Below, find information about Nick, including his official photo and biography, as well as interview/story ideas and social media links. Also included is information about the Avignon The Long Road Home. You’ll also find the downloadable version of the entire Media Kit.
General Information
50 Word Biography
Nick Lupton is a Pensacola-based high school biology teacher, former football coach, visual artist, and stained-glass craftsman. Inspired by vivid dreams and a lifelong fascination with history, he wrote the time-travel historical novel Avignon: The Long Road Home, the opening book in the Delacroix Chronicles.
Full Biography
Nick Lupton’s journey has always been guided by creativity. Growing up in Pensacola, Florida, he first pursued art, capturing the world in pencil, pen, and ink. Life eventually blended his passions in a new direction, leading him to become a high school biology teacher and mentor who shaped students both in the classroom and on the football field.
Creativity never left. When his coaching chapter closed, a new one opened in stained glass, where light, color, and intricate design became his canvas. Then, inspired by vivid dreams and a deep fascination with history, Nick’s storytelling took its boldest form yet: writing.
Through LuptonDream LLC, Nick now creates historical fiction in which imagination and the past collide. He is a devoted husband, father, and grandfather who believes in curiosity, creativity, and the power of a good story. Avignon: The Long Road Home is his debut novel and the opening of the Delacroix Chronicles.
Fast Personal Facts
Home: Pensacola, Florida
Career: High school biology teacher and former high school football coach
Creative work: Drawing, pen-and-ink art, stained glass, and fiction
Writing origin: Vivid dreams paired with a fascination for history
Available for: Interviews, book discussions, school and educator conversations, signings, panels, and creative-journey features
Social Media
Story Angles
•From Biology Lab to Medieval France
I went from grading biology quizzes and coaching football to writing a medieval epic — and yes, my students find that pretty funny.
•The Dream That Became a Novel
One vivid dream refused to leave me alone, so I turned it into a 117,000-word adventure spanning 1985 New Haven and 14th-century France.
•What If a Teenager Knew the Future?
I love the dangerous question at Stephen’s core: how much of the future can one teenager safely blurt out before it backfires?
•Why 1985?
I stranded my hero in 1985 on purpose — no smartphones, no Google, just a kid, a notebook, and a great soundtrack rewriting the time-travel rules.
•History as a Living Classroom
As a teacher, I’ve found a good story beats a textbook every time, so I use mine to make faraway places and people feel close enough to touch.
•A Creative Life Has More Than One Chapter
I’ve been a sketch artist, a coach, and a stained-glass nerd, and now a novelist — apparently I just can’t sit still creatively.
•Building an Independent Imprint
My family and I built LuptonDream LLC from scratch, and I’ll happily share the messy, rewarding reality of publishing a debut novel ourselves.
Interview Talking Points
•What first inspired Avignon: The Long Road Home?
–Honestly, it started with a dream — I grabbed a notebook before it could slip away.
–My lifelong love of history built the whole world around that first spark.
•Why place Stephen in 1985 New Haven?
–No smartphones, no Google — just a teenager and one very trusty research notebook.
–His knowledge feels powerful but charmingly incomplete, and revisiting the ’80s was a bonus.
•Why Avignon and the early 1300s?
–Popes, ambitious kings, the fall of the Templars — it’s the perfect historical storm.
–I basically dropped a modern teen into history’s most dramatic group project.
•How did being a teacher and coach shape the novel?
–Teaching and coaching showed me how young people grow, stumble, and find their nerve.
–Stephen just carries everything he’s learned across six centuries — no pressure.
•How did your visual-art background influence your writing?
–Drawing and stained glass taught me to think in light, color, contrast, and detail.
–So I write the way I sketch — one carefully placed piece of glass at a time.
•What makes Stephen a hero?
–He never chases glory — honestly, he’d much rather just go home.
–He does the right thing while scared and unsure of the cost, and that’s the good stuff.
•What do you hope readers take away?
–A little wonder, a fresh appetite for history, maybe a late-night rabbit hole or two.
–Mostly, that courage starts with one ordinary person making one hard choice.
•Is this the beginning of a series?
–Yes! Avignon opens the Delacroix Chronicles.
–So no, I’m not letting Stephen rest just yet.
About the Debut Novel
Description
He went to a Renaissance fair for a history project. He woke up in 14th-century France. Does he dare change history or did he already?
Stephen Delacroix is a typical high school senior in 1985 New Haven—until a Renaissance fair photo opportunity sends him tumbling into 14th-century France.
Waking in a medieval abbey with nothing but his backpack and a research notebook, Stephen must navigate a world he knows only from books. Guided by a wise monk, he learns to survive in an era on the brink of upheaval, but survival grows complicated when he becomes entangled with the Knights Templar and finds himself hunted by both king and pope.
With unlikely allies at his side and dangerous secrets in his head, Stephen walks a razor’s edge between revealing too much of the future and making it home alive. Every choice could mean death, discovery, or something he never expected to find in the past: love. The road home has never been so treacherous.
Avignon The Long Road Home Facts
TITLE Avignon: The Long Road Home
AUTHOR Nick Lupton
PUBLISHER LuptonDream LLC
PUBLICATION May 12, 2026 | First edition
GENRE Historical fiction/time-travel adventure
LENGTH 384 pages | approximately 117,000 words
SETTING 1985 New Haven, Connecticut, and 14th-century France
FORMATS / ISBNs
Hardback 979-8-9958338-0-2 | Paperback 979-8-9958338-1-9 |
Ebook 979-8-9958338-2-6
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS LCCN 2026911967
Themes and Reader Appeal
•A reluctant hero choosing what is right over what is easy
•Belonging, loyalty, love, and the meaning of home
•The danger of knowing the future in a world shaped by faith and power
•A detailed medieval setting balanced by recognizable 1980s touchstones
•A crossover adventure for adult historical-fiction readers and mature teen readers
Selected Reader Response
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️“Stephen Delacroix is my new hero! Time-travel page turner!”
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️“I found myself invested in so much more than the journey…it was the relationships he built along the way that kept me turning pages.”
Availability
Are you an individual or a book club? Avignon is available on Amazon in all formats.
Are you a bookstore or library? Avignon is NOW AVAILABLE through IngramSpark.
LuptonDream 