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Debut author and teacher, James R. Martin introduces us to his historical fiction novel, “Robin Hood: Legacy”: England in the year 1290 is a world in turmoil. An ever-increasing social awareness is met with sharper attempts at oppression from those in charge. The Church is at odds with the Crown over rights of taxation; the Crown is at odds with the people, who are evermore bent on self-direction and oversight; and the people are at odds with both Crown and Church, feeling the pressure of taxation from both sides, the frequent tug-of-war between Clergy and King over whose rules took precedence (dividing loyalties of the citizens) and of an increasingly more hectic life driven by a population boom. In the midst of it all, the fires of rebellion are lit by the unlikeliest of lawmen, as he strikes back against the royal injustices committed against those he is sworn to protect. The story of the man known as Robin Hood, and how that name became a legend which would span the generations. Based on the extensive historical research of author James R. Martin, discover a new and likely true identity of the original Robin Hood, through connections to real-life individuals, places, and events. How was one man able to carry out acts in so many parts of the kingdom, simultaneously? How did he resurface in so many different time periods? In the most original and realistic Robin Hood epic to date, learn the answers to these questions and more as we explore Robin Hood: Legacy (Book One.) The author has taken historical bones and wrapped a great story around it! Intrigues abound and evildoers seem to be around every corner whether courtly, ecclesiastical or commoners. This period of amassing as much personal wealth by any means extends even to our modern times. People haven't changed mostly, they have found different ways to accomplish their desires. No spoilers from me! I wish I could say more. The author has crafted a marvelous tale of historical fiction. I award 4.9 stars, I am picky about certain things. You are going to love this book. You can buy this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Robin-Hood-Legacy-Book-One-ebook https://www.goodreads.com/-robin-hood-legacy You can connect with the author: https://x.com/jaymo1978 https://www.facebook.com/-James-Martin-author https://www.instagram.com/jaymo1978 https://www.threads.net/@jaymo1978 https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaymo1978 Medieval, British, action, intrigue, adventure Copyright © 2024 Mark L. Schultz except for the author’s introduction
41 Comments
10/28/2024 09:36:48 am
Good morning, Mark! Thanks so much for your kind words and your time in reviewing this book! This is a great site, and a very useful promotional tool for authors. I'm looking forward to chatting here!
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Mark
10/28/2024 10:52:14 am
Good morning to you. I am honored to help you promote your book. I enjoyed the story a great deal. I remember playing Robin Hood as a boy.
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10/28/2024 06:13:36 pm
I am a teacher and technology specialist outside of Houston, TX for my day job - I currently teach 5th grade and have been in education for 23 years (which sounds like a lot when I say it out loud! :-) I was born and raised in Clinton, IA (shout-out Hawkeyes, Mounties, and River Kings) and moved here in 2001.
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Mark
10/28/2024 07:34:04 pm
Broad strokes, indeed!
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10/29/2024 08:10:30 am
Ooh, that's a tough one - I love most things in the science fiction/fantasy realm (everything from Star Trek & Star Wars to Tolkien) and am a big fan of realistic fiction, whatever the sub-genre may be (Dan Brown is a favorite of mine, I love books that blend facts with fiction, to give the reader that feeling of, "Wait, could this be true?")
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Mark
10/29/2024 09:35:38 am
We have very similar tastes! Tolkien's LOTR was my introduction to fantasy and I fell in love with it. Sci-fi has always been my favorite genre but fantasy is a close second followed by historical fiction. CS Lewis is another favorite author. Narnia is a family favorite.
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10/29/2024 09:54:27 am
I think one of my biggest reasons for writing is just the desire to share what I think is a good story with the world, and hoping others find it as exciting as I do. I've been writing for as long as I can remember (all the way back to book reports in 1st grade that nobody asked me to write, through short stories later in elementary and middle school, creative writing and research papers in high school and college, and so on.) I think writers have this eagerness to share their love of a great story, and to do that we want to craft it as meticulously as possible. I also think, if we're honest with ourselves, every creative person is something of a showoff - even people who do it with a personal respect and appreciation for the art form itself want others to see it and hope their work reaches someone or affects someone's life, way of thinking, etc.
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Mark
10/29/2024 02:04:24 pm
You were born to write! How nice.
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10/29/2024 06:38:46 pm
Oooh, this is a good one. So, I have to say that, whether deliberately or inadvertently, my work definitely influences my writing both past and present. I've been in educational technology for a long time, and while it isn't obvious in a book set in the 1290s, I have some other scripts that I want to work on adapting ASAP which definitely draw heavily on my love for technology and all things "advanced." One of my favorite quotes is from Arthur C. Clarke, "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Another is Carl Sagan, one of my favorite scientists and authors, who wrote, "I set before you two ways: you can use your technology to destroy yourselves, or to carry you to the planets and stars. It's up to you." I feel like there is so much in both of those quotes - the magic of the impossible suddenly becoming possible is fertile ground for creative projects, and from a social standpoint, we very much live in the world of the second quote - we have so many ways to simultaneously tear ourselves down and lift ourselves up that we, in our collective ambitions, seem so often at odds with ourselves. So much new technology is dived into without thought for the consequences, and it's a lot harder to put the genie back in the bottle when you see its purposes are malign.
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Mark
10/29/2024 08:18:56 pm
That quote from Clark might be my favorite of his. If the technology is not discernable then only magic remains.
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10/29/2024 10:40:03 pm
This is an easy one for me to answer! I've always been a fan of the Robin Hood legend and all of its various versions, but I've always been plagued by two things - first, the fact that there are literary references to him so far back, and that so many different time periods are cited as his origin, and second, the fact that historians largely just shrug and say, "Eh, he didn’t really exist."
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Mark
10/30/2024 07:34:39 am
"What if..." I think more stories have had their origin in those two words than any other. You had a definite "What if" moment. I must say that your train of thought makes a lot of sense.
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10/30/2024 08:51:52 pm
So, the conventional wisdom out there generally focuses on a time period anywhere from the 1100s (at the very earliest) to as far forward as the 14- or 1500s based on the different versions (Howard Pyle wrote one set in 1190 focusing on a Robert Fitzooth, which Thomas Percy also used. Many modern tellings, such as Prince of Thieves or Ridley Scott's RH are set around that time during King Richard's reign. However, one of the oldest surviving written versions of Robin Hood from the 1400s, taken from the oral tradition, states that the King was Edward, which means the earliest he could have lived was in 1275 at the start of Edward I's reign. Also, the Hood versions set in the 14 or 1500s can't be his origin (but could be later conspirators) because the earliest literary reference to RH was in 1377 in Piers Plowman!)
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Mark
10/30/2024 09:04:56 pm
No apologies needed. I asked because I wanted to know. I love talking to experts.
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10/30/2024 11:20:28 pm
My book ultimately went through three drafts - once to get the basic story laid out, once to move a few elements around so that it flowed better, and then at least two proofreading passes which I'm lumping together as one official draft. Being my first book, I think the hardest thing was figuring out what my process was. I got through the first few chapters writing off the cuff and then really nailed down my outlining which helped a lot!
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Mark
10/31/2024 09:01:20 am
The first book is always the hardest for a writer. The learning curve is steep. Many writers are pantsters, writing by the seat of their pants, the way that you started writing your book. Many gravitate toward outlining, also known as plotting. If I were a writer, I would definitely be a plotter. I heard about one author that was a pantster and a plotter. After he was happy with each chapter, he would make an outline of the chapter. He said it made finding a particular passage much easier.
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10/31/2024 10:54:38 am
I HIGHLY recommend Hitchhiker's Guide, and Adams's other books, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective series and his nonfiction Last Chance to See. Such a great mind we lost way too soon.
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Mark
10/31/2024 12:04:39 pm
You are a talented man! Congratulations! Thank you for explaining in detail your process. I like the cover quite well, it expresses the idea and ideal of Robin Hood perfectly.
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10/31/2024 06:24:50 pm
It's funny, aside from the cover, the title probably became the toughest thing to nail down - from the time I started it way back in 2010, as a screenplay, it has been through several different versions - it started out as "The Line of the Hood," and a writer buddy of mine, Dan Calvisi, and I kicked it around for a LONG time. Ultimately, after the scripts went through several rewrites, we sort of stumbled onto the idea that, wait, this is really looking at Robin Hood, where he came from, and what comes after, so... what about Legacy? It just seemed to fit! :-)
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Mark
10/31/2024 08:24:13 pm
That was a good choice. The title is hard for a lot of authors to choose. Some start with several in mind and settle on one as a WIP title. Frequently, the actual title is changed for publication. Some authors keep experimenting with title or cover over a year or two. Still others like to refresh the cover every so often.
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10/31/2024 09:51:33 pm
I've never done NaNoWriMo, and that's one of those things where it's a tough call. I've heard good things about that movement in the past and seems like a great way to hold oneself accountable to an ambitious writing goal. On the other hand, I always hate to commit to something if there's a chance something could come up to interfere with it. Especially when life has such a tendency to be unpredictable!
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Mark
11/1/2024 08:08:31 am
Today, as I write this, is November 1st, 2024, the first day of NaNoWriMo for a lot of people. Some writers would join groups for mutual support and encouragement. They would create a party atmosphere.
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11/1/2024 02:17:05 pm
I've definitely never had short stories published,but always loved writing that format when I was younger (middle and high school.) I did have a couple of poems published in high school, though!
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Mark
11/1/2024 05:34:54 pm
Short stories are a great way to refine your writing techniques and experiment with different writing styles. Contests can be fun also to see how your writing measures up against other writers.
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11/1/2024 06:32:31 pm
This is definitely my first book, but I can tell you it won't be my last! It's been a lot of fun to create, and I have SO many stories that I want to tell. I'm one of those people who doesn't like to pigeonhole myself into one specific genre, so, while there will definitely be a Book Two and beyond for Robin Hood: Legacy, I have other much more modern stories to tell as well! And a few of them are stories I already have established and copyrighted as screenplays, so the bones of the story are already in place!
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Mark
11/1/2024 07:11:44 pm
Those ideas sound great! You do have a fertile mind! I hope you keep an idea journal. Many authors use an idea journal in one form or another, to prevent losing any ideas. I recommend limiting ideas to one or two per page so there is room for notes if the idea is expanded upon in the future.
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11/1/2024 10:24:50 pm
I'm very fortunate, I've not encountered any trolls with regard to my work. I'm not totally sure how I would respond in that situation, but it probably depends. The thing with trolls, though, is that they're only interested in a reaction, so they have an excuse to keep on trolling. A person like that doesn't magically see the error of their ways if you call them out. Ignore them and they do one of two things - give up and go away because they aren't getting their payoff, or keep at it and just end up looking like a fool.
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Mark
11/2/2024 05:42:41 am
You have an excellent perspective about trolls. I know some authors who perseverate about a troll's review. I tell them that the bad review validates the good reviews because no one has ever written a book loved by everyone. The bad review also proves that the good reviews are not just from your friends and family. Most of the time the troll hasn't bothered to read the book and their review makes that obvious. Here's hoping that the trolls never find you.
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11/2/2024 05:09:02 pm
Ooh, this is a fun question! So, I don't remember what age I was, but I always look at my first real "paying" job as working for my mom's family business. I was probably in middle school, and she ran a pet sitting service (Critter Sitters) that had TONS of clients in our hometown! We would take care of people's pets while they were on vacation, or even had some daily clients to take care of while they were at work, for example. It was a fun job, because we've always loved animals and I learned a ton about them and just about business in general. Probably the most exciting animal we took care of was an African Serval, but they were all fun.
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Mark
11/2/2024 09:24:08 pm
Those are great early jobs! My first paying job was selling seeds and greeting cards door-to-door. It was mostly the neighbor on each side, grandma and the aunts. Third or fourth grade. When we moved to a small farm I did babysitting and picked beans and strawberries. The first few days I made very little because I ate most of the berries and beans. It was a lot of fun.
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11/3/2024 01:23:43 am
Hmm... well, I've not done any "professional" public speaking, just a couple of things in high school and college (National Honors Society and such.) I've always wondered what speaking on a topic professionally would be like, I imagine it would be a lot of fun!
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Mark
11/3/2024 08:42:46 am
Being a public announcer would require smooth diction even with a rapid pace. That is a difficult task for me, I had a severe stammer all through school and struggled with normal conversation especially when nervous or excited.
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11/3/2024 03:28:14 pm
I don't have anyone in my family who has done any writing, but my mom is very gifted with language - I'm certain she would be great at writing, and she's where I really get my love of words and using them to express ideas. I have many friends who are writers, though, considering all of my screenwriting friends in LA and other parts of the US and the world!
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Mark
11/3/2024 04:05:01 pm
I got my love of reading from my mother also. She read a lot, encouraged me to read and made sure relatives sent me books for my birthday and Christmas. She subscribed to Reader's Digest Condensed Books, I read a few of those that were interesting to an 8- to 10-year-old boy. More as I got older.
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11/3/2024 11:29:28 pm
When I first published my book, Amazon was in the midst of their yearly Storywriter contest, and being in Kindle Unlimited was a requirement of that contest. So, I weighed all of the pros and cons of the program and decided it would be worth trying. I definitely feel like it's been worthwhile, I can see from my KDP profile that I've had a lot of page reads from that, and it also gives you the opportunity to enter a free promotional period to get more eyes on it! I highly recommend it.
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Mark
11/4/2024 08:05:43 am
Amazon does push KU quite a bit. They must make a lot of money off of it and they share the revenue with the authors. I have been told authors receive a fraction of a penny for each page read. Those with multiple books in KU can make decent money. One author told me that KU pays enough to cover her electrical bill.
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11/4/2024 06:16:59 pm
This is a tough one for me - I don't have widely varied tastes, always had pretty simple tastes, but I'm kind of a "traditional food" nut - I love a great hot dog or hamburger with fries. (A ballpark foot-long on a poppy seed bun is really the BEST. :-) Beverage is MUCH easier for me to answer, I'm a Diet Pepsi fanatic - I've basically had Diet Pepsi ever since I was a kid, being diabetic, so I just got used to it and never really varied from that!
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Mark
11/4/2024 06:24:44 pm
I am similar because I enjoy simple food also. But I also like to try new foods whenever I can. I drank regular Pepsi for many years. I switched to water at least 15 years ago. Especially if it has been filtered through hops, grain and yeast.
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11/4/2024 06:32:14 pm
Ooh, this is a good one. I have to say, I haven't planned out a definite number of books yet, because I can foresee the series spanning through many generations (at least, that's the hope!) I would like the current time period to be at least three books, not counting potential side stories, and then the mantle would be passed on from there. I REALLY would love to have multiple standalones that cover the backstories of all of the supporting characters, too! Eventually, I could see picking the saga up in different time periods, all the way up to and including modern times!
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Mark
11/4/2024 07:26:49 pm
That is great news that your fans current and future will be ever so grateful for.
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11/4/2024 09:00:54 pm
Thanks so much for your time and effort, Mark, and thanks to all of your readers, too! This has been great fun, and I really appreciate the opportunity to get more eyes on my book! You offer a great service here, and I look forward to doing this again with my next book!
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Who am I?An avid reader, typobuster, and the Hyper-Speller. I am a husband, father, and grandfather. Archives
October 2024
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"I'm very pleased with all your efforts. Twitter promotion and proofreading were beyond what I expected with a book review. Your suggestions throughout the process of refining both books helped me immensely. I look forward to working with you again." A.E.H Veenman “Dial QR for Murder” and “Prepped for the Kill”
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