Student’s first short novel “The Jerk” publishes in February

After 89 pages, 22,033 words and a month’s worth of dedicated writing, Christopher Mundie was finally finished.

Eight months later, after finally finding a publisher, the Frankenmuth senior’s goal was complete — his short novel “The Jerk” will be published.

“You see those movies, like a comedy or something, where there’s that antagonist, that mean guy where karma comes back to him?” Mundie said. “Well that doesn’t happen.”

The book follows “the jerk” through nine chapters of different situations he creates to upset and confuse people for his own amusement.

Mundie said the inspiration for the main character came from the TV series “House.”

The protagonist of “House” is rude to the people he interacts with, Mundie said, similar to his central character.

“He communicates to people in such inordinary ways that they can’t really communicate back,” he said. “He’s a jerk to them just for his own amusement.”

Mundie said the idea to write a novella just came to him and he decided to go for it.

“Before I even started writing, I bought this little tiny notebook,” he said. “Every time I thought of something that could be related to the jerk, I’d just write it down. I have like ten notebook pages of what the jerk could potentially do.”

Stephanie Moore, title manager for Library Tales Publishing, the company that will publish Mundie’s novella, said “The Jerk” is a unique book.

“Christopher’s book is humorous and has some edge to it,” she said in an e-mailed statement. “We expect this book to do well since the story is very unique and many people can relate to it.”

Moore expects promotional campaigns for “The Jerk” to begin soon.

Mundie said it feels great to know his short novel will be published.

“I was ready to face that I would never get it done, I spent a whole month writing it,” he said. “As I was finishing that last sentence, I realized there was a very high chance I would never get it published, but hey, at least I did it.”

But Mundie said he hasn’t told anyone about his accomplishment, not even his family. He said it’ll be “a surprise.”

Though he has future plans to do more writing, “The Jerk” was a side project, Mundie said. He plans to take some time off to focus on his studies.

“The Jerk” will be available in stores Feb. 2, 2011.