Marc first ventured into the world of written erotica in the spring of 1998. At the time, he posted stories using the names “Marky” and “Marky92”, the latter of which was his HoTMaiL account name. His first few stories were the “Two birds and a Bloke” series—five stories about a man named Phil and his two neighbours, Lisa and Nicole.

At that time, Marc’s writing wasn’t all that great. As one reviewer put it :

This is pretty much straight stroke material with an effort to build up character before the sex begins.  The first paragraph of the story is fairly hard to get through since it makes very limited use of transitional words and phrases.  The second section moves a bit smoother, a lot smoother actually, but the story still suffers from a lack of rhythm and flow.

While this is a fairly hard story to read the characters are sound enough, as is the premise and the sex.   A good reread or some good comments by a proofer might be all that this story needs to be a very worthy scene, but given the present difficulties it's not a story I can heartily recommend.

Also appearing in the same issue was a review of a story by Mat Twassel, who Marc would later come to know through the fishtank, and who’s opinion he holds in extremely high regard.

Other stories posted during this time and using this name include “Finally Claire” (later shortened to “Claire” after heavy revision), an entry into Celeste’s “virtual reality” contest called “On the Holodeck” (later shortened to “Holodeck”), “Bus-Stop” and “Heaven in Leather”

By the time of “Finally Claire” the reviews were getting better.

The narrator remembers his first affair.  It takes a realistic amount of time.  The story is more romance than stroke, but the sex is hot enough when it occurs.  This was a good read.

Marc carried on using the name until the end of 1998 after which he went quiet for nearly 11 months, finally re-emerging as “Nobby Nobbs”. He reposted all his older stories with this name, although he hadn’t rewritten them at that point, and launched a new story “Phone Talk” (later, “The Phone Call” and then “Phone Calls”).

The name “Nobby Nobbs” refers to a character on Terry Pratchett’s “Discworld”. It also sounds a bit dirty. However, fearing litigation if Mr. Pratchett ever found out that someone was using his character’s name to publish smut, Marc added the letter K to the start of each name and ultimately removed the space between the words. (Hence the name of Marc’s first anthology, “Two Ks and No Space”).

The first new story written as KnobbieKnobbs was entitled “The Maths Tutor” (later this would morph into “Teaching Sophie” and then just “Sophie” after extensive rewriting). This was mid-2000. This was rapidly followed by “The Holiday Sisters”. (later to become “Sun, Sea & Shagging”)

The end of 2000 saw Marc’s longest period of absence from the scene. Real life pressures kept him away from his hobby. It was almost four years before he returned.

In June of 2004, Marc joined Desdmona’s fishtank. It was exactly the resource he’d been searching for. It was there that he met Mat Twassel, Jenny Mount, fellow Brit H.L. Berry and, of course, Cassie Exline with whom he would later write “Divine Interview”.

The Fishtank gave Marc just what he needed—the confidence that he could write good stories and the guidance to do so. Within 18 months of joining, Marc was writing stories of publishable quality and had the confidence in them to actually sell them.

The first new story to come out of his swim in the tank was “Memorable Holiday”. This is followed by heavily re-written versions of older stories. Indeed, of the revised version of “The Maths Tutor” (now called “Sophie”), Crimson Dragon said

James takes a job tutoring seventeen year old Sophie in math. Sophie turns out to be a bright student and a wonderfully attractive girl. James, however much he might be attracted to her, knows that they have a professional relationship. Even when Sophie begins to attend the tutoring sessions at James' flat, James remains the perfect gentleman.

As the end of the academic year approaches, and Sophie passes her eighteenth birthday, Sophie asks James to help her celebrate at a club. James finally accepts and they find that there has been a mutual attraction that must be consummated.

For me, the sex was a little over-described -- didn't mesh with the sedate pace of the remainder of the story, but I suspect for most,
it will be fine.

I liked the slow nature and romanticism of this tale. Our two characters become good friends before they find themselves between
the sheets. It comes off believable and human.

Technical: 9
Eros : 9
Character/Plot :10
Crimson : 10

However, the main achievement of Marc’s early days at the tank was “The School Reunion” (Later just “Reunion”) which with the help and encouragement of the fishies, became a 35000 word story full of twists, turns and hot, hot sex. “Reunion” was later to find itself in print via Lulu.com.

It was encouragement from Cassie that led Marc to submit his first story to “Ruthie’s Club”, the illustrated erotic e-zine run by the same people that ran the Fishtank. “Scratched” was initially sent back to Marc with a series of suggestions for improvement, but was ultimately accepted for publication. It appeared, with a stunning illustration by Gloklund, in first week of January 2006. Interestingly, although “Scratched” was the first story that Ruthie’s Club accepted, it wasn’t the first they published—that honour went to a piece of flash fiction a few weeks earlier called “Retail Therapy”.

After his ‘breakthrough’ at Ruthie’s, Marc put together an anthology of his earlier work entitled “Two Ks and no Space”, a reference to knobbieknobbs, a name he’s been forced to abandon in favour of Marc Nobbs to comply with Ruthie’s Club’s desire for their authors to have “real sounding” names. A second edition of “Two Ks and No Space”, with more stories and better formatting than original, became available.

More flash stories followed, but the next illustrated piece Marc had published at Ruthie’s was “Measuring up” in late March 2006. Still more pieces of flash followed, as did two “Ladz Local Lovelies” stories and the story he wrote with Cassie Exline, “Divine Interview”.

In early 2007, Ruthie’s published the three part story, “Charlotte’s Secret” – a story that had dogged Marc for several months as he battled to ‘get it right’ and ‘find the story’. Eventually he got it right and the story he found was well worth waiting for. It’s a story who’s ending still makes Marc cry every time he reads it – and he knows what’s coming.

“Lost and Found” proved to be somewhat controversial, with its story set around the killing of a US solider in the Iraq war. Told in Four parts, it appeared at Ruthie’s over two weeks in April 2007.

In May of 2007, Marc released “Breakfast at Ruthie’s” a print anthology of his first five stories to be published at Ruthie’s Club.

Marc’s next stories to appear at Ruthie’s club were “Six-thirty Sleeper to Paris”, “Public Performance” July 2007 and “Private Party” in August 2007.

In mid-2007 Phaze Publications accepted “Charlotte’s Secret” for publication as an e-book in April 2008. “Lost & Found” followed in June 08. “Charlotte’s Secret” was slightly re-written for its Phaze debut, and received some very good reviews.

Dawnie of Fallen Angel Reviews said :

I enjoyed the twist and turns of Charlotte’s Secret. I found the characters to be very believable and could feel the emotion coming right off the pages of the book. The sex is passionately sweet yet sexy and hot. The characters were well developed and the unique twists had me guessing until the end what the outcome would be. The interaction between Charlotte and David is dynamic and leaves the reader wanting more. Marc Nobbs has done a great job bringing this sexy story to life.

And Holly Tibbs of Romance Reviews Today said :

Yes, CHARLOTTE’S SECRET is about sex outside the marriage vows, but Marc Nobbs puts a unique twist on the subject to not make it unpleasant. Readers will feel the pain David and Charlotte are experiencing over losing each other, with her own sister the culprit. And Susie is certainly the bitch we have come to expect in a romance. Will Susie get her comeuppance and David and Charlotte a happily ever after? You’ll have to read CHARLOTTE’S SECRET to find out. Oh, and be prepared for a nice little surprising ending to this pleasant tale.

“Lost & Found” underwent major modification for its Phaze publication, with some stunning extra scenes and the transformation of a secondary character, The Colonel, into arguably the most important character in the book.

In the early part of 2008 Ruthie’s also published two more of Marc’s stories, a new story in the “Ladz Local Lovelies” series and a standalone called “Extended Family”.

In May of 2008 Marc joined “The Britwriters”, a blog written by British authors who are published by American companies. He continues to contribute regularly while still writing on his own blog. And later that year he joined the ‘twitter’ generation by starting his own twitter stream.

Marc’s third novel, Kissed by a Rose, was released in June 2009 and a print edition will be released in 2010. Also in 2010, Phaze will release Eternally & Evermore in digital format. Marc continues to write stories and submit them for publication.

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