Michael J. Martinez

Category: Known Worlds

A tour of the Known Worlds: Mercury, Part II
Once the stern of a brig, these windows now look into a hostelry on Elizabeth Mercuris.

Sorry about the lack of blogging here, folks. I was out in beautiful Los Angeles for my day job, and things were both busy and interesting (in good ways). I also had a chance to meet up with fellow NLA agency-mate Jason M. Hough for some quality Mexican food in San Juan Capistrano. No swallows were spotted, but the dinner was excellent and the authorial company even better. Jason’s a stand-up guy and a great writer, and if you’re not reading his blog or following him on Twitter, you should. His book, The Darwin Elevator, is out next year, and I for one can’t wait to read it. (more…)
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March 4, 2012
A tour of the Known Worlds: Mercury
When we last left off on our little tour of the Known Worlds (as featured in Spacebuckler) we had just explored the mysteries of cloud-shrouded Venus. Next up: Mercury, the sunniest spot in the solar system. This appellation is not a good thing, mind you.

The real planet Mercury is a small ball of superheated rock just 36 million miles from the sun (on average). On the sunny side, temperatures reach up to 800 degrees Fahrenheit. On the dark side, eternally pointing away from the sun, temperatures hover around minus 280 degrees. And you can forget about any meaningful atmosphere — the few gaseous atoms not blasted into space by the solar winds aren’t exactly breathable. Of course, you’d either freeze or fry anyway.

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February 19, 2012
A tour of the Known Worlds: Venus, Part II
The streets of Puerto Verde are vacant in the heat of the Venusian afternoon, but will come to life after the siesta.

I’m going through the setting of Spacebuckler planet by planet, and this week we’ll linger on Venus for a bit, because it’s more than just a hot and humid jungle. Indeed, if the late 18th century London broadsheets are any indicator, the entire planet is a hive of scheming Spaniards, savage Venusians and pirates of all stripes.

And yet despite the papers’ tendency to stretch the truth…they’re pretty close to the truth when it comes to the Green Planet. After the Pinzon expedition discovered the aurora pathways into the Void and first landed on the Moon in 1492, the Spaniards quickly set their sights on Venus. There, they laid claim to the entire planet — an impossible task given its size, nearly as large as Earth itself, and its trackless jungles.

Then there were the Venusians.

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January 29, 2012
A tour of the Known Worlds: Venus
I’ve been seeing a lot of posts and Tweets and whatnot about writing lately. I had a few things I could say about all that, but I realized I had contributed more than enough to the stew of often contradictory and occasionally maddening advice that would-be writers seem to covet and trade like dog-eared baseball cards.

Enough, I say! Let’s have some fun. Starting today, and until I run out of worlds, I’m going to take this blog on a tour of the solar system — or the Known Worlds, as I call them in Spacebuckler. These aren’t the eight (formerly nine) planets you’re used to. These are the kind of worlds an 18th century Royal Navy frigate would visit…if said frigate could escape the surly bonds of Earth, of course.

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January 23, 2012