By Michael Hartwell
Joshua Davis, 30 said a conversation with a friend inspired him to dig out the novella he penned in college for an advanced creative writing course and expand it into a book, titled Winter Storm, which was published in May.
“I wrote the bulk of it in that five month semester,” said Davis. He now lives in Portland, but graduated from Gray-New Gloucester High school in 1997.
“I consider New Gloucester to be my hometown, even thought I wasn’t actually born there,” said Davis, who moved here when he was 8.
Davis’s parents were ministers at the First Congregational Church of New Gloucester, United Church of Christ at the lived at the bottom of Gloucester Hill. He was a proofreader for the New Gloucester News during the summer of 1998.
After high school he attended St. Joseph’s College where he took classes in public relations and advertising and received a Bachelors degree in communication in 2001.
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But after college, he discovered media work wasn’t what he wanted to do.
“I was interested in the creative side of things, not the business side,” said Davis.
He went back to school and received his Masters in Library science from Simmons College in Boston in January, 2005. He now volunteers at the Bangor Theological Seminary’s library at the Portland campus and said he does a lot of church work.
Davis said he found the company Publish America to print Winter Storm after an internet search, and chose that company because it didn’t require any money up front.
Davis said Winter Storm is a spy thriller surrounding an attempt for the nation of Armenia to join NATO.
Politicians who vote to include Armenia are assassinated, or the targets of assassination attempts, so Marta Alger is dispatched from the NATO intelligence agency to find out who is trying to stop the vote.
“In some ways, she’s kind of a female
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James Bond. She likes to drink and party and socialize with men,” said Davis. He said the back story of his fictional lead has her being born in New Gloucester.
“I consider her a lot like me,” said Davis. “We have similar senses of humor and view of the world.” He said they both like to make references to various movies.
“When I originally wrote it, she was 32. But as the years went by I changed it to 39,” he said.
However, the life of his female protagonist took a different turn when her family moved to Connecticut when she was in high school.
Davis’s own parents moved to Connecticut while he attended Saint Joseph’s College.
While in Connecticut, Davis had Alger being taught by a private tutor instead of attending public school. He said this tutor turned out to be a retired CIA operative who influenced her to get into the business.
Davis said the title Winter Storm is
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the code name of Alger’s mission. In addition, the novel takes place in the month of December while assassination attempts are still going on.
He said the book takes place in the present day, but the countries of the world have fictitious heads of state in charge, much like the television show The West Wing.
Davis said the location of Armenia is important because it’s located “near a lot of Middle East hot spots” and borders Iran.
He said the feedback he’s received so far about his book has been positive, but admits it’s been from his family and friends.
“It’s hard to gauge what they really think about it,” said Davis.
Davis said Winter Storm is available through Internet retailers like Amazon and Barnes & Noble and can be found at Longfellow Books in Portland. He also said people can order it through local bookstores as well.
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