A former weekly news editor whose work has been compared to Terry Pratchett’s has published his latest book of short stories.
Mark Stillman describes Wartworld And Other Quirky Short Stories as a “highly original collection of 15 short stories that are deliciously dark and horribly humorous”.
Mark, an award-winning reporter, previously worked for various local and national newspapers from 1985 to 2010.
During that time he helped co-launch Milton Keynes on Sunday, a predecessor to the MK News, in 1997 and continued working on MK News from when it was founded in 2002 until 2006.
The newspaper is now known as OneMK, and one of Mark’s stories is set in the Buckinghamshire town he used to served
Mark, who now lives in the East Riding of Yorkshire, has had his writing compared to Terry Pratchett by a Holderness Gazette review.
He said: “I don’t know about Terry Pratchett. But someone said that my imagination is so off-beat that it makes Pratchett look like the author of the shipping forecast. I think she meant it as a compliment.
“These are a mixture of parables and magical realism, adult fairytales and ghost stories with a twist.
“Hopefully, all are fizzing with pzazz and perception, absurdism and boundless imagination.”
The book is available through Keep Human Books and Amazon, priced at £6.50 plus P&P.
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One of the few upsides of the dreadful culling of newspaper talent over recent years is that some have gone on to express their creativity in ways that otherwise would never have occurred to them.
Instead of years diligently and perhaps too loyally pounding the newspaper beat, there are some who are enjoying a new lease of life with a weird and wonderful variety of projects like Mark’s.
I wish him every success. Initiative and drive deserves to be rewarded.
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