"Welcome to my website, the gateway to all my creative work."
—novelist and photographer Martha Marks
My Fiction
RUBIES OF THE VIPER is a fast-paced mystery & romantic-suspense novel set in the time of Roman Emperors Claudius and Nero. It’s rated an average of 4.5 stars by 59 reviewers on Amazon.
This 336-page book—my debut novel —was published in 2009 and by early 2011 had risen to #2 in Amazon’s “Bestselling Historical Mysteries for the Kindle.” It’s available in paperback ($14.95) and e-book formats ($2.99) for Kindle, Nook, Reader, and Apple devices.
SYNOPSIS: When her brother is murdered in first-century Rome, Theodosia Varro inherits the family estate, going from poverty and isolation to great wealth and a prestigious position in society. Unfortunately, she lives in a time and a place that deny women of her class the very things she most desires: personal freedom and self-determination. Only by identifying her brother’s killer can she feel safe, yet her efforts take her in quite the opposite direction. After her own actions and the scheming of others lead to catastrophe, Theodosia struggles to survive and recover what matters most in her life.
FREE DOWNLOADS: a 42-page sample (480 KB PDF) and a map of places in the book (97 KB PDF).
My Photography
After two decades of photographing North American birds, bugs, and beasts, I’m now making my finest work available to the public. Many of these images have never been seen online before. Click any thumbnail to see a larger version of the image. If you like them, please look at my wide assortment of other “critter pix” behind the links.
My top-selling items are Bird Note Cards in three sets: Coastal, Wetland, and Woodland.
Also popular: fine prints made from my best slides and images in my digital stock collection. My photographs hang in homes and offices around the country.
Then there’s a new line of luminous bird images that I call Avian Impressions… done with a special computer technique I developed in 2009. They’re great for decorating a home or office, and you can select a print by color, shape, size, or subject. They’re also available as creative images for books, magazines, and other publications.
My Blog
THE PURPLE PARCHMENT: Fascinating Facts About the First-Century Roman World…
a great source of additional information about the characters, places, and cultures featured in my novel, RUBIES OF THE VIPER.
I welcome your visits to my blog —marthamarks.wordpress.com— and hope you’ll want to comment and become a subscriber!