I’m happy to welcome award-winning author and poet Mark A. Hill. Today, Mark shares his creative journey and new release, Mitchell Rose and the Bologna Massacre.
Here’s Mark!
What was your inspiration for this book?
I have always written, whether it be poetry, lessons, courseware or angry notes on the fridge to my wife and son. Writing is an emotional release, a way of saying things that you don’t have the time or energy to express during the working day.
I have had my poetry published in assorted collections. I had written two somewhat complex, obscure novels and notwithstanding the many compliments on my style and the kind words received, I’d had difficulty in finding a willing publisher. Besides, I guess you never know if someone is really complimenting you when you receive a selection of rejections. I decided that I needed a more structured approach to writing so I decided I would write a crime novel.
In 2019, I was teaching a group of judges and ex-judges in Bologna. It was a state sponsored courses that Italian institutions organize for certain privileged social groups and during those lessons, we started to talk about the Bologna massacre of 1980. That year, there was a terrorist bombing of Bologna Centrale railway station, which killed 85 people and injured over 200. It was Italy’s most serious terrorist attack. Several members of the neo-fascist terrorist organization Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei) were subsequently sentenced for the bombing.
I did some reading around the subject and decided that the whole incident was so compelling and there were so many conspiracy theories that reverberated around it, that there was probably enough material for a novel.
What is the best part of being an author? The worst?
The best part is being able to create something tangible with all the stuff that is going on in my head. The noises become reality.
The worst thing is all the thoroughly necessary revision that has to be done by me and the editing team.
Describe your writing space.
It’s a fairly cluttered desk. There’s a photo of my son a and a load of notes about work to complete and different types of writing I aim to engage in today.
Which authors have inspired you?
I can tell you who my favourite writers are, but I’m not sure if that will give you much of a clue as to how the book is written or what the book feels like. I guess they’ve inspired me because they are all brilliant.
What can I say? Shakespeare, Austen, Dostoyevsky, Mailer, Sartre, Salinger. All writers who wrote like angels and one could only ever hope to emulate, people I imagine I probably won’t get close to. I guess the nearest thing to an inspiration would be Raymond Chandler or Georges Simeon? In fact, what I started doing was reading through these old pamphlet-like novelettes that my father-in-law had accumulated from the 1950s and 1960s and I read them in Italian and tried to use then as a style guide. Whenever I sensed that my writing was becoming too high-flown, I would stop myself, go back to these pamphlets and try to tone down the style. Out with the adjectives, trim down the adverbs, absolutely no use of a Thesaurus, Mark. Just try to tell the reader what is happening
What is your favorite quote?
“What matters most is how well you walk through the fire.” Charles Bukowski.
If you had a superpower, what would it be?
I’d just go forward in time, collect some information, place a few bets, and put a little bit of money in the bank. Life would be easier.
Besides writing and reading, what are some of your hobbies?
I swim 9 months a year in the sea in front of my house and I cycle. I read lots, clearly.
Any advice for aspiring writers?
At the risk of being banal, it’s like a start-up; set yourself goals, work hard, don’t be disheartened by rejection, and perhaps most importantly, don’t give up the day job or invest all your time and money in one single idea.
I always look on with wonder when I see those Hollywood films where the husband/boyfriend declares that he’s gonna quit his teaching post for two years and write the great American novel. Without exception, it is always a man. The girlfriend/wife acquiesces and agrees to bring up the children and work the night shift as a grinder chipper for the following two years. Inevitably, the book remains unfinished, unpublished, and gets pulped. Surprisingly, the great American novel rarely emerges. You might write something good; you might get something published; you might even make some money. However, you have to recognize that it’s incredibly unlikely that you are gonna’ write the great American novel.
What are you working on next?
The follow-up to this novel, “Mitchell Rose and the London Bombings,” and I am promoting my collected poems around Italy from January. Here’s the link.
Blurb
Mitchell Rose and the Bologna Massacre is a crime story that explores the last fifty years of cross-fertilisation between the Italian criminal underworld, its secret services, politics and the judicial system.
When Mitchell Rose is called to Milan by Remo Rhimare, a local judge who wants him to investigate the Bologna bombing of 1980, he knows it would make more sense to turn the job down.
To make things even more complicated, Rhimare also wants Rose to rein in his errant daughter, who is becoming increasingly wayward.
As Rose begins to investigate, the two missions surprisingly become one, culminating in a dreadful dramatic climax.
Excerpt
I twitched nervously. The will to move out of there and toward the action was strong. I wanted to be an integral part of the scene that I could see reflected there in the mobile phone. Alessandra raised a hand and made a gesture that encouraged me to stay put. In doing so, she touched me softly on the left shoulder with her long fingernails. Being discovered there would put me back to square one. Robuyuki was gonna get his from Cambio’s guards, but I had to stay still, I couldn’t move.
“It’s also my favourite drink.” The chef offered.
“But you don’t drink, Robuyuki.”
Robuyuki lifted the glass to his lips and forced the drink down his neck, licking his lips with satisfaction.
Cambio had been silenced and we heard the clumped, mechanical tramping of feet as they exited the restaurant. Alessandra heaved a sigh of relief and we slowly moved apart. I poured a glass of Grand Marnier into the glass that I had seized and we shared it there in the cellar. The sense of relief was overwhelming and we hugged each other, but without the intensity that there had been between us moments before. There was still a layer of fear that lay like a film across the room, and that fear had rendered us sexless siblings. Robuyuki knocked on the cellar door and we climbed back up and thanked him sincerely.
Author Bio and Links
Mark is a novelist, poet, translator and English teacher. He has lived in Cagliari, Italy for 33 years.
His poetry has been published in The UK Poetry Library’s Top Writers of 2012 and the Live Canon 2013 Prize Anthology. In 2016, one of his poems was commissioned, published and performed at The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, for the anniversary of hakespeare’s death. In 2024, he was published by Pierian press, Dreichmag, Cerasus press and Southlight 36 edition. In 2025, he has been published in the Penumbra Journal of Literature, Rituals, Art at California State University Stanislaus, Book of Matches and And Other Poems.
He is the winner of the Azerate poetry prize and his debut poetry collection, “Death and the Insatiable” was published in September 2025. https://hiddenhandbooks.com/azerate-poetry-prize His first novel “Mitchell Rose and The Bologna Massacre” was published by Wallace Publishing in July 2025.
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Giveaway
Mark A. Hill will be awarding a $15 Amazon/Barnes & Noble gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Find out more here.
Follow Mark on the rest of his Goddess Fish tour here.
I received a lovely five-star review of Hippie Mermaid from N. N. Light’s Book Heaven.
Joanne Guidoccio 