Former FIU VP Self-Publishes Novel After Almost 30 Years in the Making

Angela Rivas/Staff Writer 

A passion for writing since the age of 10 and a long journey through FIU has led Dr. Larry Lunsford, former vice president of student affairs, to finally self-publish his novel. 

After spending almost 30 years working on his novel, “Brad”, Lunsford published his novel in December of 2020. 

Lunsford, who started working on his novel in the mid 1990s, rediscovered his past text during quarantine and decided to continue his work. 

“I wrote maybe 100 pages of it, luckily it was stored in my computer and Word didn’t delete it,” he said. “When you retire, you start looking for things to do, and I said I think I will work on my novel again.”

“Brad” follows the adventures of two best friends, Brad and Steve, as they grow up in the 1960s. It is a coming of age, historical fiction novel. 

Many of the adventures the best friends in the book partake in are inspired by Lunsford’s own life. 

“While it is not autobiographical, I’d say probably about a half dozen of the things in the book I have experienced,” Lunsford said. 

One chapter follows the friends traveling to Costa Rica on spring break, which was based on Lunsford’s own trip in 2010 with FIU students. He explains how this was one of the highlights of his life and he wanted to rewrite his adventure through the two main characters. 

Before becoming a self published author, Lunsford was a journalism major at the University of Tennessee and a professor at Penn State. 

He wanted to continue being a reporter, but the job market was poor at the time. 

“When I graduated Watergate had occurred and everyone wanted to be a journalist. There were jobs but they were really low paying,” he said.

However, Lunsford loved college work and found himself getting a Masters in College Student Personnel from Indiana University. He then landed a job at FIU as director of student activities and co-founded The Beacon, FIU’s student newspaper which is now known as PantherNOW. 

“The Beacon to us was about newspapers and journalism being the beacon of truth for people,” said Lunsford when explaining how the paper was named. 

His love for journalism started at age 10 when he applied for a job at his local paper in his hometown of Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  

“I wrote the editor and asked him for a job writing for my local newspaper. The editor wrote a little article about it saying they appreciate my initiative, but I was a little too young,” said Lunsford. 

He expresses that his life path has led him to achieve goals in two fields which fulfill him. 

“I had the best of both worlds because I went into college work which I’ve loved but I’ve written my whole life,” Lunsford said looking back at his journey. “I was able to reach my professional goals, but also I achieved my personal goal my whole life was to one day write a novel.”

Lunsford’s novel is available for purchase on Amazon.