THE BELATED, UNCEREMONIOUS RETURN OF A. LEE MARTINEZ

Welcome to a very late installment of my generally unreliable blog updates. I feel like even using a blog at this stage is foolish, but I’ve locked down the website URL, and I still think that it was shortsighted how quickly we rented out ourselves and our labor to other sites. So I’m here, and I’ll continue to be here, even if it isn’t the best way to reach anyone these days.

But, hey, you’re here. Glad to have you.

A weird thing about this job is that time slips away from you. Has it really been four years since my last novel Constance Verity Destroys the Universe dropped? That’s what the internet tells me, and who am I to question it? Many of you out there might be wondering what I’ve been up to in the meantime.

Nothing much.

Painful as it is to admit, I haven’t been doing anything grand or exciting. Just falling behind and procrastinating. I am and have always been a world class procrastinator. It has always been a problem, but as time went on, more distractions came along. And I fell victim to every one of them. It doesn’t help that many come from the very machine I am now using to write this post. It’s easier than ever to be distracted, and that’s not great for me. But I’m still here. Still writing.

Speaking of which…

I have a new novel coming out later this year. Short notice, yes, but this has been a relatively quick turnaround on this one (once I got it finished up enough for my agent to submit it). It’s with a new publisher for me, Baen Books. It’s always exciting moving to a new publisher, but also a little bit confusing. Everyone does things in their own way, and one must adjust. So far, so good though.

The novel is titled Unbearable. It’s a standalone contemporary fantasy about a lowlife who finds a magic sword. I sometimes refer to it as Arthurian legend meets Goodfellas. If you’re a fan of mine (and odds are you are since who the heck reads blogs anymore otherwise?) you know Martinez protagonists tend to come in two broad flavors: ultra competent or adrift dummies.

Ortiz is the second category.

It’s a fun story that involves cartoonish violence, mysticism, weird conversations about the nature of the universe, and a hero mostly trying to keep his head down and not get eaten by a cosmic dragon.

You’ve read my stuff before (probably). You get it.

And if you haven’t read my stuff before, then this is certainly a good place to start, but also, I’ve got 13 other novels out there. Give ‘em a try.

The novel is due out sometime this fall. I’ll try to let everyone know when preorders are available.

Oh, and it’s got a really awesome cover by Todd Lockwood.

In addition to the novel, I’m about halfway through a draft of a long-awaited sequel to my first novel Gil’s All Fright Diner. That’s right. A sequel to a book released 21 years ago. Strike while the iron is hot, as they say. The nature of how I write means that nothing is set in stone yet, but the story takes place in Rockwood, centering on Sheriff Kopp and two new protagonists who must work together to prevent supernatural disaster from destroying the sleepy little town. Or, as they call it in Rockwood, just another Tuesday.

No publisher on that one yet. Still working on it. But when it’s finished, we’ll see what happens.

Wait and see. That’s the job.

Finally, I’ve been developing a comic book idea and script based on original characters. I call it Dead Ducks and I like to pitch it as Uncle Scrooge comics meets Supernatural. Still putting the script and pitch together, but we’ll see where that goes. I might even end up doing the art, though that’s not my top priority.

Finally, on some good news that is tangentially related to me, my lovely wife, Sally Hamilton, scored an agent of her own. They’re now shopping around a new manuscript, which I won’t say a lot about here, but I will say I think is going to be big. Bigger than anything I’ve ever written. You heard it here first!

Thanks for stopping by. I’ll try to bring another update in less than a year. Fingers crossed.

FIGHTING THE GOOD FIGHT, WRITING THE GOOD WRITE,

LEE