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IN BRIEF: A coffee-guzzling journalist turned novelist and occasional poet, as well as an all-round layabout, Mark has spent a good few years chasing the literary dream. These days it is harder than ever to put across a suitably bohemian image, but he does his best, and he’s got the manuscripts to prove it!

To explore Mark’s writing, check out the following sites:

Tyke Writer Export
Opening up a world of creative writing and literature, this is the central port of call for anyone wanting to find out more about Mark’s work. He has assembled a wide selection of his literary works to present them in blog and ebook form to develop a dazzling showcase of his writing for the whole world to share.

Beyond the page you’ll find his fiction, poetry and journalism come alive before your eyes, as well as discover news about his books and publications. Whatever your literary tastes, there’ll be something to indulge, so step beyond the event horizon and escape into a universe of potential.
Visit: www.tykewriter.supanet.com

New Word Order
The first port of call for Mark’s new and contemporary writing. News, features, reviews, poetry, fiction, whatever turns up along the way, this is where it gathers for a hearing.
Visit: www.mark-cantrell.blogspot.com

Tyke Script Redrafted
Sentience Distilled From The Primordial...
An on-line anthology of fiction, poetry and journalism, presenting some of the author’s most startling work from the past present and eventually the future...
Visit: www.tykescript.blogspot.com

Book Marks
For all the latest news and information about Mark’s books and publications, then this is the place to be.
Visit: www.mark-books.blogspot.com

FULL DISCLOSURE: FOR years Mark Cantrell has lounged around in the bars and cafés of his native Bradford, searching for his elusive literary chic; he never quite found it, so he had to make do with penning poems, short stories and novels.

These days, lounging around in Bradford isn’t quite as easy as it once was, since he lives in Stoke-on-Trent and commutes to Manchester, where he works as a journalist, but that doesn’t mean to say that he has put his lazy days behind him.

Finding that essential literary chic is still proving somewhat elusive, however, but the word is he’s still penning pages-worth of poems and articles, short fiction and novels. Indeed, he has recently finished his fourth novel “IN WORKERS’ PARADISE” (2008), what he calls his “accidental novel” since it was originally intended to be a short story.

To date now, he’s written four novels: In addition to the happy accident mentioned above, he has penned “URANIUM FIST” (1993/1999), “CITIZEN ZERO” (2001), and “SILAS MORLOCK” (2006). The first of these was published as a paperback, exclusively through Lulu. The other novels remain at various stages along that arduous road to publication. He lives in hope, and hard work, and looks forward to the day they become available to the reading public.

Away from full-blown novels, Mark has written numerous short stories and at the turn of the century he added poems to his list of literary endeavours. Naturally, he has attempted to gain publication of his works, though in many ways his existence as a recognised author remains a ‘work in progress’. He hopes in the future to add scriptwriting to his activities, but for now that remains very much an aspiration.

Several of his short stories have appeared in small press magazines and anthologies over the years. A quick list of past publications includes The Velvet Vampire (1994); Alternaties (1994); Spirit of Darkness (anthology, Clover Books, 1998); The Asphalt Jungle (1999); Sci-Fright (2000); Love, Sex, Death & Carrots (anthology, Interchange (Bradford Writers’ Network), 2001); The Writers’ Compass (2007); and Writers’ Muse (2007). The stories that appeared in these journals, along with some of Mark’s unpublished back catalogue, are now available to read online at his literary website Tyke Script Redrafted.

Poetry too has appeared in a number of small press magazines and a few multi-author collections. In 2002, he had work included within the collection Sundoves, Bumblebees & Bluestreak Bananas (Bradford Poets4Peace); and in Not Quite Opposite Morrison’s Enough (Beehive Poets, 2003). Last year (2007), he published his poetry collection Deus Ex Insomnia, which is available from the publisher Lulu, or from Amazon.

On the journalistic front, aside from his day job capacity as a feature writer for a succession of trade magazines, he has written numerous comment essays and straightforward features that have appeared in a diverse range of publications. For around six years he conducted some freelance news reporting for Writers’ News magazine, and has otherwise contributed to such titles as The Yorkshire Journal, Old Yorkshire Magazine, Print R@dio, Lexikon, the Morning Star newspaper, Aesthetica and others.

Indeed, a history article he wrote for Old Yorkshire magazine, about a former industrial hazard for mill workers in Bradford, saw him interviewed on radio as an ‘expert’ on anthrax – which just goes to show it can be a funny universe.

On a more personal note, Mark was born and bred in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He later went to the University of Liverpool, where he gained his first degree, before he then took himself off to London to train as a journalist at the City University. Since then he’s had several routine media jobs, but antagonised these with some unusual, if not outright unreal, freelance and voluntary endeavours. Over the course of the years he has somehow managed to avoid being sued. And long may that continue!

Despite having left the city of his birth, he regularly returns to share a few beers with old friends, and keep in touch with the city’s literary set.