I’ve lived enough decades to know that every chapter of life feels like a different book. I started writing in my thirties, stopped for a long while, raised two beautiful daughters, and eventually found my way back to the page—older, sharper, and far more curious about the strange machinery beneath ordinary life. I write stories where the familiar tilts, where voices argue from the back room, where memory lies, and where characters like Clay Dorado refuse to stay dead. I still believe in notebooks, real books, and the magic of finding old words written by a past self for a future one.

On weekends you’ll find me in a Jersey diner, drinking coffee, listening, watching, shaping the next story. Other nights I’m out with a telescope, staring into the universe and wondering if anything is staring back.

I write about courage that comes from the smallest voices, and monsters that aren’t always the ones hiding under the bed.

Life is wonderful, weird, fragile, a struggle, ending, and occasionally hilarious. The best any of us can do is pay attention, bookmark the important parts of our pasts, and stay present with the people we choose to love.

With each sale of Milton — if there are any — a portion of the royalties will support organizations doing work that matters:

• The Clinton Foundation

• National Audubon Society

• NAMI – National Alliance on Mental Illness

• Homeward Bound Pet Adoption Center (Gloucester Township, NJ)

Be authentic. Be yourselves.

Wishing you luck and laughs in your lives.

Mark Nuzzi