to Wasilla, Alaska, but she has very strong competition now.

A young woman — she’s 12 — with a strong Hastings connection has written and published her first novel, “Chaderick – Not a Vampire, Not a Zombie, Not a Superhero,” which is now available through Barnes & Noble and Amazon. Lauren DW Luchsinger Fox’s book can also be purchased at several area book stores in Wasilla.

“The idea just sort of came to me and it started going,” said Lauren.

Her grandparents Gary and Kathy Fox live here and her mother, Dena, grew up here.

The book, for third- graders to lower middle school readers, is about Chaderick, a boy growing up in Hero Town. He is a boy who also very much wants to be a hero. He believes he has found a way to do that when a new villain stumps the heroes of Hero Town. But Chaderick has no special powers, no status and no experience. Will he accomplish his goal?

Lauren had attended a writing workshop about a year ago and “little bits” of the story would come to her.

“I’d take a break from writing,” she said, “and then I’d think that I know where it is going.”

The name “Chaderick” came to her at the workshop.

“I made it up,” she said. “I liked it.”

She wrote the story in a notebook, then copied it into a computer.

She thought it was pretty good, so she showed it to her parents. She revised it, then asked if they thought it was good enough to publish.

“I’ve always dreamed of being an author, of being published,” she said.

Her parents liked it.

“My family owns a publishing business and I wanted it to be up to their standards,” Lauren said. It was, they told her.

They did some research on the Internet about the book’s size and which format was most desirable for the readers. Lauren’s aunt, Jennifer, who lives in Fargo, illustrated the cover.

It has been about a month since the book was published and the response has been good, said Lauren.

“It’s kind of cool,” she said.

Her friends’ responses have been that and more.

“Cool and weird,” she said.

As she enjoys the publication of her first book and some of the attention — the daily newspaper in Wasilla, wrote a front-page story on her — Lauren continues writing.

She also is starting to think about her next book.

Tags: news, education, hastings, minnesota, spiral