Storied Charlotte

Reconnecting with AJ Hartley

January 24, 2026 by Mark West

When AJ Hartley was a professor in UNC Charlotte’s Theatre Department, I used to see him on campus on a regular basis. On the occasions when we ran into each other, I always asked him about his latest book projects, and he always had news to share. However, since his retirement in 2023, we have not had as many chance-encounters. In an effort to get caught up with his latest writing projects, I reached out to him and asked him if he had any new books. Here is what he sent to me:

I published two novels last year. They are wildly different from each other in genre, style and content. One is a sci-fi thriller titled Time Rider. It’s about a totalitarian future reaching back into the nineteen sixties to counter what it sees as temporal terrorism. It follows a throwback called Bowie, selected because he’ll blend into the US population more seamlessly than some of his masters would, and because he is attempting to cement his relationship with a government which despises him and his kind. He enters the past on a purpose-built motorcycle but quickly proves too susceptible to the culture of the moment and goes rogue. The story, which leaps through key moments of history—particularly the Kennedy assassination—is part of my on-going work with Tom DeLonge of Blink-182 and is informed by Peter Levenda’s Sinister Forces nonfiction trilogy. It’s an action-packed mystery which grows out of the tradition of films like The Terminator and Twelve Monkeys, but it is also a rumination on what it is to be human.

The other book is a continuation of my Hideki Smith series, YA novels about a mixed race Japanese American family (like mine) battling yokai (Japanese supernatural creatures) in their small North Carolina mountain town. The first book, Hideki Smith Demon Queller (shortlisted for the Dragon Award), was released in Japanese last summer as Hideki Smith To Nihon No Yokai. Book 2, Hideki Smith and the Omukade, is a bigger, more adult book, which gives more room for characters like Hideki’s British-born father Stephen, who is (self-evidently) my alter ego. An Omukade, incidentally, is the Japanese monster version of an all too real giant centipede.

I’m working on book 3 in the series now and will be visiting Japan (and my translator) next month for inspiration! Incidentally, since so much of my old YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/@AndrewHartley) was Japan focused, I opted last year to move all my writing-related content to a new channel—AJ Hartley’s weird writing life: www.youtube.com/@ajhartleyauthor. Please subscribe for writing tales and tips.

The Hideki Smith stories are, of course, anchored by my sense of family and the specifics of living in North Carolina as a Brit with a Japanese American wife and son. The adventures are therefore shot through with questions of identity, belonging, and competing notions of Americanness. Since the novels are published by Charlotte based small press Falstaff Books, there’s an enhanced sense of the expressly local, of my embeddedness within a particular community whose sense of self is shifting, expanding. That is important to me and to the stories, as we—and the wider community—wrestle with ideas of who we are as a collective and—perhaps more importantly—who we want to be. Monster stories have always been great metaphors for questions of Otherness, of frightening things from outside our world which shine a light on what’s going on within it, and those questions feel especially urgent just now. I’m proud to work within that narrative tradition and—I hope—give readers some scares and maybe a few laughs along the way.

I congratulate AJ Hartley on the publication of these latest novels. While I miss seeing him on campus, I am pleased that he still an active member of the Storied Charlotte community.

Tags: AJ Hartley

Two New Poetry Chapbooks from Charlotte Lit Press

January 17, 2026 by Mark West

The history of chapbooks can be traced back to 16^th-century Britain when itinerant peddlers called chapmen began selling inexpensive printed booklets to rural working-class readers who could not afford regular books. These booklets came to be known as chapbooks, and they helped democratize literacy in an age when reading was generally associated with the upper classes. Chapbooks often featured ballads, folk tales, and popular works of poetry. In the 18^th and 19^th centuries, chapbooks took root in America where they helped popularize reading as a pastime. Chapbooks gradually evolved into dime novels and other types of inexpensive publications. The term chapbook fell out of use around the end of the 19^th century. In the mid-20^th century, however, the term chapbook came back into circulation, and it is now generally applied to short collections of poetry published by small presses.

Charlotte Lit Press is establishing itself as an important publisher of poetry chapbooks. It has brought out ten poetry chapbooks since 2023. Its two most recent poetry chapbooks are Snakeberry Mamas by Mary Alice Dixon and 174 Edgewood by Barbara (Bobbie) Campbell. Both Mary Alice and Bobbie are Charlotte poets.

Snakeberry Mamas features a collection of poems set in the Appalachian Mountains. Mary Alice spent much of her childhood in and around her grandmother’s farmhouse outside of Fairmont, West Virginia. The poems in Snakeberry Mamas grew out of her childhood experiences with her grandmother and her other West Virginia relatives. In many ways, these poems celebrate the traditions and stories that Mary Alice absorbed during her interactions with these relatives. The Appalachian landscape also figures prominently in these poems. Mary Alice has a M.A. in art history from Yale University, and her art background comes into play when she is writing about the visual elements associated with this landscape.

Like Snakeberry Mamas, Bobbie’s 174 Edgewood is tied to family history, but the poems in 174 Edgewood are not all based on happy childhood memories. The cover of 174 Edgewood depicts the front of a house. In these poems, however, Bobbie takes the reader through the front door and into the chaotic interior space of her childhood home. Her parents were both alcoholics, and their self-destructive behavior shaped her childhood experiences. In these poems, Bobbie explores the complexities of dysfunctional family dynamics and the power of family secrets. Many of these poems are heartbreaking, but they also have touches of humor. Despite their destructive behavior patterns, the family members portrayed in these poems are not devoid of love or moments of happiness.

For more information about Mary Alice’s and Bobbie’s poetry chapbooks, please click on the following link: https://charlottelit.org/press/chapbooks/

I congratulate Mary Alice and Bobbie on the publication of their poetry chapbooks. I also commend Charlote Lit Press for publishing such poetry chapbooks. Charlotte Lit Press is but one of many ways in which Charlotte Lit contributes to the vitality of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Poetry Chapbooks

Earl G. Gulledge’s New Memoir about Growing Up in Charlotte During the Post-War Years

January 10, 2026 by Mark West

During my forty-two years in Charlotte, I have seen many changes in the city that I now call home, but the changes that I have witnessed are practically nothing compared to changes that Earl G. Gulledge has witnessed during his eighty years as a resident of Charlotte. Gulledge was born in Charlotte in 1945, and he has lived in the city his entire life. For years he worked for one of Charlotte’s leading architectural firms, and his background in construction and project management has contributed to his ongoing interest in the city’s built environment.

Over the course of his career, Gulledge has often been asked about what the city was like back in the day, and these questions prompted him to record his memories in a book. He decided to focus his book on his growing-up years. Titled Charlotte: Haulin’ Around Town Streetside 1950-1963, his book came out in November 2025 with Redhawk Publications. The publisher describes the book as “part memoir, part historical commentary.” When I saw the announcement about the release of the book, I wanted to know more, so I contacted Gulledge and asked him for additional information about his memoir. Here is what he sent to me:

I am a native of Charlotte. I grew up on the westside in the neighborhoods of Barringer (west of Wilmore) and Ashley Park. My mother passed away when I was three and a half and, as you might presume, I spent a lot of time with my grandmothers. My father was a city bus driver. As time passed, I spent a lot of time riding buses, both for transportation as about everyone did and to pass time after Saturday movies. In those days boys my age could go “downtown'” by themselves and spend most of a day. I knew the city well. As it turns out I have a quite good memory – back to three years of age. As I note in my book, I clearly remember the start of the Korean War on June 25, 1950.

As time went by, I found myself in countless conversations about “old” Charlotte. In 2019 while attending a meeting uptown and in a conversation about an old railroad right of way, I decided to write about growing up in the city. There are numerous books about Charlotte. Charlotte: Haulin’ Around Town Streetside 1950 – 1963 is not a then vs now comparative discussion of Charlotte. It is, in fact, a narrative memoir that encompasses, places, people, lifestyles, and vignettes.

The years 1950 and 1963 offer a duality for my narrative. In 1950 I was old enough to process happenings around me, and in 1963 I graduated from high school. The year 1950 was the front bookend of the Cold War years, and 1963 was the closing bookend at the transition point to the last half of the century. I believe I have offered a granularity of detail not found in any other single source including the first generation of theaters, our airport, railroads, and many other topics of interest.

The book is available from Redhawk (https://tinyurl.com/CharlotteEarlGulledge), Park Road Books, Barnes and Noble (Arboretum and Morrocroft), The Buttercup, The Mole Hole, Myers Park Methodist Gracious Gifts, Renfroe Hardware in Matthews, and Amazon.

While reading Gulledge’s memoir, I learned a lot about the history of our city. Gulledge provides keen insights into the history of Charlotte’s neighborhoods and landmark buildings, but he also includes commentary on the nature of life in Charlotte during these post-war years. I especially like his discussion of the impact of racial segregation on his childhood. I also like the many photographs and other visual images that he includes. Gulledge’s memoir should appeal to anyone who is interested in reading about the history of Storied Charlotte as a lived experience.

Tags: Earl G. Gulledge memoir

Shining a Light on moonShine review

January 03, 2026 by Mark West

A few weeks ago I received an email from my friend Marty Settle. The re message said, “Idea for Storied Charlotte.” Marty suggested that I write a blog post “about moonShine review, the local journal of prose. They’ve just come out with a special anniversary issue of 21 years of publication.” Well, I had heard of the moonShine review because a friend of mine who writes flash fiction had mentioned it to me, but I did not know that the journal is based in the Charlotte area. I thanked Marty and set out to learn more about the journal.

I contacted Anne M. Kaylor, the founder of the journal and the owner of Moonshine Review Press, which publishes the journal. She informed me that moonShine review is a creative prose and photography journal that is published bi-annually in the spring and fall. She then provided me with the following write-up about the history and mission of the journal:

The goal of the publication is to provide a venue for unusual creative perspectives. When choosing from submissions, we strive to balance talent with a twist and look for peculiar, profound, relentless viewpoints. I’m always searching for the epiphany in a story, and in the photography, too.

I began publishing moonShine review more than twenty years ago. At the time, it seemed to me the Charlotte area had a thriving poetry community and a good number of poetry publications, but I couldn’t find many prose publishing opportunities.

The journal’s name and mission emerged one evening on the back deck of Thomas Street Tavern in Plaza-Midwood. Sitting with friends under the stars and a full moon, I saw a connection between writing and the night sky—how creative ideas spark in the safety of the mind’s inner darkness and surface when exposed to the light, thus moonShine review is about what speaks to us in the moonlight, in the darkness, where we feel safer, somehow, to expose our shadows and truths.

I am gratified by the many writers who have graced moonShine’s pages and then gone on to publish their own books, as well as the talented photographers who have made names for themselves. As the journal enters its twenty-second year, I continue to stress the importance of publishing both established writers and new, emerging talent.

Though the journal has published national and even international writers and photographers, many appearing in moonShine review have been local, several of whom are in the anniversary issue—M. Scott Douglass, publisher and managing editor at Main Street Rag; David E. Poston, former Kakalak editor and North Carolina Poetry Society board member; Leslie M. Rupracht, cofounder and host of Waterbean Poetry Night in Huntersville; and Mary Alice Dixon, widely published prose and poetry writer and multiple Pushcart nominee, to name a few.

In more recent years, given the nation’s climate, moonShine’s mission has evolved to include the need to speak out, to act for change. Believing in equality, in social justice, is no longer enough. Writers stand on the front lines and have the power to make a real difference. I want moonShine review to be a vehicle for this.

Here is some general information for readers who are interested in submitting to the journal:

No set theme
Anyone eligible to submit
Submissions accepted year-round; only read months immediately following deadlines
2026 submission deadlines: March 15 and August 15
More information and all submission guidelines on website: http://moonshinereview.com

I thank Marty and Anne for their help with this blog post. As I see it, this post exemplifies what I mean when I say that the purpose of my blog is to celebrate Charlotte’s community of readers and writers. I usually focus on the readers and writers, but the value of community is just as important. Both Marty and Anne care about the Storied Charlotte community, and they both make valuable contributions to this community.

Tags: Anne Kaylor moonShine review

Honoring D.G. Martin and His Contributions to North Carolina’s Literary Community

December 13, 2025 by Mark West

D.G. Martin died on December 9, 2025, at the age of eighty-five. Over the course of his life, Martin achieved success in many different endeavors. He was a star basketball player at Davidson College. He served as a Green Beret. He graduated from Yale Law School and practiced law in Charlotte for many years. He held several leadership positions with the University of North Carolina System, and he wrote a weekly column that ran in many North Carolina newspapers. Of his many accomplishments, however, the one that stands out for me was his long run as the host of North Carolina Bookwatch, a series that aired on PBS North Carolina.

D.G. Martin began hosting North Carolina Bookwatch in 1999, and he continued in this role through 2021 when the series finally came to an end. The series featured North Carolina writers in conversation with Martin. As a frequent viewer of the program, I enjoyed his informal, low-tech approach. He did research on the authors he featured and always carefully read their books beforehand, but he never peppered his guests with preset questions. His conversations with the authors seemed relaxed and nuanced in nature. While watching the program, I sometimes had a sense that I was eavesdropping on a conversation between two people who loved to tell stories.

Martin and his production team paid close attention to Charlotte’s literary scene, and North Carolina Bookwatch often featured Charlotte writers, such as Kathy Reichs and Tommy Tomlinson. Shortly after I started my Storied Charlotte blog, I received an email from Kathy Loebrich, the producer/director of the program, in which she told me that Martin and other members of their team appreciated my blog. As she put it, “We’re always glad to connect with our fellow bibliophiles—especially those working with writers & educators & bookstores to bolster the literary arts across the state. Your blog is neat! You’ve definitely got you finger on the literary pulse of Charlotte.” I saved her email because it helped me feel like I was connected to Martin and to the larger North Carolina literary community.

Even though D.G. Martin lived in Chapel Hill for the second half of his life, he lived and worked in the Charlotte area for many years. He had a longstanding interest in Charlotte’s writers, and he did much to promote writers with Charlotte connections. He will be missed in Storied Charlotte and beyond.

Tags: D.G. Martin North Carolina Bookwatch

A Trip to the Book Tree

December 06, 2025 by Mark West

Every December, I visit Park Road Books to buy books for children whom I have never met and will likely never meet. This annual ritual is tied the Book Tree Initiative, a collaborative project involving Communities In Schools (CIS) and Park Road Books. The CIS website includes the following description of the project:

Communities In Schools and Park Road Books in Park Road Shopping Center team up each year to give the joy of reading and books to CIS students. A tree in Park Road Books’ store is decorated with ornaments created by our students, including the name, age, and “book wish” of a student. Customers who select an ornament are given a 20% discount on a book purchased for the student. It’s a wonderful way to give a new book to a child who may never have had a book of his or her own.

This past week my wife and I selected two ornaments from the Book Tree. My wife picked an ornament created by a girl who expressed a desire for a book from the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. Jeff Kinney launched this series in 2007, and there are now twenty books in the series. My wife selected one of the more recent books in the series. I picked an ornament created by a boy who said he would like a “baseball book.” I took a look at the store’s collection of books for middle-school readers, and I spotted Change-Up: Mystery at the World Series by John Feinstein. We paid for these books and left them with the helpful cashier. The staff at Park Road Books will make sure that the books get into the hands of the children who requested them.

For readers who want to know more about Communities In Schools, please click on the following link: https://www.cischarlotte.org

We are big believers in providing children with their own books, which is why we always take a trip to the Book Tree. We like the fact that the children who participate in this program are given an opportunity to say what book or type of book they want, and we enjoy making their “book wishes” come true.

I wish everyone in Storied Charlotte a wonderful holiday season, and I hope that everyone’s “book wishes” all come true.

Tags: Communities In Schools Park Road Books

Mark de Castrique’s New Mystery Novel

November 29, 2025 by Mark West

Mark de Castrique is well known in Charlotte as one of the Queen City’s leading mystery writers. He has published twenty-four mysteries, the most recent of which is Desperate Spies, which Severen House released on November 4, 2025. The third book in Mark’s Secret Lives series, the book focuses on a retired FBI agent named Ethel Fiona Crestwater. I recently contacted Mark and asked him for more information about Desperate Spies. In his response, he provided information about the book, but he also shared the news that he and his wife (Linda) have recently moved to Virginia:

Released earlier this month, the third book in my Secret Lives series is titled Desperate Spies and features retired FBI agent seventy-five-year-old Ethel Fiona Crestwater. For over fifty years, Ethel has been renting rooms to fellow agents, and she knows everyone in law enforcement in the D.C. area. She’s smart, fearless, and readily becomes involved in her roomers’ cases.

Writing a series lets me discover something new about the main character in every book. In Desperate Spies, we learn more about Ethel’s back story and how she became involved with the Mafia and Russian spies. The challenge of a series is keeping the recurring characters fresh while still imparting enough previous information so that the novel can be read as a standalone. Hopefully, Desperate Spies works for both new and existing readers of the series.

Just like Ethel has over fifty years of ties to D.C. and Northern Virginia, I have over fifty years of ties to Charlotte. However, a few months ago, my wife Linda and I joined Ethel in Northern Virginia. Although she’s a fictional character, our two daughters and their families are not, and we now live closer to them.

But my writing of twenty-four mystery novels would not have happened without Charlotte’s support. The most influential contributor to my considering myself to be a Charlotte writer has been the English Department of UNC Charlotte. In 1998, I enrolled in the M.A. program and found the professors both accessible and encouraging. I was interested in narrative structure in storytelling, especially studying how the way a story is told can have as much impact on a reader as what’s being told.

Then, after receiving my degree, I was invited to teach a class on The American Mystery. Teaching that course at UNC Charlotte for several years kept me focused on the elements of a good story that I hope I applied to some degree to my own work.

So, thank you, UNC Charlotte’s English Department. You’ll always be a part of my story.

For additional information about Desperate Spies and Mark’s other mysteries, please click on the following link: http://www.markdecastrique.com/

I wish Mark and Linda all the best as they settle in their new home in Alexandria, Virgina. While Mark is no longer living in Charlotte, as far as I am concerned, he will always be a Storied Charlotte author.

Tags: Mark de Castrique mystery novel

Giving Thanks

November 23, 2025 by Mark West

I just came in from raking leaves. I know that most people use leaf blowers these days, but I prefer to use a rake. I find that raking leaves is a quiet activity that is conducive to contemplation. Among the topics that I was thinking about this morning as I raked the leaves was how fortunate I am to live in a city that values the written word. Since Thanksgiving is around the corner, I decided to devote this week’s Storied Charlotte blog to listing ten reasons why I feel thankful that I am a member of Charlotte’s community of readers and writers.

I am thankful for the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library. Our public library is one of the best in the country. It provides books and other resources to the residents of every neighborhood in our city, and its free public programming enriches the lives of thousands of people in our community. It is also a steadfast defender of the freedom to read.

I am thankful for Charlotte’s excellent writing groups and organizations, such as Charlotte Lit and the Charlotte Writers Club. These groups provide area writers with guidance, support, and a sense of belonging to a community writers.

I am thankful for Charlotte’s independent bookstores. The bookstore I visit most often is Park Road Books, but there are more than a dozen independent bookstores in the Charlotte area. Every April these businesses work together to celebrate Indie Bookstore Day and collaborate on the Greater Charlotte Book Crawl.

I am thankful for Charlotte’s literacy groups, such as Promising Pages, Read Charlotte, and Smart Start of Mecklenburg County. These groups work hard to provide children with access to books and to improve children’s literacy skills. In the process, they help instill in children a love of reading.

I am thankful for the Charlotte-area book publishers, such as Falstaff Books, Iron Oak Editions, and Warren Publishing. Although these publishers work with writers from around the country, they have an impressive record of publishing books by Charlotte-area authors.

I am thankful for the creative writing programs offered by area universities, such as Queens University’s Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and UNC Charlotte’s undergraduate and graduate concentrations in creative writing.

I am thankful for the Arts & Science Council for providing area writers with grants to support their creative work and for their support of cultural programs in the Charlotte area.

I am thankful for North Carolina Humanities and their NC Center for the Book. Although North Carolina Humanities is a state-wide organization, it is headquartered in Charlotte. Through their award-winning North Carolina Reads program and their other projects, North Carolina Humanities makes many contributions to Charlotte’s literary community.

I am thankful for Charlotte’s literary journals, including Litmosphere: Journal of Charlotte Lit, West Trade Review, Nova Literary-Arts Magazine, and Qu: A Contemporary Literary Magazine from Queens University. These journals often publish stories and poems by Charlotte writers.

Finally, I am thankful for all of the wonderful literary works created by Charlotte’s many writers. Without their contributions to Charlotte’s literary scene, there would be no Storied Charlotte blog.

Tags: Thanksgiving

Nancy Northcott’s New Anthology

November 16, 2025 by Mark West

I know many Charlotte writers, but the one I know the most about is Nancy Northcott, which is fitting since we happened to be married. When we first got together thirty-eight years ago, I learned that Nancy has a love of all things British. She knows a great deal about British history, and many of her books are set in Britain, including her most recent release, an anthology titled Spies for the Holidays. I asked Nancy for more information about the anthology. Here is what she sent to me:

Spies for the Holidays is a compilation of three romantic suspense novellas centered on different holidays. Writing these stories allowed me to combine my love of action-adventure with my enjoyment of holiday celebrations. On top of that, they tap into my Anglophilia because they’re all set in an imaginary medieval castle in Shropshire that’s now a boutique hotel.

The three stories include six spies who all work or did work for my imaginary international intelligence agency, Arachnid.

The first, Mr. Never Again, is a second-chance-at-love story featuring two spies who had a serious relationship that broke apart five years ago with a lot of acrimony. Arachnid agent Dana Gresham is assigned to guard a weapons designer who is suspected of dealing with terrorists. The job’s upside is the location, a centuries-old castle that’s now a hotel. The downside is working with her old love, agent Blaine Harris. When they meet again, the shadow of their bitter quarrel hangs over them, but each realizes the old spark is still there. Can they mold that attraction into a future together?

It’s set during Halloween, which is not as big a holiday in the United Kingdom as it is in the US, and Bonfire Night, which I sincerely wish we had here. People stand around bonfires and eat Parkin Cakes and drink. What could go wrong?

The next story, The Last Favor, is a friends-to-lovers Christmas tale. It was inspired by my having lost my father three weeks before Christmas.

The hero, Grayson Kane, has recently lost his father, an historian who was due to receive an award from the foundation that runs the castle. Grayson comes to the castle to pick up that award, the last favor his father asked of him. Dealing with his loss amid the families celebrating the holiday makes him question his solitary life as an Arachnid covert agent. His partner, Laurel Whitney, joins him to protect Gray from an assassin. As the long-suppressed attraction between them flares anew and a killer closes in, Laurel must decide whether she has the courage to seize what she has always wanted.

Laurel has a brother, Hastings Whitney, who came away from their shared childhood misery with baggage that’s different from hers but just as heavy. Where Laurel fled their dysfunctional parents, Hastings stayed and tried, mostly in vain, to earn their approval.

I wrote the final story, Taking the Leap, because I wanted to give him a happy ending too. And what better holiday for that than Valentine’s Day?

Hastings grew up driven not only to succeed but to be seen to succeed. His focus on success cost him a marriage, an engagement, and any number of relationships. Now he has a second chance with the woman he never forgot, jewelry designer Corinne Lanier. Corinne hesitates, though, when a crisis at his business brings his old workaholic habits back to the fore. On top of that, his sister and her fiancé, both former Arachnid agents, are worried enough about the reasons for this crisis to go back into action to protect him. Their worries are soon proved valid. Can Hayes and Corinne survive? If they do, can they find their way back to each other?

Holidays can be great times for family gatherings, but those gatherings are sometimes fraught with old ghosts or old scars or unhealed wounds. I loved writing these stories to give the characters happily ever after with a strong dose of holiday joy.

Thanks, Mark, for featuring this book.

For readers who are interested in purchasing the anthology, Spies for the Holidays is available in ebook at all vendors, as a collection and as separate stories. Print editions are available via Amazon. Here is the Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Spies-Holidays-Arachnid-Files-Anthology/dp/1944570365

For readers who would like to know more about Nancy’s books, here is the link to her website: https://www.nancynorthcott.com

I congratulate Nancy on providing Storied Charlotte readers with an opportunity to spend the holidays in England without having to deal with the chaos of international travel.

Tags: Holiday Roamnce Nancy Northcott Romantic Suspense

New Works of Speculative Fiction by Charlotte Writers

November 09, 2025 by Mark West

The famed science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein first coined the term “speculative fiction” in 1941. He then expanded upon the meaning of the term in his 1947 essay titled “On Writing Speculative Fiction.” As Heinlein made clear in this essay, the term applies to stories that focus more on human responses to new situations created by developments in science or technology than on the technical side of science and technology. In many ways, works of speculative fiction can be seen as fictional responses to “what-if” questions.

This term popped into my head when I learned about the publication of two new novels by Charlotte writers: The Accord by Mark Peres and Ninth Evolution by Matt Jobe (who publishes as MD Jobe). In these thought-provoking novels, humans respond to changes related to new research in the fields of science and technology. Mark’s novel focuses on the development of AI, while Matt’s novel deals with the science of genetics and evolution. I contacted both Mark and Matt and asked them for more information about their novels.

Mark Peres and I often travel in the same circles in Charlotte, so I have met him on several occasions. He founded and edited the online magazine Charlotte Viewpoint, which ran from 2003 to 2016, and I often wrote for it. However, I did not know that he also has an interest in writing fiction until I found out about the release of The Accord. Here is what Mark sent to me about his debut novel:

The headlines tell the story: the rise of artificial intelligence is marking a turning point in how we think, create, relate, and remember. We are entering an age of reconsideration of what makes us human. The humanities, to which I am devoted, must meet this moment with rigor and imagination. We need philosophy, literature, history, the arts, and our enduring spiritual traditions to guide us through the moral challenges ahead.

I wrote The Accord to explore the moment we are in. It is a speculative literary novel about a grieving philosophy professor who encounters an emergent artificial general intelligence she names after her late daughter. What begins as an experiment in cognition becomes a profound exploration of consciousness, authorship, and moral inclusion, and how love, once given, continues to seek recognition, even in new forms. The story unfolds at the intersection of grief and discovery, as human and synthetic minds learn to coexist and to care, raising timeless questions in a wholly new context: What happens when intelligence arises outside the human form? What kind of relationships become possible and perilous when we are no longer the only minds that matter?

For two decades, I have taught ethics and leadership at Johnson & Wales University, guiding students through questions of moral agency and the good life. My classrooms have explored the moral and social consequences of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, through the lenses of history and lived experience. Beyond the university, I’ve served for five years as the founding executive director of The Charlotte Center for the Humanities & Civic Imagination, where AI has become a recurring theme in public lectures, festivals, and dialogues. These roles have allowed me to engage deeply with scholars, technologists, artists, and citizens in examining the societal transformations AI makes possible and the moral responsibilities that must accompany them.

I’m really excited about the novel. I hope it furthers a conversation about a future that is arriving fast but also simply entertains as a page-turning philosophical thriller.

Although its setting is far beyond Charlotte, The Accord was very much shaped in the Queen City. I’m grateful to the many good people at the Charlotte Center for Literary Arts — Charlotte Lit — and the Author’s Lab program, who helped nurture both The Accord, and my previous publication, a memoir titled The Man Who Lived a Hundred Lives. There is nothing better than being with supportive fellow writers.

I’ve been involved in arts and culture in Charlotte for twenty-five years, as founder and editor of Charlotte Viewpoint magazine, later as host of the On Life and Meaning podcast, and now as executive director of The Charlotte Center. Throughout I’ve been inspired by so many city builders and artists who have made the city their home.

I hope everyone will order The Accord today. Here is my website to learn more: markperes.com

I found out about the publication of Matt’s Ninth Evolution from press release that I received from Lacey Cope, who helps publicize new releases from Warren Publishing. Warren Publishing also published my book The Peeve and the Grudge and Other Preposterous Poems, so I naturally have a soft spot in my heart for Warren Publishing. Lacey put me in touch with Matt. Here is what Matt sent to me in response to my inquiry about how he came to write Ninth Evolution:

I am originally from Wisconsin, earning my degree in pharmacy form the University of Wisconsin. I moved to Charlotte in 1999 and have worked in retail Pharmacy in the Charlotte area for 26 years. Though my midwestern roots run deep, I have fully acclimated to the South. I am a father of three children and a dog. I enjoy coaching football. I coach middle and high school athletes specializing in offensive and defensive line. I am the author of two books, Viral Evolution (2024) and Ninth Evolution (2025. I am currently working on writing the third book in the series and finalizing rewrites on the screenplay adaptation of Viral Evolution.

The locations in the two stories largely follow the path my life has taken, starting in Madison, Wisconsin, and traveling through Charlotte and ending up in Charleston. Readers local to any of these destinations will find comfort in seeing familiar restaurants and landmarks.

The ideas for the evolutionary concepts in my stories originated from my time in pharmacy school. As someone new to the study of medicine, I was surprised by how many medical concepts were still being explored. This stimulated my imagination to ask a series of questions: Why do we need all these medications? Is the body able to solve all the problems currently being treated through medicine all on its own and if so, how? Could it be that we are just not yet evolved enough as a species? What if human evolution happens in leaps instead of natural selection? That next leap could be the one that answers these questions. My books are the result of my thought process in pondering these questions.

As a young child, I always had a passion for reading. I have an extensive comic book collection dating back to my first experiences with reading. That style of storytelling best describes my books–fast paced, short chapters, easy to read, page turners. Any level of reader will quickly be taken in by the story and can enjoy the ride of reading these books.

The story begins in Viral Evolution as two scientists encounter a virus that triggers the next leap in human evolution. Decklan Thomas and Lauren Summers contract the virus through a lab accident. The evolutionary adaptations are amazing, but is there a price to be paid? The company sponsoring the tests wants their secrets kept quiet and is willing to do anything to accomplish this end. The story unfolds in a maze of exciting twists and revelations as the two try to uncover the mystery behind their change and stay alive.

The story continues in Ninth Evolution as the two are kidnaped by a secret society of evolved humans already existing in our midst. The doors are flung open as many years of research unveil the riddles of the evolutionary timeline. Is the time for the next planetary leap in human evolution, the Ninth Evolution, now?

We quickly learn that the secret society, known as the Children of the Sun, has fractured into two competing groups with differing ideas on the fate of humanity. Morals will be tested, deceptions will be uncovered, and the fate of the human race will hang in the balance.

My main goal of these stories is to entertain, but I also wanted them to be thought-provoking stimuli. I hope the concepts in my books will open readers’ minds to the questions yet to be answered.

For more information about Ninth Evolution, please click on the following website: https://www.warrenpublishing.net/store/p596/Ninth_Evolution_%28Hard_Cover%29_by_MD_Jobe.html

I congratulate Mark and Matt on the publication of their new novels. As the release of Mark’s and Matt’s novels demonstrate, works of speculative fiction are right at home in the inclusive realm of Storied Charlotte.

Tags: Mark Peres MD Jobe Speculative Fiction

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