In 2018, when Charlie Britton stopped working as the full-time head of school in an independent Maryland school and returned home to Southport, he did what many people talk of doing but few actually do: He wrote a novel. It never saw the light of day, he said. “I showed it to a couple of people, but their reactions said it all … it was my learning project.”

Not to be put off, within a year Britton had written “Eight-Man Cowboy,” a comic novel that follows the antics of the high school football coach in the fictional town of Spring Harbor, Maine. Writing under the pseudonym C. W. Wells, Britton self-published the book and it took off locally.

His second book, “Lone Star,” was picked up by Barto, Pennsylvania publisher Creative Texts. “Lone Star” took C. W. Wells fans out of Maine and south to San Antonio, Texas, and from comic novel to a mixed genre of crime fiction, sports fiction and financial thriller.

His latest book, “No Heart to Kill,” released Feb. 9, is a sequel to “Lone Star” and, said Britton, “it’s much more murder mystery than high school football.” He had fun with it. “Writing a sequel, you know the characters better. I enjoyed that.”

Like “Lone Star,” “No Heart to Kill” is set in West Texas where former pro football player Gale McClanahan has been blackmailed into taking a job coaching the Caton Panthers. With a shocking murder on page one, the page-turning pace is set from the very beginning.

Britton is not a full-time writer. He has a full-time job as an educational consultant, but writing has become a big part of his life. In author talks, he tells people, “If you’re waiting for the muse, for the time to be right, it never happens, you just have to do it, every day.”

He said it was tough when he started, but now “I write for a couple of hours every morning, and if I don’t write, I feel bad … like someone who misses their daily routine at the gym.”

With three published books under his belt, Britton, aka C. W. Wells, is an established author and plans to continue. “People are asking for a sequel to ‘Eight-Man Cowboy.’ Something set in Maine again. But I’m also enjoying Gale McClanahan and Texas, so who knows.”

All three C. W. Wells titles are available at Sherman’s in Boothbay Harbor and online through Amazon.