writing stories
For the past ten years I’ve been writing stories.
Technically, I’ve been writing longer than that; the first “thing” I ever wrote was an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. I think that was in 1993. I know it featured the Enterprise being damaged by a rogue asteroid or some such and Data having to plug-in to the ship’s main computer to keep it operational until repairs could be made. If I recall, the asteroid had a symbiotic lifeform attached to it, which seeped into the ship (and, therefore, into Data), fusing the three together. This sounds like a very complicated story but the whole thing was written with very large, third-grade lettering, on like two pages.
For the past ten years I’ve been writing longer stories.
It began when I read my then four-year old son a bedtime story. It was Dr. Seuss, just as my mother always read to me. After the story was over Jack wanted another one. I didn’t want to get out of the bed to go find one so I started free-styling a rhyme. After about four lines I realized I had something worth putting to paper. Naturally I left my son in a lurch and ran to my computer to write it down. An hour later, I had the first draft of a children’s story/poem completed: One Halloween Evening.
The ideas poured out of me after that.
Several more children’s stories/poems followed, and then came the short stories. For a while I was writing four or five a week, knocking them out in the evenings after Jack went to sleep. The more I wrote the more ideas I had, from fairy tales, to science fiction, to outlandish fantasy tales. One nagging idea was based around the legends of King Arthur. I finally got around to putting that one on paper last year (it was a single story that become three before becoming six).
Along the way my work as a preacher kept me busy and occupied the bulk of my time. Teaching a weekly Bible class meant daily study and preparation; I often ended up writing more material than I could teach. Compiling and editing my notes into book-form was the next logical step. In 2013 I finished my first “notes on the Bible” commentary: And Now For Something Completely Better (a study of the Book of Hebrews). Seven years later I finished the New Testament and am now focusing on the Old Testament.
Ten years after leaving my first-born crying in disappointment (not the last time that ever happened), I now have several books finished and several more on the way. If you’re interested in reading them, you can find them all here. Bible-based books are in the SPIRITUAL BOOKSTORE and books from my own bizarre mind are in the FICTIONAL BOOKSTORE and the CHILDREN’S BOOKSTORE.
~ MLM
Contact
➤ LOCATION
Arkansas, USA
☎ CONTACT
booksbymlm@gmail.com
Matthew and Lauren Martin
the works
below are my books, at least as of today…
if only my ADD could get out of my way!
KINGDOM OF ARTHUR
A retelling of the Arthur legend, told in six parts. I was inspired, in part, by the six Lord of the Rings books, and how the last four tell their stories from two different venues (in books four and five we follow Frodo and the ring, in books three and six we follow Aragorn and the remnants of the Fellowship).
I too wanted to tell a story told from different perspectives, although unlike in LOTR, in the Kingdom of Arthur books only the characters change, not the setting; the reader may follow Arthur as he makes his way through an area in one book, only to later revisit the previous story in the next book, seeing things through the eyes of the antagonist. It’s a unique way of telling the tale, I think, and one that allows the reader to understand not only the hero’s point of view, but his mortal enemy’s as well.
ELVIS Presley & the Adventures of Jon Burrows
A trilogy of short-story collections, spanning 1960-1975. Elvis Presley is Jon Burrows, secret agent for C1A, the US Government’s top counter-intelligence operation. Elvis travels the world under his secret identity, working to undermine the villainous S.M.U.R.F., the multi-national criminal organization bent on collapsing the governments of the world and ruling in their wake! All Three volumes are out now, following Jon Burrows across missions all over the world, with death-defying action, mind-twisting mysteries, and thrilling adventure!
EL DORADO
Inspired by the Count of Monte Cristo, EL DORADO tells the story of a southern American falsely accused, wrongfully convicted, and harshly imprisoned. An oil discovery in Confederate Arkansas promised to make Edward Danvers one of the wealthiest men in the South. Instead, he is framed for treason, arrested, and after a sham of a trial, is sentenced to die in a Confederate Prison in Virginia. In prison, Edward meets a man named Abe Farrow, an elderly veteran of the War of 1812, who knows of a city filled with riches, hidden deep within the Andes Mountains of Colombia. Too old to escape and claim the gold for himself, he tells his secrets to Danvers, who pledges to break out of prison, find the fortune, and hunt down the conspirators who plotted to destroy him…
One Halloween Evening & One Christmas-Eve Evening
The first book I ever (properly) wrote was a children’s rhyme that I can only describe as “Dr. Seuss meets Edgar Allan Poe.” The story tells the tale of a boy who, on Halloween Night, goes trick-or-treating down a dark and windy road, coming across both friends and frights in his attempts to earn candy and conquer his fears. The story takes a relatively dark turn in the end, but I’m a firm believer that scaring children (within reason) is good: It builds character to be afraid of a story. One Halloween Evening is certain to build some character in young readers!
The follow-up to One Halloween Evening, this children’s picture book tells the tale of a child who, on Christmas Eve, discovers his parents setting up his toys under the tree, leading him to conclude that Santa must have passed by his house. A boycott of St. Nick follows, leading the child through a year of protests and demands until finally, the following Christmas Eve he comes face to face with the man himself, learning a valuable lesson in the end!
CHUMPTY DUMPTY
Chumpty Dumpty is a fairy tale story for kids that I and my former-writing partner started developing many years ago. Phillip sadly died of cancer and we were never able to finish, but using the screenplay that we wrote together, I wrote the first book in the trilogy, Chumpty Dumpty and the Beanstalk Tale. After that, two more were written, Chumpty Dumpty and the Wishing-Well War, and Chumpty Dumpty and the Impossible Quest. More children’s books on the way, but you can find these in the bookstore.
OTHER CHILDREN’S STORIES
I have been reading many of my children’s books to my youngest, Joshua, and he has begged for more after each book was complete. He especially wants a sequel to THE GREAT MOUSE ESCAPE and THE TROLL WHO CHOSE TO READ, but the former I consider a completed tale. There’s no need to revisit that world. The latter book, however, might see a sequel or two one of these days. In the meantime I have other ideas I plan to explore. Such as…
A series of children’s stories I plan to write here and there whenever the mood strikes stars young BILLY RICHMOND and his friends as they go on wild and unexpected adventures. The first book is entitled BILLY RICHMOND AND THE APPLIANCE WARS and features Billy and the gang being transported to an alternate universe and to a world locked in a war between the Refrigerator Empire and the Toaster Rebellion.
I’ve also completed the second book, BILLY RICHMOND AND THE SOMETIMES SCARY FANTASY ADVENTURE, which sees Billy and his friends racing against the clock to stop the ancient Egyptian god Osiris from ascending from the underworld to take over Billy’s town (and possibly the world).
Still to come is BILLY RICHMOND AND THE UPSIDE DOWN STAMP BRIGADE, wherein Billy and his friends will stumble upon and try to defeat a secret society of would-be world conquerors, run by the most insanely ambitious postmaster general in US history. There’s also BILLY RICHMOND AND THE 90s STAR WARS KNOCK-OFF ADVENTURE (TITLE PENDING), featuring Billy and co. enduring the worst summer break of their childhood lives!
I also have plans to write follow-up stories to 20K LIGHTYEARS FROM EARTH and FROGGY WENT A-COURTIN’. And, with Winnie the Pooh now in Public Domain, I’m putting together a story featuring one of my all-time favorite childhood characters. I’ll need an illustrator to work with, so I expect it will be a few years before WINNIE THE POOH AND THE CURIOUS WINTER WITH THE SOUTH POLE SANTA is released.
FOR A BETTER YESTERDAY
The biggest novel I’ve yet to undertake is a science-fiction story about a brilliant but obsessive scientist who, after an experiment goes horribly wrong, spends decades perfecting a way to alter history and correct his mistake. His time-tampering efforts draw the attention of an old rival, who likewise seeks to alter time for his own nefarious purposes.
THE FARCICAL ZOMBIE TRILOGY
A trio of tales, loosely linked, each sharing two common elements: There are zombies, and none of it is taken very seriously. The first story is set in 2083, the second in 1912, and the third travels through time from 1939 to 1888…
GZA tells of a nursing home overrun by a mindless horde of flesh-eating monsters. There are many zombie stories out there, set in shopping malls, small towns, big cities, etc. I’ve never read one in a nursing home, where the heroes tasked with ridding themselves of the menace are also forced to contend with back spasms, trouble hearing, and trick hips.
TITANIC PANIC tells of zombie outbreak on the legendary ill-fated vessel. The story centers around the young assistant of an obsessed scientist, who is developing a serum to prevent and even reverse aging. Little does he know, his serum has horrible side-effects. There’s also the heiress of a Maine-based peanut butter empire, being wooed by an obnoxious (and shady) English Duke. The fates of both, and others, come to a head amidst a zombie outbreak and the most infamous sinking in history.
A GERMAN SCIENTIST ON SAMUEL CLEMENS’ FRONT PORCH is the final book in the series. It’s about Albert Einstein building a time machine to go back and visit his doppelganger, Mark Twain. Little does he know that Nazi scientists have been developing their own time travel tech, as well as building a zombie army from deceased WWI soldiers. Now Twain and Einstein have to work together to stop the Nazis from taking over the world fifty years earlier than expected!
A CENTURY OF WIND, FIRE, AND WATER
Twelve books spanning a hundred years of war, betrayal, political machinations, magic, mysticism, heroism and villainy. Enter a world that has known the magical “power of the wind” for so long it’s woven itself into every aspect of society, technology, and culture; where the magic of fire and water has been hidden away only now to emerge, throwing the world into conflict. The story begins with a focus on an old, stoic, peace-seeking “Wind Monk” and his younger, more thrill-seeking former-disciple. Together they discover a young girl with a power that was long-thought extinct, and come face to face with an enemy the world thought was long-dead. The first three books in the series—entitled The Hand in the Shadows, Flames of War, and Ashes in the Wind, are done, and more are on the way!
DISHONORED
Set in a fictional, fantastical version of ancient Japan, the DISHONORED series is an anthology collection of stories that span generations. Tales of heroism, adventure, magic, revenge, and the rise and fall of dynasties, kingdoms, and empires are all on display in these ten books set in the island chain of Shoto, where honor can be stolen and where the dishonored are forced either to exile themselves on the forsaken Isle of Humao (the Island of the Dishonored) or take vengeance on the one who wronged them, and win back their honor.
bIBLE COMMENTARIES
Verse-by-Verse walk-throughs using the King James Bible as a guide. One of the most common criticisms against the Bible is that it’s a Book that can’t be understood or that it’s too ancient and antiquated to be relevant anymore. I disagree with both assessments. The Bible can be understood and its Message is just as touching today as it was two-thousand years ago. Sometimes we just need a little help understanding it. My commentaries aren’t the most in-depth you’ll ever read, but they are great beginning points for someone looking to learn more about the Book of Books.
I also maintain a podcost of sermons, classes, and devotionals. YOU CAN FIND THE LINK HERE.
SHORT STORIES
Shorts in the vein of the classic tales of past generations. Greats like Asimov, Bradbury, Ellison, and Heinlein authored many of the best short-stories ever put to print. My works don’t compare to theirs (few do) but they are inspired by them. My shorts vary wildly in tone and setting but they are all quick reads, high-concept in idea, and end with some kind of a moral or twist; on that note, inspiration came from one of the greatest science-fiction minds, Rod Serling, whose Twilight Zone episodes almost always had a finale that smacked you in the face.
buried deep
A slow-burn horror/thriller that spans from snowy Connecticut to swampy Louisiana. A series of shocking deaths forces a father and son to journey cross-country back to their hometown. While investigators unravel the reason behind the killings, long-buried remnants of a traumatic childhood come back to life. Buried Deep explores the dangers of dark family secrets, and the demons that can latch onto them.
THE EYE OF THE ABYSS
A horror/mystery about a man and his son, the evil that has targeted them, and their desperate attempt to rid themselves of the darkness that lies in the oldest house on Abyss Drive.