Introducing Mark Konkel, new scifi author

Continuing on with my curiosity on why authors chose their genres, I'm including some information I received from a new author. Wisconsin author Mark Konkel has been writing and teaching for ten years. A full-time teacher and certified public accountant, Mark earned his accounting degree from Lakeland College and his Master of Fine Arts from Vermont College.

His reason for choosing scifi? His primary hope is that readers find his stories meaningful and enjoyable.  He wrote Disaster Park partly in the hopes that scientists and engineers would hurry up and develop holographic technology.

Mark comments about his book:

My sci-fi novel, Disaster Park, is scheduled for release in January 2011 from Blue leaf Publishing.

Imagine if you could have been on the 92nd floor of the North Tower?  Or you had been a passenger on the Titanic? If there was no danger, would choose to experience “Living History,” the new amusement park ride under development at Delaney Corporation?

Arnie Hetzel, a forensic computer programmer, does not even want to consider the question, as he’s struggling with his own personal disaster: the death of his wife and two daughters in a house fire.   But when astronauts start appearing in events from 1903 and tests of the “Battle of Gettysburg” fail miserably, Jase Delaney, founder, and genius behind Delaney Corporation convinces Arnie that his efforts on the project could be therapeutic.

“People want to be a part of something important, even if it’s just in a hologram,” founder Jase Delaney explains. “They want to be able to say that they have ‘been there…’”  Plus, there are only five months until “Living History” opens to the public and Jase can’t have malfunctioning programs.

So Arnie delves deeper into this living museum, this 360-degree holographic environment where riders experience military battles, infamous disasters, and grisly murders, but as he does, will he be saved from his own tragedy? Or will he find it disrespectful to recreate a mass murder in a hologram, then charge admission?

Mark's book sounds exciting, so be sure to look for Disaster Park in January.