Mark Andrew Berezan

BC born and raised. Thirty years in tech, one novel hiding in a trunk, and a story that refused to stay quiet.

I grew up in Port Coquitlam back when the mountains and the river were my backyard. In my twenties, I lived for the outdoors—camping, hiking, and exploring the rugged corners of British Columbia. But it was a stint in Balfour, a tiny community perched on the edge of Kootenay Lake, where things really shifted.

There was something about that landscape that flipped a switch in me. I started painting, which quickly led to writing. That burst of energy eventually became a novel called The Mayan Influence, which I finished and gave to my dad for his birthday in January 1998. At the time, I thought that was the end of the story.

The Day Job

I worked for a year after high school before I found myself studying at BCIT for Biomedical Engineering. It hardwired my brain to solve problems methodically—a mindset that has served me well through a 25-year IT career I didn’t exactly plan for but ended up loving. I’ve worn every hat from help desk and systems admin to management; it’s the kind of work that forces you to stay sharp. Honestly, I think all those years of troubleshooting complex systems are exactly why I feel so at home diving into stories about sprawling interstellar empires.

Life in the Kootenays & Beyond

I’m still based in BC, working in IT and living with my wife and our two kids. Between the dog, the fish, and the hamster, the house is rarely quiet. It’s not always the easiest environment for writing science fiction, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

The Stories That Shaped Me

Growing up, my reading list was all over the place—everything from the dark edges of Edgar Allan Poe to the sprawling worlds of Frank Herbert and J.K. Rowling. It was a strange mix, but those authors all did the same thing: they made the world feel a whole lot bigger.

That same pull followed me to the screen. Whether it was the philosophy of Star Trek, the scale of Dune, or the grit of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, I’ve always been drawn to big ideas. And then there’s A Charlie Brown Christmas—I watched it every year as a kid, and honestly, I still think about it more than I probably should.

Finding the Way Home

Writing stayed off my radar for a long time until I stumbled across that old manuscript again. First, it was a digital file buried in a forgotten folder, and then the actual printed copy, tucked away in a trunk next to my old report cards and elementary school homework. Seeing my own handwriting on the title page, wishing my dad a happy birthday, hit me way harder than I expected.

It brought back a spark I hadn't realized was gone—that creative drive and the feeling that I had something worth putting on the page. I’m genuinely having a blast writing again; it feels like a part of me that had been missing finally found its way home.

The Mayan Gene (Book One of The Kino Chronicles) is where that return landed. It took nearly thirty years to get from the first word of The Mayan Influence to its first official reader, but with Book Two, Achion, already underway and two more planned, it turns out the story was just getting started.