"My first book was an effort to put to the printed page the wonderful stories my grandmother told me as a child." Nick West began serious writing several years ago, driven by stories passed down through his family. His two great-grandparents were part of a circus troupe that toured the southeastern United States from 1858 to 1860, and his grandmother kept those adventures alive through vivid storytelling. That oral history became the seed of his first novel, The Great Southern Circus. Based in Gainesville, Florida, Nick writes historical fiction rooted in his home state's remarkable and often overlooked history — spanning more than 500 years, from the first encounters between Florida's Native American peoples and Spanish explorers in the mid-1500s, through the Civil War and the frontier era, all the way to modern-day wildlife conservation and drug-running on the Suwannee River. His nine published novels divide across two beloved series — the multi-generational Long Road Home saga and the Charlie Palmer adventure series — alongside one standalone novel that explores a distinct chapter of Florida's past. His latest book, Treasure River, was published in March 2026.Writer has not written anything about themselves.