Fred Afflerbach's first published work appeared in truckers' tabloids in the early 1980s. That's when he discovered the writing life was akin to transcontinental trucking. You drink buckets of coffee and sit for long periods alone with your imagination.
The duty and joy of fatherhood later supplanted the call of the open road and Fred shifted gears. Still an independent operator, his trucking radius was confined mostly to Texas. Yet Fred continued writing about the road. Studying journalism at Austin Community College, he sometimes drove his eighteen-wheeler to night classes. He graduated cum laude from Texas State University in 2007 and since has earned numerous Texas Associated Press awards for writing and reporting for Central Texas Newspapers.
Today he writes freelance from his home in Central Texas and is finishing his second novel, another interstate road trip.
Roll On, the first book from author Fred Afflerbach, takes readers on an interstate journey with a long-haul trucker. Ubi Sunt is addicted to his life on the road and, if he had his way, he’d continue driving until he no longer could. But forces in his life are threatening to take away Ubi’s driving life. To begin with, Ubi’s daughter has offered him an ultimatum – to have a role in his grandchildren’s lives, he must settle down and drive local. In addition, the company where Ubi has worked for thirty years is being bought out by investors who want to change the system. Not to mention the wave of brash, young drivers who don’t understand Ubi’s “code of the road.” Will Ubi be pushed out of his life as trucker, or will he push on despite the obstacles?
