Mark  Hayes

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Mark Hayes

Goodreads Author


Born
in leeds, The United Kingdom
Website

Twitter

Genre

Member Since
September 2013


Mark writes novels that often defy simple genre definitions, they could be described as speculative fiction, though Mark would never use the term as he prefers not to speculate.

When not writing novels Mark is a persistent pernicious procrastinator, he recently petitioned parliament for the removal of the sixteenth letter from the Latin alphabet.

He is also 7th Dan Blackbelt in the ancient Yorkshire marshal art of EckEThump and favours a one man one vote system but has yet to supply the name of the man in question.

Mark has also been known to not take bio very serious.

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Popular Answered Questions

Mark Hayes Hi James

At the end of the day its down to the storys I want to tell. I don't actually write in one specific genre. While my latest novel A spider in …more
Hi James

At the end of the day its down to the storys I want to tell. I don't actually write in one specific genre. While my latest novel A spider in the eye is certainly a steampunk fantasy and is the first of three in that genre, Passing Place spans multiple genres, and indeed styles, as while the main storyline is set in a bar that isn't a bar, whose doors open to different times and places, a lot of stories are told by the bars customers which individually sit in their own genres, and are told in different ways depending on the storyteller. The novella A Scar of avarice does the same thing, though to a lesser extent.
Cider Lane, which was my first novel is not in any genre at all, unless it counts as a thriller, it is in essence a 'straight forward' contemporary novel.
Fantasy or speculative fiction makes up a large portion of my bookshelves as does science fiction. But I read extensively in most genres. Stories are what interest me, stories explain the human experience, humanity has been telling itself stories since long before they invented the written word after all.
I like the fantasy genre's and like to write in them simply because they enable you to tell more interesting stories and explore them in ways that other genres just don't allow. While still allowing you to explore that strangest of creatures in all creation, humanity, and the darkness and light at its heart.
My view on fantasy is much the same as Terry Pratchett's in that regard. He once said, and I paraphrase slightly.
'I wrote a story about the struggles of a man against his inner doubts and struggles with his flaws against the desire to do what is right, rather than just what everyone expects him to do. Then I put one damn dragon in it so they told me it was fantasy'
At the end of the day, I can never resist a good dragon or an airship or two for that matter, I just don't let them get in the way of the story.

Hope that makes sence.
Mark (less)
Average rating: 4.41 · 390 ratings · 56 reviews · 27 distinct worksSimilar authors
A Spider in the Eye (Hannib...

4.07 avg rating — 54 ratings2 editions
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Maybe (A Ballad of Maybes #1)

4.08 avg rating — 49 ratings2 editions
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Passing Place: Location Rel...

4.76 avg rating — 29 ratings4 editions
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Cider Lane : Of Silence and...

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From Russia with Tassels (H...

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A Scar of Avarice

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Harvey Duckman Presents... ...

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A Squid on the Shoulder: A ...

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The Complete Hannibal Smyth...

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All we are saying, yet again…

I wrote the original version of the post below in 2016, I came across the original draft of it in one note earlier today while looking for something else. I have only made a couple of superficial changes, and tidied up the language a little, but for the most part this is an exact restatement a decade later… Sadly, something do not change…

So, we are at war AGAIN.  

The last war destabilised a regio

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Published on March 09, 2026 03:39
A Spider in the Eye From Russia with Tassels
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Maybe
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Mark’s Recent Updates

Mark Hayes wrote a new blog post

All we are saying, yet again…

I wrote the original version of the post below in 2016, I came across the original draft of it in one note earlier today while looking for something e Read more of this blog post »
" Thank you "
Knot On Tree, Fire On Stone by Harvey Duckman
"So much fun! And by fun I mean darkness, violence, Paganism, dark woods, but also the end of the world, slaughter, fire and many such good things like that.
Highlights were: Errington & Brown's 'Blood & Stone'; I've read novels with less plot that tak" Read more of this review »
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The Masque of the Mummers by Ben Sawyer
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Ben Sawyer is a writer well versed in theater, the love of theater, and I suspect some experience of amateur dramatics, informed one of the two main branches of the plot of this, his third Holly Trinity Novel. In the midst of York's medieval festival ...more
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Monsters at the Gate by Ben   Sawyer
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This is a joyous romp of a novel as all Bens novels tend to be. As ever the city of York is as much a character in the novel as a setting. Ben writes of the city with a vibrancy that gives it life. Much like his other characters, which have the same
...more
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Holly Trinity and the Ghosts of York by Ben   Sawyer
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This is a joyous romp of a novel as all Bens novels tend to be. As ever the city of York is as much a character in the novel as a setting. Ben writes of the city with a vibrancy that gives it life. Much like his other characters, which have the same
...more
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Monsters at the Gate by Ben   Sawyer
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Holly Trinity and the Ghosts of York by Ben   Sawyer
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This is a joyous romp of a novel as all Bens novels tend to be. As ever the city of York is as much a character in the novel as a setting. Ben writes of the city with a vibrancy that gives it life. Much like his other characters, which have the same
...more
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Lucifer Mandrake by Mark  Hayes
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Lexicromicon by Mark  Hayes
"A whistle-stop tour through the works of the 'old tentacle hugger' himself, told with wit and verve. This book serves as a guide to the most readable and enjoyable tales in the Lovecraftian oeuvre (and also gives a heads up for the most overtly racis" Read more of this review »
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Quotes by Mark Hayes  (?)
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“But one takes what one can get when the devil vomits on your primroses.”
Mark Hayes, From Russia with Tassels

“You don’t need to lie to me, not about this. Not about anything really. But you can, if you prefer to. I’m not important. You can tell me you tripped, or caught it on a nail, or whatever. And it doesn’t matter, if you want to lie to me, then you can.” “But don’t lie to yourself don’t ever lie to yourself .”
“If you do, lie to yourself that is, if you do. Then you’ll lose yourself to it and that way lays madness.”
Mark Hayes, Cider Lane: Of Silence and Stars

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“You don’t need to lie to me, not about this. Not about anything really. But you can, if you prefer to. I’m not important. You can tell me you tripped, or caught it on a nail, or whatever. And it doesn’t matter, if you want to lie to me, then you can.” “But don’t lie to yourself don’t ever lie to yourself .”
“If you do, lie to yourself that is, if you do. Then you’ll lose yourself to it and that way lays madness.”
Mark Hayes, Cider Lane: Of Silence and Stars

“Stuff your eyes with wonder. Live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories. Ask no guarantees, ask for no security, there never was such an animal. And if there were, it would be related to the great sloth which hangs upside down in a tree all day every day, sleeping its life away. To hell with that . Shake the tree and knock the great sloth down on his ass.”
Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“But one takes what one can get when the devil vomits on your primroses.”
Mark Hayes, From Russia with Tassels

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