The son of a preacher who seemingly never unpacked his bags, Mark lived in five states before reaching high school. It was during those many upheavals that he sought solace in reading and writing.

After graduating with a communications degree from Rowan University in New Jersey, he took a series of jobs writing and editing for magazines and newspapers, including the Detroit Free Press, New York Newsday and the Cleveland Plain Dealer. Mark previously served as editorial director at October Research and as managing editor of Ed Post.

**National Indie Excellence Awards Finalist

Decades after migrating north to Cleveland, Ohio, from rural Louisiana, Tobias Winslow has made an uneasy peace with the past, including his own mistakes that led to a prison stint. News of a murdered son, and the daughter that son left behind, forces Tobias to reassess his past and restructure his plans for the future. Christian Taylor and Joey Breaux, meanwhile, are students at a historically black university who have vastly different worldviews, but are drawn together by an appreciation of family.

All three—Tobias, Christian, and Joey—are unknowingly tied together by a racially motivated killing in Louisiana decades earlier.

 

 

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