Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mark Westmoreland. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I started writing at 25. I’d gotten really into fantasy fiction. The series I was reading at the time had an ending that made me so angry that I believed I could write something better.

My journey to getting published took much longer. I became a big fan of Robert Jordan’s THE WHEEL OF TIME. I did my best to immolate those books but it took me around five years to realize that my fantasy fictions was pretty terrible.

Around 30, I discovered a group of writers that changed my creative life. Tom Franklin, Wiley Cash, David Joy, and. Brian Panowich all write fiction set in the South. I’m from Georgia and reading their work felt like going home. Their characters reminded me of friends I grew up with. Some common advice that’s given to first-time writers is to write what you know. I started writing about home and the fiction was actually good.

I developed a fictional county called, Tugalo County, Georgia, and started setting all of my stories there. I sold flash pieces to some online magazines and in 2020 landed my first book deal with Shotgun Honey Publishers.

Shotgun Honey bought my novel A VIOLENT GOSPEL. It follows Mack and Marshall Dooley. These brothers rob a snake-handling Pentecostal church and all hell breaks loose.

In 2021, Shotgun Honey bought the book’s sequel, A MOURNING SONG. In A MOURNING SONG, Mack and Marshall have to work with local crime lord, Peanut, to run a prison gang called the Ghostface Devils out of Tugalo County.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I have a passion novel titled MIDNIGHT RUNNER. This book is my homage to Smokey and the Bandit.

It follows a character named Arlo Burke who is a Smokey and the Bandit obsessed bank robber on the run from a hitman.

I wrote my original draft of this book back in 2020. While that version was fun to write, it wasn’t very good and I decided to trash it.

The second version of this book was written in 2021 and I thought it was going to be my breakthrough novel. I submitted it to 60+ agents, around half of them rejected the novel, and the rest never bother to respond.

It finally made its way into the hands of Sara Henry. She’s a badass editor for Crooked Lane Publishers. She also passed not he book but asked me to give her a call. We talked about the book for an hour and a half and she advised me to write it from scratch one more time. She said my passion for the book was evident and that I needed to write it.

It was pretty devastating to hear her say to rewrite the book from scratch but it’s what I’m in the middle of now and the book is so much better for it. It reconnected me with the characters and injected it with the fun that the second version was missing. I don’t know if this book will go on to be my breakthrough novel but it’s made me a better writer regardless.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The actual act of writing.

The writing is for me.

It’s what I enjoy most.

People buying my work and enjoying it is just a byproduct of that.

Contact Info:

• Website: itsmarkyall.com
• Instagram: Its_Mark_Yall
• Twitter: ItsMarkYall

Image Credits
Liz Brenden Photography