Mark Lawrence: the history of fame

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Mark Lawrence was born in Champaign, Illinois in January 1966. When he was one year old, his parents moved to the UK. Returned to the US to work on research projects. Now Mark Lawrence lives in Bristol. Married. There are four children in the family. Mark is the author of numerous novels and the acclaimed Broken Empire trilogy.

According to the author, he worked in research centers related to physics and mathematics, for the last few years the field of activity is artificial intelligence. Mark believes that scientific training does not affect his writing work. Of course, he can justify some technical points, but in general, his professional experience does not affect creativity.

Mark Lawrence. Books

The Broken Empire Cycle:

• Prince of Thorns (2011).
• "King of Thorns" (2012).
• "The Emperor of Thorns" (2013).

Red Queen War Cycle:

• "Prince of Jesters" (2014).
• The Liar's Key (2015).
• The Wheel of Osheim (2016).

The novel "The Prince of Thorns" made a lot of noise on the Internet even before the release of the book. This is a harsh story of revenge, strength and pride. From the first words it seems that the book has a lotcruelty. The trilogy is the story of growing up, reading the novel, it is simply impossible to believe that the actions of the hero of the book are the actions of a teenager. But immersed in reading, you understand that the world around him, childhood trauma and circumstances played their part. Cruelty and killing in that world is just a way to survive.

Road to Fame

As Mark Lawrence says, "Prince of Thorns" is almost exactly the same as the draft. There was not even a thought to correct some details. He believes that this can be explained by the fact that he did not think about publishing, he simply wanted to give an outlet to history and wrote. And, of course, magic - it worked in the works of fifty years ago, and will be relevant now. And the magic is that everything human is inherent in the hero of the novel, and therefore the reader is practically not worried about the actions of the hero. Mark says a good writer shouldn't sugarcoat the truth, but be honest.

Certainly didn't expect to become famous. Mark Lawrence writes daily. There is no set number of words, but he does it every day. He likes to write. He began writing the novel at the Children's Hospital in Bristol. He had almost no free time, since 11 years ago his daughter was born disabled. She is smart, funny and has a great sense of humor. But he cannot see well or walk for a long time. Therefore, Mark spends a lot of time with her, helping with this.

Despite the circumstances, he wrote every day. In one children's hospital, it was not possible to write on a laptop - he wrote on a piece of paper. Therefore, the question of howAs his writing day passes, Lawrence says it's more like the hours after midnight. Every year he spends 2 weeks in the hospital with his daughter, then he writes all day long.

Struggle for publication

Mark Lawrence says he struggled at some point to get his stories published in magazines. By the word "struggle" he means that he sent stories to several magazines. It was not easy, as only 1-2 out of 50 weekly submissions from authors were selected for publication. And he was very surprised when several publishers fought for the right to publish his novel.

As writer Mark Lawrence says, he cannot advertise books on forums and blogs. This is what many authors do now. He just doesn't have time for it. Free time, which is practically non-existent, he spends in the garden, playing a good computer game or brewing beer. Of course, his path to fame has become a bit unorthodox. But he advises all aspiring writers to look for information wherever possible. Submit your work to multiple publishers. Lawrence is confident that anyone can succeed. The main thing is to write every day.