Joining me today, after having to drag him away kicking and screaming from the comfy recliner in his basement, is author C.E. Martin. Thank you, C.E., for taking the time to chat to me. Please sit down, get comfortable and let’s begin.
About C.E. Martin
With real-world experience in law enforcement and a long-time interest in pulp adventure, C.E Martin delivers page-turning excitement, intrigue and plenty of battles with out-of-this-world creatures through his Stone Soldiers supernatural military thriller series. Inspired by classics like The Destroyer and Doc Savage, C.E. began writing in 1986 as a hobby and quickly gained momentum as a freelance writer. Today, he combines classic elements of men’s fiction with a satisfying dose of supernatural good-versus-evil storytelling.
What do you write?
Primarily, I’ve stayed in the Military Supernatural Thriller sub-genre–tales of supernatural warfare told in a pulp or men’s adventure fast-paced style. Emphasis is on good defeating evil and action, action, action: I’m not a big fan of the drama.
My first series, launched in 2012, is Stone Soldiers, about a small special ops unit mostly comprised of soldiers turned to living stone, making them impervious to most physical harm and leveling the playing field, so to speak, in the never-ending war against evil. The team fights giants, witches, demons, demi gods, vampires, etc. etc. This year I’ll be finishing up the first twelve book arc.
In 2015, I discovered the joy and ease of short stories. As a part-time, weekend writer, I can churn out shorts much quicker than my novels. I launched a line of prequels to my Stone Soldiers series, as monthly releases. Shadow Detachment begins in 1950 with the formation of the unit that will eventually be full of men turned to stone.
Most recently though, I’ve decided to try a new sub-genre: the Weird Western. I’ve just launched the first installment in a new series that takes place in 1881. Every 4 weeks, a new 10-15,000 word tale will be released, building on a growing story. Not sure if that will all fit into one compilation at the end, but we’ll see.
Outlaws of Olympus is Greece meets West as Hercules battles the gods and monsters of the old world in the Wild West… as a Catholic Priest. Cursed with immortality by Hera, Hercules has wandered the Earth for centuries, eventually embracing Christianity and hiding himself away in one monastery or mission after another. In this series, Hercules, or Father Ercole as he prefers to be called, is sent to the Utah Territory to investigate reports of a man who cannot die. He meets up with a peculiar cavalryman and helps track down a supernatural gunslinger who turns out to be Ercole’s half-brother, Hermes–the fastest gun in the West.
The first installment sets up the series, which will have priest and cowboy reliving the 12 Labors–a blend of Greek and Native American Mythology. If the series finds a readership, I’ll continue it, but for now it’s set for a fixed 13 weird tales.
Where do your ideas come from?
A variety of places. Mainly, I like to read fringe “news”–cryptids, UFOs, lost civilizations. These were the same tales passed around in print that inspired many a pulp novel, so I like to continue the tradition and work as much of this modern folklore in to my stuff as a I can.
As for my new project, Outlaws of Olympus, I always wondered if there was a way to tell a story where Hercules survived into the modern age and lived in seclusion. Then I saw Kevin Sorbo witnessing his own faith and incredible story online and it hit me: Hercules as a Christian. That’s actually in my own Stone Soldiers series (Book 5: Black Knight Down) but somewhere I started wondering about other centuries he might have lived in, and decided on something from the 1800s.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Outlook not clear, ask again… Seriously, I don’t know. I would hope I’ve found an audience and am finally writing full-time. I definitely have enough ideas for that. As I’m nearing fifty, I’m trying not to think too far down the road right now and am concentrating on the here and now and turning my part-time writing into a full-time endeavor. But that all depends on not just an ample amount of elbow grease, but a healthy dose of luck–luck in finally finding a large enough readership.
Do you read reviews of your book(s)? Do you respond to them, good or bad? How do you deal with the bad?
I absolutely read the reviews. My aim as an author isn’t just to tell a story, but to sell my stories. To do that, I need to know what the reader wants, and reviews are the perfect way to find that out. I don’t think there’s such a thing as a bad review–all feedback is valuable. I do think there are troll reviews, where someone “reviews” a book because they don’t like the author, or something in the book, but I would hope most readers can see past that.
How do I deal with troll reviews? Well… sometimes I laugh and move on. Sometimes I vent on X-box, playing a game and forgetting all about it. Sometimes I take the reviewer’s name, change it and kill them off in a future installment. It depends how trollish their comments are.
Overall though, I aim to please the customer–the reader. What they like and want is very important. I listen to their feedback and do my best to accommodate. My goal is to make readers happy, not anxious or angry (say, by killing off favorite characters).
Is there a certain type of scene that’s harder for you to write than others?
Any scene that leads up to a big fight scene is hard for me to write. I want to get through it and get to the action, but I know the scene is important. It’s like eating a mediocre dinner when you know there’s cake afterward. The anticipation is frustrating.
How long does it usually take you to write the first draft of a book?
Somewhere around 40 hours. Sometimes those hours are in batches of five or six on a weekend morning. Sometimes I go crazy and write until my wrists hurt–I think twelve hours (with minimal food breaks) is my longest run. I think it’d go faster if I had multiple days in a row to write. Doing this on the side means I have to stop and lose my momentum. The next session is part rebuilding that momentum part pressing on.
Describe what your ideal writing space looks like.
I prefer to write in my recliner in my basement TV room. I’ve attached a tablet holding arm to the chair, and use a lapdesk with a wireless keyboard. It’s very comfortable, cool, dark, and quiet. Eventually, I plan to connect the TV to a small PC so I can use it to go online and research quick bits of information as I need them. About the only real improvement or change I’d make to this set up would be to put in a ceiling–our basement is only semi-finished, with emphasis on the semi, rather than the finished.
Why should a potential reader buy your book(s)?
While my first series, Stone Soldiers, is definitely for a niche market, I think Outlaws of Olympus will appeal to a broader market. Readers of these weird westerns won’t just be subjected to superhuman violence and killing, but rather problem solving mixed with some fun re-imagining of classic Greek and Native American mythology. After all, as a Priest, Hercules will be more interested in saving souls than cracking skulls.
Of all the characters you have created, which is your favourite and why?
That’s really a tough call. If you are going to insist, I’ll have to flip a coin between Max, my sentient artificial intelligence from the Stone Soldiers and Shadow Detachment series, and Laura Olson, the vampire MD from Stone Soldiers.
For Laura, she’s just a sassy, able-bodied female hero who gets things done without dressing or acting like a tramp. I based her a little bit on Alex Kingston’s amazing portrayal of River Song from the Doctor Who series. One thing I hate in fiction is waif-like femme fatales who haven’t digested any food in weeks. They’re ridiculous. I want to read about pioneer-like women who are real. I served in the USAF with women, and none of them were like the scrawny models we see in so much of TV and film today. Women can be capable and beautiful without being anorexic fantasies of 13 year old boys.
As for Max, I love the character because not only is he reminiscent of HAL 9000, but he’s a Christian A.I. So often we see AIs that are evil and mean. I thought it would be a kick to make an AI who reviewed all the facts (including the dark magic of the demons that built him–see Infernal Machine for more details there) then concluded that there could be no other logical choice. It’s a simplistic, child-like view of religion, from a machine, and I think it’s going to allow me to write some very interesting stories and situations.
When you’re writing, do you listen to music or do you need silence?
Absolutely I listen to music. I prefer scores from films, and my favorite composer is Michael Giacchino. I have a whole string of favorites logged into playlists on my phone–action lists, mystery lists, exploration lists… they really set the mood when I’m writing a sequence. And they drown out the noise from my kids and dog.
Who are your favourite authors, and why?
Lester Dent, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Piers Anthony, and Warren Murphy. There are many others I’ve enjoyed (Laumer, Zelazny, Asimov) but these four were the ones that most captured my imagination and drew me into their worlds. I also enjoyed the blend of humor and action all four put into their work and the lack of the tragedies so many authors seem fixated on. When I finish reading a book, I want to remember the good, not be dwelling on some horrible event.
What do you find most challenging about writing?
Finding the time to write. That’s the biggest challenge for me. I have children, a home, a dog, a wife and a day job. There’s not much time to write, and during the week, after sitting at a computer all day, I get home and just can’t do it anymore. My writing time has dwindled to weekend mornings and possibly the days. At that rate, it’s hard to get a lot done.
I suppose my lack of time is what aggravates me when I read people whining about writer’s block, or how long something is taking them. Oh, if only I had that time…
Where can readers go to discover more about you and your books?
Blog | Amazon Author Page | Stone Soldiers | Outlaws of Olympus
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