I know very little about Mark.  His profile is short but does give that essential link that so many of us share.  He is a hobbyist who loves to write.   All I can say is, "Welcome to the Wattpad fold and long may you stay!"

He has two stories available.  One, The Bones of the Matter,looks interesting but just needs to be reformatted for Wattpad before I take a gander at it.  Currently it stands as one update which is just a little to hard to read right now.  Hopefully, Mark will break it up into easily digestible chunks for us at some point.  

However, the other story is a work in progress that reveals a writer with a great talent.  Blood Brothers, A Novel of the Southern Plains, features the sort of writing that makes me want to turn the pages to the end and then go back to the beginning.

It is a western. No, don't turn away. Westerns should be essential reading for any writer who wants to craft a story. Just think of the cultural icons that have emerged from westerns (and no, I'm not going to list them).  Anyway,if you are going to read one western, then read Blood Brothers.

It is a story that starts with a twelve year old settler witnessing a brutal attack on a homestead,then getting kidnapped in the process.  The first part (for that is all that is posted so far) is told from a first person perspective and this is where the writing shines.  Mark faultlessly writes in the voice of a Texan during the American Civil War.  I've read a few letters and memoirs from this period and his depiction seems spot on- the language is authentic and the idioms ring true.  In Jim, he has created a reflective yet straight talking hero (or is he an anti-hero, since there are clues that we are dealing with a developing sociopath) who does not shy from taking action, though at all times we are aware he is only twelve.  Subsequent parts will be written from other characters perspectives.

The thing that struck me as I wrote this is that the word western would turn people off, yet fantasy wouldn't.  Aren't fantasy stories this generation's westerns?  The actual structure of a typical western seems very much like a type of fantasy to me.  Bad men do bad things, the hero experiences a journey of discovery where revenge will be taken, the act of revenge does not fulfil and so the hero continues on their journey of discovery.   I'm not saying that is happening here but I do say that readers should approach westerns with an open mind.

His storytelling is superb.  From a slow start, Mark quietly ratchets up the tension.  The reader knows something is going to happen but isn't quite sure how we are going to get there.   In the process, he addresses such ideas as sibling rivalry, grief, burgeoning adolescent sexuality and family life. There are scenes which are hard to read but what is interesting is that Mark does not flinch from depicting them, nor does he indulge in voyeuristic violence porn. The violence he depicts is fast,unpleasant and is in no way titillating, yet it does stay with you as a set of horrifying freeze frames.

Anyone who has read Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy,would recognize the same down and dirty approach to that Mark takes.   I can't say how good Blood Brothers is in comparison but I can say that I am enjoying it as much as I did Blood Meridian, and that my friends is something else, yessir.

The story is only in its early stages and like many of us, @MarkTaverna can only write as much as real life will let him.   I suspect I am going to be hounding him for updates as much as I have been hounded myself for the latest Cutthroats of the Coast.   I think I am going to have a long wait.

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