What career goal did you have when you graduated high school or college? Did you end up meeting that goal?

Michael Strecker wanted to be a novelist after graduating from Louisiana State University with a degree in journalism and after 37 years he can now add published novelist to his impressive resume.

Strecker will be in Fairhope at Page & Palette for a book signing event Saturday, June 1 for his humor novel, "The Knights of Wade."

This isn't the first time Strecker's name has appeared in a Gulf Coast Media newspaper. For a year or so in the mid-1990s, Strecker was a reporter for The Onlooker and spent some time in the Gulf Shores office writing for The Islander. He said he enjoyed his time working in Baldwin County, but he was pursuing another passion that called him home to New Orleans.

"I just started my comedy career, and I was shuttling back and forth to New Orleans. At that time, all my gigs were in New Orleans," Strecker said. "I said if I want to pursue this I better get back on home, so I did."

Comedy and writing were two things Stecker said he had a passion for his whole life. After college, he pursued his novel dreams by writing all day and waiting tables all night. It was during this time, in the late 1980s that he wrote "The Knights of Wade." He sent it around to publishers but didn't get a bite. Then he gets into journalism while also dabbling in comedy.

His comedy goal at first was to write jokes for others to tell but ended up in a stand-up comedy class at the University of New Orleans in the mid-90s. The final exam required students to perform the five-minute set they had written during class onstage in front of an audience. Stecker got laughs. He tried a different stage and a new audience and got laughs. After five performances he began performing standup comedy regularly.

Like many with a journalism degree do, Strecker got into the Public Relations world in 2004 and married an educator in 2007. The funny didn't stop though.

Strecker's deep wells of funny jokes prompted his wife to encourage him to start writing his puns and one-liners down because she knew her students would love them. Those jokes turned into a two-book series of children's joke books, published by Union Square Kids," Young Comic's Guide to Telling Jokes" Book 1 and Book 2. He also has a children's joke book focused on New Orleans titled, "Jokes for Crescent City Kids."

Strecker can also credit the publishing of "The Knights of Wade" to his wife as well.

"I was at a book Festival at Tulane University and a publisher was in the audience and met my wife and asked, 'What is he working on?.' My wife knew I had this novel and she said, 'Oh he's working on a novel,'" Strecker said. "She said we have to go home. You have to write that novel."

He went to the closet and pulled out the yellowing typing paper filled with words that composed his long untouched novel that was set in the 1980s. He thought of updating it but opted to leave the period alone. He said he punched up parts, addressed some humor no longer relevant and flushed out parts. Overall, it's the same story that poured from his brain between shifts waiting tables.

The basis of the story is something many with siblings or complicated family dynamics can relate to, death, inheritance and siblings. The story is mostly set in New Orleans, but the first bit is set in Mississippi. Strecker called this a humor novel but did say there are some serious themes like the loss of a mother.

"The basic premise is these two stepbrothers that are brought together. Their lives and the lives of their families are forced together through a shared inheritance," Strecker said. "They clash, there's a lot of family humor and lots of family dynamics probably very relatable for many of us."

With the story set in his hometown, Strecker said it's quite a responsibility introducing people to New Orleans through his writing.

"It's a good feeling to bring something you love to other people," Strecker said. "You just hope that you do this wonderful city, with all its quirks, with all its problems, challenges and the whole picture, you hope you present that well to people."

Pick up a copy of "The Knights of Wade" at a bookstore near you or attend the event at Page & Palette June 1. Strecker will not only be signing books but also reading an excerpt from the book.