Published: August 16, 2008 01:05 am            

'Living the Dream'

ST. ELMO — While the owner and operator of a successful civil engineering business in Florida, surveyor and St. Elmo native Barry Coughlin was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease, in 2001. As is common for the disease, Coughlin was informed his body would slowly degenerate and he would likely die within two to five years.

Eventually unable to work, Coughlin moved back to St. Elmo to be closer to his family and took on a new challenge, writing a book.

“It (ALS) eventually got me from a healthy person to where I am today,” said Coughlin, who has lost control of most of his body. “Anyone who has experienced a change in lifestyle realizes that opportunities change when lifestyles change.

“You can choose to take it and move forward or not.”

Choose, he did, as physical ailments of the disease progressed, he wrote “Living the Dream,” a historical novel chronicling the life of a man involved in an accident who dreams about a surveyor who goes to Kaskaskia to move the capital of Illinois to a new location. The protagonist’s difficult journey mirrors Coughlin’s.

“I couldn’t work as a surveyor so this book was an outlet for two of my interests, surveying and history,” said Coughlin. “I just woke up one day and the story was in my head.”

It was the physical process of writing, according to Coughlin, that posed the biggest obstacle in penning the novel. Unable to type, Coughlin used a mouse to click letters on his computer screen to form sentences, a painstakenly slow process.

“I worked on this novel for 13 months, totally about 600 to 700 hours,” said Coughlin. “I was only writing about 200 words an hour.”

“I was at least making less mistakes,” he added, referring to the slow, precise process of writing on the computer compared to when he was able to type on a keyboard.

This ability to stay positive and an ironclad will for success left Coughlin with a completed first novel. Coughlin enlisted family and friends to help edit his work. He then faced more challenges in getting the book published.

“I ended up self-publishing my book,” said Coughlin. “I didn’t feel that I had enough time to go through traditional publishers. Before I knew it, I got involved in marketing and releasing the book.”

Like other challenges in life, Coughlin pushed on and is now eagerly anticipating the novel’s release.

Now only available for purchase online, “Living the Dream” is available on www.amazon.com. It will be released officially at St. Elmo Public Library on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m.

“Self-publishing is very popular right now,” said Coughlin. “There is a growing audience, and if done right, it can offer the author much more than the big publishers.”

Coughlin’s family jokes about who will go to the “Oprah” show with him when his novel makes her book club, and Coughlin, himself, remains optimistic to whatever the future might bring.

“I didn’t do this for any other reason than I wanted to,” said Coughlin. “It is amazing in life how you can do a lot with a little.”

Tony Huffman can be reached at 217-347-7151 ext. 135 or tony.huffman@effinghamdailynews.com.