Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
Loading
MF![]()
author
Mark Fine
When first speaking to author Mark Fine, one is struck by his accent. His voice is measured, and spoken with the properness of a long suffering boarding school inmate. Indeed, from...view moreWhen first speaking to author Mark Fine, one is struck by his accent. His voice is measured, and spoken with the properness of a long suffering boarding school inmate. Indeed, from age eight until seventeen Mark lived several hundred miles away from his Johannesburg home, near the coastal city of Durban. Boarding school prepared him well for his tour of duty in South Africa’s Navy Signal Corp. There he learned Morse code and touch-typing. The latter "military skill" was the first step toward becoming an author.
A successful music industry career led Fine from Minneapolis, New York and then Los Angeles. Through global music giant PolyGram, Mark founded Hammer & Lace Records in 1993. The label had a unique mandate: to be the industry’s only imprint dedicated to highlighting specific social or health issues by creating benefit albums that promoted awareness and could save lives. For a decade Fine proved adept at uniting non-profit organizations, corporate and media sponsors, and world class musicians such as Sheryl Crow, Sting, Melissa Etheridge, Bryan Adams and Boyz ll Men in aid of breast cancer research, at-risk children, the blind, HIV/AIDS, freedom of speech and wildlife conservation.
For these initiatives Mark was voted by Variety Magazine as the “Music Executive with 20/20 Vision”. For his efforts in the fight against breast cancer, he has been honored by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. But he is especially proud of his "Paws of Fame" award he received from The Wildlife Waystation for his commitment to animals worldwide. As such, animals always make an appearance in Mark Fine's writings.
As he had reached a new point in his life, Fine took on the task of showing the world a snapshot of his metaphorical backyard. In the process of painting with words his own backyard, Mark Fine has been brave like William Faulkner in his journey of truth telling – he has simply done it with a much different kind of Southern accent. Fine has created a world in The Zebra Affaire that tells the truth of his home via the freedom fiction provides. He puts human faces and hearts into his pages, and as we follow their loves, trials, and conflicts, we find this incredible story of the human condition as it endures some of the most unspeakable horrors. view less