A warm welcome to Mike Martin, author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series.

I write a light mystery series, the Sgt. Windflower Mystery series. Although I have to confess two things. One is that I never knew I was going to write a series. I just wanted to write a fiction book. I’d written a non-fiction self-help book that was quite forgettable, even for me. But my dream as a writer was to write and publish a ‘real’ book.

The second thing is once I started the series I did not know where it might/would/could end. I am now releasing Book 13 All That Glitters and finishing off Book 14 and each and every time I wonder… Is this the end? How would I know?

I guess it could end if I run out of ideas. But I have a feeling that’s not going to happen. If anything, I have more ideas than I could write books about. I usually get the starting point from something strange happening around the area where I set my series, the beautiful and scenic province of Newfoundland. But if you haven’t noticed, there’s always something strange in the news. Drug busts, biker gangs, mysterious deaths, There’s no shortage of things to write about.

I also think I could get so old and decrepit that I would just be mumbling and drooling and be physically unable to write. That’s a distinct possibility, just not quite yet. It used to be that people worked hard for 40 years or so and then retired. Some people still so. But many others continue to work long past what was once considered retirement age because they like to, want to, or just because they can. In 1961 the average death age was 71, it made sense to retire at 65. Maybe get a few years before you croaked. Now that’s it 81 or 82, what’s a good age to retire? I guess when you’re ready.

Ultimately, I think I will stop writing this series when people get tired of reading them or I get tired of writing them. I have been very fortunate to have discovered a number of faithful Windflower friends. I would never call them fans. They are as much a part of the Sgt. Windflower family as me or the characters in the books. If they start telling me to quit, it’s over. Point final.

On a very personal note, I will stop writing this series when it’s no longer fun for me. When it feels like work or a chore or drudgery. I’ve worked at many jobs where I didn’t particularly like what I did, or some aspects of that job. I get energy and excitement from writing each and every book in this series. If that ever stops, or when it happens, I am done.

But it’s not yet. Today I get up in the morning, take a look at where I am in the current story and start plunking away on the keyboard. I write as much as I can and then take a break. If I am inspired I may go back and do some more right away. If not, I leave it. I come back to it again when I feel the urge to write, to create, to live again in the magical worlds we can build from the blank page.

I think I might have one more book in me. I hope you’ll stay with me.

FIND ALL THAT GLITTERS on Amazon

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 bestselling author of the award-winning Sgt. Windflower Mystery series set in beautiful Grand Bank. There are now 13 books in this light mystery series with the publication of All That Glitters. 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. Some Sgt. Windflower Mysteries are now available as audiobooks and the latest A Tangled Web was released as an audiobook in 2023. All audiobooks are available from Audible in Canada and around the world. 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 Writers’ Guild and Capital Crime Writers.

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