Fiction

Fiction

Short Story:

The Seventh Day

A Short Story by John Martin Meek, under the pen name of John Martin Hill

Book:

The Christmas Hour

A Novel by John Martin Meek, under the pen name of John Martin Hill

John Martin Meek writes about himself,

as presented on Amazon.com:

Biography

Born in Rocky, a very small town in Western Oklahoma, with four older brothers and four older sisters, life was tough with farm work which greatly interrupted my education.

After graduation I worked a year in a nearby town then spent five years on active duty with the Navy and Marines. After discharge I entered the University of Oklahoma and joined the 45th Division, Oklahoma's National Guard.

I finished OU in two and a half years, worked on a newspaper in Texas, then spent two years in graduate school at Syracuse while working for the Syracuse Post-Standard.

After that I spent a year in Oklahoma then eight years in politics in DC. Later I entered private sector public affairs until I moved to Arizona in 1999. Over the years I was an adjunct professor at The American University in DC, lectured at the University of Virginia and taught journalism two years at Pima Community College in Tucson.

Interests

I'm a climber, skier, tennis player and video producer. My hobby is people. But my writing and doing videos of noted mountain climbers does not leave much time for reading -- not even the books of people I know or have known.

Favorite Books

Books I love are by Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy. And as an admirer of Ernie Pyle for much of my life, I read his books over and over again. Same for "All Quiet on the Western Front."

Favorite Music

I love most all music, and music is a very big part of my life. As far as a group, it would be pretty obvious if you read my novel, "The Christmas Hour," that the Eagles are high on my list. As a single performance, "Horowitz in Moscow" would be it.

Favorite Movies

"The Big Country" with Gregory Peck and Jean Simmons; "Mr. Roberts" with Henry Fonda and "A Thousand Clowns" with Jason Robards are favorites. Years ago I drank and talked with Henry Fonda and his wife, Shirley, all night at a Heathrow Airport hotel. More recently I sat next to Jean Simmons on a flight from Chicago to DC and desperately wanted to talk to her about "The Big Country," but didn't out of my resolution not to infringe on the privacy of famous people.

Other Favorites

My best friend is Bill Danoff, who wrote "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and 11 other hits for John Denver, and won a Grammy with "Afternoon Delight." I became friends with John several years before he became famous, and spent a long evening with him, and Bill, after a benefit concert in Baltimore just before he was killed. We made plans to go heliskiing in Canada with Peter Lev, a mutual friend, and to do some ski racing together. It was not to be.