Buckfield writer pens second novel, ‘Nexus’
BUCKFIELD – David Compton was excited last week. He had just received the writer’s copies of his latest book, “Nexus,” from his publisher.
Compton, a retired school teacher, started writing novels about 15 years ago when his wife, Janet, also a retired teacher, suggested he start writing something other than “boring” textbooks.
Teaching at Suffield Academy in Connecticut at the time, he had been unhappy with his French, English as a Second Language and computer texts and had developed his own. But what his wife was suggesting was something new.
His fantasy genre world began with her comment.
“Nexus” begins as most of his novels do, as an historical novel. Somewhere along the way, however, Compton has history take a different twist; his “what ifs” become places no one has ever been before, and his star character finds himself on a world that never existed in a time that never was.
“All of us have wondered about the turn of events in the world if something different had happened to change history,” Compton said.
“Nexus” will soon be available at Books-N-Things in Oxford Plaza or www.david-compton.com. Its price: $24.95. The book is published by PublishAmerica.
Comptom has a second book in the “Nexus” series submitted and is working on the third of the trilogy.
His first published novel, “A Filthy Business,” is fiction based on fact and somewhat autobiographical. He was in Germany in the ’60s and writes from some of his experiences in the world of Army intelligence.
Compton and his wife both attended Bates College and have strong family ties to Maine. When he left Connecticut in 1997, they moved to Buckfield, where he taught at Hebron Academy until he retired in 2002.
They live a log cabin, where he and Janet enjoy cross country skiing and snowshoeing during the winter months. He also is building a New England train layout in his basement. Being a history buff, he prides among his possessions, an original Acadian Railroad sign.
Another interest of Compton’s is to start a “threaded novel,” where a small town is chosen and different writers take on a fictional character. The writers take their character through a day’s normal or unusual activities in the village where life takes on unlimited possibilities as different writers project their styles and perceptions.
Compton was in the sixth grade when a teacher read where he expressed a desire to be a writer. She told him to “give it up and get a real job.”
He did get a real job, but his wife said, “Everybody has a story to tell, and everybody has an inner voice.” That inner voice finally emerged.
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