Whatcha gonna find here?

Well, for starters, you will find well-written headlines like on this post.

But if that's not enough to grab you, this is going to be a place for the writings of Mark Haugen - thus the name of the blog. Clever, huh?

Six years ago I pulled up my East River roots and ventured to the Black Hills, where I live with my family in relative seclusion outside of Rapid City - within spitting distance of Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and Hermosa, my new favorite hamlet in South Dakota.

As my previous life was spent primarily in the newspaper business, I still consider writing to be my career, and that's what has filled my late nights in the foothills. But as opposed to journalism, where I generally tried to stick to the facts, now I can just make stuff up. And in an area where the jackalopes run wild and snipe fly free, it seems I'm pretty good at that.

Such as it is, I've filled up plenty of notebooks and megabytes that I just feel the need to empty onto someone. My first novel, Joshua's Ladder, has been published in ebook form by Smashwords.com. It is available for download there and will soon be available on Amazon, B&N, Apple and all the ebook sites that matter. A paperback edition should be available later this spring.

I've also finished a couple other slightly shorter novels. They will be released in due time. Also be looking for some short stories - my favorites are a serious of six or seven that feature a dude who picks up hitchhikers. There are plenty others were those came from too.

I think what you will find is that I am not a writer who fits into any genre, which is fine with me but it's not the way of the world if you want to be the next John Grisham, Dean Koontz or James Patterson. So I guess I'll just have to settle for being the next Mark Haugen, with my you-never-know-what-you-will-get-next style.

I'll also post articles and writings of other South Dakota writers I find, plus maybe some random thoughts of my own, if I ever have any. For the most part, though, it's going to be all South Dakota, all the time, because I really like this place.

See ya around the 'puter.