I was born in the Great White North. Yes, you already got a flavor of my satirical influences. Okay, I was not born in the Arctic but, the cold and wintery enough city of Montreal in the late 1960’s.
I grew up playing hockey on outdoor rinks and baseball on grass deprived fields. When indoors, reading seemed to be the perfect indoor remedy from the boredom of now in hindsight were minimal choices on the television. My brother and I would stage impromptu indoor hockey games and to the fright of our mom, wrestling matches to pass the time.
One day I stumbled across a slightly worn cover of a book with an image of three boys crouched at the gates of a cemetery. I started reading and was hooked. “The Mystery of the Laughing Shadow” was the book and the “Three Investigator Series” took my interest in books to a new level. What was not cooler than having a secret hangout in a junkyard and solving mysteries?! Books became a staple of my holiday wishlists and remain so today.
Reading soon would not be enough for me. I had to write and to create. Class writing assignments excited me. Of course, I often ignored the subject assigned by the teacher. Horrific were the days when composition period was canceled so we could catch up on math.
My teenage years were spent in the mid-80s. There could be a good debate as to whether I would have been considered a nerd or geek. In retrospect, “early grunge” is probably correct. Seriously, my love for music went hand in hand with my passion for reading. The Who were my rock gods. This concert poster adorned the closet next to my bed for years. By the end of the 80’s and early 90’s, Faith No More, Sonic Youth, Alice in Chains and everything grunge or guitar driven dominated my headphones. And my novels are heavily influenced by music as you may discover.
By the time, I started university, I vowed to write a novel one day. Figured it would be done in a year. Yep. That was my goal. University life and the real world can quickly unfocus the mind. I graduated and entered the business world. Yes, there were moments of epiphany even in business school as I helped co-edit the faculty satirical monthly periodical. But, pages and pages of writings, thoughts, ideas, poems, soon became stashed away…until.
Yes, satire and its link with sarcastic humor give me great joy. I grew up glued to the television when SCTV would be on. John Candy doing Monday Night Curling is pure gold and yes, that is a Canadian fact.
My Novels
My first novel, The Boys Who Danced With The Moon, has long been smoldering going back to the days of my youth. The spark “finally” turned into a flame and before I knew it, a novel emerged. Before too long, new ideas and characters surfaced to form a second novel, Munching on the Sun.
My most challenging, Time’s Musicians, was launched on January 20, 2020 and was a semi-finalist for the Booklife Prize in Young Adult Literature in 2020!
My novels share a common thread. They are character-driven novels about teens and young adults, mostly offbeat characters, searching for their place in the world. All on a journey. A journey, I hope, you take with them. You may see yourself in one, many, or even all of the characters. Perhaps just a glimpse of someone you know or knew. The beauty of reading is that it is a unique and deeply personal experience.
Take the time to write a review, please…
My works are for you to read, be entertained and hopefully, inspire. Please take the time to write a review, however short or long. The lifeblood of an author in this age is word of mouth.
Stay Connected
Finally, please stay in touch. You can find a couple of ways to keep up to date with me. I still live in my hometown with my wife and three sons, our cat (Amber) and our latest addition, goldendoodle (Baci). You can stay up-to-date by following me at twitter.com/markpauloleksiw
Enjoy and if you like the novel you are reading, please recommend it to a friend and leave a review!
Mark