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Subscriber Freebie: Hell To Pay – A House in the Woods 1 & 2
Prepare to scream. “Hell to Pay: A House in the Woods 1 & 2” are free for subscribers to my site, and “Devil’s Wood” is coming soon. I’ll be giving away 25 free Kindle editions to the new book, so subscribe now if you haven’t yet. Epub and PDF via BookFunnel. -
Welcome to My World
I’ve been telling stories for as long as I can remember. A surprising number of them have made it into print—fifteen novels so far, which still surprises me a little when I say it out loud. I live in the woods nears Stockton, New Jersey, a small borough on the Delaware River. The kind of place that inspires mysteries, thrillers and horror in the towns and countryside.
My longest-running series is The Kyle Callahan Mysteries—character-driven, funny in places, dark in others, and rooted in lives you might never expect to be troubled by murder. I also write the Marshall James Thrillers series and the Maggie Dahl Mysteries, each with their own voice and world.
More recently I’ve been working in horror and psychological thriller—territory I find endlessly compelling. And my forthcoming (October, 2026) Devil’s Wood is a supernatural thriller set in nearby Lambertville, drawing on modern small town life and ancient horror.
Through Your Write Path, I offer workshops and coaching for writers at every stage—beginners who’ve never shown anyone their work, experienced writers who’ve hit a wall, people who want to tell the story of their own lives. “Every life is a story, and each of us is the storyteller.”
My imprint Vivid Press publishes annotated editions of public domain classics—recent titles include Carmilla, The Willows, and Gaston Leroux’s The Mystery of the Yellow Room. Stories matter.
Look around, you’ll find much more here, and thanks for stopping by. – Mark
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Fearsome Fiction Podcast: The Devil’s Wood Journal Begins
A walking stick. A skull. A bullet. A curse.
Buried for in the Pennsylvania woods, something has been waiting. When a young boy uncovers what’s been hidden beneath the leaves, he sets loose a curse that’s about to find its way back into the world — and into the hands of a man who has no idea what he’s just brought home.
Enter the Devil’s Wood.
Two new entries drop every week, exclusively on the Fearsome Fiction Podcast — subscribe so you don’t miss the story as it unfolds.
Discover more of the mythology, characters, and world of Devil’s Wood at TheDevilsWood.com
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True Crime Tuesdays on the Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Belle Gunness, The Black Widow of La Porte
It’s another True Crime Tuesdays on Fearsome Fiction. This episode heads back to the turn of the last century, to a farmhouse at the end of a quiet road in La Porte, Indiana — where a Norwegian immigrant named Belle Gunness placed lonely-hearts ads in the newspaper, invited her suitors to bring their savings and “come prepared to stay forever,” and made sure they never left. This is the story of the Black Widow of La Porte.
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The Twist Podcast 332: Yes-o for Yasso, Food Show Fanatics, and Kentucky Fried Karma
In this week’s show Mark extolls the virtues of Yasso’s frozen Greek yogurt—creamy, low-cal, and still delicious. Then we confess to a food show addiction, and why people can’t stop watching contestants cook, bake, careen around in food trucks and compete on screen. Plus: the Twist takes a look at the end of Mitch McConnell’s long, dubious career.
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The Twist Podcast 331: America Turns 250, the Cherry Tree Murders, and Profanity Goes Mainstream
This week your co-hosts dig into the significance of America’s semiquincentennial and what it means to celebrate a milestone birthday in a country that feels as divided as it does hopeful. Then it’s on to Washington, DC, where the beloved cherry trees are threatened by another pointless golf course. And finally we regret the rise of profanity in public life and wonder when politicians and TV pundits stopped minding their language.
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Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Bram Stoker’s Classic ‘The Judge’s House
This week on Fearsome Fiction we’re sharing a rare gem. “The Judge’s House” buy Bram Stoker follows Malcolm Malcolmson, a student who rents a remote, cheap old house in the fictional town of Benchurch to study for exams in isolation. Locals warn him the house has a bad reputation, but he ignores them and moves in.
The house once belonged to a notoriously cruel hanging judge. As Malcolmson settles in, he notices strange things: a persistent rat that keeps drawing his eye to an old alarm bell rope, and an oppressive sense of being watched. Eventually he realizes there’s a chair in the room that seems to move on its own toward the fireplace whenever his attention lapses.
The story builds toward a chilling climax involving the judge’s portrait, the bell rope, and Malcolmson’s fate. It’s a classic “isolated scholar in a cursed house” setup that plays well for a horror reading, with Stoker’s knack for slow dread. And now, The Judge’s House.
