As my novel “Conjure” rolls ever closer to publication, I’ve put together a little website for it, which can be found hereAt the moment, there’s a partial essay/afterword on how the book came about (which will be fleshed out on publication, as it will contain a few spoilers), some information on the illustrations and a breakdown of how I created ( Read more... )

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The last Terror Scribes gathering I attended was held in Hinkley, in 2004, to coincide with the launch of Sue Philips’ book “The Waldorf Street Paradox” (where I heard just how much John Ford loved what he’d so far read of “Conjure”). Since then, a lot of water has passed under the bridge and a lot of things have changed but this year, Sue decided ( Read more... )

We had a nice, quiet New Years Eve - Matthew went to spend the night with his Gran & Grampy (hard to tell which of the three was most excited) and Alison & I went for an Indian, then a brisk walk and saw 2009 in with the Hootenany ( Read more... )

I saw two reviews for We Fade To Grey last week, both of which were very pleasing. One came from Stephen Bacon, a fellow writer, who said of “The Mill” - “[it’s] a haunting stab of exposed tragedy. I honestly can't remember reading anything with as much honesty, in the manner it deals with grief and the consequences of loss…The ending was subtle ( Read more... )

He’s back! He’s alive!

Haven’t posted for a while, variety of reasons, none of them all that interesting, but a couple of people have pointed it out to me and so I thought I’d make amends. So, what’s been happening?

( In life - with a picture )

A Question, if you don’t mind ( Read more... )

Well, another week has whizzed by. It’s half term, so both Alison and Dude have been at home and it’s been a real struggle to leave them in the mornings (plus the very cold weather hasn’t helped ( Read more... )

A couple of years back, on the 22nd May, I wrote that I’d received a fan letter from Jamie Turner, in Tasmania, that really cheered me up. If you’re interested, that LJ entry is here.

Well, Mr Turner made my day again today, this time writing about “We Fade To Grey”. Amongst other very nice things he wrote:

”You, Mark, have provided the ( Read more... )

Saw a very nice note yesterday, from John Probert, on “The Mill”. He called it a “wrenching, tragic story” and said it was “very well constructed”.

That’s what we like to hear! He had nice things to say about the rest of the collection too, but this is my Journal, so there!

Anyway, if you’d like to find out what Mr Probert was talking about, ( Read more... )