I’m pleased to have partnered up with the Kindle Book Review on their September Meet & Greet promotion where you can enjoy some cool prizes if you have a little luck or magic in your veins.
They are helping me promote my Forgotten Child Trilogy in the process.
Can you pick me out of a lineup!
Thanks for all your support.
Here’s a link to the trilogy. Stayed tuned. Book 1 will be offered for free in the next few days. Limited time offer.
I’m happy to announce I’ll be publishing a new Christmas short story this year. Unsure of release date, but it will be well early for the season. It even has a cover!
Can you pick up the tone of it? Yes, light-hearted, silly, funny (hopefully) with a warm fire-place-like touch of sentiment – all those things you need to settle into the holiday season. You know, like a cinnamon stick in your hot chocolate or spiced cider simmering on the stove.
“Jolly Old St. Hick” was actually a short play that my drama group The RLT Players performed in their Christmas show “Tales of Wonder II” in 2015. It was a funny and well-received vignette, and last year I got the idea of re-writing it as a short story. I didn’t get very far.
Until now! I turned the 2000 word play into a 6000+ word short story coming your way to a Kindle near you!
I’ve actually not written many short stories in my life. I’ve written more novels than short stories, actually. I’m not sure if that is bizarre or not, but I’m becoming more familiar with the genre. Most of my short stories are Christmas-themed. Why is that? I’m not sure, exactly, but perhaps there’s something comforting about a warm cup of tea, a fireplace, and a 30 or 40-minute sentimental read.
In 2014, I published “If Love is a Crime: A Christmas Story” about a runaway slave in 1852. Available Here.
In 2016, I published “Christmas in the Trenches 1914” a fictitious account of the real-life truce between the Brits and the Germans in WWI on Christmas Eve 1914. Available Here!
In 2018, I will publish “Jolly Old St. Nick.”
I hope you enjoy, and look out for the release of my new one soon!
Book one of The Forgotten Child Trilogy: A Man Too Old for a Place Too Far is now available through Kindle Unlimited. So if you’re a subscriber, you can read it for free.
Here’s the LINK
This unique story will take you to Cambodia, Romania, Scotland, the South Pacific – all from the starting point of mid-town Manhattan. A bothersome being from the other side drops some pomegranate juice on grumpy businessman Francis Frick while he is sleeping. He is jolted awake into a new reality of time travel and unexplained beings as he is taken on a quest to find and save a child in history who truly didn’t matter.
Get ready for an adventure of a lifetime!
Valicity at TheRebelChristian.com posted a new review of my soon to be released novel “Which Half David.”
She states: “I have read multiple Christian stories about King David’s journey and I think this one is definitely worth a read. It is different from all the others I have read because it takes place in such a vastly different setting—that fact alone makes it very interesting right from the start.”
Please head on over to her website and read the entire review HERE!
Available for Pre-Order: HERE!
Synopsis: Which Half David is a modern twist on the centuries old tale of King David. Set against the lush backdrop of the fictitious Southeast Asian island nation of Sulu, it is the story of one man’s dramatic fall from grace and his struggle to come to grips with both halves of who he really is.
American mission worker Tobin Matthews faces off against two imposing giants: a vicious gang of human traffickers and a corrupt justice system ready to imprison a group of hill tribesmen. But his greatest foe remains within as he finds himself wrestling with a broken marriage and a crippling set of doubts. When his brazen ex-lover shows up with her own agenda, she becomes the greatest temptation of his life, and he must decide how far he is willing to go to have her.
If you haven’t picked up a copy of my newest release, A Love Story for a Nation, here are two new descriptions which might help you see if this book is for you or not.
Click here for Kindle version $3.99 or paperback $11.99
You can also read reviews, check out an excerpt, or look at my other books. Thanks!
My first novel, still near and dear to my heart, is on a Kindle Countdown Deal for only 99 cents through October 18.
What’s it about? Many have described it as a late-coming-of-age story and that’s certainly true. Here’s some facts about it:
Date First Published: December 2012
Main Characters: Martin Kinny (30ish, still live at home going nowhere type – also overweight, not remarkably attractive); My Phuong (a beautiful, young, troubled Vietnamese woman)
Setting: Contemporary: Thai Nguyen & Hanoi Vietnam; Lyndora, Pennsylvania;
Narration: 1st person from two points of view
Part I: Section narrated by Martin: As his dying, abusive father (a Vietnam vet) asks Martin to take his ashes back to Nam, Martin tries to accomplish it, but ends up flubbing everything, including getting his wallet stolen, which makes him completely at the mercy of Vietnamese society to get back home
Part II: Section narrated by My Phuong: She chronicles how she stole Martin’s wallet, and how that seemingly benign event which she did many times before, ends up throwing her headlong into a series of events that should could have never predicted – including running for her very life.
Part III: Section narrated by Martin: In strange, unexpected ways, the two stories of Martin and My Phuong come together with a lot of uncertainty brewing under the surface.
Other Important Characters:
Martin’s Mother: weary and worn after a lifetime of living with her abusive husband; she resents all things Vietnam.
The Vietnamese Politician: He lures My Phuong into a web of deceit, where she becomes his trapped mistress.
This is an emotional novel which packs a wallop – especially at the end. Anyone who enjoys stories of love, deceit, culture, adventure, travel, or growing-up will find something enjoyable in “Beauty Rising”
Please check it out!
To celebrate my latest novel’s first 99 Cent Sale on Amazon, I’m happy to offer an exclusive excerpt. Here’s a piece where Gerald stares into the face of his true adversary – the man on his country’s money:
“If I was a man, I’d have my revenge.” He leaned against the table. “What revenge would that be?” he asked himself. “Gomez said it himself, if I need someone to blame then just look around. Look around at this crummy house. Cold in the winter. Suffocating in the summer. Holes the size of Reoux rats, who have staked their claim to happiness. This place spawns rats, not humans. Look around! Blame is in the eye of the beholder. It’s so easy to see. You’ve exchanged my happiness for a pile of cash. Is that what you want?” He yelled the last line and violently upturned the table, sending all the loose bills scattering onto the kitchen floor. “Here, rats, come and feast on my fortune. Come and dine on my happiness. Lick the bills and tear a hole through the face of the one who surely is to blame for your wealth and my plight.” Gerald got on all fours and reached for a colorful denomination, lifting it up towards the window light. “There you are, President Antoine. I haven’t had the pleasure of having you in this house very often recently. But look at you now, covering my floor like the shavings of wood in a carpenter’s shop. At death you come. At death you finally show up to stake your claim on our lives. At death you arrive but for what? So I can walk upon you?” Gerald stood up and jumped up and down on the money. “So I can jump on you? So I can push your greasy face into the rat tracks of my kitchen floor?” He walked all over the money, but stopped quickly to look once again at the bill still in his hand. “But Antoine, you came too late. You came much too late. If you had arrived several months ago, Rosia would be alive. Did you hear that Antoine? Rosia and my son would still be alive if you had come earlier. You have the means of doing good, but you purposely choose evil. You purposefully spit your venom on everyone. I thought we were friends. Compatriots. Brothers. I worked for you. I, Gerald Jon Sanpatri, worked for you. I never opposed you as I should have. And this is how you repay me? I was loyal to you and disloyal to myself, and this is how you repay me?” He stared deeply into the face on the bill. “It’s you! You’re to blame for everything. Everything! Everything!” yelled Gerald loudly and ripped the bill in several pieces, tossing it into the air. “I don’t want your blood money! I don’t want your gifts and flowers! I only want one thing: revenge. I shall have it, or I shall have death.”
SALE ENDS SEPT 26! Pick your copy up HERE!
I’ve partnered with the Kindle Book Review in giving away a bunch of Amazon gift cards, and in the process, promote my new release: “A Love Story for a Nation.”
Use this link here: FALL GIVEAWAY And of course, to enter is absolutely free!
In doing so, you can help promote my book, like my Facebook page, and generally put me in a fabulous mood for the fall season.
This giveaway runs through September 27, so don’t delay!
Thanks so much for your support, and be watching for a SWEET deal coming your way later this week!
We know that Santa has delivered a lot of new Kindles recently, well now it’s time to stock on some excellent reads to get you started. My first two novels, Beauty Rising and The Recluse Storyteller are on sale for only 99 cents through December 31. Read the descriptions below and click the links to read reviews.
On Sale: December 25 – December 31, my second novel, The Recluse Storyteller, only $0.99 on Kindle. 4.6 stars with 33 reviews on Amazon.
The stories haunt Margaret every waking moment, but they are anything but random. A fractured view Michael Cheevers’ red hat through a discreetly cracked door sends her off on adventure. A glimpse of the Johnson twins from apartment 2D transports her mind to the lonely hill on a Midwestern prairie in 1887. The regular letters from Reverend Davies bring her to the brink of exhaustion as she stares intensely into the heart of war, deep in the jungle of Vietnam.
Margaret is not insane, at least not in a clinical sense. She’s like a midnight raccoon, painfully aware of her surroundings, gleaning crumbs of information at every turn. Her eyes peer incessantly in the night, stealing glances of the neighbors through partially opened doors. But the tales she weaves were not meant to merely hold empty court to the receptive dead air of her apartment. Her stories were meant to embolden the lives of the inhabitants of that drab apartment block because her story is also their story–and everything would be different if they could only hear the prophetic words of the rambling recluse.
Pick up your $0.99 copy HERE! (Dec 25-31)
On Sale: December 25 – December 31, my debut novel, Beauty Rising, only $0.99 on Kindle. 4.4 stars with 84 reviews on Amazon.
“My heart sank. I dumped my father’s ashes in the heart of communist Vietnam – over a thousand miles from the death of his comrades – over a thousand miles from the smile of that girl. How could I have been so stupid?”
Only the bumbling, overweight, thirtyish, stay-at-home Martin Kinney could have mistakenly flubbed his dying father’s request with such gusto. This thousand mile mistake awakens the ghosts of long-held family secrets and puts Martin on a fateful course with an unlikely romantic interest – a young, beautiful, yet troubled Vietnamese woman named My Phuong.
With its cross-cultural setting and unlikely romance, the 61,000 word novel Beauty Rising creates a powerful, unique voice in today’s literature. In a swift-moving, dialogue-driven prose which is funny, honest, tragic and unpredictable, Beauty Rising explores the depths of culture, family, and love as the Vietnam War, a generation removed, continues to hang on the periphery of society, cursing families and causing destruction.
Pick up your $0.99 copy HERE! (Dec 25-31)
If not, I’d ask you to give it a try. It doesn’t cost much. Only $2.99 on Kindle. Cheaper than a cup of coffee.
It’s a romance for those who don’t like romance.
It’s a history for those who don’t like history.
It will teach you something about Vietnam, culture, and family without bashing you over the head.
It will be fast moving – I promise. That’s the way I love to write. I’m not going to bog you down with 10 pages of description each chapter.
It will have memorable characters. I also promise.
It’s also an adventure.
It’s a war story that is only partially a war story.
It is NOT based on the Vietnam War. It’s set in 1945 and 2000.
The reviews have been excellent. Please read them HERE!
I would be forever grateful if you would give it a try: The Reach of the Banyan Tree
Thank you! (And it’s available in paperback, too! And it has a beautiful cover.)
Author Mark W Sasse 