Welcome to the sometimes funny, sometimes dark, always eclectic world of Mark Hummel.
New Book Coming Fall 2028
Set in 1926, A Different Breath transports readers inside the glitzy hotels and glamorous ballrooms of the Jazz Age and within the tawdry, dangerous speakeasies and blind pigs spawned by Prohibition. A story about the inherent dangers of obsession and the mutable nature of identity, it follows the love story of an itinerant, once-in-a-generation musician and the irreverent, fiercely independent flapper who becomes his lover, manager, and muse. The couple, already living inside a daily tug-of-war of misaligned visions for the future, find the bonds of their passion tested when a powerful bootlegger realizes that the means to fulfill his desire to possess the musician’s talent resides in controlling the flapper’s sorceress-like ability to summon his most ethereal compositions. Told in dueling narrations, the novel offers a bold reimagining of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth.
Forthcoming from Regal House Publishing, Fall 2028. Watch for more details.
Man, Underground
Mark’s 2023 novel Man, Underground is a fast-paced dark comedy that explores the transformative power found in random acts of kindness when two strangers’ lives intersect. To learn more about the book, click on the cover or use the menu options.
Man, Underground has been honored by the Nautilus Book Awards, the Eric Hoffer Book Awards, the High Plains Book Awards, and the Montana Book Awards.
“I was hooked from the first page.” — Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of The Many Daughters of Afong Moy
“From the very first pages, I was drawn into the story through its sparkling, muscular dialogue, and then lured on by a series of plot moves both arresting and entirely plausible. This truly wonderful novel reminded me that grief met with patience and the willingness to listen can be grief gently and incrementally eased.” — Liza Wieland, author of Paris, 7 A.M. and Land of Enchantment
New Interview: Living the Next Chapter
Mark Hummel
is the award-winning author of the novels Man, Underground and In the Chameleon’s Shadow and the short story collection Lost and Found. Writing as Mark Leichliter, he is the author of the crime novel The Other Side. His work has appeared, among many other places, in The Arlington Literary Journal, The Bloomsbury Review, Dogwood, Fugue, Per Contra, Talking River Review, The Wrath-Bearing Tree, Weber: the Contemporary West, and Zone 3. He is the editor of the nonfiction literary magazine bioStories.
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Also by Mark Hummel
Aaron Lugner is a chameleon. A skillful con-artist hidden in plain sight, he uses his good looks and mysteriousness as camouflage. Character-based and dialogue-driven, the novel offers an approachable exploration of our culture’s affinity for self-deception and our uncertain relationship with identity.
Lost and Found is an eclectic collection of twelve stories recounting tales of love and loss, heartache and redemption. The collection offers a ranging cast of vibrant characters.