Category Archives: Writing

What makes a good genre mashup? That’s the question I’m tackling today in a guest post on Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s blog. My feeling is that while you can have a great idea for a genre mashup — such as Horatio Hornblower in space, for example — you need to double-down on the rest of your story elements so you don’t come off as a one-trick pony. I’d like to think The Daedalus Incident manages pretty well.

Bryan, by the way, is the moderator of the #SFFWTRCHT (SF/F Writer Chat) on Twitter, and I’ll be on the hot seat July 10. So save the date, get your questions ready and, to make your lives easier, be sure to follow me on Twitter so you can easily ask questions about Daedalus and all the other cool stuff I’m cooking up in my brain-things. (Or just follow the #SFFWTRCHT hashtag…but really, I tweet fun stuff, so if you follow me, I’ll entertain you regularly.)

And remember, Daedalus is now available for the Kindle, Nook and Kobo, with iBooks and the print version coming soon. If you’ve read it, I’ll be happy to answer any lingering questions you have, and if you haven’t…I’ll try not to be too spoilery.

#SFWApro

There’s a few reasons while I keep the swearing to a minimum here on my blog. The biggest one is that my kid (and my Official Author Photographer) will probably read this at some point — and well before she’s ready to see her dad drop f-bombs.

The other is that, despite whatever writing skill I may possess, no salty language I put forth will approach the sheer quality of the dizzying, euphoric, creative profanities that spew forth from the mind of Chuck Wendig. Plus, he’s an awesome writer in general.

I’m over at Chuck’s blog today, answering 10 questions about The Daedalus Incident. I loved the questions, loved the tone of his blog and had a blast answering them.

He also gives a ton of great writing advice and has more than a few amazing books of his own, so when you’re done reading about Daedalus — including a new tidbit from the book itself! — check out the rest of his stuff.

#SFWApro

Just a quick note: I’m guest posting at the Hugo award-winning SFSignal today, talking about historical fantasy. Given that it’s my subgenre at the moment, I enjoy writing it very much, but I’m also well aware of the pitfalls of playing with history.

And if you’re a fan of science fiction and/or fantasy…man, you really need to be reading SFSignal. They do a great job there.

While I’m here, I also got a great review this past weekend from European book blogger Michael Below, proprietor of Edi’s Book Lighthouse. His verdict on The Daedalus Incident:

“This amazing mix of alternate history, science fiction and mystery is highly entertaining and stands out like a lighthouse in the fog of books.”

Read the whole review here. Thanks, Michael!

Daedalus is now available via Kindle, Nook and Kobo, with print coming soon. Hope everyone’s enjoying it thus far, and if you did, I’d be mighty grateful if you wrote up a review on Goodreads or your venue of choice.

So it’s been a busy week here, what with the whole Skyhorse/Night Shade thing finally settling down. But there’s a book out there, and people are reading and reviewing it. Lost in the shuffle earlier this week was Stefan Raets’ great review of The Daedalus Incident on Tor.com. In part:

This is a fast-paced and smooth read from the very beginning, and towards the end Martinez builds up the suspense and urgency like a pro…. The Daedalus Incident is a true genre-bender. It mixes alchemy, quantum physics, and historical figures in ways you haven’t seen before. I’m not saying which historical figures, by the way, because discovering that is part of the fun, but let’s just say that some of them open the door for some potentially fascinating sequels. The Daedalus Incident isn’t perfect, but it’s adventurous, original, and a blast to read.

Perfect is a pretty high bar, so I’ll take it.

Stefan’s review is very fair, nuanced and extraordinarily well informed by his knowledge of the genre.  Yes, he liked the book, but even if he didn’t, I’d still have to respect the work he put in. (They don’t do a rating system on Tor, but Stefan gave The Daedalus Incident four out of five stars on Goodreads, for those who prefer their reviews numerically calibrated.)

To say I’ve been pleased with the reviews Daedalus has garnered is an epic understatement; I’m freakin’ thrilled. And now that the dust has settled and Skyhorse is in the driver’s seat, we should have smooth sailing toward a summer launch. I’ll provide more details on an exact date when I get them, but until then, feel free to click on the pre-order links on the right-hand side of this page, or click here and scroll to the bottom for a more exhaustive list of pre-order sites.

It’s been quite a while since I put on my interviewer hat. At the behest of the Irish writing site writing.ie, I recently sat down to interview New York Times bestselling author Peter V. Brett. Peat was very gracious with his time, and very patient with my questions. The drink I bought him may have helped. (Click here for the interview.)

So how did I get this gig? It’s not like Martinez is a particularly Irish surname, after all.

It came about after writing.ie started following me on Twitter back in January. This led to some conversations, and the site’s manager letting me know that they were keen on doing more stuff about speculative fiction. Never one to let an opportunity for blatant self-promotion pass me by, I offer to help. You’ll see a guest post of mine on there later this summer, by the way.

Couple months later, writing.ie had an opportunity to interview Peat, and asked if I wanted to do it. Of course, I said yes. Couple months after that — during which Peat was on his book tour and I was traveling to Japan and such — he and I finally sat down. And it was a great chat.

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