#ThisorThatThursday with Author Mack Little

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I’d like to welcome author Mack Little to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!


Things you need for your writing sessions:

Notebook with very good stock paper

Fountain Pen

Cigar

Glass of wine

Background noise (Music or TV)

Things you love about writing: I am a daydreamer. When I write, I give my daydreams form and they become something I can revisit whenever I like whether it be a specific part or relive the entire story.

Favorite music or song: I love Nick Cave. To me he is like the profit to the human soul. Right now the song that drives me crazy (in a good way) is Breathless by Nick Cave. I love Stromae also. His music can be poignant while at the same time be very danceable.

Something you wish you could do: I speak several languages I wish I could speak one or all of them fluently.

Something you like to do: I LOVE to travel. I go to Paris most regularly and I often use it as a spring board to visit other European countries. A few years ago I went to Scotland and I can’t wait to get back there especially since I am setting a portion of my novel there

Things you’d walk a mile for: Actually, I walk three miles every day a lot of the time just to hear my book on tape. Right now I’m listening to Bernard Cornwell’s Warrior of the Storm

Things you always put in your books: I always put historical narratives in my books that include little known facts

Favorite places you’ve been: Paris, France; Les Trois Moutiers, France; Scottish Highlands; Manzano Romano, Italy

Favorite books (or genre): My favorite genre appears to be historical which I tend to read the most of. Bernard Cornwall Last Kingdom series is especially well done. I also love Cormac McCarthy

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living):

Nicholas Cage

Ginacarlo Esposito

Nick Cave

About Mack:

Mack Little grew up in the Deep South and has accumulated a vibrant experience which she often emulates in her storytelling. Her studies in International Politics and service in the Army have given her impressive perspectives to bring to her novels new layers of intrigues and twists, which are all quite prevalent in her latest novel, Daughter of Hades.

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Laurel Peterson

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I’d like to welcome author and poet, Laurel Peterson, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: my Canon DSLR camera, which I finally learned to use during the pandemic; my fuzzy yellow Labrador Retriever who interrupts me all day to go outside and play Frisbee; a pair of knee-high, Victorian style, lace-up black boots; the hammered silver collar my parents bought me in Santa Fe

 Things you need to throw out: all that anxiety I’m carrying around; all the clothes I don’t really love but keep around “just in case”; the old files I’m too lazy to go through; those old plant pots in the gardening shed that belonged to the previous owner.

Things you need for your writing sessions: quiet; a window to look out of;

Things that hamper your writing: My husband’s “hey honey?”; inertia; my day job.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Having to promote your own work after it’s written.
Easiest thing about being a writer: There is no easy thing about being a writer!

Things you never want to run out of: Money. (Just sayin’.) Bird song. Books. Peace in my country. (I’ve got Ukraine on my mind.)

Things you wish you’d never bought: That set of fragile pink wineglasses. The can of chestnut puree. The pointy-toed brown cowboy boots.

Favorite foods: roasted chicken with gravy and mashed potatoes; chocolate cake with white icing; the transcendent plate of cheese served at the Grand Hotel de Solesmes in Solesmes, France (across from the Abbey that resurrected the Gregorian Chant); chicken Marsala at Pasquale’s Restaurant in Norwalk, CT, where my characters (and I) go for dinner!

Things that make you want to gag:  Sheep’s eyeballs (and the stories about people eating them); stories about eating ortolans (anything you have to cover your eyes to eat seems like a bad idea, morally and gustatorily); that skit my friend did in high school where she drank a glass full of toothpaste and spit. (Ugh, I can feel it now!)

Favorite beverage: Bombay gin martini, extra dry with an olive; English breakfast tea: it’s a tie!
Something that gives you a sour face: Rum

Things to say to an author: I really enjoyed _________________(Put specific detail from their book/blog/column here); I’m so interested in the _______ issue you’ve raised in your book. Can you talk more about that?

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: “You should have__________________.”; “Interesting outfit!”; “Your books are so cute”; “You are so sweet”—snicker.

Favorite places you’ve been: Delphi, Greece; Louie’s Backyard, Key West, Florida; Solesmes, France; Chinon, France; Paso Robles, California; Oxford, England; Antigua; the ferry from Athens to Santorini; the bar at Johnny Seesaw’s, 2002, Peru, VT

Places you never want to go to again: Middle school; that graduate writing class with the two women who couldn’t say anything nice about anyone; the office of the college president who was later accused of sexual harassment.

Favorite books (or genre): Ingrid Hill: Ursula, Under; Robert Penn Warren: All the King’s Men; Mark Doty: Atlantis; Pam Houston: Cowboys are My Weakness; Ben Lerner: Leaving the Atocha Station. I am a poet, so I love poetry, but mystery novels are my favorite genre.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Horror. Sorry all you Stephen King lovers out there, but one page and I wouldn’t ever sleep again.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): First, I do badly with famous people. They make me tongue tied. They would have to do all the talking. With that in mind: Meryl Streep; Lyle Lovett; Mark Knopfler; Sara Paretsky; Hilary Clinton; Colin Thubron; Pam Houston; Mark Doty; Kevin Young; Alice Waters; David Letterman
People you’d cancel dinner on: that jerk at my first job who snidely remarked that my lipstick matched my sweater; the Kardashians; my ex-department chair; the grad school professor who mistyped the address on my recommendation letter; that woman on the airplane who proclaimed loudly to her seatmate that no one was going to take away her bonus during the financial crisis of 2009.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Write a book, get it published, try to market it!
Something you chickened out from doing: hot air balloon—although it’s still on the table!

I’d love to hear your answers to these questions! You can reach me on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram—or check out my website.

About Laurel:

Laurel S. Peterson’s poetry has been published in many literary journals. She has published two poetry chapbooks, two full-length poetry collections, Do You Expect Your Art to Answer? and Daughter of Sky (Futurecycle Press) and two mystery novels, Shadow Notes and The Fallen (Woodhall Press). She is a writing professor, serves on the editorial board of Inkwell magazine, and was Norwalk, Connecticut’s, Poet Laureate from April 2016 – April 2019.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Richard Paolinelli

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I’d like to welcome author, Richard Paolinelli, to the blog for #ThiorThatThursday!

Things you love about writing: Creating new universes and telling stories that other people enjoy reading.

Things you hate about writing: I keep coming up with scenes while I’m driving or somewhere far away from my computer. But other than that there really isn’t anything else.

Things you never want to run out of: Dr. Pepper and new books to read.

Things you wish you’d never bought: A 1979 Ford Mustang that turned out to be a money pit.

Favorite foods: Pizza and chile rellenos.

Things that make you want to gag: Lutefisk and grits.

Favorite music or song: Voices Carry by Til Tuesday

Music that drives you crazy: Country music.

Favorite beverage: Dr. Pepper

Something that gives you a sour face: Any of the dark liquors. They all taste like paint thinner to me with the exception of Southern Comfort for some reason.

Something you’re really good at: Bowling

Something you’re really bad at: Painting

Something you wish you could do: Paint.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Photoshop.

Favorite places you’ve been: Ocean Shores, Washington and North Dakota.

Places you never want to go to again: Little Rock, Arkansas and the Antelope Valley of California.

Favorite books (or genre): Sci-fi.

Books you wouldn’t buy: Erotica and Romance

Best thing you’ve ever done: Married my wife.

Biggest mistake: Not going into computer programing in the mid-1980s.

About Richard:

Richard Paolinelli began his writing journey as a freelance writer in 1984 and gained his first fiction credit serving as the lead writer for the first two issues of the Elite Comics sci-fi/fantasy series, Seadragon. Following a 20-year newspaper writing career, he returned to his fiction writing roots and has published several novels, two non-fiction sports books, and has appeared in several anthologies. His novel, Escaping Infinity, was a 2017 Dragon Award Finalist for Best Sci-Fi novel. He also writes weekly short fiction on his website, www.scifiscribe.com. He is a huge proponent of the Superversive approach to fiction writing and publishing and his most recent novel, Galen's Way, is the first book in a multi-author Space Opera epic series.  

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://www.scifiscribe.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/richard.paolinelli

Newsletter (free e-book with new signup): https://dl.bookfunnel.com/hh7m9neuqz

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with J. M. Landels

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I’d like to welcome author, J. M. Landels, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday.

A few of your favorite things: I live for horses, I love swords, and I’d perish without good books.

Things you need to throw out: I really need to shed a lot of books. Especially old textbooks, and books I’ve read and will never read again.

Things you need for your writing sessions: I don’t know if need is the precisely it, but I do my best writing when using The Hour Stories writing cards by Dale Adams Segal.

Things that hamper your writing: Research rabbit holes are my nemesis. If I stop writing to look something up, I’m doomed. That’s why I do my best writing longhand, with my computer turned off.

Things you love about writing: Godlike power over my world, bwahahahahahhhhh!

Things you hate about writing: Tying up loose ends. When I finish a first draft, I have to go back and kill all sorts of lovely scenes that didn’t lead anywhere, patch-up plot-holes, and tidy up after myself. (I hate tidying IRL too, as anyone who’s ever seen my desk knows).

Hardest thing about being a writer: Marketing. I hate marketing.

Easiest thing about being a writer: It’s the most portable job in the world.

Favorite foods: I am quite attached to dark chocolate, and I love duck, whether it’s a lovely confit in cassoulet or pan-fried breasts (rare please). And either way, a good red wine to go with it.

Things that make you want to gag: Shellfish. Quite literally.

Favorite music or song: Too many to choose from, but my favourite bands are L7 and Spirit of the West, and my favourite songs from those two bands would be ‘Shove’ and ‘Venice is Sinking.’

Music that drives you crazy: Country.

Favorite smell: There is no better smell in the world than a horse’s breath.

Something that makes you hold your nose: Axe body spray

Something you’re really good at: Horseback riding. It’s one of the few things in life that just comes naturally to me (probably because I started so young).

Something you’re really bad at: Housework.

Favorite places you’ve been: I keep ending up in France. When I lived in the UK we’d holiday by taking the ferry to Calais or Boulogne, then picking a direction and driving. While we flirted with Switzerland, Germany, and Spain, we very seldom made it out of France. Since moving back to Canada, I’ve taken more holidays in France than any other country. It must be the food!

Places you never want to go to again: An office job.

Favorite books (or genre): It’s pretty hard to narrow down since I love so many genres. I tend to rotate my reading between fantasy, SF, contemporary/literary, and historical fiction. My favourite writers are Margaret Atwood, Barbara Kingsolver, and Susanna Clarke, so that’s a pretty broad spectrum.

Books you wouldn’t buy: It’s judging by the cover, I know, but I avoid fantasy with photograph-style covers. You know the ones, of some bare-chested dude or leather-clad babe, carrying an improbable set of weapons and/or abs.

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): A fabulous dinner party would include Jane Goodall, Volodomir Zelensky, Claudia Black, Taika Waititi, Margaret Atwood, and Jagmeet Singh.

People you’d cancel dinner on: Putin. The risk of poisoning is too high.

About J. M.:

JM Landels, writer and illustrator of the Allaigna's Song trilogy and co-founder of Pulp Literature Press  wears far too many hats. The strange mix of a degree in Mediaeval English Literature, a misspent youth fronting alternative punk bands Mad Seraphim and Stiff Bunnies, and a career as a childbirth educator and doula informs her work. These days, when she isn't writing, editing or drawing, she can be found heading up Academie Cavallo’s Mounted Combat Program at her farm in Langley, BC where she swings swords and rides horses for fun and profit.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://jmlandels.stiffbunnies.com/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jmlandels

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jm.landels

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jmlandels/

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Lori Duffy Foster

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I’d like to welcome Lori Duffy Foster to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Things you need for your writing sessions:

I need either peace and quiet or the din of a noisy café.

Things that hamper your writing:

I can’t write with music or when I am worried about the kids and what they are up to. The two oldest are in college now, but I need to know my twins are engaged in something when I am writing even though they are teenagers now. A bit of mommy guilt there.

Favorite foods:

I love rice (Jasmine, especially), dark chocolate and coffee (That’s a food, right?).

Things that make you want to gag:

I can’t stand seafood, eggplant or milk by itself. I have always wanted to like all three, but nope. Not happening.

Favorite beverage:

It’s a toss-up between coffee, unsweetened iced tea and dry, red wine. It depends on the day and the time of day. I love water, too, especially our well water.

Something that gives you a sour face:

Whiskey.

Favorite smell:

That’s easy. My favorite smells are in the Adirondacks of New York State, where I grew up: the scent of decaying leaves mixed with pine needles on the forest floor; the fishy odor of white foam in the Saranac River; the fragrance of balsam needles, picked fresh and stuffed into a small, handsewn sack.

Something that makes you hold your nose:

As a teenager, I waitressed at a former Howard Johnson’s Restaurant in Lake Placid, N.Y, where the cooks made fresh croutons daily. I don’t know what spice they used on that bread, but I couldn’t be near the kitchen when the croutons were cooking. Everyone else loved it. I’m gagging thinking about it.

Something you’re really good at:

Boggle.

Something you’re really bad at:

I am terrible at Mario Kart and pretty much every other video game.

Something you wish you could do:

I wish I could sing well, or at least sing “Happy Birthday” on key.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do:

Calculus. Why did I bother?

The last thing you ordered online:

I ordered bubble envelopes for mailing books to readers, green t-shirts for my giant twin boys to wear to school on St. Patrick’s Day, and a new candy thermometer for making maple syrup.

The last thing you regret buying:

I bought paper filters for maple syrup without reading the product details. I thought they were the quart-size filters I bought last year. They were smaller than coffee filters and totally useless. Anybody need tiny paper filters?

Things to say to an author:

I couldn’t put your book down. I recommended your book to my friends. I left a five-star review on every platform. My best friend is a super-rich movie producer and she wants to by the film right to all your books.

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:

There is a typo on page 153 of your already-published book.

Favorite books (or genre):

I love any book that rises above genre. Some of my favorites are A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, The Color Purple by Alice Walker, Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson, Defending Jacob by William Landay, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford and anything by Anita Shreve or Margaret Atwood.

Books you wouldn’t buy:

I wouldn’t buy books marketed as romance or westerns. I am sure there are plenty I would like, but I am not attracted to them as genres.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done:

I interviewed a murder suspect in his home, alone, without telling anyone where I was going. During the interview, he said something that convinced me he was guilty. I would have been more freaked out if I had known his girlfriend was buried in the backyard.

Something you chickened out from doing:

My editor once asked me to spend a few days at the county morgue, following the medical examiner around for a profile. Did you know the body bags are sometimes filled with maggots? Nope. I didn’t mind the fresh bodies on the scene of a crime or accident, but I was a coward when it came to bodies that had been dead for days, weeks or months before they came to the morgue.

About Lori:

Lori Duffy Foster is a former crime reporter who writes and lives in the hills of Northern Pennsylvania. She is author of A Dead Man’s Eyes, the first in the Lisa Jamison Mysteries Series and an Agatha Award nominee. Never Broken is book 2 in the series. Look for her debut thriller, Never Let Go, in December of 2022. Her short fiction has appeared in the journal Aethlon, and in the anthologies Short Story America and Childhood Regained. Her nonfiction has appeared in Healthy Living, Running Times, Literary Mama, Crimespree and Mountain Home magazines. Lori is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Historical Novel Society, International Thriller Writers and Pennwriters. She also sits on the board of the Knoxville (PA) Public Library.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: www.loriduffyfoster.com (https://loriduffyfoster.com/)

Faceook @loriduffyfosterauthor (https://www.facebook.com/loriduffyfosterauthor)

Instagram @lori.duffy.foster (https://www.instagram.com/lori.duffy.foster/)

Twitter @loriduffyfoster (https://twitter.com/loriduffyfoster)

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Smita Harish Jain

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I’d like to welcome my fellow Virginia is for Mysteries author, Smita Harish Jain, to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

A few of your favorite things: My kids, my cats, chocolate

Things you need to throw out: Essays I wrote in junior high school

Things you need for your writing sessions: One cup of coffee, two cats, complete quiet

Things that hamper your writing: The Internet, the Internet, the Internet

Things you love about writing: Telling stories, research, connecting with readers

Things you hate about writing: Deadlines, imposter syndrome, rejection

Favorite beverage: “Toddler coffee” (one cup of half-caff mixed with one cup of chocolate milk)

Something that gives you a sour face: Brussel sprouts

Last best thing you ate: A triple-layer chocolate fudge cake.

Last thing you regret eating: A grape, dark chocolate, and almond bar that sounded better than it tasted.

The last thing you ordered online: An Apple Pencil – now I can handwrite drafts more easily, which I sometimes like to do.

The last thing you regret buying: Yet another purse I’ll never use.

Things you always put in your stories: A twist.

Things you never put in your stories: Deus ex machina.

Things to say to an author: I love everything you write!

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: I could write, too, if I didn’t have a partner/kids/job/life …

Favorite books (or genre): Crime fiction (mystery, thriller, suspense)

Books you wouldn’t buy: Advice books from people who haven’t reached a certain age.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Spelunking

Something you chickened out from doing: Skydiving

About Smita:

Smita Harish Jain has short stories in several anthologies and magazines, including Mystery Writers of America, Akashic Noir, Chesapeake Crimes, Virginia is for Mysteries, and Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and several more coming out in 2022. When she’s not writing, she’s a university professor of communications and negotiation. She is a member of the Chesapeake and Central Virginia chapters of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Guppies, Crime Writers of Color, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society.

#ThisorThatThursday Interview with Maggie King

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I’d like to welcome Maggie King back to the blog for #ThisorThatThursday!

Favorite thing to do when you have free time: Sit on the porch and get lost in a mystery.

The thing you’ll always move to the bottom of your to do list: Cleaning out closets, drawers, and cabinets, especially if installing shelf paper is involved.

Things you need when you’re in your writing cave: Pen, paper, computer, good light, cat (but not on the keyboard!), and QUIET.

Things that distract you from writing: Lawn mowers, leaf blowers, noise, and my own need to find excuses for not writing.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Developing creative ideas into a story worth telling.

Easiest thing about being a writer: Coming up with creative ideas in the first place.

The coolest thing you’ve bought online: iPads. I’m absolutely tethered to mine. Glen still prefers his laptop and phone.

The thing you wished you’d never bought: A set of long and skinny measuring spoons that, per the ad, can slide right into spice jars. They do slide into spice jars, but not all the sizes fit into the square spice tins. As I typically purchase store brands, most of my spices are in the tins. So the spoons are semi-useful, but not worth the $15 price.

Something you wanted to be when you were a kid: An actor, then a nurse, then an English teacher. I did none of those things. I was a retail sales manager, a customer service supervisor, a programmer analyst, and a non-profit administrator.

Something you do that you never dreamed you’d do: Public speaking.

Something you wish you could do: Be a rock star.

Something you wish you’d never learned to do: Clean toilets.

Last best thing you ate: Linguine with marinara sauce.

Last thing you regret eating: An omelette with liver. I was traveling in Europe and recklessly ordered from a non-English menu. Traveling is all about adventure, right?

Things to say to an author: “When’s your next book coming out? I can hardly wait!”

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book:

New acquaintance: “So what do you do?”

Me: “I’m a mystery writer.”

NA: “Really? Do you know so-and-so? I just love him.” Hand over heart, swoons.

Me: “No, I haven’t had the pleasure.”

NA: stabs at her phone several times before thrusting it at me. “You really have to read him.” Takes back phone. “Well, nice meeting you. Gotta run.”

People you’d like to invite to dinner (living): Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Michelle Obama, Sara Paretsky, Louise Penny, Reese Witherspoon.

People you’d cancel dinner on: Dictators and dictator-wannabes (wouldn’t even have accepted their invites).

Best thing you’ve ever done: Marrying my True Love.

Biggest mistake: Turning down the permanent IT job at UVA (not that big a mistake).

The funniest thing to happen to you: One day I arrived at work wearing different colored shoes. I had two pairs of the same shoe style, one black, the other tan. I had to get to work very early and was always in a rush.

The most embarrassing thing to happen to you: It was the end of junior year of high school. My friend Marianne and I went to Howard Johnson’s, a popular hangout at the time. Brian Vitale stood in line waiting for a booth. Marianne and I went to the ladies’ room, where I went on and on about how cute Brian Vitale was, how I wanted to go out with him, yada, yada. A girl came out of a stall, washed her hands, and left. Marianne said, “I’m not sure, but I think she’s Brian Vitale’s girlfriend.” “Let’s hope not,” I said with a feeling of dread.

A glance at the line told us all we needed to know: Brian and the girl holding hands. We ducked into a booth that had just been vacated, hoping no one would notice. No such luck. The host shooed us away, and I slunk by BV and his lady love.

Thankfully, he had just graduated and I never saw him, or her, again.

The nicest thing a reader said to you: A woman at church approached me, a copy of Murder at the Moonshine Inn in hand. She opened the book to her favorite character description: “Her eyes looked like she’d wrung the blue color out of them.”

The craziest thing a reader said to you: I published my first short story in January of 2014 and my first full-length mystery in December, 2014 (a “book-ended” year). Most of my friends read the short story and looked forward to the novel. But one informed me that she would wait for the novel, as she didn’t read short stories. She was quite adamant about it.

About Maggie:

Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries, including the recently-released Laughing Can Kill You. Her short stories appear in the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, Death by Cupcake, and Murder by the Glass. Her story “The Last Laugh” appears in Virginia is for Mysteries III.

Maggie is a member of James River Writers, International Thriller Writers, Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a founding member of Sisters in Crime Central Virginia, where she manages the chapter’s Instagram account. In addition, she serves Sisters in Crime on the national level as a member of the Social Media team. Maggie graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a B.S. degree in Business Administration, and has worked as a software developer, customer service supervisor, and retail sales manager. She lives in Richmond, Virginia with her husband, Glen, and cats, Morris and Olive.

Let’s Be Social:

Website: http://www.maggieking.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaggieKingAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authormaggieking/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MaggieKingAuthr

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4758759.Maggie_King

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maggie-king

#ThisorThatThursday Author Interview with Mark Levenson

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I’d like to welcome author, Mark Levenson, to the blog for #ThisorThatThusday!

A few of your favorite things: My family, my books (that I own, not that I’ve written), my dog, family mementos including my grandfather’s racoon coat (circa 1925).

Things you need to throw out: Nothing. That gives me and my wife something to discuss passionately.

Things you need for your writing sessions: An endless supply of coffee, music

Things that hamper your writing: Anything that’s not coffee or music.

Things you love about writing: When I’m in the moment, it’s a great rush. When readers get what you’re trying to say.

Things you hate about writing: When they don’t, when something that’s important to me doesn’t engage the reader.

Hardest thing about being a writer: Motivation to keep going when the writing isn’t going well, or when life intrudes.

Easiest thing about being a writer: The freedom to write about absolutely anything.

Favorite foods: cholent (go ahead, ask), pecan pie, Brussels sprouts

Things that make you want to gag: starbucks frapo-crapo drinks

Favorite music or song: klezmer, ragtime (especially a tune called Solace), American songbook, classic rock

Music that drives you crazy: that stuff the kids are listening to

Something you’re really good at: puppet theatre, magic

Something you’re really bad at: drawing, team sports

Something you like to do: taking the dog for a long walk on Long Island Sound

Something you wish you’d never done: Wasted all that time not writing

Things to say to an author: What insight you have into the human condition!

Things to say to an author if you want to be fictionally killed off in their next book: That last one wasn’t quite your best, was it?

Favorite places you’ve been: Positano, Italy

Places you never want to go to again: Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Favorite books (or genre): Mystery (esp Trent’s Last Case), scifi/fantasy (esp Neil Gaiman), Yiddish (Sholem Aleichem)

Books you wouldn’t buy: self-help

Favorite things to do: Walking with the dog (per above), reading a great mystery story

Things you’d run through a fire or eat bugs to get out of doing: helping my wife with home improvement projects

Things that make you happy: my wife and kids, friends, theatre, the morning paper (a real paper, not a website),

Things that drive you crazy: stupidity

About Mark:

His Jewish-themed fantasy writing has won honors from The National Foundation for Jewish Culture and the American Jewish University, as well as a Union Internationale de la Marionnette-USA Citation of Excellence, an award founded by Jim Henson.

Levenson’s novel, The Hidden Saint (Level Best Books, February 2022), is the culmination of his more than 20 years of engagement with Jewish folklore. Levenson wrote The Return of the Golem and The Wise Men of Chelm for the stage, and adapted S. Ansky’s The Dybbuk for actors and puppets. His Jewish-themed short fiction credits include Mystery Weekly Magazine, Kindle Kzine, and Ami Magazine. He also blogs about Jewish fantasy for The Times of Israel.

Levenson began his career as a reporter for The Miami Herald and Dun’s Review. He has written for New York Magazine, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Forward, The Jewish Week, the Associated Press, Puppetry International, Stevens Magic, The American Kennel Club Gazette, The Oregonian, and others. He heads the marketing and PR firm The Levenson Company, whose clients have included Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, and Cigna. Levenson served as director of press relations for The Wharton School at Penn, and director of public relations for the Oregon Art Institute. He also served on the boards of the Jim Henson Foundation and the American Jewish Committee.

Perhaps Levenson’s interests in fantasy and folklore are in his blood; his paternal grandmother was a magician, “Lightfingers Ida,” whose tutelage sparked his lifelong interest in magic. His great-great-uncle (on his mother’s side) was a strongman in a Russian circus who could hold back galloping horses and survive sledgehammer blows by peasants who smashed rocks on his chest, except for the last time.

Although Levenson’s physique gives no hint of this lineage, it was a circus sideshow that sparked another lifelong interest, that of puppetry. Levenson writes for and about puppet theatre, was guest curator and catalog author for the exhibition “Winners’ Circle” at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, and a contributor to the World Encyclopedia of Puppetry. He was the featured Punch & Judy performer at the Philadelphia festival marking the 250th anniversary of the first performance of that classic puppet play in America.

Levenson was graduated from Cornell University. He and his family (including their adorable pup Roee) live in Westchester County, New York.

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