“Writer” is harder to define, largely because the term does little to pin down the genre or style of the work. Many writers learn to specialize, and thus we have journalists, novelists, short story writers, non-fiction writers, screenwriters, and playwrights. Mark apparently missed the class suggesting these helpful divisions, and so he continues to try his hand at all of those forms, along with poetry, epistolary ruminations, and––thanks to modern technology––the dreaded blog.
Before becoming an at-home father, Mark worked as a zookeeper, a sound recordist, and as the technical director for a college theater. For several years, he made his living as a retail trainer for Borders Books and Music, where he assisted with store openings across the country, reasoning that while endless chain stores may be undesirable, no nation can ever have too many bookshops. In his spare time, he has been known to hike, teach college-level English and creative writing classes, and play with his children.
