Mark Scheel grew up in east-Kansas farm country. Prior to writing full time he served overseas with the American Red Cross, taught at Emporia State University, was an information specialist with the Johnson County Library in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and a prose editor for Kansas City Voices magazine. He co-authored the Book Of Youth and the River: the Mississippi Adventure of Raymond Kurtz, Sr. and his collection of stories and poems, A Backward View, was awarded the 1998 J. Donald Coffin Memorial Book Award from the Kansas Authors Club. His blog series, The Pebble: Life, Love, Politics and Geezer Wisdom, was published in book form in 2015 and his fiction collection, titled And Eve Said Yes: Seven Stories and a Novella appeared from Waldorf Publishing in 2019.