Marc J. Mitchell
NEWS
Nov 9th, 2016
Sorry for the late updates to the site. Things over the past year have been VERY hectic. NaNoWriMo 2016 (National Novel Writing Month) has started yet again & I am TRYING to get somewhere again. I have over the past 2 years written/rewritten 3 different stories & have never finished one of them. My goal is to TRY TO complete & publish at least one of them soon.
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More updates when they happen.
Dec 13th, 2013
Sorry if I haven't been updating. Things have been a bit on the hectic side lately. On Sept. 27, 2013 my father-in-law, Robert "Bud" Arbogast passsed away. It was not a sudden passing but nonetheless it was hard. On Oct 18th, we drove back to Maryland to lay his ashes to rest. At the end of Oct, I released my 4th book & included a dedication of the book in his honor.
My 4th book entitled Wastelands: Awakenings is something of a stretch for me. It does not tie into my Starr Frontier series. This series is a bit "darker". It takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. I've been working on this idea off & on for 2 years. I've based this new series off such games as Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Borderlands 1 & 2 and a few TV series such as Revolution & Defiance.
Nov 2013 brought back NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I once again sat down & started working on a follow up to Wastelands. It is an extremely rough draft so the edits are going to be slow. Also, I found out that I am now listed in Barns & Noble and Books A Million database. The books may not be in the stores but you can get them at the approiate onlie store. I feel this is another step up the ladder.
Another future note and a MAJOR step for me...I will be a guest author at the 2014 Myrtle Beach XCON Convention May 16-18th. I will also be joined by 3 of my friends...Author Jaime Buncie, Author Dawn Gray & Author/Publisher Janet Durbin.
That's all for now. Will add more news as it develops.
May 20th, 2013
XCON 2013 has come and gone. This was my first convention since I last attended the Pittsburgh Comic-Con back in '94. XCON was a smaller con but fun. There were numerous guests in attendance from Star Wars, Star Trek, The Walking Dead and Once Upon a Time . There were also a few artists and writers. Numerous vendors had set up and there were alot of people that had dressed up as their favorite video game, anime or comic book characters.
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IronE Singleton (T-Dog) and Michael Rooker (Merle) from AMC's The Walking Dead were the headliners. Travis Love (Bowman-one of the Govern's men) was also there for the weekend. They were NOTHING like their characters...They were very "down to earth." They also held a "Q & A" session on Saturday that was VERY good and at time funny.

Lee Arenburg (Grumpy/Pintel) from ABC's Once Upon a TIme & also the Pirates of the Caribbean movies was also there. I had mentioned to him that he seems smaller on TV. He did state that there would not only be a 3rd season of Once Upon a Time airing on Sundays but also a spin-off called "Once Upon a Time Wonderland that airs on Thursdays. He said that he wasn't sure if they were going to merge the two shows or not. Wonderland is only scheduled to run 13 episodes.

Garrick Hagon (Biggs Darklighter) from the original Star Wars was also in attendance. He also held a Q & A session on Friday. The one thing that he was asked was to recite his two famous lines form the movie..."Red Three standing by" & "I'm going in. Cover me Porkins."

Deep Roy (Keenser/ Oompa Loompas) was also there. He has been in numerous movies such as Star Trek '09 & ST: Into Darkness, Tim Burton's Charlie & the Chocolate Factory and other films. He was credited as playing ALL 165 Oompas in the Chocolate Factory & was also in Star Wars Return of the Jedi as one of the band members in Jabba's Palace scene. He was the guest star of a "Hollywood-style" premier of Star Trek: Into Darkness Thursday night at Grand 14 theaters in the Market Commons.

I had the chance to attend a writer's panel Friday afternoon where I met Michael Knost. He is an award-winning author, editor and columnist in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror and Supernatural Thriller genres. He recently won the Bram Stoker award for his book entitled "Writers Workshop of Horror." He is a very nice guy & I hope to get some other insights and tips from him.

There is soooooooooooo much more I could cover but that was just the tip of the iceberg. On a more possitive note for myself, I spoke with who I believe is the owner/store manager of Player's Choice here at the Myrtle Beach mall & he told me to bring in some business cards and a copy of my books to see if I could generate some "publicity." I wish to send out a "Thank You" to him for allowing me this chance.
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December 1st, 2012
In November, I took part in a yearly contest known as NaNoWriMo...Notional Novel Writing Month. This contest is held every year. It is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on Nov 1. The goal is to write a 50,000-word (approximately 175-page) novel by 11:59:59 PM on Nov 30. Participants have started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists. They offer numerous contests for people of all ages...from 0-100 yrs. In 20102, the Young Writers Program was hosting over 51,000 aspiring novelists and providing resources for more than 2,000 classrooms worldwide. I was honored to count myself among the 36,843 writers who wrote 50K or more words. I do plan on doing this again and maybe even try my hand at some of the other contests they will be offering in 2013. I would like to encourage others to give it a try. It doesn't matter if it becomes the "next great NY Times best-seller" but it does give you a sense of accomplishment that you did try. Who knows...I tried it and got published. You could be next!!!
May 20th, 2013