My characters hate my stories.
Heart is the cornerstone
of a great story.
Thanks for vising my page. I’m Mark, and I write stories that explore the emotional toll life takes on all of us. I hope my readers connect with my characters deeply, and find joy, truth, and empathy as their adventures play out page after page. Every painful tale is lined with humor, and every funny tale is hiding a scar.
I’m a dad, a husband, a NASA educator, adviser of Disney vacations, and all-around tall person. Marquette is my alma mater, Occam’s razor is my guiding light, and cookies have never let me down. I’ve called Chicagoland home for the past 20 years.
The Latest From Me:
Isaac and the Sky
Isaac was just 8 when his abusive dad killed his mom, with the horror captured in a single Pulitzer-prize winning photograph: little Isaac, being led from the house with his puppy Miles, splashed in blues
and reds of police lights.
Today, he’s bullied at school, handled with kid gloves by his adoptive uncle, and spends most of his time with an old and gray Miles, hiding in his parents abandoned house.
But one evening, he discovers his mom’s telescope, tucked away in the old house’s attic. The gift tag on the box is written in crayon, To: Mom, From: Isaac. With national and local news swarming for comment on his dad’s upcoming parole hearing, he has to move in the shadows, and night after night that’s exactly where he finds Halley, the new girl at school with an odd affection for breaking into houses but, oddest of all, an affection for Isaac.
Using the telescope, with Halley and Miles by his side, he first discovers memories of Mom he thought were lost forever. Then he discovers Planet Nine, a super planet ten times the size of Earth that, until Isaac’s eyes, has only been the stuff of astronomy legend. Now he has a choice: Continue to hide himself and the planet from the world, or risk letting a viral relapse spiral his life out of control again. The discovery of the millennium
awaits his decision.
ISAAC AND THE SKY is a YA contemporary complete at
60,000 words. It is reminiscent of October Sky,
and is for readers who feel alone in a crowded room.
“Half the stars in the night sky are dead already, but the last gasp of light hasn’t reached us yet. Maybe I’m one of those, and that’s why everyone at school keeps their distance, conceding I’m already gone.”
James was a prodigy painter, until a nightmare planted in his head shows him how his family is going to be slaughtered, and steals color from his waking eyes.
Five years later, the same nightmare, still colorblind, and no answers about the vengeful mystery girl who’s out for their blood ...
... until a pouch with paint brushes from the 1800s washes ashore near his house, and other clues begin to surface.
Can James wade just deep enough into the killer’s world to paint away his family’s fate?
THE SCATTERING is a YA horror novel, suitable for high-school through adult readers. It is a tribute to the person who got me into writing in the first place: Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe.
COVER REVEAL COMING MID-JUNE!
Comin g Sept. 1:
The Scattering
