M.J. (Marc) Morgenstern is the author of Undertaken, a novel set in present-day Santa Monica.

Marc Morgenstern spent the first decades of his career in journalism, beginning as a reporter at the Trenton Times and later at CBS News, before moving into the music business. He founded Overpeer, a company that fought online piracy on behalf of record labels and film studios (acquired by Loudeye in 2004). He went on to leadership roles at Declare Yourself, Norman Lear's national youth-voting initiative, and at the jazz label Concord Records.

He holds a BA in French literature from Yale, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Daily News, and an MFA in creative writing from Warren Wilson College.

For fifteen years he lived in Santa Monica's Ocean Park neighborhood, the setting of Undertaken. He and his partner, Louise, recently returned to New York to be closer to their five grandchildren.