In the Spirit of Christmas
It would come as no secret to anyone who knows me that I love Christmas. I love everything about it. And sorry to the ‘haters’ out there, but it can’t start early enough for me. The thing I love about Christmas is the spirit itself. I respect those who want to celebrate the birth of the Christ child. It is his birthday, after all. I also have time for the secular folks who can’t wait to turn their lawns and houses into a kaleidoscope of lights and colours. For those who see chaos and cacophony, I see and hear Christmas joy.
But for me, I love Christmas because it brings a new feeling to the world. Even the lowliest of low seem to get a little bit happier. People start smiling at each other. They are kinder to strangers. Many of us start thinking about other people a little more. Not just our families and close friends. But people in need. That’s the spirit of Christmas. It’s the spirit of giving and not asking for anything in return. The gift we get back is a warm glow inside that keeps us warm all throughout Christmas. And if we’re lucky, it just may last all year long.
So, it is in the spirit of Christmas that I offer you the gift. It’s a small book of poetry. Christmas poetry. Designed to help you get into, and stay into the Christmas spirit. Some use it as a kind of advent calendar. To mark the days leading up to Christmas. You can use it any way you want. But enjoy it. Let the joy that these little, happy, cheerful poems bring, into your heart. Then, when you feel that warm glow, give it away to someone else. It might be a cup of coffee or a gift card. Or just a smile.
Merry Christmas
Mike
Louise Penny, Rick Mofina, Melodie Campbell and more Love A Capital Mystery
If you’re from Ottawa, or have ever visited our nation’s capital city, you have to read A Capital Mystery. Canadian mystery heavyweights like Louise Penny, Rick Mofina and Melodie Campbell are touting its virtues. So, do a host of other authors and early readers.
Louise Penny says:
A Capital Mystery is a book that celebrates the magic, history and most of all — mystery — that is Ottawa. “I can’t wait to read it. You can order it online or through your local bookstore.”
Rick Mofina says
“Compelling stories that pull you into Ottawa’s shadows. A tour de force of mystery and suspense.”
Melodie Campbell says
I could feel the chill of Ottawa’s icy winter in the opening story by one of Canada’s master writers. From ‘Captain Canada,’ to ‘the nuclear option,’ there is truly something for everyone in an anthology as Canadian as…a winter in Ottawa!
A Capital Mystery is: “21 short stories spanning the length and breath and history of Ottawa, Canada’s capital city. Some set in modern times, and some reaching far back into Bytown, Ottawa’s original settlement. There are stories in swanky restaurants downtown and strip malls in the suburbs. There are newly arrived Canadians, some more famous ones, jilted lovers and those who may be loved too much. Even a weird ceramic polar bear. All featuring fictitious and delicious crimes that will leave you wondering. Some may even keep you awake at night. But most will leave you with a sense of the magic and mystery of Ottawa, the jewel on the Rideau River.”
Check out more reviews from Judy Penz Sheluk, Joyce Woollcott, Kelly Young, David Hamilton, Margot Kinberg and more on Goodreads
A Capital Mystery is available directly from Ottawa Press and Publishing at
It is also available at Ottawa area Indigo and independent book stores and online all over the world from Amazon:
Upcoming Events
October 30 7pm at Indigo Pinecrest
November 18 7pm at Perfect Books
Follow A Capital Mystery on Facebook to stay up to date on events and author appearances:
We are immensely pleased and honoured to win this award. Hope and Love and Other Dreams is a collection of love poems, of nature poems. Of poems about trying to find the light in the darkness.
My hope is that these poems will shine a little light onto your darker moments and brighten even your darkest nights. Be safe. Be well. And love each other. If no one has told you yet today that they love you, I love you.
Peace
Mike Martin
You can buy Hope and Love and Other Dreams on Amazon all over the world
Follow Poetry Cafe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ottawamysterycafe
The best way to describe why I wrote Hope and Love and Other Dreams is to share the Introduction from the book with you.
Introduction
I have always written poetry. A lot of people have and still do. But for most it is kept personal, maybe even secret. Like many people, I have shared my poetry only with a few select individuals. Family, people I could trust. Because poetry is intensely personal and to share it publicly means to lower our shields and be vulnerable. But love came into my life and changed everything for me and poetry.
This collection of poetry comes from the last four years. It started during the first lockdown of Covid. Maybe because I had the time. But even more I think that I ended up spending the first lockdown months in the beautiful countryside outside of Ottawa. There were 3 humans and a dog in an old farmhouse and I spent many hours walking the fields and exploring the gardens.
As the flowers and shrubs came to life that Spring, so did I. I started writing a poem every day to share with Joan, the love of my life. They became our poems. Shared together, equally. Poems about the darkness, yes. But more about the hope, love and other dreams we shared.
Hope is all we have when the skies grow dark. Love is hope made human and real. Dreams are the safe places we go when we are alone in the nighttime.
Covid has passed, mostly. It will live on as some form of regular illness that hurts the most vulnerable among us. But it does feel like some of the darkness from that period has lingered. Some feel that there may be even darker days ahead for us, for our communities and for Mother Earth.
My hope is that these poems will shine a little light onto your darker moments and brighten even your darkest nights. Be safe. Be well. And love each other. If no one has told you yet today that they love you, I love you.
Peace
Mike Martin
Follow Poetry Cafe on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ottawamysterycafe
Hope and Love and Other Dreams. Coming in February 2025 from Mezzo Publications.
Hope, Love and Other Dreams is a collection of poems written to bring light to darker days. We hope they bring you peace.
Here’s another sample from Hope and Love and Other Dreams
Acceptance
A whisper of white in a sky that’s so blue
I can cry when I see it
Its heart is so true
A blinking of magic at the edge of the earth
Suspend disbelief
For all that it’s worth
A soupcon of sadness at what we have lost
Into this soft current
Our fortunes are tossed
Falling forever into the make believe sea
The rivers are wider
Than they appear to be
The boundaries are human and all in our minds
We cross them like nomads
Then leave them behind
And gathering our wisdom like a long soothing drink
We swim to the bottom
And walk to the brink
We find our true bottom when we learn to accept
That seeing is only half
Of the truth that is left
For more poems of hope and love and other dreams follow Poetry Cafe on Facebook
Hope and Love and Other Dreams. Coming in February 2025 from Mezzo Publications.
Hope, Love and Other Dreams is a collection of poems written to bring light to darker days. We hope they bring you peace.
Hope is all we have when the skies grow dark. Love is hope made human and real. Dreams are the safe places we go when we are alone in the nighttime.
Hope
“In the darkness there is calm
And in the morning, hope
In the quiet there are answers
To questions only we can know”
Love
“The seasons change but love remains
As constant as the mountains
The earth may shake and shiver
But our song will stay the same”
Dreams
“Soft, serene the green winds blow
Bringing peace to a troubled heart
Calm and blue are the skies above
As summer turns to autumn”
Bluesky
Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir now available in multimedia version. This adorable multimedia version that you can enjoy together with your family and loved ones. As a special gift to you we are providing this version free through the link below. We hope that you will consider purchasing a copy in print or e-book. Available from Amazon everywhere.
Watch the Video
Buy the book
Amazon.com
Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is the story of a young girl that loves Christmas. When she sees that the people of Melodica are losing their Christmas spirit, she sets out to help them rekindle their magic. At the end she finds that all we really need is to believe in the power of love.
Readers love Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir!!
“Christmas is magical, so the Christmas spirit must be magical too’ – A beautiful story for all ages”
“This Christmas story is sure to find a place of pride on the bookshelves of families across the country this season, and is an ideal tale to read to excited children on Christmas Eve.”
“A lovely story for Christmas that will put everyone in the spirit of the holiday. The illustrations are beautifully done and are perfect for the story.”
“Children will enjoy this book with its simplistic message of what is important to the spirit of Christmas.”
“Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is a great Christmas story for parents to read to their child during Christmas or any time of the year.”
Copies will be available at select Ottawa bookstores very soon and I also have a limited number of paperback copies on hand for sale. $20 incl postage.
Also available in Ottawa at: Perfect Books, Books on Beechwood and The Spaniels Tale
Readers from around the world are reading Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir. Follow along as she shows up all over the place. Here’s a few pics to start.
And if you want to be part of the fun send your Princess Sophie book picture along and we’ll post it along with your location. It can be with you or your kids or grandkids or your pet or just a familiar sight in your town or community.
Potsdam, NY, USA
Chatham, Ont, Canada
Oxford Station, Ont, Canada
Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is now available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.
Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is the story of a young girl that loves Christmas. When she sees that the people of Melodica are losing their Christmas spirit, she sets out to help them rekindle their magic. At the end she finds that all we really need is to believe in the power of love.
The Early Reviews are Great!!
“Christmas is magical, so the Christmas spirit must be magical too’ – A beautiful story for all ages”
“This Christmas story is sure to find a place of pride on the bookshelves of families across the country this season, and is an ideal tale to read to excited children on Christmas Eve.”
“A lovely story for Christmas that will put everyone in the spirit of the holiday. The illustrations are beautifully done and are perfect for the story.”
“Children will enjoy this book with its simplistic message of what is important to the spirit of Christmas.”
“Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is a great Christmas story for parents to read to their child during Christmas or any time of the year.”
This new book joins two others previously published, The Christmas Beaver and A Friend for Christmas.
Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is now available in paperback and e-book on Amazon.
Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is the story of a young girl that loves Christmas. When she sees that the people of Melodica are losing their Christmas spirit, she sets out to help them rekindle their magic. At the end she finds that all we really need is to believe in the power of love.
The Early Reviews are Great!!
“Christmas is magical, so the Christmas spirit must be magical too’ – A beautiful story for all ages”
“This Christmas story is sure to find a place of pride on the bookshelves of families across the country this season, and is an ideal tale to read to excited children on Christmas Eve.”
“A lovely story for Christmas that will put everyone in the spirit of the holiday. The illustrations are beautifully done and are perfect for the story.”
“Children will enjoy this book with its simplistic message of what is important to the spirit of Christmas.”
“Princess Sophie and the Christmas Elixir is a great Christmas story for parents to read to their child during Christmas or any time of the year.”
Copies will be available at select Ottawa bookstores very soon and I also have a limited number of paperback copies on hand for sale. $20 incl postage.
This new book joins two others previously published, The Christmas Beaver and A Friend for Christmas.
I am making a special offer to my friends for all three books for $50 incl postage. And if you act early, I will throw in a copy of A Cozy Christmas, poems for Christmas.
If you are interested in any of these offers just e-mail me at mike54martin@yahoo.ca and we’ll make arrangements to get your books.
We are pleased to announce the publication of The Christmas Beaver, a children’s Christmas book that joins A Friend for Christmas and the two volumes of Christmas in Newfoundland: Memories and Mysteries, as part of our cozy Christmas collection. The Christmas Beaver was issued in a limited edition last year, but this is the full publication.
The Christmas Beaver is the story of how a cranky beaver and his new friend the pesky Jay discover the spirit of Christmas when the beaver does a good deed.
They realize that it is better to give than receive. Readers have said that this is a beautiful Christmas story from the animal world with lessons for us all.
We need positive messages. Now more than ever.
The Christmas Beaver is available all over the world in e-book and paperback versions from Amazon. Please see the links below.
We are also particularly happy that The Christmas Beaver is available in store in Ottawa from three fabulous independent bookstores. Perfect Books, Books on Beechwood and Singing Pebbles Books. Support your local bookstores!!
The Christmas Beaver and all these cozy Christmas stories are also available for ordering online from Ottawa Press and Publishing. https://www.ottawapressandpublishing.com/
Amazon Canada
Amazon United States
Amazon United Kingdom
You can follow our Cozy Christmas Books Facebook page for more news, contests and giveaways.
mike54martin 