Mark West's Biography

2009-09-04T14:29:00.004+01:00

I was born in Kettering, Northants in 1969. My family originally lived in Corby but then moved to Rothwell, where I spent my formative years and which serves as the basis for my fictional town of Gaffney. My wife Alison and I lived in Kettering for ten years but moved to Rothwell in 2006 when our son, Matthew, was born.

I grew up reading The Three Investigators, which gave me a taste for spooky tales and I discovered horror fiction when my Dad took me into a 2nd hand bookshop and I picked up Stephen King’s “‘Salem’s Lot”.

I began to write stories (extremely short ones, featuring a character called Detective West) whilst in junior school and never really stopped. Later, I moved into producing photo-stories where my ambition often exceeded my resources (especially in terms of special effects!).

I wrote my first novel in 1991, a thriller that could perhaps best be called a brave failure. I then wrote two contemporary drama novels, “The Loved One” in 1992 and “Alice” in 1994, the latter being submitted to - and rejected by - a couple of major publishers.

Editing "The Loved One" at Nick's place, RAF Wildenrath, December 1992

I wrote a collection (grandly named “Strange Tales”) of short horror stories from 1987 to 1989 of which, unfortunately, only the first drafts remain. I began to write short horror again in 1998, when I discovered the small press and I was lucky enough to sell quite a few of the stories.

In September 2001, I completed the first draft of my horror novel, In The Rain With The Dead. After going through four drafts, it was published by Pendragon Press in October 2005.

Very proud, holding the first printed copy of "In The Rain With The Dead" - FantasyCon, Birmingham, September 2005

In October 2003, Rainfall Books published my first collection of short fiction, aptly titled Strange Tales. Alison & I went to London for the launch and the book was, thankfully, very successful for Rainfall (which really pleased me).

During 2004, I wrote my first 'short-novel' (I was aiming for a novella), Conjure, which Rainfall Books published in September 2009.

In 2008, having suffered an awful writers block, I was contacted by Gary McMahon to contribute a novelette to a collection, which was called “We Fade To Grey”. What resulted was my story “The Mill”, which I was very proud of and which garnered me as much attention and praise as almost anything I’d done in the past. The collection was nominated for a British Fantasy Society Award in 2009.

In addition to the writing, I’ve been lucky enough to get involved in the design work for my books. To date, I’ve created the cover art for Strange Tales, In The Rain With The Dead and We Fade To Grey. In addition to the cover art for Conjure, I also produced seven interior illustrations.

Away from writing, I like to spend as much time with my son as I can, I enjoy reading (across genres), watching films, walking (where I often work out ideas with my long suffering wife) and wandering around bookshops. And train stations now, given Matthew’s great love of Thomas The Tank Engine!

I am a member of the British Fantasy Society, The Terror Scribes and The Underside Community.

What do I like ? Well, things can vary but, generally, this is the list:
Favourite film is “Star Wars: A New Hope”
Favourite book is “Boy’s Life” by Robert McCammon
Favourite short story is “Later” by Michael Marshall Smith or “The Mist” by Stephen King
Favourite song is “Mystify” by INXS

If you want to contact Mark, you can email him at:

m.west31@btinternet.com

biography

Mark West's Biography