James Rourke has spent the last 27 years teaching at Norwich Free Academy, but he has also had an avocation that he’s passionate about. He has written and published several books in recent years, with a new one just released.

It’s a dystopian novel titled “Stone Souls.” In it, the Common States of America is free of poverty or crime, and all cancer has become mild and survivable. Society celebrates intellectual accomplishments and art.

But, as the book ominously warns, the only cost is your soul.

Two people, Raymond and Karen Butler, have recently become citizens of the Common States of America, which is overseen by the secretary of internal security, Kurt “Stone” Adams. He “defends the nation he loves with revolutionary intensity.”

“Stone Souls” grew out of a planned trilogy Rourke was working on a decade ago. One of the characters in the third book captured Rourke’s imagination — to such an extent that he took the character out of that tale and created a whole world around him, which became “Stone Souls.”

That character is Kurt Adams, and Rourke says, “Even in that rather toned-down version of him that was in the original trilogy, he was on some level like my Joker. He was that dark character who had a way of maybe sucking you in and (you) going, ‘Wow, that’s a really good point that the Joker just made. (But) I shouldn’t be agreeing with him — he’s the maniac.’ … He has a little bit of that vibe to him. So then I became curious: how could I really create a character like that, that appealing sociopath, if you will?”

“Stone Souls” is set in a new country that has broken away from the United States.

“Their basic premise (of the Common States of America) is that the United States is wrong, and they’re wrong from the very beginning in that the Declaration of Independence — we hold these truths to be self-evident, all men are created equal, endowed by their creator, inalienable rights — that’s all wrong. If you build a country on something that’s not actually part of reality, then your country is going to struggle. (The theory of the Common States of America) is this is why the United States has struggled, because we’re living a false reality. The reality is, you earn your respect, you earn your place. You’re born Homo sapiens, but humanity is earned,” he says.

“So they took this very intense meritocracy view of things. Stone Adams is the defender of that proposition, and in doing that, he punishes people and eliminates people who aren’t living up to their end of the deal of trying to earn their humanity, if you will. That’s his drive.”

Rourke, who teaches history, psychology and philosophy at NFA, used some of his knowledge of history in writing the book. When he was fleshing out the character of Adams, he took inspiration from a pamphlet that was distributed Russia in the early 1870s. It was called the Catechism of the Revolutionary. He designed Adams as a revolutionary in the Russian tradition. Part of the Catechism is that the revolution should be the most important thing in a person’s life, and anything done to promote the revolution is considered moral.

“So for a guy like Kurt Adams, he’s imprisoning people without due process, executing people without any type of trial because he has that authority. If it’s helping the revolution, those are all moral acts. I do base him quite a bit on my understanding of that revolutionary document. So in that regard, he’s living in a state that used to be in the United States of America, but his mindset is not American,” Rourke says.

Rourke will talk about “Stone Souls” on June 3 at Bank Square Books in Mystic.

Taken with Tolkien

Rourke, who grew up in Lisbon, wrote as a kid, particularly during his third and fourth grade years, when his teachers really encouraged the students to be creative and write stories.

But then other interests took precedence.

“But apparently that writing desire, that storytelling desire was rooted in me and started percolating sometime in my early 30s, and I’ve been writing ever since,” Rourke says.

Because of his teaching job, he doesn’t write every day, but he does think about writing every day — meaning he jots down notes or adds to outlines. Eventually, he finds the time to take the notes, thoughts and outlines, get to a computer, and produce some chapters.

Discussing his favorite authors, Rourke recalls with a laugh, “I tried to write a fantasy novel over a decade ago, and it very quickly became apparent to me that, oh my God, all I’m doing is ripping off ‘Lord of the Rings’!”

His love of J.R.R. Tolkien ended up being a hindrance in that case.

Rourke says there is often something invigorating about writing. You think you’re tired when you sit down to write, but by the time you’re done, you feel enriched, he says.

“I don’t need a big publishing deal. That moment (of feeling enriched) stands alone as a positive moment in my life,” he says. 

His other books

Three of Rourke’s books — “From My Classroom to Yours,” “The Eternal Struggle: Two Worlds, One War” and “The Comic Book Curriculum” — were traditionally published, while “Out of the Basement” and “Stone Souls” were self-published.

He has produced both nonfiction and fiction. “The Comic Book Curriculum” focuses on using comics to enhance learning and life. “From My Classroom to Yours” offers reflections on teaching.

Rourke’s fiction works, meanwhile, tend to boast fantasy elements and spiritual themes. In “The Eternal Struggle,” two deceased people have to battle to save Limbo and Earth from Satan; they do it against (and with the help) of various historical figures. “Out of the Basement” focuses on a college professor who decides, thanks to a push by friends and the potential for a new romance, that he has to face the childhood abuse that has left a lasting impact on him.

Why write?

Asked what keeps him writing, even as he has a busy job as a teacher, Rourke says, “I feel like it’s the million-dollar question, and I don’t completely have an answer. I can’t tell you undeniably what makes me want to share a story, write a story. I know this: that I’ve been inspired by other people’s writing, I’ve been intrigued by it, it’s entertained me, it’s enriched my life, all those things, whether it’s a movie as a story or a book as a story. That’s what stories do for me.

“Sometimes, I feel on some level, I would like to do that for somebody else. I have people I’ve never met who have enriched my life with a story they told, and I actually feel gratitude, that that person took the time. Who knows, maybe I can produce something that makes someone I’ve never met and never will meet to feel the same way.”

Teaching, too, is partly storytelling, particularly for someone who teaches something in the humanities. The best way to get students interested in history or a philosophical idea is to make it more of a story than just an assembly of facts, he says. 

If you go

Who: James Rourke, whose new novel is “Stone Souls”

What: Author talk

When: 3:30 p.m. June 3

Where: Bank Square Books, 53 West Main St., Mystic

Bookmark: Attendees will receive a bookmark that they can present at The Mariner (where Rourke will be headed after the talk) for a 10% discount on their total bill. The bookmark has been designed by NFA student Alyson Gordon.