Lance Mason

Raised in rural California working blue-collar jobs, Mason earned his BSc and doctorate, and combined 40 years of healthcare with teaching and travel. 15 years in New Zealand planted the seeds for two novels, The China Contract and The Eunuch of Shanghai (unpublished). His writing is a rich mix, with a deviant bent to his fiction and a vagabond’s taste to his essays. Editors for 60+ publications have been duped into accepting his work.

Mason’s debut novel The Killing of Chuy Muro is to be released in August, 2026.

Recent publications:

Fish Publishing’s Memoir Anthology, 2025

Retreats From Oblivion: “The Brass Ring”

Argyle Literary: "Go Tell Your Amigos”

Freedom Fiction Journal: “A Journey to the West”

Palisatrium: “Death and Mercy”

Recent awards:

20th Annual Solas Awards, 2026 – Gold: Men’s Travel

20th Annual Solas Awards, 2026 – Silver: Most Unforgettable Character

20th Annual Solas Awards, 2026 – Bronze: Adventure Travel

Fish Publishing’s 2025 Memoir Prize

19th Annual Solas Awards, 2025 – Gold: Men’s Adventure Gold

18th Annual Solas Awards, 2024 – Silver: Grand Prize

18th Annual Solas Awards, 2024 – Gold: Men’s Adventure

Mason explored the world by foot, bicycle, and motorcycle, by ship, plane, train, and dugout canoe, played rugby for 15 years, shares an age-group record in the RAAM cycling race, performed live theater in the US and NZ, and fly-fishes when possible.

Mason: “I admire fiction writers Loren Estleman, S. Turow, M. Connelly, R. N. Patterson, and Cormac McCarthy; overseas authors Le Carré, McEwan, Mawer, and P. Susskind; the “classics” G. Greene, Maugham, Forster, A. Trollope, and James Cain as a genre benchmark, and travel writers E. Newby, W. Thesiger, A. Moorehead, Gavin Young, B. Chatwin, P. Theroux, and Nicolas Crane.”