Mark Eller

Bewildering Stories biography

to Bewildering Stories bibliography

I decided I loved writing in seventh grade when my sister had me write two fiction stories for her eleventh-grade English class. Her instructor gave her two B’s, which presently makes me suspect he never read my stirring prose about two beavers lost in the woods, but I was ecstatic at the time.

Over the next twenty years I penned several novels in longhand and promptly threw them in a drawer because I was busy earning a living and raising a kid. I later lost those books during a move, but they live on in my memory.

A few years later I bought a computer and continued writing for my own pleasure. I co-wrote a book with a partner with the intent of publishing, and then discovered the meaning of the word “backup.” After installing a new hard drive, I found I had only thirty pages of the novel on disk, and so another fine book bit the dust. I started writing short stories and wrote another book, taking care to backup my files again and again and again.

I then married the world’s most perfect woman, Daneen. She had been published by Chicken Soup for the College Soul and by Woman’s Day. She also wrote for an on-line magazine when we first met on a writing site. She read one of my books, several of my short stories, and gave me a serious kick in the behind for not pursuing publication.

I have since completed a four-book science fiction series and a fantasy novel. I am presently working on a dark fantasy novel with my writing partner, Liz Van Zandt. Some of my short stories have appeared in Planet Relish, Scared Naked Magazine, and Tailspinner’s Tavern. Two others presently appear in Demon Minds. I am actively seeking an agent to represent my novels.

If you visit my home on any given day you will most likely find me sitting at my writing desk with a sun conure down my shirt and an African Grey chewing on my hair. Three children, two canaries, two finches, and a rabbit also own me.