Author Spotlight: Mark Barry
06/23/2013
I would like to take a moment to thank Mary Ann Bernal, author, blogger, and all around world's bestest buddy for this wonderful guest post. I've been really busy lately and it was super nice of her to take time form her insanely busy schedule to interview Mark Barry and share it with us.
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a writer, first and foremost, and live in the Midlands of the UK, in the middle of Sherwood Forest. I love horse racing, Notts County FC, heavy metal and my family. I have a sixteen-year old-son, Matt. I’ve written six books. When I grow up, I want to be a pub singer called Mike Champagne.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Definitely not when I was a kid! I was a reader then and didn’t even write a diary. Too busy playing. I wrote my first novel when I was twenty, to see whether I could do it - only for it to be totally panned by a friend of mine, so with the exception of several porn stories I sold to “Knave” magazine in 1986, I didn’t write again for another twenty three years.
What made you choose to write in the thriller genre and where did the ideas come from for The Ritual?
Massive horror novel fan when I was young. Wheatley, King, Straub, Herbert (RIP), Sharman, Campbell Tryon all those great writers monopolised my reading time. Then, I stopped, roughly about the time of Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood”. I read one of those and thought, nah, this is bollocks (I’m not a Barker fan at all), and stopped reading the genre.
I wrote The Ritual in a fit of nostalgia during the writing binge, which fuelled Green Wizard Publishing. I guess I was laying the ghosts of that first critically panned novel to rest, if we’re getting Jungian about things! I even included one of the characters from that first novel in The Ritual.
With regards to The Ritual, did you work with an outline, or just write?
Unless you count my 24-hour internal plot meetings (I become obsessed with a book), I’m the ultimate pantser. Never written a plot outline in my life. I also write things out of order, which some writers don’t understand. The Ritual, whose ending has pissed off many people, is based on a famous old horror film and that came first: I knew the ending before I knew the beginning.
Your company, Green Wizard Publishing, has recently published an anthology. What can you tell us about Reality Bites?
Reality Bites is twelve authors strutting their stuff on the subject of Hope from Despair. The writing is top notch and there are twelve top short stories. Death, recovery from domestic abuse, rape, grieving, child abuse and horrific food addiction are just some of the topics.
If you had to sum Reality Bites up in 30 or less words, what would you say?
Reality writing – fiction, “faction” and life representation – of the highest order written by some of the most talented independently published authors operating today.
Where can fans of Mark Barry find out more?
Author Database: http://www.authorsdb.com/authors-directory/1438-mark-barry
Green Wizard Publishing (Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Wizard-Publishing/351826461533731?ref=hl
Twitter Handle: @greenwizard62
Green Wizard Blog
http://greenwizardcarla.blogspot.co.uk/
Amazon Links:
US
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Barry/e/B008479RWI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Barry/e/B008479RWI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
Tell us a little about yourself.
I’m a writer, first and foremost, and live in the Midlands of the UK, in the middle of Sherwood Forest. I love horse racing, Notts County FC, heavy metal and my family. I have a sixteen-year old-son, Matt. I’ve written six books. When I grow up, I want to be a pub singer called Mike Champagne.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?
Definitely not when I was a kid! I was a reader then and didn’t even write a diary. Too busy playing. I wrote my first novel when I was twenty, to see whether I could do it - only for it to be totally panned by a friend of mine, so with the exception of several porn stories I sold to “Knave” magazine in 1986, I didn’t write again for another twenty three years.
What made you choose to write in the thriller genre and where did the ideas come from for The Ritual?
Massive horror novel fan when I was young. Wheatley, King, Straub, Herbert (RIP), Sharman, Campbell Tryon all those great writers monopolised my reading time. Then, I stopped, roughly about the time of Clive Barker’s “Books of Blood”. I read one of those and thought, nah, this is bollocks (I’m not a Barker fan at all), and stopped reading the genre.
I wrote The Ritual in a fit of nostalgia during the writing binge, which fuelled Green Wizard Publishing. I guess I was laying the ghosts of that first critically panned novel to rest, if we’re getting Jungian about things! I even included one of the characters from that first novel in The Ritual.
With regards to The Ritual, did you work with an outline, or just write?
Unless you count my 24-hour internal plot meetings (I become obsessed with a book), I’m the ultimate pantser. Never written a plot outline in my life. I also write things out of order, which some writers don’t understand. The Ritual, whose ending has pissed off many people, is based on a famous old horror film and that came first: I knew the ending before I knew the beginning.
Your company, Green Wizard Publishing, has recently published an anthology. What can you tell us about Reality Bites?
Reality Bites is twelve authors strutting their stuff on the subject of Hope from Despair. The writing is top notch and there are twelve top short stories. Death, recovery from domestic abuse, rape, grieving, child abuse and horrific food addiction are just some of the topics.
If you had to sum Reality Bites up in 30 or less words, what would you say?
Reality writing – fiction, “faction” and life representation – of the highest order written by some of the most talented independently published authors operating today.
Where can fans of Mark Barry find out more?
Author Database: http://www.authorsdb.com/authors-directory/1438-mark-barry
Green Wizard Publishing (Facebook)
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Green-Wizard-Publishing/351826461533731?ref=hl
Twitter Handle: @greenwizard62
Green Wizard Blog
http://greenwizardcarla.blogspot.co.uk/
Amazon Links:
US
http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Barry/e/B008479RWI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1
UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mark-Barry/e/B008479RWI/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1
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