About

Mark West was born in Kettering, Northants in 1969 and grew up in nearby Rothwell, which serves as the basis for his fictional town of Gaffney.  He's married to Alison and they have a son called Matthew (who's more often than not referred to as Dude).

Editing "The Loved One", December 1992

Mark grew up reading The Three Investigators, discovered horror in the early 80s with Stephen King’s ’Salem’s Lot and has been an enthusiastic fan of the genre ever since.  He began writing stories (about Detective West, when he wasn’t trying to expand the Star Wars universe) in junior school and never really stopped.  He wrote his first novel (a thriller he's since called 'a brave failure') in 1991 and followed it with two contemporary dramas - The Loved One in 1992 and Alice in 1994, the latter of which was rejected by several major publishers.

Mark wrote a collection (grandly named Strange Tales) of short horror stories from 1987 to 1989 and began writing in the genre again in 1998, when he discovered the small press.  Since then, he's had over ninety short stories published, two collections (the aptly titled Strange Tales in 2003 from Rainfall Books and Things We Leave Behind in 2017, from Dark Minds Press), two novels (In The Rain With The Dead from Pendragon Press in 2005 and Conjure from Rainfall Books in 2009), a novelette (The Mill, originally in the We Fade To Grey anthology from Pendragon Press, 2008), a chapbook (What Gets Left Behind from Spectral Press, 2012), four novellas (Drive from Pendragon Press in 2014, which was nominated for a British Fantasy Award - it was republished by Gritfiction in 2018, The Lost Film, also from Pendragon Press, in 2015, The Factory, from Hersham Horror Books in 2016 and Polly, from Stormblade Productions in 2017).  Both of the novels and The Mill have been reprinted in digital and print editions by Greyhart Press. PenMan Press released 'special edition's (digital and print) of Strange Tales in 2013 and The Exercise in 2021 and also published digital-only versions of What Gets Left Behind in 2015, The Goblin Glass and Mr Stix (both 2019).

In 2022, The Book Folks began to publish Mark's mainstream thrillers novel. The first of these, Don't Go Back was published in February 2022 and followed by Only Watching You (March 2022), The Hunter's Quarry (July 2022) and Still Waters Run (November 2022). More thrillers are forthcoming.

With Dude and Sheepy, August 2010

In addition to writing, Mark's been involved with book cover design work for various publishers, has edited a couple of anthologies and also created some book trailers (via Rude Dude Films), which can be viewed on his YouTube channel here.  He also created and curated the BFS-Award nominated King For A Year blog, featuring 64 works by Stephen King reviewed by 56 readers, writers and fans over twelve months in 2015.

Away from writing, he reads widely across genres, watches films and takes a lot of photographs.  Following a heart attack in 2014 (which led to him losing a lot of weight and starting a fitness regime - which is detailed here), he does as much walking as possible (at least 2 miles a day), still enjoys getting lost in bookshops and - the benefit of having a young son - is a crack shot with a Nerf gun!

Mark is a member of the British Fantasy Society, The Crime Writers Association, The Northampton SF Writers Group, The Inner Circle, The Crusty Exterior (which he co-founded), The Fireball Club and The Terror Scribes.

You can contact Mark by email, at m.west31@btinternet.com and he can also be found on Twitter as @MarkEWest

In Covent Garden, August 2015, with Dude