Mark Hurst

I didn’t think of myself as a writer until a kind professor at the University of Utah told me I was. He inspired me to pursue writing, so I did. First as a journalist, writing the terse style of television news. Then to Washington D.C. writing mostly unimportant press releases for a U.S. Senator. The next 35 years or so I wrote and produced hundreds of thirty and sixty second television and radio commercials, print ads, and anything we thought would help clients in our ad agency sell more products.

Four years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and suddenly, I had plenty of time to get serious about writing. The other choice was to wallow in the self-pity of the unexpected. I struggled with my first novel, a work of historic fiction, but, in the end, I felt good about it.

Then, after gathering up a pile of post-it notes I’d collected over the years, I began putting some thoughts on paper, and I almost immediately found my theme and my voice. It became a collection of missives and musings, four non-fiction books in all, about finding joy in anything, no matter what, no matter how bad you think things are.

I ended up finding joy in writing about finding joy.

Here are the titles, all available on Amazon:

Ought 2

Pandemic, Penguin Poop, and Pond Scum

Milestones and Millstones

Still the Rivers Flowed