History at a glance....

Kenneth Mark Hoover was born in deep Louisiana sugarcane country but grew up  in South Texas.  But even as a little boy he never wanted to do anything else but write.  He holds two degrees, one in journalism and a bachelors degree in science (physics and chemistry) education.  After teaching high school science for seven years, however, he made the decision to write full-time.

Mark has sold almost forty short stories and articles.  His fiction has appeared in various print and online magazines such as Fantastic Stories, Strange Horizons, Challenging Destiny, Drops of Crimson, Beneath Ceaseless Skies and many others.  His interviews with notable science fiction and fantasy writers can be found at Strange Horizons and his new story “Haxan” will appear March 26, 2009 in Beneath Ceaseless Skies, a new online magazine.

In 2005 his first science fiction novel, Fevreblau, was published by Five Star Press.  The novel sold out its first print run and received several good reviews.  It also helped him get noticed by a few editors and publishers.  He is currently working on short stories and meets another writer twice a week at a coffee shop where they write, vent, bounce ideas off each other and discuss the publishing business.

Mark’s main passions outside writing include chess, amateur astronomy, Shotokan karate and politics. He is an unabashed Yellow Dog Democrat and an opinionated bookworm who listens to everything from Tchaikovsky to Rob Zombie.  He is also a big opera fan.  While he has worked as a surveyor, an educator and a salesman, his first love is, and always will be, writing.

Though he tries his best to attend as many science fiction conventions a year as he possibly can, this sometimes doesn’t work out. Any upcoming appearances he has scheduled can always be found on his News page.  But he is always happy to meet new writers and readers of all kinds of fiction and is happy to have you email him to say hello if you have the time. 

Mark currently lives and writes in Dallas, TX.