LANETT — Greg Clark is an accomplished writer. After having approximately 15 magazine articles published and a number of CD-based how-to-d0-it books on a variety of subjects from building firearms to fountain pens, he’s now into writing mystery novels. His first one, entitled “Ashes of Arson” is now in its second printing after soaring to No. 11 its first week on Amazon’s mystery novel list.

This top-selling thriller is now out in paperback and in e-book form, downloadable directly from Amazon.com.

“It was first published in October 2017.” Clark said. “I’ve learned a lot about writing between the first and second edition. Parts of it have been rewritten 24 times.”

Ashes of Arson is set in historic downtown Opelika and involves the adventures of accidental detective Kati McKenzie, who has been caught up in a dangerous web brought on by her insurance investigation of a warehouse fire and two murders. The deeper she gets into the investigation, the deadlier it becomes and the bigger the pile of bodies gets. Along the way, she becomes close friends with a gorgeous cop and falls for a hero firefighter.

Adding to the book’s appeal are the accurate landmarks of Opelika’s historic railroad district.

Among the book’s biggest fans are firefighters at Station No. 1 in downtown Opelika, Clark said. They can’t wait to read “Arson Revisited,” the follow-up novel to Ashes of Arson.

“The first book is set in April 2013,” Clark said. “The next one will be in February 2014. The restaurants that were there then are in the book. One of the big heroes in the book is a firefighter from Station No. 1.”

Clark said that he’s trying to get a local writer’s group organized.

“Local author Paula Maddox called me to ask if I knew of a writer’s group,” Clark said. “She wanted to write a book and was seeking advice. I invited her and several other people to meet at my home.”

They included Shelia Slavich, who has written “Jumping the Rails,” a time-travel adventure set in West Point; Shirley Aaron and J.K. Frank, who have written several books.

“Four of us are involved now,” Clark said. “We’d like to build it up to ten people or so. We’re reaching out to people who are serious about writing. We’d like to share with each other what we’ve learned about character development, plot development and marketing. Most of us are on Amazon and other internet-based sources. We want to encourage creativity and innovation. There are many things we can improve on.”