Author Archives: Mark

So, Shattered Shards of Darkness has been published and promoted and it’s time to get back to Jack Glennison! It was fun to revisit short story writing for a few months, but now it’s time to get back into novel-writing mode. I have no name for it as yet – beyond Book 4 – andContinue reading “The Long and the Short of It”

Well, the short story collection is just about ready! Just a few final checks and tweaks to make and then I’ll unleash it in the world! The publication date will be Wednesday 18th January 2023. Put the date in your diary! The collection’s name will be (as you can see from above) Shards of ShatteredContinue reading “Announcing my new short story collection”

It has been an odd few months. I took early retirement at the end of July. Well then, you’re probably thinking, he must have been writing up a storm! No excuses now! Not that simple, I’m afraid! Firstly, we moved house in July and have been busy settling into the new place (while trying toContinue reading “Update on my short story anthology”

Well, What Festers Within was published about two months ago. I’m very pleased with the response! The book seems to have activated increased interest in the whole series, which is very nice to see. I won’t be running away to the Caribbean on the proceeds just yet, but things ARE on the up! Thoughts nowContinue reading “The Long and the Short of it”

So, Darkisle Book 3 has a title and has cover art too…

And finally, you get to the point in your novel where you place the final full stop at the end of the final sentence in the final paragraph. You sit back and look at that last page with a range of emotions. Some sense of achievement, a good deal of relief and – for aContinue reading “Now the hard work starts…”

When it comes to writing, there are good times and then there are less-good times. Looking back over the writing of my last two-and-a-bit novels, I can trace the good times to holiday breaks. For The Gathering of Shadows it was a long New Year’s Eve Weekend in a Reykjavik apartment. That yielded two chapters.Continue reading “On the finishing straight”

I don’t know how it is for other authors, but I find there comes a time in writing a novel when I feel that the initial uphill phase is done, that I’ve crested the summit and am now writing downhill, so to speak, with the slope helping me. I think that’s where I am withContinue reading “The Beginning of the End…?”

Josine felt that a celebration was in order, so after work we treated ourselves to dinner at our frequent haunt: Lumley’s Café on Oxford Road, just a few doors down from our office. We entered a little after six to find the place bedecked with paper chains, paper honeycomb bells and sprigs of holly. “Finally!”Continue reading “A Christmas smidgen for you all”

It was daytime. It was always daytime. Sometimes it was morning, with colours washed out to grey by mist. Sometimes it was afternoon, with the stark yellow sun in a crisp blue sky. Sometimes it was dusk, with the first hints of purple stretching out above and the moon starting to glow silver. This timeContinue reading “Forever Autumn”