My readers are always welcome to email me at whatifnovels@gmail.com whether it's to discuss plot points, or to yell at me because the story took an unexpected turn, or whatever... feel free! You can also join my email list at stevenmarksbooks.com!

When I was eight, I wrote my first book — eighty‑seven pages, one paragraph, and a sci‑fi story called The Bird of Time. I handed it to my mother, hoping she’d read it. She didn’t even open it. She just said, “Nobody is ever going to read what you write.”

I threw the book away. I didn’t throw away the writing.

My mother struggled with addiction, and I was too young to understand that her words weren’t really about me. But they stuck. For decades, I wrote in secret — twenty‑plus novels that lived in drawers and folders because I was afraid she might be right.

When I turned sixty, I realized something simple and brutal: the only way she’d be right is if I never tried. So I started publishing. And readers found me. And they asked for more.

Maybe she was wrong. Maybe this is the story I was supposed to write all along.