Welcome
Welcome to the website of Writing Idol – a writing and publishing project promoting the work of author, songwriter and occasional saxophone player, Mark Woodward. On this site you can check out my writing, find out a little more about me and sign up for the Writing Idol newsletter. Thanks very much for visiting – I hope you find something here to enjoy.
Juno and the Mouseman
Juno and the Mouseman is an offbeat mystery with a dark edge. It’s funny. But it’s serious.
When Juno Jones leaves a small rural town to take a job as a trainee reporter, she hears of a strange incident involving a young man in a frilly pink shirt, a razorblade and a heap of dead mice. Compelled by her own unresolved grief, and assisted by her housemate, Glynis, she sets out to investigate his troubled adolescence and his life in seedy bedsit land. They think they’re going to have fun. But with each stone they overturn, the darkness edges closer…
Juno and the Mouseman is both an offbeat mystery, and a darkly comic exploration of dysfunctional masculinity. Mouseman may be an extreme example, but his efforts to control what he fears – whether women, mice or his own emotions – are echoed in other male characters. As she investigates him, Juno investigates them all. Readers who are sensitive to issues of suicide and self-harm may be disturbed by what she uncovers.
Available from all good bookshops (ISBN: 978-1-9160435-4-1) or from your favourite online retailer via: https://books2read.com/Juno-and-the-Mouseman.
Mouseman
We know how this is going to end…
MM works at Beech Brothers Printing and Packaging, the most limited company on God’s earth, where office rivalries, practical jokes and the distribution of stolen goods are substitutes for actual work. Besotted with his workmate, Carol, and obsessed by the mice who invade his room, his life is going nowhere until he spends a strange day at the seaside. Then an old friend, Nick, turns up on his doorstep…
Mouseman is a darkly comic account of the disintegration of MM – the young man who is the subject of Juno and Glynis’ investigation. What happened on the Beech Brothers works outing? Where did MM really go with Nick? Who is the strange scribbler in the attic? Mouseman reveals all this, and more.
Currently work in progress, to be published on all platforms in the summer of 2026, but available to pre-order as a Kindle ebook now. Click here for a sneak preview.
Sign up for the Writing Idol newsletter!
The Writing Idol newsletter includes interviews, occasional free stories, extracts from my work in progress and other exclusive content. It only comes out once a month, and it’s easy to unsubscribe. New subscribers receive a free copy of one of the stories shown below. Choose which one you’d like to read and click on the cover to sign up now.
Who’s a lad to trust, when even his best friend has his own agenda?
Colin is terrified of having his hair cut, especially at Butcher Barnet’s. He’d much rather go with his best mate, Dezzie, to the Merrie England Amusement Park. Luckily for Colin, Dezzie comes up with a foolproof plan…
The Merrie England Conspiracy is a comedy about friendship, trust, betrayal… and local politics.
Love, betrayal and a beautiful carrot. What’s been going on in the garden?
Morty is worried. It’s hibernation time, and this year he has to face it alone. Without food to sustain him through the winter, Morty’s future is looking bleak. But he hasn’t lived to a ripe old age without having a trick or two up his sleeve…
Talking Tortoise is a dark comedy about the struggle for love and survival.