Ask the Author: Mark Edward Langley
Answered Questions (10)
Mark Edward Langley
Thank you!
I was lucky enough to secure the same graphic designer that did the 2nd novel's cover in the series. She works for the publisher that published my first two novels. Once again, she and I had the same idea for the cover design. We are in sync like that. If you'd like to her to do yours, provide your email and I will forward it to her.
I was lucky enough to secure the same graphic designer that did the 2nd novel's cover in the series. She works for the publisher that published my first two novels. Once again, she and I had the same idea for the cover design. We are in sync like that. If you'd like to her to do yours, provide your email and I will forward it to her.
Mark Edward Langley
The only one I can imagine is who my real parents are. I found out when I was a teen that I had been adopted, but never gave any thought as to who my biological parents were. My family life was a beautiful and happy one, so I never cared.
Since the passing of my mother and father, I began to wonder for health reasons. Since I am 61 now--and my health is beginning to take precedence, I wonder about my physiology and my birth parents connection to it.
That's really the only mystery I can think of, but I can't see it ever becoming a book.
Since the passing of my mother and father, I began to wonder for health reasons. Since I am 61 now--and my health is beginning to take precedence, I wonder about my physiology and my birth parents connection to it.
That's really the only mystery I can think of, but I can't see it ever becoming a book.
Mark Edward Langley
Thank you, Laura, for your kind words and question. While I have only read the Cold Dish of my friend Craig Johnson's, I have read a handful of Tony's books and love them. The only similarity between Tony's and my books, however, is the same love of the southwest and the Navajo land and its people. Book three--When Silence Screams--is the best book--I think--so far. Right now, I have six more titles and outlines ready to go. As for the release date: It's still looking like August, 2021. I am so glad you enjoy them. Don't forget to review them in Amazon. A new author lives by reviews and word-of-mouth. Do you subscribe to my Publishing Updates on my website: markedwardlangley.com? If not, that's a great way to stay up to date. Thank you again!
Mark Edward Langley
Death Waits in the Dark began with a thought: since Arthur is a former Marine and ex-Border Patrol Shadow Wolf, what if his first true love contacted him asking him for help finding out who killed her two sons. Then I thought, since I know people who suffer from it, what if the underlying factor in Arthur and Sharon's life is struggling with PTSD.
Then I began wondering what if I mixed that with extortion, oil drilling and fracking actually taking place in that area of New Mexico, along with Arthur being pitted against an old foe from his Shadow Wolf days. With all these ingredients mixed proportionally, tense situations are bound to occur. And when the evidence points to someone Arthur thought he knew, he has to make the toughest decision of his life.
Then I began wondering what if I mixed that with extortion, oil drilling and fracking actually taking place in that area of New Mexico, along with Arthur being pitted against an old foe from his Shadow Wolf days. With all these ingredients mixed proportionally, tense situations are bound to occur. And when the evidence points to someone Arthur thought he knew, he has to make the toughest decision of his life.
Mark Edward Langley
Actually, I scan news papers and online news sites for stories that intrigue me, print them out, and file them away in a file cabinet drawer under Story Ideas. Usually, the title comes to me first; then I begin to build a story around it. I will go through the file folder and pick out stories that may fit the synopsis I am thinking about, and begin creating new characters with back stories that will inhabit the new novel.
My third novel, When Silence Screams, comprises three different stories that may or may not be connected, but the reader will enjoy weaving through the novel forming their own ideas. I always plot out my stories, so I do know where I'm going ... I just have to craft a story that finds a way to get there.
My third novel, When Silence Screams, comprises three different stories that may or may not be connected, but the reader will enjoy weaving through the novel forming their own ideas. I always plot out my stories, so I do know where I'm going ... I just have to craft a story that finds a way to get there.
Mark Edward Langley
Currently, I am writing the third novel in my Arthur Nakai Mystery Series, When Silence Screams, set to be released in 2021.
Please read the synopsis below and tell me what you think.
Arthur Nakai, now armed with his newly minted Private Investigator license, has a visitor on his doorstep on White Mesa. Melanie Manygoats and her young son arrive on a cold winter’s day, and Arthur soon finds himself involved in searching for Melanie’s daughter, a 17-year-old missing Navajo girl. As the case develops, it leads him to believe she has been sold into human trafficking. After meeting with Shirley Becenti, the director and founder a woman’s shelter in Albuquerque, he heads deep into the horrifying and high-dollar world of prostitution, sexual slavery and BDSM torture.
When Arthur confronts the first of many low-life’s responsible for April Manygoats’ disappearance, it leads him to a man known to everyone in the trade as The Cuban. Running underage girls and women is his livelihood. They are his property, and he treats them as such---even going to the length of micro-chipping each of them, ensuring they will never leave his employment. To him, the revolving door of the flesh market is always rotating. And his clients are always looking for younger girls to please their insatiable appetite for debauchery.
Meanwhile, Navajo Nation Police Captain Jake Bilagody has his own problems. A 19-year-old girl is missing, her family is terrified, and all that was left behind was a bicycle hidden among scrub trees by an empty desert wash. Then, a young woman’s body is fished out of a lake on the reservation, blued and bruised and beaten to death. But that isn’t the only thing that turns Jake's stomach. Are the two related? Or are they part of a bigger, more horrifying picture?
Will Jake be able to trace the life of the girl found in the lake and locate her killer? Will he be able to find the missing girl and return her to her parents? And will Arthur be able to find April Manygoats in time . . . or is he already too late?
Please read the synopsis below and tell me what you think.
Arthur Nakai, now armed with his newly minted Private Investigator license, has a visitor on his doorstep on White Mesa. Melanie Manygoats and her young son arrive on a cold winter’s day, and Arthur soon finds himself involved in searching for Melanie’s daughter, a 17-year-old missing Navajo girl. As the case develops, it leads him to believe she has been sold into human trafficking. After meeting with Shirley Becenti, the director and founder a woman’s shelter in Albuquerque, he heads deep into the horrifying and high-dollar world of prostitution, sexual slavery and BDSM torture.
When Arthur confronts the first of many low-life’s responsible for April Manygoats’ disappearance, it leads him to a man known to everyone in the trade as The Cuban. Running underage girls and women is his livelihood. They are his property, and he treats them as such---even going to the length of micro-chipping each of them, ensuring they will never leave his employment. To him, the revolving door of the flesh market is always rotating. And his clients are always looking for younger girls to please their insatiable appetite for debauchery.
Meanwhile, Navajo Nation Police Captain Jake Bilagody has his own problems. A 19-year-old girl is missing, her family is terrified, and all that was left behind was a bicycle hidden among scrub trees by an empty desert wash. Then, a young woman’s body is fished out of a lake on the reservation, blued and bruised and beaten to death. But that isn’t the only thing that turns Jake's stomach. Are the two related? Or are they part of a bigger, more horrifying picture?
Will Jake be able to trace the life of the girl found in the lake and locate her killer? Will he be able to find the missing girl and return her to her parents? And will Arthur be able to find April Manygoats in time . . . or is he already too late?
Mark Edward Langley
Never give up on YOUR goal. YOUR goal is not someone else's goal. Do not be swayed by anyone who tells you that you are not like someone else--that is true! YOU are YOU! Do not listen to others who may dismiss your dreams because they themselves do not know what it means to have a dream of their own. Perseverance is the key. Never stop believing in yourself. And don't take any rejections of your works as personal--they have never met you; they don't know you. Remember that every obstacle is not a problem that cannot be overcome. Because when you persevere and find an agent to stand behind you and believe in you, your world will change. But don't kid yourself. You will have to continue working just as hard, sometimes harder, to push yourself further in to your career as a writer. But it will all be worth it.
Mark Edward Langley
I would have to say the best thing about being a writer is that I can live in the world I created for a few hours a day, be among the characters that I know and love, and create something that may touch people and make them aware of another culture and another people that are not really that much different then they are. I hope I can give them a chance to see our Native peoples through the lens of clarity and understanding.
Mark Edward Langley
I am currently reading--when I can--Anne Hillerman's Spider Woman's Daughter, otherwise it may be a Craig Johnson novel or any of the others I have sitting on my shelf.
Mark Edward Langley
I step away for a while, or even a day, and then come back to it with fresh eyes. Things usually break and the flow begins again.
About Goodreads Q&A
Ask and answer questions about books!
You can pose questions to the Goodreads community with Reader Q&A, or ask your favorite author a question with Ask the Author.
See Featured Authors Answering Questions
Learn more