About Me & My Father

August L Martin, who spent nearly ten years writing this novel – which remained unfinished when he had a life-threatening stroke in 1996. Every doctor said he would not survive – but despite all odds, and with the help of his strong-willed wife, Elsie, he survived another ten years. After recovering from his stroke, August wanted two things. First, for his novel to be finished and published. Second, he wanted his vision of a safe home for at-risk children to be created. Six years later, Elsie made it all happen - The Children’s Guardian Home opened in their  hometown of Oakdale, California in 2002. Today, the gorgeous s ten-bedroom designer inspired Victoria home safeguards forty-five children every day – over 19,000 to-date. Now, his second dream – publishing his love story to America, has come true.  

August Martin began his career at Twentieth Century Fox where he worked for twenty-one years marketing films. During this time, he developed a passion for the art of storytelling which evolved to a love for reading. Fourteen years after the passing of his father, August decided to finish this novel as a legacy to his father and to raise funds for the charity his parents founded – the Oakdale Children’s Guardian Home.

Children’s Guardian House in partnership with the Children’s Crisis Center have established a special home in Oakdale. With the goal to provide child abuse prevention and intervention services to abused, neglected and at risk children in Stanislaus County and its surrounding communities.

The goal of the Guardian House program is to effectively promote healthy development, cognitive growth and learning advancement for under privileged high-risk children ages newborn to 17 years, all while addressing the critical needs of their family’s circumstances. Guardian House offers protective child care, emergency shelter, quality learning, school readiness, meals, recovery, and crisis counselling to children enduring family trauma, economic hardships and threatening domestic circumstances. The Guardian House caregiving staff are credentialed in early childhood development and are certified as infant teachers, preschool teachers and school-aged teachers. They work to serve the protective, educational and health needs of vulnerable children at risk of abuse and neglect

This book is dedicated to Elsie Martin. Not just an amazing mother and wife, but a woman who would be running a Forbes company right now if she had been born in another era. Elsie is brilliant leader, strong, and resilient. When my father had the idea to open a home to shelter at risk children, it was my mother who made every bit of it happen. Elsie took the idea and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase the home and oversaw people to donate their services to open the home in 2001. Since then, the Children’s Guardian Home has helped over 14,000 children and my mother has raised over $6 to keep the home open by executing twenty-one fundraisers at my parent’s ranch in Farmington, California, where my mother resides. Without Elsie, Running with the Presidentwould never have happened. Whether she was encouraging my father or encouraging me to get this book finished, she is the inspiration behind the novel. Thank you and I love you, Mom.

Thank you to my father, August Martin Sr., for having the vision to write this story and creating colorful characters that we can sympathize with —characters that often operate in the gray zone. August was a true renaissance man. After having been a dairy farmer for fifty years, at the age of fifty-six, he began composing poetry, took up the violin, and wrote this novel. August is proof that it’s never too late to follow your passions! 

A special thank you to my sister, Lisa Martin, who lovingly worked on this novel with our father over thirty years ago!

Thank you to Peggy Marie for her story plot ideas, edits, creativity, and diligence.

Thank you to Latoya and Lisa for their countless hours doing the first edits on this novel. Their input, changes, and ideas helped create a compelling story.

And finally, thank you to Sara and Avery who did the final edits on the book and worked to publish this novel. Their attention to detail, advice, and honesty helped fine tune this story and brought it to life.