What is horror? Why is horror so popular? Why is it necessary? Ask the hundreds of writers and movie makers in the genre and you'll probably get hundreds of answers, all of them different. Ask the fans and you'll get more of the same. In the X-Files, Agent Mulder searches tirelessly for the truth. What if there is no truth?

During the eighties and early nineties horror fiction lost some of the momentum it had attained in the seventies. Publishers eager to cash in on the success of the few so called, Brand-Name-Authors glutted the market with mostly bland imitations. No longer wanting to be pigeonholed, most of these Brand-Name-Authors stopped using the label, "Horror Writer," altogether and settled instead for labels that were more politically correct; fantasist, or writer of thrillers or the fantastic. You can't blame them. Like Rodney Dangerfield, horror writers have never gotten any respect.

The literary establishment has always looked with disdain upon the horror genre in general even though some of its purveyors have been responsible for elevating literature to its greatest heights. Lovecraft and Poe both died broke. And what about Robert Lewis Stevenson? Was he a horror writer? Was Hawthorne a horror writer? How about James Joyce or J.D. Salinger? Is horror only about things that go bump in the night? I don't think so. The real world is much more terrifying than Freddy Krueger and Michael Myers put together.

Few of us actually believed that men with twisted ideologies would fly jetliners into skyscrapers even though writers of the fantastic had been predicting such atrocities for years. It is very difficult to articulate that tragedy and imagine any fiction coming close. You see, to me this is the essence of horror. Something bad is going to happen. Trust me. It is.

In recent years publishers seemed to have cleaned their closets and horror fiction has undergone a renaissance of sorts. There are fewer titles being offered but the quality is better. The advent of print-on-demand, or POD, has seen the rise of a new kind of author; one who is able to control his own destiny. Arguably, some of the stuff being self-published is bland and lifeless, but there are gems among the stacks. I believe that horror fiction, for the most part, has once again become visceral, which is to say, it is about emotion. It forces us to confront the reflection in the mirror, to examine our deepest and most profound fears, one of which is the inevitability of the end. Will death be enlightening? Will it be terrifying? Will it be painful? Will we be transported to paradise or perdition? Why does the end of our story remain such a daunting mystery? This question has plagued man since he first discovered within himself the capacity to pose questions, and, it is the essence of all horror fiction. Lacking an end to our story we put our imaginations to work and grasp for clues, hoping that along the way we might accidentally discover its secrets. Long ago ancient man decided to make up his own stories in an attempt to understand God's plan and perhaps finish His tale. From those stories great myths and important religions were born. And from that beginning the horror story first made its appearance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Please, allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mark Edward Hall. I am a man who tells stories. I was born in Brunswick, Maine in 1948. We moved a lot when I was young and eventually ended up in the small town of Bowdoinham where I attended eighth grade and then went on to Brunswick High School. We moved to Bowdoinham from the small town of Durham where I attended school with, yes, you guessed it, (he was a year ahead of me, in my sister's class) the one and only master of the macabre, Stephen King. Strange about Durham, Maine. Maybe something ancient and dreadful leached into the soil there because I believe Chris Chesley, another old school friend from Durham, is also a teller of weird tales.

I grew up in a musical family. My father would let me play along while he and his music buddies played at weekend gigs and gatherings. I learned to play guitar by watching their fingers. The Beatles and the Stones happened and I fell in love with rock and roll and joined my first band as a singer and guitar player at the age of fifteen. At sixteen I formed a family band with my brother Gary on bass and my cousin John on rhythm.
My love for fiction and especially my love of anything to do with the macabre always burned in me, however. My grandmother, who lived with us during my formative years, was a psychic, a medium and a great story teller. I sat mesmerized hours on end while she told tales - most of which she professed were true - of the supernatural.

I began reading at a young age and became a voracious consumer of anything that went bump in the night. I read Weird Tales and Dracula and I am Legend, I watched The Twilight Zone and went to see all the Poe-Pictures. You get the drift. I loved the stuff. But reading and movies haven't been my only excursions into the unknown. I've lived in several haunted houses, have had a multitude of psychic experiences that I won't mention here, and believe that as a child I was kidnapped by aliens. (There's a time-debt thing that I just can't seem to get past.)

Anyway, like my grandmother, I suppose it was inevitable that I become a storyteller. As a child I made them up by the dozen and told them to anyone who would listen. Mostly the scary, off-the-wall stuff, of course.

I decided to become a novelist at the tender age of eighteen. After several false starts the United States Government decided they wanted me, along with about a million other guys. I served in the army during the Viet Nam War. I married during that stint and notions of becoming a writer were put on hold. After the army I continued with my music career, playing in many bands as well as working as a soloist. During the next twenty years I worked at a variety of jobs but always played music professionally. In that time I wrote and performed my own songs and was the owner of a recording studio.

But I never gave up the dream. After settling in Richmond, Maine with my wife Sheila I began to seriously consider my life and where I wanted to go with the rest of it. I'm a talented guy, I'll admit it. I've done lots of things and I will always continue to do lots of things. It's in my nature. But the one thing that burned in me, that had always burned in me, was the desire to tell stories. So, I started from scratch at about the age of forty and began writing novels. Part time, of course. I soon discovered that it was my true calling. I'd just succumbed to it a little later than most, that's all.

I have written five novels plus about 30 short stories and several novellas. But I didn't try to publish my novels until recently. For me, the act of creating was the real high. I did publish one short story in 1995, Wasps, which will appear sometime this year as part of a collection entitled, Into the Night.

Then the internet happened, and along with it, print-on-demand technology, the traditional publisher's nightmare. So, being the kind of guy I am I decided to circumvent that traditional route and go it alone. And in so doing I discovered that I was not alone. Not by a long shot. I soon realized that some of my favorite authors have decided to take their careers into their own hands, forego the traditional route, and self-publish their books.

The Lost Village is my first offering. I hope you like it. In any event it has been a wonderfully whole and satisfying feeling to first write it, and then to make that giant leap and share my work, my secret passion, with all who are willing to take a chance on an unknown old rock 'n roller with a dream.

This site has a message board. If you get the chance, let me know what you think of my book. I will answer as many emails as possible.

I plan on publishing perhaps two more books in 2003 thru 2004, my collection of short stories (which includes two novellas) and a novel entitled Soul Thief. I'm still brushing up my magnum opus which I have titled Angel Island. It's an epic that takes place in two worlds. I'm hoping to publish it in late 2004 or early 2005. And yes, there are more to come. Always more stories. Keep looking for them. Information about them will be posted on this site first.

Love and sweet dreams,

Mark