In the News: 

Christmas Comes Early for Onspaugh

Mark Rodriguez with MDR Entertainment optioned “Yule Be Mine” from writer Mark Onspaugh after discovering the script on InkTip.  Mark Rodriguez has an eye for marketable stories, and he’s had a lot of easy success on InkTip in the past since discovering the "Spooner Brothers Mystery Adventures" and "Dorsai," a sci-fi adventure series based on the classic best-selling novel (which a brilliant writer optioned, adapted, and then posted on InkTip).  Rodriguez made an offer on “Yule Be Mine” because his wife and daughter both loved the script, and he knew it’d resonate with a family audience.  And in fact, it’s working its way up the ladder at a family network right now.  This isn’t Onspaugh’s first option through InkTip; recently, his script for “Kill Katie Malone” was produced just two months after being discovered on the site.  Onspaugh is one of those rare writers who can work in any genre, and he has a handful of scripts available on InkTip right now.


Another InkTip Script Goes to Camera

Director Carlos Ramos Jr. and Executive Producer Carlton Hickman of Tainted Films are shooting a script found through InkTip right now! The script, titled "Kill Katie Malone" by Mark Onspaugh, was discovered by Carlos on InkTip just this past August – less than two months ago – and was financed, packaged and scheduled in just that short amount of time, as principle photography commenced this past weekend. Masiela Lusha (of Sony’s "Blood: The Last Vampire"), Dean Cain (featured on the InkTip Magazine recently for his lead role in "Hidden Camera"), Nick Hogan (of VH1's "Hogan Knows Best"), and Stephen Coletti (of Newline's "Normal Adolescent Behavior") fill out the cast for this picture. And you're probably already familiar with Mark Onspaugh's work; he was a co-writer on the Newline cult zombedy "Flight of the Living Dead," and has had a bevy of options through InkTip already.


Tainted Films Options InkTip Scribe's Script

Producer/Director Carlos Ramos Jr. and Executive Producer Carlton Hickman ("Blood Night") of Tainted Films have optioned "Kill Katie Malone" by InkTip writer Mark Onspaugh.  Carlos currently has several television series in development and just wrapped a series for CBS titled "The Secret Truth."  Mark is no stranger to many InkTip members; his name often appears in the InkTip announcements due to optioning several scripts in the past year.  He co-wrote the 2007 zombedy classic, "Flight of the Living Dead," which was distributed by New Line Cinema. 

And, according to Variety, producers Melanie Wagor and Simon Johnson have scheduled production to begin on October 12th and casting is underway....


Works in Progress/Projects

Mark has recently completed a re-write for Flight of the Living Dead director Scott Thomas, and currently has two other films under option.  He is at work on several new projects.

In the fiction category, Mark He has sold nearly three dozen short stories and an academic essay on slasher films in the past couple of years.  He is collaborating with Joe McKinney on a horror anthology, The Forsaken, for 23 HOuse.  It will be somewhat similar to Joe's current zombie anthology Dead Set for which Joe is the co-editor and in which Mark also has a story.  See a short promo below....






Fiction News 

Mark's story "The Song of Absent Birds" appears in the zombie anthology The World Is Dead, edited by Kim Paffenroth.  The story received a glowing review from Adicus Ryan Garton of the Susurrus Press and editor of Atomjack magazine, who writes:

"Last in the Love section is the highlight of the anthology, hands down. “The Song of Absent Birds” by Mark Onspaugh is simply astonishing. The story is set against a civilization that has gone hi-tech and moved underground. A doctor, nearly eighty years old, goes to the surface to see his wife, zombified now for sixty years and tracked with a GPS unit. I don’t even want to spoil any more of the story. The descriptions, the consequences, the fact that heartwarming and heartbreaking love exist so completely and honestly in this story was breathtaking."

Several anthologies that Mark has recently sold stories to are receiving favorable reviews.  Shadows of the Emerald City edited by the talented JW Schnarr for Northern Frights publishing is getting lots of favorable coverage and got a 5 star review from the science fiction/horror blog at Apex Books.  Jennifer Brozek said about Mark's story, "Dr Will Price and the Curious Case of Dorothy Gale"

This opening story of psychiatry and finding a place in Oz left me with my mouth hanging open and shaking my head. I turned to my husband, saying, “If all of the stories are like this one, you won’t see me until morning.” 

POW!erful Tales from Peryton Publishing gets high marks from Eposic's Ken St. Andre and Michael K. Eidson who writes,

"Legacy" by Mark Onspaugh (an HWA member and one of my favorite upcoming authors, btw) is a prime example of a story that goes straight for the jugular vein. Onspaugh knows how to unfold a tale, feeding you just enough to pull you curiously along, until you reach the end and learn—the terrifying truth.

And "Master of Alternate History" novelist Harry Turtledove said nice things about Mark's story in his introduction to The Book of Exodi. Mark's story is titled "Please Turn Out The Lights When You Leave" and Turtledove writes,

The story doesn’t explain why we’re here, but it sure does tell us where – and when, and why – we’re leaving. It’s funny, too, often painfully so.

See more praise under Prose on Mark's Press page   


A note about the Photographs:

All the B&W photographs on this site are shot at central coast locations, taken by Mark with an assortment of disposable cameras, drug store film processing and no additional editing or tweaking.

 irish hills farm, san luis obispo 2007