Who is Marc? This is a question asked by many, perhaps most frequently by Marc himself. is an American, but from when he was three years old he lived overseas. He has lived in four countries (U.S., France, Belgium, and Senegal), and visited many others. Marc's mother was a missionary to Senegal, West Africa, and that is where Marc spent most of his childhood. Marc learned French when he was three and still speaks it, though he is woefully out of practice. Marc is single, just turned thirty (eek), and wondering where the time has gone. His dream is to be a full-time creative writer. He wants to write and direct movies, plays, short stories, novels, everything. He even has ideas for interactive novels and musicals. There is very little he hasn't wanted to do, and that's his trouble. Like a mouse in a maze, Marc has trouble knowing which way to go. All directions are appealing, but there is only time to explore a few choices. In the meantime, the need to make a living caused Marc to stumble from journalism into the world of graphic design. For almost ten years Marc has used Macintosh computers to create a wide variety of publications. He discovered a knack for technical issues, and has explored computers and technology and complicated pre-press issues. Today he works full-time as a designer and electronic pre-press technician, and free-lances on the side. His writing and personal life has been neglected. Still, Marc is trying. For the last year he has worked almost daily on his first novel, and he has several other novels and screenplays in progress. He is learning that he has a long, difficult road ahead. Writing is not easy, and there are many distractions, such as creating a web site like this one. In his "spare" time, Marc reads and watches movies. He's got an incredible movie collection (over a thousand), and more books than he knows what to do with. He hasn't read all the books or watched all of the movies, though, and is always saying, "Someday..." Marc's favorite movies would mostly be classified as cult films: anything by Hitchcock, David Lynch, the Cohen brothers, Terry Gilliam, or Sam Raimi makes him happy, but he also loves action by James "Terminator" Cameron and the Die Hard triology, and silly stuff like Dumber and Dumber. >Marc's favorite authors include anything by Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Ayn Rand, Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, Asimov, Frank Herbert, Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, Philip K. Dick, Robert Ludlum, Samuel Beckett, George MacDonald, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Anne Rice, Ken Follet, and Anne McAffrey, just to name a few. Marc's tastes in music are just as eclectic as his tastes in everything else. Marc loves to load up his CD player with such diverse selections as Midnight Oil, Smashing Pumpkins, Enya, Amy Grant, Chagall Guevera, Angelo Badilamenti's Twin Peaks soundtrack, Alanis Morrisette, Keith Green, Danny Elfman, R.E.M., Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, 10,000 Maniacs, Ace of Base, They Might Be Giants, Cat Stevens, Tears for Fears, The Doors, and Peter Gabriel. In political matters, Marc is a bizarre mix of conservatism and liberalism. He calls himself a Libertarian now, and is proud that he has never voted for either a Republican or Democratic president. (That's the cynic in him.) Marc considers himself a conservative in the sense that he believes very strongly in morality and traditional family values, but he just as strongly believes that those values should not be imposed upon others. Marc is eminently logical, and believes that logic will convince others of the right path, not force. He thinks our present government is far too invasive and has no business interfering in our daily lives. Marc is against all but parental censorship. In all issues, Marc believes balance is the key. Too much of anything is fanaticism, and fanaticism overrules logic and common sense. On religion, Marc considers himself to be a Christian Existentialist, and his writing is usually about life-critical issues and decisions. Marc believes that anything not related to existential issues is meaningless, and life without meaning might as well not exist. Marc's goal in his writing is to demonstrate this, to literally point out that there are only two choices in life: suicide or living. Marc champions life but points out that true life must be chosen, not selected by default. Marc wants his writing to grasp people by the shoulders and shake them until their teeth rattle and they actually begin to look at the world around them and think. (For the best example of this, see Marc's short play, All At Once.) So, who is Marc? We'll have to wait and see what develops. Updated on Sat, Oct 2, 1999 at 10:07:08 AM. Contents Copyright ©1995-1998 by . All Rights Reserved.