Mark Richard is the author of two award-winning short story collections, The Ice at the Bottom of the World and Charity, and a bestselling novel, Fishboy. Southern boy.
 

"That's the real excellent scary part, that feeling, and that feeling won't come if the lady from next door is there and your mom won't ride the ride, because what brings on that feeling most is when your mom rides wedged in tight with you and your brother on nights like this, when your mom will scream the excellent scream, the scream that people you see in snatches on the boardwalk stop and stare for, the scream that stops the ride next door, the scream that tells us to our hearts the bolts have finally broken."

– Mark Richard, The Ice at the Bottom of the World