About: Mark Thomas is a writer and artist living in St. Catharines. He is a retired English and Philosophy teacher and former member of Canada’s national rowing team.
Photo by Stu Mallany
Upcoming
Mark’s art (famous people fish) is currently on display at DeLaTerre Bakery, 55 Geneva Street, St. Catharines
A short story, “Franken-sense” just appeared in New Critique
“Parissienne” and “Please unplug Coffee Maker prior to checkout” appeared in a Canadian Poetry journal, Polar Borealis.
If you are in St. Catharines, pick up copies of his books at Someday Books, 21 King Street, St. Catharines.
Books
Davin Chaney is NOT a private detective, he’s proprietor of a sleazy 1970s paralegal service, and spends most of his time delivering reno-viction notices for rapacious landlords.
But Davin’s plaza-mate knows he has a gun, and asks for his help when a beloved French bulldog gets pet-napped. The pet owners have been instructed to stuff ransom money into an inflatable sheep, then release the ovine balloon to drift over the empty expanse of Lake Ontario.
Davin is intrigued by the absurd demand and promises to solve a mystery that eddies through ancient grudges, blackmail and murder.
“A Robot, a Ghost and an Alien Walk into a Bar” is a collection of short stories about lonely monsters.
The characters are quirky variations on science fiction tropes. The robots are blues guitarists, art collectors and disaffected cats. Aliens visit Earth to play tag with space nerds, or to seek bureaucratic approval for lunar building projects. Ghosts are careless (they occasionally get run over by cars) and their haunting behaviour is controlled by an abstruse fifth century theological debate. Robots, ghosts and aliens share their world with stressed-out humans, animate corpses, talking foxes and demonic hockey players.
Everyone is searching for slivers of happiness, and some actually find it.
Peter Jarry is an arsonist/errand-boy for a small Macedonian crime family. When the patriarch, George Tripko, dies there isn’t nearly as much money in his estate as there should be.
George’s on, grandsons and fourth wife all suspect each other of defrauding the old man. But no matter who perpetrated the crime, Jarry is considered a traitorous accomplice.
Jarry has to figure out who stole forty million dollars from his ex-boss, before he becomes a corpse, himself.
Paper Dragon is a mystery/thriller in the style of Donald Westlake’s Dortmunder books, with lots of black humour and absurdity hanging from every plot twist.
Artwork
Geneva Street, St. Catharines
Chicks really Dig Fat, Middle-aged Alcoholics
Niagara Street, St. Catharines
