Mark Wm Smith

On occasion, Mark lived down the street from the last whorehouse in the West, spit dust from the end of a trail drive and stood beside the hardened lawmen facing down anarchist rebels.

He writes to make sense out of uncertainty. Reading mystery and suspense fiction kept him sane during his formative years. Writers in this genre gave order to the chaos of his world. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, Lawrence Block, Ed McBain, Tony Hillerman. Louis L’Amour just to spice it up. They saved him from despair. The strength he found in the characters of Louis L'Amour's fiction inspired courage to stop running and face down that infamous bully, Bobby Brown, in front of the Sacred Heart Catholic School.

L’Amour and Hillerman set his mind on writing with place as character. Block encouraged focus on characters whose personal troubles deepened conflict. These and hundreds of other great authors pulled him into worlds defined by justice.

Mark earned a Master of Arts in Professional Counseling from Liberty University in 2010. A graduate level understanding of human behavior and psychology facilitates Mark's development of interesting characters facing impossible circumstances. These scenarios involve internal struggles manifested through external situations-- a man who can't stop sleeping around confronted with a woman who kills men who cheat; a kid who dreams of making his deceased father proud by stealing a prized guitar.

Mark received his undergrad degree in Creative Writing from Otterbein College in 2005, only 25 years after his high school graduation. A desire to tell stories like the ones that helped him survive a rickety adolescence and tottering early adulthood give Mark the means and motivation to grow as storyteller.

Striving for the most compelling tale, the most interesting, yet genuine characters, and the most relevant theme provides Mark the opportunity for creating stories that are both fresh and alive.