Mark Nelson O'Brien
Mark Nelson O'Brien

I'm the owner and principal of O’Brien Communications Group, a B2B brand-management and marketing-communications firm I founded in 2004. I'm the The Anxious Voyage, a podcast about life’s trials and triumphs. I'm a lifelong writer, and I'm having the time of my life.

Books

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The Waterloo Diaries

The Bedsore Conspiracy

The Waterloo Diaries: The Bedsore Conspiracy is a graphic novel, a murder mystery, set in a fictional Mississippi jerkwater (Bedsore). Its protagonist, Waterloo Clyde, is a contemporary private detective who fancies himself a throwback to the hard-boiled dicks of noir fiction: Philip Marlowe, Sam Spade, Mike Hammer, et al. The story is full of...

Random Thoughts

A Writer's Notebook

A popular expression says, "Everybody's got a story." I'm luckier than most, I have many. This is a collection of stories, short essays, and reflections. It's necessarily incomplete because I'm still on the planet. As long as that remains true, I'll always have more stories.

I hope you enjoy these.

True Grime: A Drake Manning Mystery (Drake Manning, P.I. Book 1)

This short story is the first in a series of mysteries featuring Drake Manning, P.I. Manning’s best friend, Duke, a New York City cop, is murdered. Manning has to find out by whom and why in this wry take on the noirish, hard-boiled detective. Cover design by Jonathan Spiliotopoulos. Photo by Chris Hutchinson, aka LCBO, on stock.xchng ....

Other Writing

Take the First Step This is another post I originally published on Medium.

This is another post I originally published on Medium. Since I don't publish there any longer, I moved it to my Substack. Consider it a Saturday bonus. No extra charge.

The lessons I continue to learn from children are even more compelling and powerful than they were more than six years ago. And I always tell the children I’m happy to start my day with their smiling faces and their positive energy because, after that, I have to go to work with a bunch of grouchy old people.

The Lion I wrote this piece to recognize and to celebrate the life of the

I wrote this piece to recognize and to celebrate the life of the wonderful man who inspired my book, The One and Only Ben.

The Manchurian Publishers I published this post in response to an article

I published this post in response to an article that said this:

"Social media backlash and review-bombing are increasingly leading to books being delayed, revised, or canceled before release ... the movement has evolved into a moral panic that risks stifling creativity and narrowing the bounds of free expression."

We can't allow that to happen.

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