Mark Shepherd

Mark Shepherd is an American author who worked as one of several rotating co-authors on Mercedes Lackey's SERRAted Edge series during its original 1990s run, contributing to the urban-fantasy books that drop exiled elven nobles into the world of professional auto racing. The SERRAted Edge premise pairs elves drawn to modern combustion engines the way they were once drawn to swords and swift horses with a fast-paced racing backdrop, using SERRA — the fictional Southeastern Road Racing Association — as cover for quiet, ongoing work countering dark magic and hostile elven factions who have followed them into the human world. Lackey worked with a changing roster of co-authors across the SERRAted Edge books' original seven-title run between 1992 and 1999, with Shepherd among the writers who helped establish the series' blend of contemporary car culture, elven politics, and urban fantasy at a time when few other fantasy series were attempting that particular combination. The series went dormant for nearly two decades after its original run before returning with new installments co-written with a different collaborator, Cody Martin, in 2017 and 2020. Detailed biographical information about Mark Shepherd independent of his SERRAted Edge contributions is limited in the public record.