L. J. Martin is the author of 70 young adult, classic western, historical and thriller novels with a half-dozen non-fiction works among the mix. His first novel was a Y.A. and is still in print. As the father of four boys he was adamant about them filling their days with good books, books that taught values and how great the American experience is and was. He lives in Montana on a small ranch and winters in Prescott, Arizona, both homes in western areas steeped in history.Your writing background is mostly in adult westerns, what made you want to write in the YA western sphere?
Actually I’ve written nearly as many thrillers and contemporaries along with a few non-fiction. That said, I’m a western guy, one of my first jobs was wrangling and packing horses and mules for a remote boys camp. I LOVE the west and love the risk folks took at the time, taking their life and the lives of their children in their hands to move west and build something for self and family. And risking everything to do so. And that said, I write young adult to try and instill in young folks how tough it was to take those risks, and how those risks built this country. A country not perfect, but the most perfect on earth. And teach, even if only in a small way, the benefit of hard work, honesty, courage and fair play. And that most important human challenge: do unto others as you’d have others do unto you.
The Piccadilly is the fourth book in your YA western series. Tell us a little about what we can expect from this novel.
It’s true to the time, in this day of censorship and the distortion of history. I got a bit of a laugh when I saw you folks wrinkle your nose when I said I was going to take my young hero into a saloon and brothel. The fact is, I wanted to show one could still be honorable even if thrown into situations that many of us might think less so. Brothel’s were legal at the time, and along with their accompanying saloons the center of the action in most towns…and a job is a job and always worth doing well and honestly.
Do you have plans to write any more novels in the Two Thousand Grueling Miles series?
No question, and am really looking forward to it. I left my young hero being offered a position on a tea plantation in western India. He now really gets a chance to expand his horizons and face new challenges. And to tell the truth, it gives me a chance to learn about a country and people who fascinate and interest me.
If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?
Write from the heart, don’t listen to critics, particularly those who’ve risen high in commercial publishing. They judge your work by sales, and sales are often a result of positioning and cover art and copy, most of which the writer has little to do with. If you love your own work, if it makes you laugh, cry, cringe, shiver and shout hooray and keep turning the page, others will too. Early failure means little, so keep writing what you love to write.
What does literary success look like to you?
I’ve never been one for “prizes” or “honors,” from lit groups or anyone other than readers. The ultimate prize is the acceptance of the reading public. So I gauge my success by how many books I sell, which is a result of how much word of mouth, from one truck driver to another, if you will. Great publishers, marketers, like Wolfpack can get you that first read, but lasting success is that reader buying another book because he/she loved that first one.
What’s your favorite book you’ve read so far in 2023?
I always have more than one book on my nightstand and trade around. I’ll bore most of you pure fiction readers but I just finished JUSTICE STEPHEN FIELD: SHAPING LIBERTY FROM THE GOLD RUSH TO THE GILDED AGE by Paul Kens, and AN OPEN SECRET THE STORY OF DEADWOOD’S MOST NOTORIOUS BROTHELS by Chris Enss. Both research for my works, both excellent, both among my favorites of the year. The former as I’m interested in the law and how it’s both matured and withered in the last couple of centuries in America and the latter because it’s both educational for a western writer and entertaining as hell.
