Toxic

Mark A Justice

United States4 Books

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Mystery Humor Fantasy Horror

BIOGRAPHY
I grew up in Vermilion, Ohio, on the shores of beautiful Lake Erie. I still live in Ohio, just a few miles from those same beautiful shores. The pull of water keeps me close.
I was read to from infancy and could read before I went to kindergarten. I’ve always loved books, especially classic horror and science fiction.
I didn’t start writing until I was in high school, mostly poetry and short stories, naively thinking “Oh, I’ll be a writer. This is easy.” Haha!
I got a BFA in Creative Writing and continued writing poetry but always wanted to write long fiction. Years of writing poetry honed my use of imagery and concise phrasing, but sadly, I let fear of writing realistic dialogue keep me from the types of fiction I longed to write.
It wasn’t until 2012, when I started a no-budget movie-making company, Cyclops Movies, that I overcame that fear through writing scripts. I realized I could tell an entire story with nothing but dialogue, so after my third movie, I moved to writing long fiction.
I taught English and Popular culture for a few decades and decided it was time for a change, so here I am.
I started writing long fiction in 2018 and have published three books since, in wildly different genres. I wanted to let readers know from the get-go that I was going to write whatever made me happy, no matter what genre. Fortunately, a decent portion of my readers have told me that they’re willing to read what I write, so it’s exciting to have readers who are as adventurous as I plan to be as a writer.
I’m working on my fourth book now – Death’s Head. It’s an action/adventure/horror pulp, my homage to The Phantom.