Featured Interview With C.E. Martin
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I was born nd raised in Southern Indiana, in the Louisville, Kentucky metropolitan area. After four years in the USAF, I returned home to the area. I live with my wife, two daughters and our recently-blind dog, border aussie hybrd the girls named “Sunnie”.
I’m a homebody, splitting my time between work and my kids. Our number one past time is watching B-movies and scifi on tv–when the kids aren’t making me watch Spongebob or the kidtoon f the week. Somewhere in-between, I try to squeeze in some writing.
I retired earlier this year from a 17 year career in criminal justice. I’ve been enjoying part-time work, which left me more time with the kids and my writing, but it looks like my retirement is short-lived as I return to the full-time daily grind in January.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I’ve always enjoyed reading, but when my grandfather introduced me to science fiction back in the 1970s (David Gerrold’s “Deathbeast”) I became an avid bookworm. By high school, I was burning through as many as six paperbacks a week, and had discovered the joys of pulps and men’s adventure. After high school, I decided I wanted to be a ghost writer, like Will Murray and write something as fantastic as Warren Murphy and Richard Sapir’s “The Destroyer” series.
Alas, life didn’t work out that way, but thanks to self-publishing, I was finally able to set out as a paid novelist in 2012.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
My favorites are Warren Murphy (and his late writing partner Richard Sapir), followed closely by Lester Dent, ERB, Piers Anthony, Keith Laumer, Will Murray, Roger Zelazny, Timothy Zahn and Poul Anderson. I enjoy science fictiony high adventure with a comedic twist, but have also greatly enjoyed series by Brian Lumley, Harry Turtledove and William Forstchen.
I am most inspired by Warren Murphy and Lester Dent. Their pulpish writing really resonates with me and I enjoy their lack of padding to tell a story. Nothng is worse than page after page of drama-filler just to make a page count. I hate that in movies and TV, but it’s worse in books.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
Most recently I published “A Lucky Day to Die”, the tenth installment in my supernatural military thriller series Stone Soldiers. This time around, the leader of America’s darkness-fighting supersoldiers heads to Vegas to investigate the murder of his nephew. He uncovers a dark conspiracy involving a witch that’s taking over the Strip and building an army of cursed gamblers. It’s another episode of over-the-top supernatural mayhem with the stone soldiers showing up as the cavalry when things go wrong.
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