Mark Morris (b. Bolsover, Derbyshire, England, January 1, 1963) is an English author known for his series of horror novels, although he has also written several novels based on the BBC Television series Doctor Who.[1] He used the pseudonym J. M. Morris for the 2001 novel Fiddleback.[2]
Biography
He currently lives in Tadcaster, North Yorkshire, in a 200-year-old stone house, with his wife (the artist Nel Whatmore). They have two children.[3]
Career
Morris began his writing career in 1988 as part of the (now defunct) Enterprise Allowance Scheme,[4] which was at that time paying claimants £30 a week to be self-employed. His first novel, Toady, was published in 1989 (re-titled The Horror Club and shortened by ⅓ for the US market) and several further books followed: Stitch, The Immaculate, The Secret of Anatomy, Mr Bad Face, Longbarrow, Genesis and Nowhere Near an Angel. Before Toady, he had written a novel called The Winter Tree, which was rejected by publishers by at least gained him some familiarity with them.
In addition to his major works, Morris has published the novellas The Dogs (for Barrington Stoke, an imprint for 'reluctant readers') and The Uglimen.
He has also published two volumes of short stories, Close to the Bone and Voyages into Darkness (with Stephen Laws) and a novel as "J.M. Morris": Fiddleback (which was renamed The Lonely Places and had a slightly longer epilogue for the US market, which the author claims was "in order to (quote from US editor): 'clarify matters for a US readership.'"[citation needed]). A further collection of short fiction, Separate Skins, was due for release from British small press publisher Tanjen, but the publisher went out of business around that time and the book - introduced by Graham Joyce - remains unpublished.
A fan of Doctor Who since being terrified by the show as a child, Mark has so far written 4 books for the BBC, as well as 1 of the Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood: The Body Snatchers for BBC Books' Eighth Doctor Adventures range, and the novel Deep Blue for their Past Doctor Adventures range, Forever Autumn and Ghosts of India as part of the New Series Adventures range, with the Torchwood novel Bay of the Dead being released on 29 May 2009.[needs update]
He has also written Doctor Who related audio plays for Big Finish including False Gods, Plague of the Daleks, House of Blue Fire, Moonflesh and also 'The Necropolis Express'[5] for the Jago and Litefoot spin-off series .
The novel 'Nowhere Near An Angel' was intended to be his second J. M. Morris novel for Macmillan, but they rejected it as they considered 'J. M. Morris' to be a female writer (Fiddleback was written from a female point of view), despite Mark's publicity appearances for the novel. Nowhere Near An Angel was published by P. S. Publishing, and no further J. M. Morris novels are planned.
He is currently published by the small press publisher PS Publishing. Mark's work in the literary field are not limited to writing, as he also worked in the retail sector for Borders in Leeds.
