Category Archives: Books

July 11, 2021 · 4:53 pm

Oh, hello there.

I suppose I should start by saying, to paraphrase Twain, reports of my demise from the Internet are greatly exaggerated. The 16-plus months of COVID have been extremely busy, somewhat strange and, personally, full of changes – the vast majority of which have been delightfully positive.

But one of the the things that has indeed slipped while locked down has been my blogging and “public” social media presence. (For friends and family, I’ve been much more active, as it’s really been a good way to keep in touch while the world churns.) I’m not going to try to give a massive update on all the things here, but I’ll at least recap some of the book-related happenings.

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April 23, 2020 · 1:42 pm

Podcast reveal: What the heck have I been working on these days?

ktliterary-headphones-white-300x300As I mentioned last week, I’ve not been sitting on my hands, fiction-wise, over the past several months. I’ve been working on a few different things, but there’s one that’s heading toward the finish line – slowly, because COVID-19 and assorted nonsense.

But even though I’m not done yet and it’s not under contract, I couldn’t keep it under my hat any longer. Over at the kt literary podcast today, I talked with Renee Nyen about the project, tentatively called The King of What Remains.

What is it? Well, I’ll get into that in blog posts later on, but for now, I would urge you to give the podcast a listen. Renee is a great interviewer, and we had an excellent talk about not only this project, but also what it’s like to try and create while balancing work and family and dealing with, you know, a freakin’ pandemic. Click here to listen in, or download on your favorite podcasting platform. 

Also, as promised in the podcast, Stories and Spilled Tea remains on sale for 99 cents for the Kindle. So do check that out if you’re looking for a variety of short stories and some thoughts on writing and publishing.

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April 15, 2020 · 1:42 pm

Stories and Spilled Tea on sale for 99 cents

cover1So…the world has changed quite a bit since I last blogged, hasn’t it? I suppose I should be a bit better about keeping things updated given all the spare time, but I’d hate to make promises at this point that I’ve shown little propensity for keeping.

However, I do have news! My collection of short stories and essays, Stories and Spilled Tea, is now on sale for just $0.99 in the Kindle Store on Amazon. So if you’re looking for a Whitman’s sampler of sci-fi and fantasy works, and some thoughts on writing and publishing, there you go. Please to enjoy.

In other news, well, it’s been quite a few months, hasn’t it? I’m entering week six of work-from-home, which has been quite the transition. My high-schooler is now distance learning, and will be celebrating her 16th birthday next week, which isn’t ideal but, hey, she has friends and school, I have a job, and we don’t have the coronavirus, so all of that is pretty amazing right there.

In with all the other emotions stemming from all this, I do feel grateful for the people in my life, my work, my books, all of it. That’s what really matters, after all, and I know I’ve been fortunate enough to be able to keep working, to have food (and toilet paper) and to keep my loved ones safe. Whatever stress and anxiety happens beyond that, well, at least the basics are covered.

As for my fiction, it proceeds…slowly. I’ve absolutely fallen off my usual pace, but I’m trying not to beat myself up over it. What I’ve been able to get down is very good, and I like where the current work is going. So there’s that.

And what is the current work? Well, there’s a few things coming up — podcasts and livestreams and more blogs — that will clue you into that. So stay tuned! And in the meantime, go ahead and grab the short story collection and enjoy!

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August 29, 2019 · 12:15 pm

I’m heading to DragonCon! Here’s where I’ll be this year.

Of all the conventions I’ve attended as an author, DragonCon in Atlanta holds a place near and dear to my heart. The organizers are fantastic, especially on the Alternate History track, and I never suffer from a lack of things to do. They always keep me busy on panels and whatnot, and that gives me multiple wonderful opportunities to meet with fans and geek out over all our mutual interests.

Plus, a lot of my author friends head out there each year, which gives me the chance to hang out with lovely, lovely people who really understand what it takes to get all these books out there into the wild. There is revelry and merriment galore. It’s no wonder this will be my fifth DragonCon in the past six years!

So without further ado, here’s my schedule for this year’s DragonCon, starting tomorrow. If you’re there, I would absolutely love to see you. Here’s where to find me!

  • Friday, 4 p.m. — Reading. (Hyatt, Marietta room) — Let’s kick this off right with a reading! This year, I’ll likely read a story from Stories and Spilled Tea, my new collection (which is out now and which you can buy here). I’ll also have some copies of MJ-12: Endgame and perhaps a few other things as well for those who stop by. Let’s hang out!
  • Saturday, 5 p.m. — Bookstore signing at The Missing Volume. (AmericasMart vendor hall, booths #1201, 1203, 1300,1302) — It’s always a huge pleasure to spend time with the good people at The Missing Volume. As per usual, I expect they’ll have all my books on hand, so stop by and get one signed.
  • Saturday, 7 p.m. — Panel: “Ahoy, Mateys! Pirates in History & Pop Culture.” (Sheraton, Augusta room) — This is always a great panel, full of great historical and fantastical discussions about pirates and piracy in literature. Talking like a pirate is almost inevitable.
  • Sunday, 4 p.m. — Panel: “Gentleman Jack: A Fan Panel on the Facts & Fiction of Anne Lister.” (Sheraton, Macon room) — And now for something a little different. I’ve always worked hard to be inclusive in my work, and I’ve really enjoyed the HBO series Gentleman Jack. So what a great opportunity to talk about this amazing 19th century LGBTQ+ pioneer.
  • Sunday, 7 p.m. — Panel: “The Secret History of Spies.” (Sheraton, Macon room) — Obviously, I have things to say at this one. So let’s go talk about spycraft and espionage through the ages! This is also another mainstay, and we have a lot of fun.

So those are the biggies. I’ll likely be poking my head into other panels, taking photos and generally enjoying the heck out of everything. If I have books left over after the reading, I’ll likely be using Twitter to do periodic giveaways throughout the convention. So be sure to follow me (@mikemartinez72) and keep a look out.

See you in Atlanta!

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August 27, 2019 · 10:00 am

Stories and Spilled Tea is out today!

Hello! It’s been up for pre-order for a bit — and my deepest thanks to everyone who ordered it — but today marks the official debut of Stories and Spilled Tea, a collection of my short stories, along with a series of essays and commentary about how they came to be. It’s here, it’s ready, and it’s cheap at just $2.99.

This collection has nearly all my previously published works — I couldn’t get permission to re-publish my Vampire: The Masquerade story from the Endless Ages anthology, but the good people at Paizo were very kind in allowing my to reprint “Crisis of Faith” from the Pathfinder web fiction series. It also includes The Gravity of the Affair, a full-length novella set in the universe of The Daedalus Incident. And it also has a couple of new, previously unpublished short stories to further sweeten the deal.

And in addition to the stories, there’s the spilled tea. The essays cover a wide variety of topics, from the nuances of writing humor and horror to the business side of publishing and how some of these stories got where they were. I hope that, as much as people enjoy the stories, the essays will be useful, or at least entertaining, for my fellow scribes.

So, my thanks to everyone who helped make this a reality — i.e., all the editors and publishers who liked and published these stories, and all the amazing people who helped me throughout this authorial journey. And of course, my thanks to all the readers out there. I deeply appreciate you!

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July 24, 2019 · 12:00 pm

Stories and Spilled Tea is coming Aug. 27!

cover1Very excited to announce my first foray into true self-publishing — the collection Stories and Spilled Tea, coming August 27 and available for pre-order now for the Amazon Kindle. And here’s the cover, which isn’t bad for an amateur like myself.

(To be fair, my amazingly talented daughter, Anna, did the art. I just managed the layout. Barely.)

So what’s in it? Pretty much everything I’ve had published, along with a couple of new pieces. Here’s the breakdown of stories inside:

  • “Form” (new)
  • “Confessions of an Interplanetary Art Fraud” (from Unidentified Funny Objects 4)
  • “On a Kansas Plain” (from Cthulhu Fhtagn!)
  • “Mind Flight” (from Geeky Giving)
  • “Crisis of Faith” (from Paizo’s Pathfinder web fiction series)
  • “1-800-DEATH-RAY” (new)
  • The Gravity of the Affair (a previously published Daedalus novella)

In addition, I’ve written essays about how these stories came to be, the challenges in writing them, and some thoughts about the publishing business as well — basically, a little color around my career thus far as a fiction-slinger. I hope that fellow scribes find a little use in there, in addition to enjoying the stories.

As this is my first self-published work, I should probably caveat a few things. I think I managed the editing and layout well — it looks clean in the preview tools — but do let me know if I screw it up. Also, the cover was designed by yours truly, and I totally get that it’s probably not as slick as many others. If this does well, maybe I’ll hire someone to clean it up, especially if there’s demand for a print version.

And yes, this is only available on Kindle at the moment. That was a tough call, honestly. I firmly believe in competition and wanting to see Amazon challenged in…well, all of the areas where it operates. But this is very much an experiment for me, and like it or not, Amazon makes it incredibly easy to use their platform — and potentially lucrative if you stay in their sandbox. So for now, it’s a Kindle Select offering. Again, if there’s demand beyond that, I’m all ears.

So thanks, everyone, for helping me have a career that makes a collection like this possible. Go give it a pre-order if you like, and tell your friends!

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January 12, 2019 · 7:33 pm

A belated welcome to 2019

I would love to sit here and say that I’ll be a better blogger in 2019, offering up far more interesting posts than last year. But I think we both know, reader, that this may not be the case. Regardless,  I do intend to at least try, and I’ll start with a bit of a roundup of what happened in 2018, and where things are presently.

Last year was pretty eventful, which is one reason I didn’t blog as much. As regular blog followers may remember, I took on a new role at work (yes, there’s a day job!). I’m now the marketing creative lead for my company’s biggest client segment, with annual sales measured in billions. In perfect honesty, I was rather content being a mere writer, but I can say that, after nine months in the job, I’m actually pretty good at it. Who knew? (My boss knew, of course. Or at least had an inkling.)

And in connection with that, we picked up and moved from New Jersey to Los Angeles. Just as the job has gone better than expected, I’ve found L.A. to be more amenable than I had thought it might be. It’s January and I’m typing this outside on a cool but lovely day, parked at one of my two go-to coffee shops in the area. My daughter is doing well at her new school, ninth-grade dramas notwithstanding, and Kate is absolutely loving it.

OK, so what about the writing? I mean, I figure that’s probably why y’all read this blog, what with the books and all. MJ-12: Endgame came out in September, thus wrapping up the MAJESTIC-12 trilogy. It received some great reviews and sold as well as trilogy third books can reasonably expect. I’m proud of the book and the series, and I hope folks enjoyed how things wrapped up.

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September 28, 2018 · 7:00 pm

What I did on my writing retreat, plus some new interviews

Arizona is hot. Like, it’s completely and utterly hot and unholy and I have no idea how people live there without spontaneously combusting on a regular basis. That said? The desert is beautiful and the nights are great, so I get it. To a point. So while I wouldn’t live there, I was happy to go to Scottsdale last weekend for a writing retreat sponsored by my agency, KT Literary.

And some writing got done! Not a lot, but I’ve been busy wrapping my head around a major change I needed to make on a project currently underway, and I cracked the case earlier this month on flights to and from DragonCon, then spent most of September getting the outline in order. (Y’all know how I like my outlines.) So while I was in Scottsdale, I managed to get this new version underway, and while I’m just getting warmed up, it’s already a better book than what I had going previously.

Of course, I was sick as a dog for much of the trip, having come down with a horrible cold/flu bug the night before I drove out there from L.A. So, strictly speaking, I wasn’t as productive as I’d hoped I’d be. But it’s a start, and I can build on that. Plus, I got some excellent one-on-one time with super-agent Sara Megibow, and quality socializing with my fellow KT Literary authors, who are a fine bunch you should be reading on the regular.

I also did a podcast while there! Michael Haspil, author of Graveyard Shift, also has a nifty storytelling podcast called Quantum Froth Dispatches, and he interviewed a number of us while we were hiding inside from the deathly rays and rageful heat of the day-star. You can listen in right here, if you like, or check it out on YouTube or Spotify. (Mike is still working to get the podcast up on iTunes, so hang tight there.) We had a great chat, so check it out and please buy his book while you’re at it.

Speaking of interviews, I’ve been remiss in blogging about this great interview I did with Michael Cook of Thoroughly Modern Reviewer. (There are a lot of Michaels in this blog post. Go figure.) Mr. Cook and I went deep on MJ-12: Endgame and the entire MAJESTIC-12 series, and he had some excellent questions. Fair warning: There are spoilers in there, so forewarned is forearmed. But do give it a read – Michael really did a spiffy job there.

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September 17, 2018 · 10:00 am

Review roundup: MJ-12: Endgame does not suck!

Any time I put out a new book, I’m a little hesitant to learn what people think of it, especially reviewers for whom I have a lot of respect. So it’s nice to know that the reviews on MJ-12: Endgame are pretty darn solid.

Note: Some of these reviews contain mild spoilers. Just saying.

Paul Weimer over at Skiffy & Fanty:

Fortunately, as in the vast majority of the first two novels, it is what is going on this side of the Vortex, the lives and problems and challenges of the Variants, and the exploration and investigation of the Cold War and its consequences and hidden facets, that make this story, this novel, this series sing. I come away from this series, which ends here, educated, entertained and enthused for what the pen of the author will bring next.

To be fair, Paul wasn’t super enthused about how the origins of the vortex and the Variants’ powers played out, and you know what? That’s perfectly awesome. Heck, he makes some great points. The fact that he’s looking forward to the next work is very much an honor, exactly because Paul’s discerning and is probably one of the most knowledgeable and widely-read reviewers in the genre today.

Here’s Michael Cook at Thoroughly Modern Reviewer:

Martinez has a gift for these kinds of stories. He has a gift for creating diverse, fully formed characters with captivating backstories. He has a gift for building compelling universes that readers want to spend time in. And he has a gift for crafting interesting, well-paced narratives. His stories are able to appeal to a number of people. This is a spy novel, a superhero novel, an action/adventure novel, and a political drama. He writes for such a broad audience and the characters are so varied and diverse that it’s easy for a reader to find someone in the story they can identify with. MJ-12: Endgame is just a really good time and a really good way to end this series.

I really can’t add anything to that one other than some blushing. Thanks, Michael.

And finally, fellow scribe Luther M. Siler:

My only complaint?  I want more, and while Martinez doesn’t exactly tie the universe up with a bow on it the ending makes it clear that while there is definitely space for future books in this universe they will take place in an entirely different status quo.  That said, this series is radically different in tone and genre from the Daedalus series, Mike’s previous trilogy, and I genuinely can’t wait to see what he’s got coming next. All available stars; would read again; you should go read now.

Again, nothing much more to add there except my thanks.

Finally, if you or someone you know has read Endgame, or any of my books, I’d deeply appreciate you taking a moment to put your reviews up on Amazon and Goodreads. Those reviews matter. They generate pageviews and put the books in front of more eyeballs, and make more clicks happen, and those clicks can turn into sales now and then. So yeah, you really can help your favorite writers make some bank, and whether it’s my work or someone else’s, please go forth and review!

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September 6, 2018 · 6:56 pm

My Favorite Bit in MJ-12: Endgame, plus a new interview

A few more things today I’d like to point you to as MJ-12: Endgame soars through its debut week.

Once again, Mary Robinette Kowal — a fine writer and finer human — hosts me on her blog to talk about My Favorite Bit in MJ-12: Endgame. I have a lot of favorite bits in this book, but I chose a particular conversation between Frank and Maggie to illustrate the cost of the Enhancements the Variants carry with them.

Also today, the first interview I did for the new book went live over at Paul Semel’s site. Paul is a veteran pop culture journalist, and asked me some really great questions. Go check it out.

Yet again, thanks for all the support and love. I have fans, which will never cease to amaze me, and y’all have been great. I mean, look at this Instagram shot. It’s goddamn beautiful.

As always, MJ-12: Endgame is available in mass-market paperback and ebook from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million, Kobo Books, iTunes, Google Play, and through your favorite neighborhood independent booksellers through Indie Bound!

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