Mark Ashton Lund (born June 6, 1965) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles, genres and techniques to communicate ideas, to inspire feelings and emotions, or to entertain. Writers may develop different forms of writing such as novels, short sto ...

publisher Publishing is the activities of making information, literature, music, software, and other content, physical or digital, available to the public for sale or free of charge. Traditionally, the term publishing refers to the creation and distribu ...

, television analyst who covers

figure skating Figure skating is a sport in which individuals, pairs, or groups perform on figure skates on ice. It was the first winter sport to be included in the Olympic Games, with its introduction occurring at the Figure skating at the 1908 Summer Olympi ...

and a film producer. He is the author of ''Frozen Assets'' (), and was the founder and publisher of ''International Figure Skating Magazine'' from its inception in 1993 until 2004, when his company, Ashton International Media, Inc., lost control of the magazine in a hostile takeover when Madavor Media purchased its securities from Primedia. In 2001, ''

Out Magazine ''Out'' is an American LGBTQ news, fashion, entertainment, and lifestyle magazine, with the highest circulation of any LGBTQ monthly publication in the United States. ''Out'' was owned by Robert Hardman of Boston, its original investor, until 2 ...

'' named Lund to the OUT 100 list of greatest success stories for that year. Lund has also made numerous media appearances as an analyst on figure skating, particularly during the

2002 Olympic Winter Games figure skating scandal At the 2002 Winter Olympics held in Salt Lake City, allegations arose that the pairs' figure skating competition had been fixed. The controversy led to two pairs teams receiving gold medals: the original winners Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikha ...

, where he was an analyst for CNN. He served as a judge on the television show ''

Skating with Celebrities ''Skating with Celebrities'' is an American figure skating talent show that began airing on Fox on January 18, 2006. The show also aired in Australia on Network Ten in early 2006 and in New Zealand in October 2008. The show was the U.S. version of ...

'' in early 2006. After losing control of ''International Figure Skating'', Lund, who is openly gay, founded another magazine, ''SCENE'', aimed at the gay community. Lund appeared on

Nancy Kerrigan Nancy Ann Kerrigan (born October 13, 1969) is an American former figure skating, figure skater. She won bronze medals at the 1991 World Figure Skating Championships, 1991 World Championships and the Figure skating at the 1992 Winter Olympics, 19 ...

's World of Skating in an episode that aired January 14, 2007 titled "Countdown to Nationals & Road to Glory". His commentary in this episode concerning US men's figure skater

Johnny Weir John Garvin Weir (; born July 2, 1984) is an American television commentator and retired figure skater. He is a two-time Olympian (2006 Winter Olympics, 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics), the 2008 World Figure Skating Championships, 2008 World ...

was criticized by several bloggers in the gay community. On March 18, 2008 writer

Alan Schwarz Alan Schwarz (born July 3, 1968) is a Pulitzer Prize-nominated writer and author, formerly at ''The New York Times'', best known for writing more than 100 articles that exposed the National Football League's cover-up of concussions and brought the ...

used some of Lund's quotes from the broadcast in a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

article titled ''Figure Skating Rivalry Pits Athleticism Against Artistry''. In 2007, Lund appeared as Commander Steven Conner in Star Trek: Odyssey in their pilot episode "Iliad" and produced the science fiction short film ''First World'' based on his feature-length script. The script was nominated for screenplay awards at the California Independent Film Festival, Fantastic Planet Film Festival and The Movie Deal. On August 18, 2013, Lund premiered his first feature film ''Justice Is Mind'' at the Capital District Film Festival in Albany, NY. After a limited theatrical run and international premiere the film was released by Filmhub to Amazon Prime on September 26, 2014. In 2014, Lund appeared on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

’s ''

30 for 30 ''30 for 30'' is the title for a series of documentary films airing on ESPN, its sister networks, and online highlighting interesting people and events in sports history. This includes four "volumes" of 30 episodes each, a 13-episode series und ...

'' episode ''The Price of Gold'' about the attack on

at the 1994 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Detroit, MI. In 2016, Lund wrote ''Serpentine'', a political thriller around the sport of figure skating. To develop interest in the project Lund produced the first ten pages of the script.''Serpentine: The Short Program'' premiered on March 6, 2017 at the Strand Theatre in Clinton, MA. On March 26, 2021, Lund premiered his second feature film ''First Signal'' at the Greenfield Garden Cinemas in Greenfield, MA. After the New Hampshire premiere on April 22, 2021 the film was released by

Indie Rights Indie Rights, Inc. is an American distributor of independent films, based in Los Angeles, California. Indie Rights is a subsidiary of Nelson Madison Films and was incorporated in 2007 to act as distributor for other independent filmmakers. The cor ...

to Amazon Prime on April 26, 2021. The Film First Signal became the winner of the best Sci-fi movie in Beyond the Curve International Film Festival.

References

External links

Official Mark Ashton Lund Web site
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Lund, Mark Living people 1965 births American LGBTQ writers Figure skating mass media Figure skating commentators People from Holden, Massachusetts Writers from Massachusetts Film producers from Massachusetts Film directors from Massachusetts