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Two posts in one day? Let’s call this a special occasion.

As you may or may not know, my new novel Unbearable is coming out Sept 1st. You may not know this because I’m pretty lousy at promotion, but you also are here, so you might be one of the proud few who visit this blog with perhaps more regularity than I update it.

That’s on me. I’ve been doing this a long time, and while I like writing, I’ve lost a taste for most of the other parts of the business, and I was never particularly great at it before. But a new book is out, and you can pre-order it at all the usual places. Go to your local bookstore and say, “I want my A. Lee Martinez”, if you’re so inclined. Or go online. I can’t afford to be picky.… Read the rest “UNBEARABLE excerpt”

Chet and Shari ran into each other by accident. Having not seen each other in years, they would have normally exchanged pleasantries and gone on their separate ways, but as events would have it, they both had a some time to kill. A coffee shop was nearby. With nothing better to do, they decided to catch up.

Chet ordered a cider. Shari got a frappuccino and a bagel. They sat at a table in silence for a minute before he happened upon the most logical question.

“So, Shari, what have you been up to?”

“I’ve taken up painting. Watercolors,” she replied. “You?”

“I’ve really gotten into sorcery,” he said.

Shari blinked, as if the information had to drag itself across the small table before reaching her. Eventually, she nodded.

“I see.”

Chet shrugged. “I’m not very good at it yet, but you gotta start somewhere, right?”… Read the rest “CATCHING UP”

Magic reached across the gulf between the living and the dead. It found Hanna nuzzled in the tender embrace of oblivion and dragged her into the light.

Hanna slammed the beeping alarm as the oppressive morning light burned her eyes. “Just five more minutes.”

She rolled over, tried to go back to sleep.

Zamir stuck his skull in her room. He’d been her roommate post-death for a few years now. Corporate apartment housing was cheap, and why pay for heating or air conditioning when neither of them didn’t really need it.

“You’re going to be late again,” he said..

She sat up. Her necromantically animated joins creaked and popped especially loudly when she first woke up. “So what? What will they do? Fire me.”

“Kid, you don’t want to know.”

Zamir adjusted his tie with fingers of bone. A few scraps of gray skin clung to his skull, but there wasn’t any meat left on him other than that.… Read the rest “Post-Death Grind”

Life in Rockwood

Unbearable, my newest novel slated for release Sept 1st, is available for preorder in most of the usual places. Preorders can be tremendously helpful for writers, so maybe consider it if you have a little extra money burning a hole in your pocket.

Speaking of holes, I was digging around some old short stories and found this. Originally written to be read on a podcast, I thought I’d share it here now. It’s a tale of Rockwood, that sleepy, supernatural town that started this whole professional storyteller thing.

It’s about an killer hole, which ties in neatly with Unbearable, a story that also prominently features a killer hole. Is this the same killer hole in both stories?

I suppose that’s up to you to decide.

Smuggler’s Well never did have any water in it. It sat in a lonesome dusty field on land nobody owned.… Read the rest “A HOLE TO FIGHT”

Please, enjoy a piece of short fiction featuring Champion the supercat along with Professor Fido, evil genius and very bad dog.

The asteroid bore down on the Earth in a clinical chart on the TV. Twelve hours until planetfall read the banner underneath as the reporters talked about the incoming end of the world.

“You should do something about that,” Todd said to Champion.

The blue and green cat curled across his lap stretched. “I will. Just give me a minute.”

Todd scratched her head as she shifted position. He wasn’t worried. There was still time to avert the apocalypse, but cats did everything in their own time.

Professor Fido telekinetically slid open the glass door to the backyard and walked over to Todd. “I see the infernal feline has still not deigned to act.”

“I’ll get to it,” said Champion as Todd rubbed her chin.… Read the rest “CHAMPION AND PROFESSOR FIDO AT THE EARTH’S CORE (ADJACENT)”

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.… Read the rest “THE BELATED, UNCEREMONIOUS RETURN OF A. LEE MARTINEZ”

Life in Rockwood

Everyone who called Rockwood home knew it was a special place with its own unique problems. Marshall Kopp had known it before becoming sheriff, and he couldn’t rightly complain about it now that dealing with those problems was his job.

Becka Rodriguez pointed to the empty spot on her dresser. “It was right there, Marshall, when I went to sleep. Then I woke up, and it was gone.”

“Mmmhmm.” Kopp flipped open his notebook. “And how much would you say is missing?”

“Seventy-four cents,” said Becka. “I counted it before I went to bed.”

“Mmmhmm.” He scribbled out the number for his notes.

“I wouldn’t have bothered normally, but what with the rash of thefts we’ve had lately, I thought I’d best be safer than sorry.”

“Not safe enough to hide your change,” said Kopp.

“It’s my change.… Read the rest “Magpie”

The world had a history of gods, strange and mundane. Gods of miracles. Gods of wrath. Gods of love. Gods of hate. There must have been thousands of them. But the one thing all these gods had in common was that they were always somewhere else. Atop Mount Olypmus. Above the clouds. In the firmament. Beyond.

Gods didn’t hang out with mortals, and now that they did, everyone understood why.

The gods weren’t anything humans had ever imagined. Powerful titans rising from the oceans, beneath the earth, astride passing comets, they came to this world without explanation. Great and terrible things, hideous and inhuman.

Anna lived in the shadow of one of the sea gods. A monster fish the size of a skyscraper, it had washed ashore one day. There it sat. Its glistening flesh undulating while its gills opened and closed.… Read the rest “In the Shadow of the Sea God”

The bus came flying across the street. In that split second, Todd thought it might be all over. He’d been Champion’s sidekick for nearly a year now, and in that time, palling around with his supercat, there had been plenty of close calls. One of these times, Champion wouldn’t save him. He’d read enough comic books to know that plenty of sidekicks were killed or maimed to give the hero a little drama to deal with.

This was real life. Or what passed for real life in a world where some animals had gained mysterious powers. It didn’t necessarily play by the same rules, but even if plot points had nothing to do with it, this was a dangerous job. It was inevitable something bad would happen.

Champion deflected the bus with a telekinetic shove. It bounced over their heads to come crashing down behind them.… Read the rest “Bad Dog”

Todd had spent his whole life reading superhero comics, watching superhero TV shows and movies. Even when they were low budget and terrible with horrible special effects and dumb acting, he watched them. Every one of them. Because he’d always known he was destined to be a superhero.

A real one. Not just some guy running around in a funny costume who maybe broke up a fight now and then, but usually just called the police to handle the situation. Not a weirdo who lurked on rooftops, playing like he was there to save the day. But an honest-to-God superhero who fought crime and helped people and had his own evil nemesis. Maybe even two or three.

He wasn’t lazy about it. He worked out religiously. He trained in multiple martial arts. He studied criminology, military tactics. He was a decent escape artist, though he never was much good at science, if he was being honest.… Read the rest “Champion”