For characters and a sense of conflict and drama, Mark draws on his decades-long career as a feature writer and magazine editor, his personal experience as a father, son, husband, ex-husband, friend, and lover, as well as his checkered past as a truck driver, land surveyor, tree surgeon, ditch digger, lead guitarist, and hitchhiker around the world on freelance story assignments.

Mark and his wife live in a little red house in an old mill town in New England.