FEATURED AUTHOR: MIKE MARTIN

 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Sgt. Windflower is on a special assignment in St. John’s and adjusting to life in the big city. He is navigating traffic, a difficult boss at work and what seems like an epidemic of missing girls. He becomes more interested when he discovers that one of the girls is from Grand Bank. Then a girl approaches his RCMP van one night and he is pulled into the underlife of the capital city.

Safe Harbour is a twirling, swirling mystery in the foggy streets of one of the oldest cities in North America. There are outlaw biker gangs and overwhelmed local police officers who need the sharp eye and keen mind of Sgt. Windflower to help them cut through the haze and find the answers to the riddle of the missing teenagers who are hiding in plain sight of the authorities.

But it is also a story of a man and his family growing up together. There is plenty of good food, old and new friends. Share the joy and heartbreak of living so close to the Atlantic Ocean. Welcome back to Sgt. Windflower Mysteries where there’s always something good cooking and another seat at the table.

Book Details:

Title: Safe Harbour

Author: Mike Martin
Genre: mystery

Series: Sgt. Windflower Mysteries
, book 10
Publisher: Ottawa Press and Publishing (June 1, 2021)

Print length: 264 pages






TWENTY QUESTIONS/ONE WORD INTERVIEW WITH MIKE MARTIN


1.    Where is your cell phone? Pocket.

2.    Your hair? Long.

3.    Your workplace? Home.

4.    Your other half? Joan.

5.    What makes you happy? Life.

6.    What makes you crazy? Life.

7.    Your favorite food? Pizza.

8.    Your favorite beverage? Coffee.

9.    Fear? Spiders.

10.    Favorite shoes? Loafers.

11.    Favorite way to relax? Reading.

12.    Your mood? Good.

13.    Your home away from home? Newfoundland.

14.    Where were you last night? Home.

15.    Something that you aren't? Young.

16.    Something from your bucket list? China.

17.    Wish list item? Piano.

18.    Where did you grow up? Newfoundland.

19.    Last thing you did? Walked.

20.    What are wearing now? Shorts.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Martin was born in St. John’s, NL on the east coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a long-time freelance writer, and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines, and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand.

He is the author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 10 books in this light mystery series with the publication of Safe Harbour. A Tangled Web was shortlisted in 2017 for the best light mystery of the year, and Darkest Before the Dawn won the 2019 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award. Mike has also published Christmas in Newfoundland: Memories and Mysteries, a Sgt. Windflower Book of Christmas past and present.

Mike is Past Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers and a member of the Newfoundland Writing Guild and Ottawa Independent Writers.

Connect with Mike:
Website  |  Blog  |  Facebook  |  Twitter  |  Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon  |  Barnes & Noble

FEATURED AUTHOR: MIKE MARTIN

Sergeant Winston Windflower and his trusty crew at the Grand Bank detachment of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police have more than a few mysteries on their hands. Windflower suspects that the three cases—a homicide, a near-homicide and a fire on Coronation Street—are somehow connected, but how is proving difficult to determine, especially now that he must battle his unusually cranky mood, the never-ending winter that has gripped the coastal region of Newfoundland and his new, power-hungry boss.

In Fire, Fog and Water, award-winning author Mike Martin is true to form, retaining the light crime genre for which he is known while delving into the most perplexing social issues of our time, including mental health, addictions and workplace harassment. Windflower must not only solve the drug-and-death crimes that threaten the otherwise tranquil lives of Grand Bank’s residents, he must resolve his own internal conflicts before they consume him as surely as the blaze that engulfed the house on Coronation Street.


Book Details:

Title: Fire, Fog and Water


Author: Mike Martin
Genre: mystery
Genre: mystery

Series: (Sgt. Windflower Mysteries), book 8

Publisher: Ottawa Press and Publishing (October 8, 2019)


Print Length: 280 pages

On tour with: Great Escapes Book Tours

Ifs



Q: If you could talk to someone (living), who would it be and what would you ask them?
A: I would ask Greta Thunberg how she keeps going.

Q: If you could talk to someone (dead), who would it be and what would you ask them?
A: I would ask my dead friend, Gary, what it’s like up there?

Q: If you could live in any time period which would it be?
A: I kinda like the comforts of today. But any period would be great if I were very rich.

Q: If you could step back into a moment or day in time, where would you go?
A: I’m not crazy enough to think I could make a difference, but I’d still like to be alive to challenge Hitler.

Q: If you could time travel for an infinite period of time, where would you go?
A: I think I would go somewhere warm for the winter, but come back at Christmas. Hey, I could do that now.

Q: If you could be anything besides a writer, what would it be?
A: I would be a songwriter.

Q: If you had to do community service (or already do volunteer work), what would you choose?
A: I would and do work for climate action in my community.

Q: If you were on the Amazon bestseller list, who would you choose to be one before and one below you?
A: I would like to be between Louise Penny and Stephen King. I would just like to be close to them on the list.


Q: If you could meet any author for coffee, who would you like to meet and what would you talk about?
A: Stephen King. We would talk about the world and how we could make it a better place.

Q: If you could choose a fictional town to live in what would it be and from what book?
A: I would like to live with the elves in Rivendel from Lord of the Rings.


Q: If you could live anywhere in the world, where in the world would it be?
A: Probably Canada, but Australia for a few days.




Ands


5 things you need in order to write:

    •    light
    •    coffee
    •    internet connection
    •    inspiration
and
    •    determination

5 things you love about where you live:

    •    peaceful
    •    clean
    •    bright
    •    quiet
and
    •    has coffee

5 things you never want to run out of:

    •    coffee
    •    inspiration
    •    determination’
    •    empathy
and
    •    love

5 things you always put in your books:

    •    Sgt. Windflower
    •    Sheila, his wife
    •    Lady, his dog
    •    Molly his cat
and
    •    Amelia Louise, his daughter

5 favorite places you’ve been: 

    •    Australia
    •    Zimbabwe
    •    Italy
    •    Cuba
and
    •    Gros Morne National Park

5 favorite authors:

    •    Stephen King
    •    Charles Dickens
    •    Tolkien
    •    Donna Leon
and
    •    Agatha Christie

5 people you consider as heroes:

    •    Nelson Mandala
    •    Martin Luther King, Jr.
    •    John Lewis
    •    Anne Frank
and
    •    Greta Thunberg

Whats

Q: What’s your all-time favorite place?
A: Gros Morne National Park.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite memory?
A: Birth of my two children.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite movie?
A: Little Big Man.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite author?
A: Dickens.

Q: What’s your all-time favorite city?
A: New York City.

Q: What’s the most beautiful sound you’ve heard?
A: Sarah Brightman singing.

Q: What’s your favorite Internet site?
A: Google or Wikipedia, tie.


Q: What’s your favorite time of day?
A: Early morning.

Q: What’s your favorite meal?
A: Pizza.

Q: What’s your favorite vacation spot?
A: Cuba.

Q: What’s your favorite dessert?
A: Birthday cake.

Q: What’s your favorite thing to do when there’s nothing to do?
A: Write.

Q: What’s your favorite candy bar?
A: Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

Q: What’s your favorite movie snack?
A: Really? Popcorn.

Q: What’s your favorite social media site?
A: Facebook.


Q: What’s one thing you never leave the house without?
A: Phone.

Q: What’s your latest recommendation for:
Food: Pizza
Music: Arcade Fire
Movie: Men in Black International
Book: A Better Man, Louise Penny
Audiobook: The Walker on the Cape, Mike Martin







Mike Martin was born in Newfoundland, Canada. He is the author of the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series. Fire, Fog and Water is the 8th book in the series. A Long Ways from Home was shortlisted for the Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award as the best light mystery of the year and Darkest Before the Dawn won for the 2018 Bony Blithe Award. Mike is currently Chair of the Board of Crime Writers of Canada, a national organization promoting Canadian crime and mystery writers.

Connect with Mike:

Website  |  Facebook  |  Twitter

Buy the book:
Amazon


a Rafflecopter giveaway

GUEST POST BY MIKE MARTIN




ABOUT THE BOOK

Life is good for Sgt. Windflower in Grand Bank, Newfoundland. But something’s missing from the Mountie’s life. Actually, a lot of things go missing, including a little girl and supplies from the new factory. It’s Windflower’s job to unravel the tangled web of murder, deceit and an accidental kidnapping that threatens to engulf this sleepy little town and destroy those closest to him. But there’s always good food, good friends and the love of a great woman to make everything better in the end.



Book Details:
A Tangled Web


Cozy Mystery


6th in Series


Booklocker.com, Inc. (October 1, 2017)


Paperback: 338 pages


ISBN-13: 978-1634926508


E-Book ASIN: B0768R7VTR

GUEST POST BY MIKE MARTIN

Mike, what do you wish you could tell your younger self?

Wow. What a great question Amy has posed for me today. The first thing I thought was that the older you get, the more advice you have to offer. That would make me an expert. The second thing I thought was to simply say that almost everything my mother gave me for advice turned out to be accurate. So, listen to your mother, no matter how old you are.

But I think what Amy really meant was what advice would I, as a writer, give to my younger self. That’s still a great question. Having written six books in the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series I have a lot of advice to give, at least to myself. Some of that advice would be to do some things completely different, but other things I would not just not change, I might do more of.

To start with I wish I’d stayed in school and finished my university degree. But I was too impatient and wanted to see the world for myself, not have someone else tell me about it. So, I did. I found great jobs and careers and went everywhere from Australia to Africa to the Arctic Circle. But I could have gained even more from that experience if I had hung around school a few more years. Plus, I wouldn’t have to be researching all this history of Newfoundland that I do for my books. Because I would already know it.

What I would do over again is to read a lot as a young person. I had three older sisters, two of them teachers, and they would drag me along with them to the library. There I discovered the magic and mystery of books and the fact that I could escape into other worlds any time I wanted. Stephen King once said that the best way to be a good writer is to be a great reader. I agree.

But I think that looking back I wish that I had been brave enough to become a full-time writer as soon as possible. That is the way to really grow as a writer. I have been writing, part-time and as part of many of the jobs in my career, but I only allowed myself the privilege of becoming a mostly full-time writer in the last dozen years or so. Part of it was the fact that I had become kind of used to eating and living reasonably well, and could not see how to continue that if I gave up my other work. But when I finally bit the bullet and declared myself a writer, things started to get better, and more paid writing assignments started to show up.

That was a few years ago now since I made that decision, and I’m very happy I did. I don’t make nearly enough from fiction writing to pay the bills. But my freelance writing and other paid projects keep me going. More importantly, I am happier than I ever have been in my life. When I think back on it, that was all my mother was trying to help me achieve.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Martin was born in Newfoundland on the East Coast of Canada and now lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario. He is a longtime freelance writer and his articles and essays have appeared in newspapers, magazines and online across Canada as well as in the United States and New Zealand. He is the author of Change the Things You Can: Dealing with Difficult People and has written a number of short stories that have published in various publications including Canadian Stories and Downhome magazine.

The Walker on the Cape was his first full fiction book and the premiere of the Sgt. Windflower Mystery Series. Other books in the series include The Body on the T, Beneath the Surface, A Twist of Fortune, and A Long Ways from Home.
A Long Ways from Home was shortlisted for the 2017 Bony Blithe Light Mystery Award as the best light mystery of the year. A Tangled Web is the newest book in the series.

Connect with Mike:
Website  |  Facebook  |   Twitter

Buy the book:
Amazon

Mike has generously offered to give one ebook copy of A Tangled Web to one lucky reader. A winner will be chosen randomly from comments left below through December 7.