Mark Cohen

Mark grew up in Denver, back when it was a nice little cow town without light rail, skyscrapers, or Major League Baseball. Back when the Broncos wore orange, by God, and played football at a place called Mile Hi Stadium -- not Sports Authority Field.

After graduating from high school in 1976, Mark attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Washington -- the alma mater of former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, Adam West (the original Batman), and Dirk Benedict (from the A-Team). He majored in economics (because it was "practical"), studied philosophy and religion, lifted weights religiously, and spent too much time pondering the future. He was captain of the school's rugby team.

Mark arrived at the University of Colorado School of Law in 1980. Both of Mark's parents were Air Force officers. After law school Mark joined the Air Force as a Judge Advocate (JAG) so he could "see the world." The Air Force sent him to Omaha. He spent four years on active duty at Offutt AFB near Omaha, and also served as a Special Asst. U.S. Attorney for Nebraska. He practiced law in Omaha for eight years after that, and he represented an agricultural lender during the farm crisis of the 1980's.

After eight years in private practice, Mark decided to try to earn a Masters degree in philosophy at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln. One year of graduate classes in logic cured Mark of any desire to teach philosophy.

Mark returned to Colorado in 1995 and moved to Nederland, Colorado, where he began writing his first mystery, The Fractal Murders. After numerous rejections by agents with the combined work ethic of a union sloth, Mark formed his own publlishing company and published the book himself. It received great reviews, and in 2002 was a Book Sense Top Ten mystery pick. It was at this point that the editors in NEW YORK CITY finally took note. Mark's fourth agent got him a two-book deal with Time-Warner. Bluetick Revenge was published in hardcover in 2005 and will be released as a mass market paperback in the summer of 2006. It was on a mystery writer's tour that Mark met and became friends with Kinky Friedman - musician, author, dog lover, and former candidate for Texas Governor.

In 1996, Mark wrote an article about the Nebraska National Forest that was the cover story in Camping & RV magazine.

In 2013, Mark took a year off and taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law, where he also earned an advanced degree in agricultural law (LL.M.). During that year Mark used the same office that Bill Clinton had when he was a young law professor in Fayetteville. Mark earned a black belt in Shudokan karate and served for three years on the Colorado Boxing Commission.

Mark has three adult children.

In 2020, Mark bought a home in the Nebraska Sandhills. He loved it so much he changed his residency to Nebraska. He now lives there in a secure, undisclosed location, with his Irish Wolfhound. His significant other is from Crete, Nebraska, and was the Nebraska State Pork Queen. He has been a Nebraska Admiral for 39 years.