Books

A concise list of books I've authored or edited. 
As an Amazon Associate I earn commissions from qualifying purchases made through these links. 



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"Martin is a talented writer and story teller." 

- Forrest Fenn, author of The Thrill of the Chase

Seek and Ye Shall Find - SOLVED!
Please note: While this book is still available for sale, the prize has been claimed and the hunt is over. 

Appropriate for all ages. It's 98 pages, which I think is long enough to share some entertaining stories, but short enough to not completely bury the hidden clues. 

I have two versions available: a full color version and a black & white version. The black & white version is exactly the same as the full color version, except for one thing...It's black & white! I created the black & white version to help lower the retail due the printing costs associated with the full color version. 

The full color version is enjoyable because I have quite a few photographs related to my stories that are best viewed in color. However, no clues are lost in the black & white version, so if you want to solve the puzzle and don't care about seeing the photos in color, the black & white version will work just fine.

If you have an older version of my book, updated QR codes can be found here.

As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases when you click the links below.



         
   

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A Homily on Our Lord: A 40 Day Journey with St. Ephrem
(This one isn't a treasure hunt.)

Ideal for Lent and great for any time of the year, spend 40 days on a journey with the help of St. Ephrem the Syrian's Homily on Our Lord. In this devotional, St. Ephrem's breathtaking homily is divided into readings over a 40 day period. Read and reflect on each section day by day. Scripture references are included for additional prayer and reflection. Keep in mind that the 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays. So take a break on Sunday and perhaps spend more time reading the Bible.

St. Ephrem was born within Roman territory in the ancient and famous city of Nisibis in Mesopotamia, in, or before, the earliest days of the reign of Constantine the Great (306-337 AD). He was a disciple of St. Jacob (aka St. James), Bishop of Nisibis and he lived in it under Jacob and the three Bishops who successively followed him. Ephrem finally settled at Edessa, and took up his abode as a "Solitary" in a cell on the "Mount of Edessa" -- a rocky hill close to the city. Here he rose into repute as a teacher, and a champion against heresy.

He was a most copious writer, and left an immense quantity of writings of which a large part is extant: Sermons, Commentaries, and Hymns. These constitute such a body of instruction in the substance of Scripture and the faith of the church, that they have justly earned for him the title of Doctor of the Church within the Catholic Church.

Ephrem is venerated as a saint by all traditional Christian Churches. He is held in especially high esteem within Syriac Christianity. Within Eastern Orthodoxy he is a Venerable Father while in Catholicism he is a Doctor of the Church.





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Normative Issues in International Relations: Bridging the Communitarian/Cosmopolitan Divide
(This one isn't a treasure hunt.)

At some point or another, every state pursues a foreign policy which it will try to explain or justify in moral terms. From simple censures and sanctions against states who behave not only in opposition to international law, but also against a more loosely defined international morality, to full scale military interventions for expressly "humanitarian" purposes, ideas of morality and human rights clearly exist in international relations. This does not mean that these ideas exist clearly.

What are the origins of these rights? What is the moral standing of states? And when shall human rights be sacrificed to protect the autonomy of a state (or vice versa)? These questions are but a sampling of the normative issues with which the discipline of international relations was originally concerned and to which it is now focusing a renewed interest. 

This academic essay, written while I was at The London School of Economics and Political Science in 1997-1998, addresses the core questions mentioned above by reviewing two major schools of thought in International Relations (Communitarianism and Cosmopolitanism) and by attempting to present an alternative approach by introducing the concept of "trickle up morality".