FREE BOOK SUNDAY from Mike Martin and Heart Beat Books!

FREE BOOK SUNDAY from Mike Martin and Heart Beat Books!

HEAR YE! HEAR YE!  Welcome to Free Book Sunday. 

Last day to get my new book The Trouble for FREE. Details below. Click all links for more information.

 
Ending Dec. 15, today's StoryOrigin giveaway is for novels that include famous historical, mythological, or fictional characters in new roles.


"It is a truth universally acknowledged that witches raised as mundanes are going to be very, very confused." Jane Austen's famous opening lines to Pride and Prejudice? More like Katherine Gilbert's new Pride, Prejudice & Penguins.

My latest tale, GULLIVAR JONES AND THE TREASURE OF THE TSAR, features oodles of famous and not-so-famous real-life characters, along with an adventurous explorer many consider the grandfather of the adventure genre, Gullivar Jones. 

PS: That a certain other famous fictional explorer is also named Jones is not lost on this tale.

US Navy Lt. Gullivar Jones first appeared in Edwin Lester Arnold’s pioneering 1905 pulp novel, Lieutenant Gullivar Jones: His Vacation. There he inspired Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels and Burroughs’ Mars-based swashbuckler, John Carter.

Gullivar Jones has made a few appearances since, as he and his story are in the public domain.

In my new adventure set around 1935, retired Captain Gullivar Jones -- now in his early fifties -- joins two British spies with smarts and snark. Abigail Bradshaw and Archibald Smart.  Together they criss-cross the globe to find the Fountain of Youth before Hitler or Stalin can use its fabled waters to create armies of immortal soldiers.

The story of the Fountain's origins reads like a historical Who's Who. Seeking the water to cure his hemophiliac son Alexei, the last Russian Tsar, Nicholas II, launched a 1914 expedition shrouded in such secrecy, Jones and company must travel the globe seeking obscure clues. The Tsar had to assure the malevolent mystic Rasputin never learned of the Fountain's powerful secrets.

 

Such a large undertaking needs allies, and the Tsar wasn't alone. He'd become friends years earlier with the Japanese Emperor Meiji, who had both a cultural -- Japan has a long Fountain of Youth-seeking history -- and personal interest in finding the healing waters. Meiji's son Yosihito, who would succeed him years later, had been ill since infancy after he contracted meningitis.

As the story moves across the globe, we meet the work of a famous Russian icon painter and political rebel, Grigory Gurkin. We learn about an ancient sect of Russian Christians, the Soshigateli.

Across the Atlantic to the Amazon jungle, we encounter the legend of the *real* Amazon women, a people known as the Icamiaba. And in the jungle: the story's main villains, a rogue's gallery of Nazi doctors in training, every one of them real life, but here in fictional re-creations.

Here's Gullivar's first encounter with a young Joachim Mrugowsky.

 

I AWAKENED ON A hospital table to one of the ugliest faces I’d ever seen. Pock marks, blemishes, a scar on his cheek, his gloved hand swabbing the crease in my forearm.

“You don’t look like a nurse,” I said.

“Doctor,” he said. “Mrugowsky.”

He picked up a syringe with a big needle and brought it toward my arm.

“What’s that?” I said.

No answer as he positioned it.

“I said, what’s that?”

I tried to pull away, but a strap across my waist and wrists pinned me. I writhed then swung my legs back and slammed my feet into his head.

He dropped the syringe and stumbled back.

I worked my hands up to the strap buckle while he hunted around for the lost syringe. Two brass prongs burrowed through holes in the leather and they were tight, so I sucked in my gut to loosen the buckle.

Mrugowsky found the needle and was upon me. I kicked up and he swayed out of the way and came at me again.

My legs flew back, like a gymnastics tumbling routine, him ducking and dodging, relentlessly silent, me working the first prong through the first leather hole, the second prong sticking so I sucked my gut in farther and with eight fingers and a thumb, got the last prong out of the strap and flew up, bashing his head with mine and damn near knocking us both out.

Get GULLIVAR JONES AND THE TREASURE OF THE TSAR for all your reading devices FREE at:

 

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/z8plF9J

 

 


Gullivar Jones and the Treasure of the Tsar

 

Being a romantic heroine is not for the faint of heart.

Until this morning, Lizzy Bennett thought the oddest thing in her life was that her mother named her and all four sisters after Jane Austen characters.

Then the Magical Council arrested her father. Now, she and her sister Jena (her mother thought “Jane” was too plain) are sent away to a magical college to learn how to wield their own magic -- another surprise discovery.

In a medieval castle on a Scottish island, Lizzy tries to adapt to life at the Academy. But that’s not so easy when it’s discovered she’s not only blind to magic, unlike every other witch, but saddled with a syndrome so rare the school has only dealt with it once before.

More complications when she meets the much-too-handsome Mr. David Fitzwilliam, his friends Charles and Caro Bingham, and her professor, Charlie Lucas.

But her challenges are nothing compared to the menacing man who shows up to steal her necklace and her memories, proclaiming she belongs to him.

CLICK for your FREE copy of Pride, Prejudice, and Penguins

 

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/z8plF9J


‍A new kind of hero for a new kind of city

By 1878, San Francisco had changed from a Gold-Rush boomtown to a bustling metropolis of money, bawdy houses, and lawlessness.

Enter Matthew Slade, once the Pinkerton Detective Agency’s best gun, investigator, and tracker. After Slade rescues Mai Lee from a pair of thugs, he finds out the girl is wanted by Huang Sun, the leader of the dominant tong – a Chinese crime syndicate that runs drugs and prostitution.

Slade's first paid job as a free agent is to keep Mai Lee out of Sun’s hands – no matter the cost!

CLICK for your FREE copy of The Gaslight Gunslinger

https://storyoriginapp.com/to/z8plF9J

LAST DAY FOR FREE!

THE TROUBLE

Irish homicide detective Adam Kincaid pursues a serial killer exacting revenge for crimes connected to high-ranking Catholic Church officials.

Click It to Get It 

The giveaway ends AT MIDNIGHT.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0BCXD8MVR/

In CRIMSY, young scientist Jen Zendeck and her research team must rescue the greatest discovery in history from the universities, governments, and trillionaires fighting to keep it for themselves. A realistic take on science and discovery 20  years from now, CRIMSY is perfect for fans of Andy Weir and Michael Crichton.

◆◆◆◆◆"Loved it! Amazing plot. Very insightful on the scientific parts of the story. Great writing."

◆◆◆◆◆ "Scientific backstory excellent!"

◆◆◆◆◆ "Paints a picture of true scientists and the values they share. I recommend this to those who enjoy good dialogue, thrillers, and realistic fiction."

◆◆◆◆◆ "My type of book ... great characters, lots of thought-provoking problem solving."

◆◆◆◆◆ "Parts of this book would make a GREAT movie."

◆◆◆◆◆"A funny, thought-provoking, and well-written story of space exploration, politics, and the moral issues of scientific investigation."

GET Crimsy: A gripping, funny, realistic near-future sci-fi adventure AT:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08MXY3PK6
‍

NEWLY WIDOWED AND STRUGGLING with single fatherhood, SILHOUETTE hero and small-town prosecutor Ben Harper investigates a murder and uncovers racially-charged secrets that threaten a charismatic Black mayor's ambitious plans for New Orleans.

◆◆◆◆◆ "A fascinating read, clear and suspenseful, all the way until the end. Keeps the reader guessing and turning the page. This is a complex tale with lots of character."  

◆◆◆◆◆ "The author does a wonderful job expressing the intricacies and nuances of race in America."

◆◆◆◆◆ "Ben Harper is smart, anchored, educated, and cares about his people. Unlike many previous portrayals of Black detectives that play to various stereotypes, Ben is worthy of Black readers' admiration."

GET Silhouette: Murder, politics, New Orleans AT:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09FH6DR48/
‍

‍A heartfelt thank you to Maryann from Boston and Kerry from Australia, who recently reviewed The Fires of Lilliput on Goodreads and Amazon.

From Maryann, "This was a hard read. The detail that this author put into this book is impressive.

"I have been blessed with knowing someone who witnessed what happened in Poland so I came to this with some idea of what occurred.

"I was moved by the strength of these characters. They have been written with great depth, so much so that you will find that you will need to step away in order to continue.

"This is a story of faith and friendship found within one of the darkest times that has befallen man. Put this on your must read list. I guarantee you will not regret the decision."

Calling The Fires of Lilliput "enthralling and inspiring," Kerry wrote, "One is drawn into the very heart and soul of ordinary people who accomplished extraordinary things during ultimately stressful times."  

GET THE FIRES OF LILLIPUT FOR KINDLE, FREE IN KU:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08PZDFMWY

GET THE FIRES OF LILLIPUT PAPERBACK AT:

https://heartbeatbookstore.com/product/the-fires-of-lilliput/



‍Thank you so much for reading!

Until next time,

Michael Martin

2,610 subscribers

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