In the age of social media, it seems almost superfluous to write a bio for your own website. Why bother when there are Wikipedia and Facebook? On the other hand, each of these outlets serves a slightly different purpose. This website is, more than anything else out there, the Marshall Show: literally and always, it’s all about me.
My hometown is Greenville, North Carolina. That’s the upper American South, for those not familiar with US geography. Greenville is a college town in the eastern part of the state: somewhat progressive considering its location, but that’s not saying much. I was a kid in the 70s and a teen in the 80s, which puts me squarely in Generation X. I inherited all the doubt and disconnect that accompany my generation. The divorced parents, the decline of the US, the advent of HIV/AIDS, the Reagan White House, the first Gulf War, the proliferation of the Internet and IT… these things formed the backdrop to my coming-of-age.
Early on, I knew writing would be a big part of my life. From about the third grade, I was writing short stories one after another. I think I discovered Writer’s Digest in high school. I might have started submitting short stories to various markets in college, but the details are murky now. It’s equally hard to say when I wrote my first novel, because I bought those lined, hardbound notebooks and filled them up, one after another. Long story short: I’ve been writing for most of my life. There were years of rejection letters before I made my first sale back in the late 90s.
At university, I didn’t major in English because I was afraid I’d get sick of fiction if I were reading and writing it out of academic obligation. It made sense at the time. I chose to study psychology instead, mainly as an alternative to the therapy I needed and wasn’t getting, and had vague plans to pursue a PhD. Life intervened again: I met a Deaf guy in one of my classes and was motivated to study American Sign Language. This is how I became an interpreter. I had a pretty good 15-year run, attaining national certification through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, freelancing as well as working for various agencies, schools, and organizations.
In 2004, after a couple of years of losses, horrors, and reversals, I decided the time had come to change careers and countries. I accepted a job teaching at a private middle school in the suburbs of Seoul. Living in Korea was tough, but it allowed me to make a number of positive changes in my life. After three years there, I relocated to Hong Kong, which is where I plan to stay for the medium-to-long term. I’m on the faculty of an institute of higher edumacation, and I like the city very much (most of the time). It agrees with me.
My novel The Concrete Sky (2003) came about because of the frustrations of being a struggling GenXer in the urban US, not really fitting in anywhere, and not liking the writing on the wall. I’d written other novels, and fragments of novels, before it. It’s just as well these amateurish messes never saw the light of day. When I sold TCS back in 2001, though, everything changed. My short stories started selling one right after another. Another publisher approached me about doing my second book with them, and that’s how my collection Black Shapes in a Darkened Room came to be published (in 2004).
I wrote another novel called Invisible Hands after The Concrete Sky. There’s something about those second books. Sometimes they just need to be put out of their misery.
My next novel, An Ideal for Living, happened during the aforementioned couple of years of losses, horrors, and reversals. My second publisher accepted it with enthusiasm, but for various reasons the book remained in the pipeline for three years. Despite repeated assurances that it was going to be published, it was dropped – along with the novel I wrote next, Bitter Orange – in early 2009. An Ideal for Living has now been released by Lethe Press, which will also be issuing reprints of The Concrete Sky and Black Shapes in a Darkened Room.
I’ve compiled a second short story collection, too: The Infernal Republic. It was accepted by one small press in late 2008, then dropped because the publisher was overcommitted. It was accepted by another in early 2009, but toward the end of the year I chose to terminate that agreement. I expect The Infernal Republic and Bitter Orange to be published in 2011 and 2013, respectively, although things can and do change.
I have slowly been making progress on a few new projects. I’ve managed to sell a few new short stories in the last couple of years, but I’ve been too preoccupied with grad school to devote much time to writing. With that out of the way, I look forward to turning my attention back to where it belongs: writing and publishing. Being a superstitious Southerner, I won’t comment further on what I’m doing, because it could mortally jinx the unfinished stories. For now, let’s just say that with a little luck, the several-year lacuna in my publishing record is not going to happen again. I’m taking some interesting steps to make sure of it. *knock on wood* In the meantime, thanks for reading.
Hong Kong
April 2010
My hometown is Greenville, North Carolina. That’s the upper American South, for those not familiar with US geography. Greenville is a college town in the eastern part of the state: somewhat progressive considering its location, but that’s not saying much. I was a kid in the 70s and a teen in the 80s, which puts me squarely in Generation X. I inherited all the doubt and disconnect that accompany my generation. The divorced parents, the decline of the US, the advent of HIV/AIDS, the Reagan White House, the first Gulf War, the proliferation of the Internet and IT… these things formed the backdrop to my coming-of-age.
Early on, I knew writing would be a big part of my life. From about the third grade, I was writing short stories one after another. I think I discovered Writer’s Digest in high school. I might have started submitting short stories to various markets in college, but the details are murky now. It’s equally hard to say when I wrote my first novel, because I bought those lined, hardbound notebooks and filled them up, one after another. Long story short: I’ve been writing for most of my life. There were years of rejection letters before I made my first sale back in the late 90s.
At university, I didn’t major in English because I was afraid I’d get sick of fiction if I were reading and writing it out of academic obligation. It made sense at the time. I chose to study psychology instead, mainly as an alternative to the therapy I needed and wasn’t getting, and had vague plans to pursue a PhD. Life intervened again: I met a Deaf guy in one of my classes and was motivated to study American Sign Language. This is how I became an interpreter. I had a pretty good 15-year run, attaining national certification through the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf, freelancing as well as working for various agencies, schools, and organizations.
In 2004, after a couple of years of losses, horrors, and reversals, I decided the time had come to change careers and countries. I accepted a job teaching at a private middle school in the suburbs of Seoul. Living in Korea was tough, but it allowed me to make a number of positive changes in my life. After three years there, I relocated to Hong Kong, which is where I plan to stay for the medium-to-long term. I’m on the faculty of an institute of higher edumacation, and I like the city very much (most of the time). It agrees with me.
My novel The Concrete Sky (2003) came about because of the frustrations of being a struggling GenXer in the urban US, not really fitting in anywhere, and not liking the writing on the wall. I’d written other novels, and fragments of novels, before it. It’s just as well these amateurish messes never saw the light of day. When I sold TCS back in 2001, though, everything changed. My short stories started selling one right after another. Another publisher approached me about doing my second book with them, and that’s how my collection Black Shapes in a Darkened Room came to be published (in 2004).
I wrote another novel called Invisible Hands after The Concrete Sky. There’s something about those second books. Sometimes they just need to be put out of their misery.
My next novel, An Ideal for Living, happened during the aforementioned couple of years of losses, horrors, and reversals. My second publisher accepted it with enthusiasm, but for various reasons the book remained in the pipeline for three years. Despite repeated assurances that it was going to be published, it was dropped – along with the novel I wrote next, Bitter Orange – in early 2009. An Ideal for Living has now been released by Lethe Press, which will also be issuing reprints of The Concrete Sky and Black Shapes in a Darkened Room.
I’ve compiled a second short story collection, too: The Infernal Republic. It was accepted by one small press in late 2008, then dropped because the publisher was overcommitted. It was accepted by another in early 2009, but toward the end of the year I chose to terminate that agreement. I expect The Infernal Republic and Bitter Orange to be published in 2011 and 2013, respectively, although things can and do change.
I have slowly been making progress on a few new projects. I’ve managed to sell a few new short stories in the last couple of years, but I’ve been too preoccupied with grad school to devote much time to writing. With that out of the way, I look forward to turning my attention back to where it belongs: writing and publishing. Being a superstitious Southerner, I won’t comment further on what I’m doing, because it could mortally jinx the unfinished stories. For now, let’s just say that with a little luck, the several-year lacuna in my publishing record is not going to happen again. I’m taking some interesting steps to make sure of it. *knock on wood* In the meantime, thanks for reading.
Hong Kong
April 2010