O’Fallon Writer Publishes Collection of Mystery, Suspense Stories

If you’re looking for books to add to your summer reading list, you may want to check out the latest works of a local author.

J.K. Dark, of O’Fallon, recently published his second book, “Dark Thoughts and Dark Forces,” a collection of short stories exploring the minds of murderers, mysteries, haunting and more.

The stories take place in St. Louis and New Orleans. Dark, who said he doesn’t like bloody and grotesque movies, described the collection as more suspense than horror.

Although writing has become a full-time job for Dark, he started out on a different career path.

After growing up in Maplewood, he graduated with a degree in plant and soil science from the University of Missouri—Columbia.

Dark said with the slow economy, he’s taken on some consulting work part time in addition to his writing.

“I’ve written all my life just for pure enjoyment,” he said. “Friends and family would say, ‘why don’t you pursue that?’ And I said maybe if I find some time.“

Dark got his start by entering some writing competitions and now has two books to his name.

“I wrote one story for a contest, and the rest just kept flowing out of scary places from my head,” he said.

Dark's first book, “Anecdotes, Short Stories, & Mind Clutter,” he describes as a book of family and human-interest stories. Dark is also a freelance writer, who contributes to the ezine Taboojive.com and "The Good Men Project" magazine.

The author said his next plans include branching out to other genres of literature.

“I don’t want to get boxed into just writing horror stories, it’s a big, big world and I have a lot of interests,” he said, adding that he is currently working on two full-length books.

Dark’s advice for aspiring writers is to “just keep at it.”

“Sometimes I’ll table a story for a year and one day it will just dawn on me and I’ll go back to it,” Nothing is ever wasted time if you keep at it.”

"Dark Thoughts and Dark Forces" is now available at Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

• You can visit Dark’s official author page on Amazon.com to view a book trailer.
• Check out J.K. Dark's blog to learn more. 

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