Twelve years in the making, retired St. Michael-Albertville High School English teacher and Speech coach, Mike Frickstad published his first book last week.

His book, released exclusively on Amazon.com, is called The Storyteller and tells the story of Beecher Jones. A husband, father, high school principal and unwilling messiah.  

"Being an English teacher you get an idea that you should write a book," Frickstad said of his desire to follow through on a 12 year project.

"A professor from Bemidji State had once said 'everyone has a book in them' and I started to think now is the time," he added.

So Frickstad started the 12 year project shortly after beginning his time in St. Michael Albertville. He began teaching English in 1998 and retired in 2009 and continued coaching the speech team until the end of the 2012 season.

"The book started as a love story and turned into a spiritual horror story," he said.

Now Frickstad will enjoy retirement and the new joys of figuring out how to distribute his book. "It's good for me, otherwise I'd just sit around," he said of his newest adventure in book marketing.

The Storyteller is available on Amazon in both hardcover and kindle versions. Frickstad has a book signing scheduled for December 1 at 1 p.m. at the Albertville Country Inn and Suites.