Lee Martin

The follow-up to Pulitzer Prize finalist The Bright Forever, The Evening Shades tells the story of two lonely people in a small Midwestern town slowly revealing their secrets to themselves, and each other . . . One afternoon in the autumn of 1972, a lonely widow in Mt. Gilead, Illinois, makes the impromptu decision to rent out a room in her house to a socially awkward man, a stranger who has come to town. It is risky--she doesn't know anything about him. But Edith Green can no longer bear a life lived alone. And Henry Dees, haunted by the past he carries with him from Tower Hill, Indiana, is plagued by a tremendous guilt about things he did and didn't do that led to the death of a little girl back home. How can he face the rest of his life? The Evening Shades is as moving and suspenseful as its predecesser, Pulitzer finalist The Bright Forever. But it is a story that stands alone: a story of love found in middle age and the joy it promises, but not without serious complications. There is the bereaved family of the little girl, who are holding their own secrets about the mysterious disappearances of both the man who killed their daughter and Henry Dees. The Evening Shades is a poignant story of accommodation, resilience, forgiveness, and love in the face of all that threatens the splendor of our ordinary lives.

Creativity: A Critical Realist Perspective challenges conventional wisdom on how we define and understand the emergence of creativity. Enhancing creativity is increasingly being suggested as critical to resolving 21st century challenges such as climate change, population growth and enabling innovation in organisations. There’s also been a tradition of humanist thought that has long suggested creativity is fundamental to human flourishing. This book explores current explanations of creativity and illustrates there are still some fundamental problems with how we come to understand and explain creativity. It reflects on issues with accounts of creativity in potential, explaining creativity both prior to and without recognition and the difficulties with attempts to explain creativity without implicitly accepting creation from nothing. Utilising the philosophy of critical realism, the book offers a route to resolving these problems whilst developing an account of the emergence of creativity within the context of modern working life. This work offers a timely and critical look at the nature of creativity which will have consequences for the way it is researched, understood and developed. The book will be of interest to anyone teaching or researching creativity as well as to students of psychology, sociology, business & management and philosophy.

This book is dedicated to Luke, the most magnificent gentle giant of an Asian elephant. He was 12 feet tall, weighed 12,000 pounds, and his tusks were 8 feet long. Born in the USA and raised by Patricia Zerbini at "Two Tails Ranch" in Williston, Florida. The first copy of Trunkly was written in 1973. The lesson taught by the star of this book - Trunkly - is Always to Follow Your Dreams...Never Give up. www.allaboutelephants.com

In August of 1844, a man named Leonard Reed takes violently ill at his home near Heathsville, Illinois, and four days later he is dead. The cause? Arsenic poisoning. The suspect? His wife, Betsey. The chief witnesses against her? A hired girl, Eveline Deal, and the local apothecary, James Logan. The evidence? Eveline claims she saw Betsey put a pinch of white powder in Leonard’s coffee. Betsey Reed, a woman who dabbles in herbal healing, is known about town as a witch. As the gossip and the circumstantial evidence mount, Betsey finds herself under the shadow of a trial—and a noose. A historical crime inspired by the true story of Betsey Reed, for fans of The Trial of Lizzie Borden and The Good Sister, Lee Martin’s latest weaves a tale of a pinch of white powder, a scorched paper, a community hungry for a villain, and a young girl’s first taste of revenge—but above all, of the contradictions and imperfections of the human heart.

Pearl Hart is a feisty suffragette with an abusive husband. Chance Donovan, a U.S. Deputy Marshal and former Texas Ranger, is dealing with his own troubled past as well as the vengeful and deadly Boxer gang.When Pearl becomes desperate and allows herself to trust a lying gambler, she ends up in Yuma Prison. However, fortune soon turns in her favor, and it isn't long before she's in Kansas City starring in a play about her life.Secretly yearning for Pearl, Chance hangs up his badge in order to bring her some good news. But the deadly Boxers are hot on his trail, determined to take revenge-unaware that Chance has his own personal reasons for wanting to punish them for wrongs he can never forgive.

Tom Huxley, owner and CEO of a large accounting firm in the town of Jasmine, South Carolina, is on his way to the opening ceremony of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics when he is assaulted at a rest area near the Georgia border. His wife, Amanda, is notified by the Anderson County Sheriff that Tom was transported to a local hospital and currently in a coma. Within a matter of hours, she and her daughter Brie travel across the state to take up their vigil in the ICU waiting room, praying for him to awaken. The good news is that a day later he does regain consciousness; however, they then discover he has lost memory of the last twenty years of his life. While convalescing the following week in the hospital, he is horrified to find that he is a thirteen-year-old in a thirty-three-year-old man's body. Even weeks later at home, both he and Amanda are trying to cope with the reality that a teenager in an adult body who doesn't know his own family is incapable of being a husband and father. So how long will his amnesia last? Or is it actually real? And what was it Amanda found in Tom's car that poses an even bigger threat to their marriage? Retrogame contains all the ingredients that excites readers...mystery, suspense, surprise, secrets, action, murder, romance, deception and on top of it all, betrayal. Be electrified all the way up to the surprise ending.

In 1878, Kansas Red-a mysterious gunman, bounty hunter, and sometimes lawman-learns a young hot-head named Billy is looking for him. Kansas soon finds himself saving the boy from angry gamblers. The gunfight leaves both Kansas and Billy wounded.Billy shows Kansas a dime novel with the gunman's face on it, and says his father, Sam Cassidy, sent him to find Kansas and convince him to come to the ranch to help. The dreaded outlaw Thorn Larson is on the loose and out for the kill. But by the time Kansas and Billy reach the Cassidy Ranch, they're too late. The men are dead, and three women-including Billy's mother, Carol-have been taken.Forming a makeshift posse, Kansas, Billy, and Finnegan-a Black rancher who brings his pint-size attack dog, Bonnie, to sniff out the trail-track Larson and company over formidable mountain ranges. During the chase, Leslie, a beautiful Texas sharpshooter, escapes the outlaws with the help of the gang's Ute Indian guide, Charlie, and is found injured but recovers to join the posse. Almost immediately, sparks fly between Kansas and Leslie.While trailing Larson, the posse saves a young federal marshal from hanging, and he joins them as they catch up with the outlaws. What follows is a wild gun battle with Larson and his gang that not only reveals hidden treasure but long-held family secrets.The story is also a motion picture The Desperate Riders, written by Lee Martin, produced and directed by Michael Feifer. Stars include Drew Waters, Trace Adkins, Tom Berenger, Vanessa Evigan, Sam Ashby, Victoria Pratt, Cowboy Troy, Rob Mayes, Brock O'Hurn and Peter Sherayko.

The Callahans are a powerful clan with a vast cattle empire and they run rough-shod over New Mexico Territory, but when the youngest son's terrified, runaway bride is rescued and taken to a relay station by an old trader and a mysterious young saddle tramp with a fast draw, the Callahans surround Rhyker's Station with a deadly siege.Coming soon to DVD: THE SIEGE AT RHYKER'S STATION, screenplay written by Lee Martin, and produced and directed by Michael Feifer, was filmed in the mountains of Southern California in November of 2020, and stars Brock Harris, Skylar Witte, Peter Sherayko, Jay Pickett, David Deluise, Michael Welch, Brock Burnett, Caia Coley, Keikilani Grune, Cam Gigandet, and the legendary Bruce Dern.

Are you considering taking up the boondocking lifestyle? Want to be great at it? Whether on a permanent or part-time basis, you will need guidance and assurance to get you through the experience, no matter your expertise. Many aspects of the off-grid lifestyle have more reason and meaning than what you see on the surface.In this book, you will discover: - Different concepts of Boondocking- How to get ahead and use great electrical systems - Simple secrets to keep you off-grid longer - Safe and simple solutions - Amazing locations to be off-grid - A modern list of what to bring- The know-how about your consumption and how to predict it - Explicit details on Powering your RV in modern ways If you are serious about boondocking and being handy with your RV, then this book will show you all of the best practices to fine-tune your success. Nothing to lose, but everything to gain for your road trips ahead

Sam Darringer isn't about to settle down just yet, so he's happy to accept the challenge when he's asked to ride herd to the Montana Territory. Rad Pierson is moving his cattle and his home base north to keep his daughter out of the nasty clutches of outlaw Russ Wilder, and he could use a Darringer fast gun on the trail to protect the flirtatious Angela.But Mr. Pierson has two daughters. Lisa, the younger, is wearing men's clothing and riding with the cowboys. Sam, against his better judgment, is captivated, especially when she proves her mettle in a stampede-and in a gunfight with some of Wilder's men. Lisa won't let Sam get to know her, however, which may be just as well. There's a band of renegades looking to test Sam's draw. Besides, Sam yearns to "see the elephant." For a restless spirit, the trail is never too long. But for the first time Sam has to wonder: What might he be leaving behind?

"Count your blessings," his mother told him, "Think of everything good in your life." Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin has done it again. Building from his acclaimed first memoir, From Our House, which recounts the farming accident that cost his father both his hands, Gone the Hard Road is the story of Beulah Martin's endurance and sacrifice as a mother, and the gift of imagination she offered her son. Martin unfolds the world she created for him within their unsettled family life, from the first time she read to him in a doctor's office waiting room, to enrolling him in a children's book club, to the books she bought him in high school. Gone the Hard Road portrays Beulah's selflessness as the family moved around the Midwest, sometimes in the face of her husband's opposition, to show her son a different way of being. Rather than concentrate on the life his father threatened to destroy, as Martin's previous memoirs do, Gone the Hard Road offers the counternarrative of a loving mother and the creative life she made possible, in spite of the eventual cost to herself. A poignant, honest, and moving read, Gone the Hard Road will stay with anyone who has ever struggled to find their place in the world.

Finding his cousin, friend, and mentor Marshal Bob Harrington hanging dead from a cottonwood tree is a cruel blow for Deputy U.S. Marshal Hank Darringer. He'd like nothing better than to exact a bitter and swift revenge, but as a lawman, he knows his duty: capture the vicious murderers and haul them to justice-legally.But seeking justice is tougher than obstructing it in Prospect, Colorado, a bounty hunter's paradise. Being on the side of the law won't shield Hank from the flying bullets. And though it looks like he's closer to getting his man than he thought, now someone is mighty interested in seeing Hank dead. He has to keep one eye on his fast gun and one eye on his back, because in this lawless town full of villains and informants, no one-not even the breathtaking Rosalee Carter-is what he or she seems...