Mark Pasquini

Even as a child, I was interested in writing. There are still loose-leafed binders, journals and stacks of paper with story ideas stored away.

I always had a love of history and interwove it into my writing. This took the form of stories in historical settings and historical events translated to Fantasy, Science Fiction, Adventure or whatever genre in which I dabbled.

The Phoenix Cycle is the culmination of this. While working at a rather rural site in a very small town, I began writing the first volume out of sheer boredom. I extrapolated current events into an apocalypse which wiped out 99% of the world population. This was done through war, terrorists using dirty bombs and biological agents and the aftermath of disease from the biological agents and those caused by unclean water and unburied corpses.

I created the protagonists and antagonists from various peoples throughout history. From the Ottomans to the Welsh Border Reavers, Fundamentalist Christians to Imperialists based on Rome and the Aztecs (without the bloody sacrifices), East Indian Sikhs to American Indians. They interact to form alliances and temporary truces. Some groups evolve, while others collapse.

Subsequent volumes rolled out during other projects while I was sitting in hotel rooms and there was nothing on the snowy-TV. The fourth volume, Phoenix Soaring, is in progress and, depending on the next project, will be out in 2013.

As for the boring biograhical 'stuff', I am currently living in the Atlanta area, have two grown children and am working as a computer contractor to make a living until someone realizes the potential of my stories as a movie or TV series. For enjoyment, I read, watch old movies and write stories for my neices and nephews using their names for the characters.

As a side-note; a member of the family who served as a Navy Seal in Vietnam recently passed on and all proceeds from Volume One: Phoenix In Ashes are being donated in his name to the Wounded Warrior Project.