Life and career

A native of Tampa, Florida, during the 1990s Shepherd was a writing protégé and live-in personal secretary of author Mercedes Lackey

Mercedes Lackey

Mercedes "Misty" Lackey is a best-selling American author of fantasy novels. Many of her novels and trilogies are interlinked and set in the world of Velgarth, mostly in and around the country of Valdemar...

 and artist Larry Dixon at Highflight, their Tulsa, Oklahoma residence.

He co-authored two novels with Lackey, and composed music to accompany his later books. He has also written several short stories.

Shepherd's secretarial duties at Highflight were taken over by Englishman Paul Fisher in 2000.

Wheels of Fire

Shepherd's first published work was Wheels of Fire, a collaboration with Mercedes Lackey, and the 2nd novel in her SERRAted Edge series.

Intended to draw attention to the plight of abused children, Wheels of Fire focused on mother Cindy Chase's search for her son Jamie, who had been abducted by her estranged husband and kept prisoner by a religious cult. An epilogue to the story provided several hotline help numbers.

Wheels of Fire was later reprinted in the omnibus edition The Otherworld, which was made available in e-text format as part of Baen Books'

Baen Books

Baen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by long time science fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, military science fiction, and fantasy...

 freely-redistributable CD-ROM program, on the disc included with initial hardcover printings of Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis

Roberta Gellis

Roberta Gellis is an American writer of historical fiction, historical romance, and fantasy works. She holds masters degrees in both biochemistry and medieval literature.Many major writer of historical romance cite her as an important influence...

' This Sceptre'd Isle.

Alinor, protagonist of Wheels of Fire, briefly mentions an elf Grove located in Dallas, Texas, which is the primary setting for Shepherd's solo spin-offs.

Elvendude

Believing himself to be an ordinary teenager raised by a single mom, Adam McDaris discovers that his "mother" is in fact the local elf-king's daughter, who pledged to take her brother the Heir to safety, hiding him as a mortal to escape detection by the enemy who destroyed their home. The novel's plot involves an evil organization plotting world domination through the distribution of vials of magical crack cocaine.

Spiritride

The ghosts of human motorcycle riders get caught up in a war between the restored Elfhame Avalon and the drug-dealing Unseleighe Prince who plagues them.

Laserwarz

With her brother secure on his rightful throne, adventurous elven Lady Samantha returns to the "real" world as an FBI agent, investigating a series of mysterious disappearances at a laser arcade in Tulsa.

The Bard's Tale

Collaborating again with Mercedes Lackey, Shepherd wrote Prison of Souls, the third novel in The Bard's Tale computer game tie-in novelization series.

Shepherd later followed it up with a solo sequel, Escape from Roksamur, reprising the adventures of his character Alaire.

Blackrose Avenue

Blackrose Avenue is Shepherd's 2001 standalone novel, set in a dystopic future wherein rebels struggle to free the country from the grip of a fanatic religious regime which has taken over.

Music

Mark Shepherd composed music inspired by his writing, including full soundtracks to Elvendude, Spiritride, and Laserwarz.

Spiritride was released on cassette tape by Firebird Music. Blackrose Avenue, the CD is available via Yard Dog Press, publisher of the novel it accompanies.

Appearances in other media

Mark Shepherd has a brief cameo in Mercedes Lackey's novel Jinx High, as a student attending a creative writing class.

External links

• Mark Shepherd — Baen Books Baen Books author page, with links to free sample chapters
• Fantasy Author Mark Shepherd's Official Web Page Internet Archive snapshot of Mark Shepherd's SFF.net website, circa 2001
• Mark Shepherd Fantastic Fiction author information for Mark Shepherd
• SPIRIT RIDE cassette Firebird Music catalogue page for Spiritride album
• Blackrose Avenue Yard Dog Press information page for Blackrose Avenue novel and CD soundtrack