Mark Finn

Mark Finn
Born	Mark Farr-Nash October , 1969(1969-10-00) Abilene, Texas United States
Occupation	Writer, Biographer
Nationality	American
Notable work(s)	Blood & Thunder

Mark Finn (born October 1969 in Abilene, Texas) is the pseudonym of Mark Farr-Nash, a science fiction and fantasy writer, essayist, and playwright. In 2007 he was nominated for World Fantasy Special Award: Professional.

Biography

Finn got his start in the early 1990s when he wrote and drew several comic book stories for Absolute Comics, notably the “Punk” series he created with William Traxtle and Shane Campos. He left comics in the mid-90’s to concentrate on fiction writing. Ironically, he wrote a number of essays and articles for Playboy’s online website before establishing his own weekly self-distributed column, “Finn’s Wake.”

After a brief stint in California, Finn returned to Texas and in the late 1990s formed Clockwork Storybook with fellow writers Chris Roberson, Matthew Sturges, and Bill Willingham. Their monthly shared world anthology of urban fantasy centered around the fictitious city of San Cibola, California, and the magical inhabitants that lived side-by-side with the normal citizens. From this collective, Finn published the novels Gods New & Used and Year of the Hare, the first collection of stories revolving around Sam Bowen. Finn later became a contributing editor for RevolutionSF.com and wrote a number of articles and reviews to the website.

Finn is the creative director for the Violet Crown Radio Players, an audio theater troupe based in Austin, Texas. He has written several original scripts to critical acclaim and also adapted novels and short stories to an old time radio format, most notably “The Adventures of Sailor Steve Costigan” and “King Kong”.

Most recently, Finn has turned his attention to Robert E. Howard studies and is now considered to be a scholar in the field.^[1] His biography of Howard, Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard (Monkeybrain, Inc.), was released in November 2006 at the World Fantasy Convention and was a finalist for the 2007 Locus Awards for Best Non-Fiction.^[2] For his work on Blood & Thunder, Finn was nominated for the 2007 World Fantasy Award in the Special Award Professional category.^[3] Finn won the 2005 Cimmerian Awards for Outstanding Achievement, Best Essay (for “Fists of Robert E. Howard” from The Barbaric Triumph), and the Emerging Scholar plus the 2007 Awards for Outstanding Achievement, Book By A Single Author (for Blood & Thunder) and Outstanding Achievement, Website (along with Leo Grin, Rob Roehm and Steve Tompkins for The Cimmerian blog).^[4] He currently lives in Vernon, Texas with his wife, Cathy Day, where they manage the Vernon Plaza Theatre where he is occasionally seen running around in an ape mask.

Partial bibliography

1. "Hemingway With a Dick" - RevolutionSF, 2001
2. Gods New & Used - Clockwork Storybook, 2001 (ISBN 0-9704841-1-9)
3. Year of the Hare - Clockwork Storybook, 2002 (ISBN 0-9704841-5-1)
4. "Diary of a Dinopunk" - RevolutionSF, December 2002
5. "The Transformation of Lawrence Croft" - RevolutionSF, (serialized) 2003
6. "Fists of Robert E. Howard" (essay) - The Barbaric Triumph, Wildside Press, 2004 (ISBN 0-8095156-7-9)
7. “Bare Knuckles & Bulldogs”, (intro) - Waterfront Fists: The Complete Fight Stories of Robert E. Howard, Wildside Press, 2004. (ISBN 0-809511-24-X)
8. "Something About Harry" - Projections: Science Fiction in Literature and Film , Monkeybrain, Inc., 2004 (ISBN 1-932265-12-0)
9. "Robert E. Howard" (an interview with Rusty Burke) - Conversations with Texas Writers, - University of Texas Press, 2005. (ISBN 0-292-70614-6)
10. "Robert E. Howard: Lone Star Fantasist" - Conan: The Frost-Giant's Daughter and Other Stories, Dark Horse Books, 2005 (ISBN 1-59307-301-1)
11. "The Chronicler of Conan: Robert E. Howard On His Most Famous Creation" - Conan: The God In the Bowl and Other Stories, Dark Horse Books, 2005 (ISBN 1-59307-403-4)
12. "The Bridge of Teeth" - Adventure, Volume 1, Monkeybrain, Inc., 2005 (honorable mention in Gardner Dozois’ Year’s Best Science Fiction) (ISBN 1-932265-13-9)
13. “A Whim of Circumstance” - Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard, Monkeybrain, Inc., 2006 (ISBN 1932265-22-8)
14. Blood & Thunder: The Life & Art of Robert E. Howard, Monkeybrain, Inc., 2006 (ISBN 1-932265-21-X)

References

1. ^ Sammon, Paul M. (2007). Conan the Phenomenon. Dark Horse Books. ISBN 9781593076535. 
2. ^ Kelly, Mark R.. "2007 Locus Awards". Locus Publications. http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Locus2007.html. Retrieved 11 January 2010. 
3. ^ "2007 World Fantasy Award Winners & Nominees". World Fantasy Convention. http://www.worldfantasy.org/awards/2007.html. Retrieved 11 January 2010. 
4. ^ Grin, Leo (June 11, 2007). "2007 Cimmerian Awards Results Announced". The Cimmerian. http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=685. Retrieved 11 January 2010. 

External links

• Finn's Wake blog
• Publisher's page for Blood and Thunder: The Life and Art of Robert E. Howard
• Baker's Dozen with Mark Finn
• Violet Crown Radio Players
• "Hemingway With a Dick"
• "Diary of a Dinopunk"
• "The Transformation of Lawrence Croft"
• Vernon Plaza Theatre home page
• "Interview with Mark Finn"
• "Mark Finn as guest host on Chicken Fried Radio"
• Mark Finn at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Persondata
Name	Finn, Mark
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1969-10
Place of birth	Abilene, Texas United States
Date of death
Place of death