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Welcome to My World
I’ve been telling stories for as long as I can remember. A surprising number of them have made it into print—fifteen novels so far, which still surprises me a little when I say it out loud. I live in the woods nears Stockton, New Jersey, a small borough on the Delaware River. The kind of place that inspires mysteries, thrillers and horror in the towns and countryside.
My longest-running series is The Kyle Callahan Mysteries—character-driven, funny in places, dark in others, and rooted in lives you might never expect to be troubled by murder. I also write the Marshall James Thrillers series and the Maggie Dahl Mysteries, each with their own voice and world.
More recently I’ve been working in horror and psychological thriller—territory I find endlessly compelling. And my forthcoming (September, 2026) Devil’s Wood is a supernatural thriller set in nearby Lambertville, drawing on modern small town life and ancient horror.
Through Your Write Path, I offer workshops and coaching for writers at every stage—beginners who’ve never shown anyone their work, experienced writers who’ve hit a wall, people who want to tell the story of their own lives. “Every life is a story, and each of us is the storyteller.”
My imprint Vivid Press publishes annotated editions of public domain classics—recent titles include Carmilla, The Willows, and Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Stories matter.
Look around, you’ll find much more here, and thanks for stopping by. – Mark
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Twist Podcast 333: Laid Back in Lancaster, Chocolate Pretzel Paradise, and Prance Reviews ‘The Odyssey’
This week Mark and Rick kick back and slow it down a look at Mark’s trip to Lancaster, PA—Pennsylvania Dutch Country and, as it turns out, the self-proclaimed pretzel capital of America. They talk Amish countryside charm, why a chocolate pretzel from the source hits different, and what makes Lancaster a perfect getaway.
Then it’s time for Prance to turn the lens on Homer’s classic and current culture war lighting rod. Does the epic hold up? Does Odysseus deserve the hype? Prance has thoughts.
Laid back vibes, small-town charm, and one very opinionated take on ancient Greek literature—it’s all here on episode 333 of The Twist.
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My Article ‘Beyond the Page Margins: How Writers Can Expand Our Reach, Impact & Income’ Featured in Mystery Writers of America Newsletter
I was asked to write an article for the Mystery Writers of America’s newsletter, The 3rd Degree. It’s out, and I’m so pleased. It’s about how writers can take our experience and skills and offer them ‘beyond the page margins,’ from workshops to one-on-one coaching. You can read the entire newsletter here.
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Our New ‘Welcome to the Twist Podcast’ YouTube Video
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Cover Reveal for Devil’s Wood
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True Crime Tuesdays on the Fearsome Fiction Podcast: The Phantom Barber of Pascagoula—A Hair-Raising Unsolved Crime
This week’s case comes with an element of dark humor, although nothing’s funny about a stranger breaking into people’s homes. Nobody died in this story. Nobody was even hurt, not at first. What we’ve got instead is something stranger—a criminal whose weapon of choice was a pair of scissors, whose target wasn’t a wallet or a life, but his victim’s hair. And for one summer in 1942, an entire Mississippi town lived in terror of a man who broke into bedrooms in the dead of night for no reason anyone could explain. And there’s more: even after an arrest and a conviction, people still aren’t sure the right man ever paid for it.
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Fearsome Fiction Podcast: The Devil’s Wood Journal Entry 2
The Devi’s Wood Journal continues. A retreat for seekers. Seven strangers, sorted into two cabins by an unseen host known only as “Your Guide.” A note on every pillow promising freedom—from stress, from obligation, from the illusions we build for ourselves.
Our narrator arrives last, uncertain why they were chosen, uncertain what “occult” even means beyond the word’s true root: hidden, concealed, not readily seen. What begins as a fireside ghost story from a stranger named Phillip becomes something else entirely by the time the night is over—and it’s only the first of three days that some at the retreat believe may be their last.
