August 2013
Our thanks to Marilyn K. Martin for the opportunity to interview her about her recent work.
Q: Can you tell us a little what your story (The Sun Greeter) is about?
A: I watch "Ancient Aliens", and am active in Amazon Forums discussing extra-terrestrials, and how they've been visiting and interacting on Earth for a very long time. To me, the evidence is overwhelming, and only enriches and expands our cultural heritage on this planet.
Q: How did you come up with the idea?
A: In my interactions with other posters on Amazon Forums about UFOs and ETs, I now have a "troll posse" of half-dozen guys who spend voluminous time and energy ripping all my speculations to shreds. Their motivations are murky, but this "resistence to the obvious" is what gave me the idea for The Sun Greeter. Some know-it-all documentarian from the distant future goes back to the ancient past, and tries to shoehorn an ancient man's beliefs into her preconceived notions of what is "generally accepted/believed" in her time.
Q: What is your inspiration for writing as a whole?
A: I've always loved to write, from song lyrics to poetry. I've also tried my hand at screenplays and Young Adult novels. As I get older, with finite time and energy, I'm focusing on my Science Fiction stories and novellas, and keeping up with the technology that is re-writing the world before our very eyes.
Q: Could you tell us a bit about yourself?
A: I was raised in the Pacific Northwest, until I graduated high school. After that I lived all over the U.S., basically, from my family moving around to my individual travels as an adult.I've settled into Texas now as a semi-retiree, with a Big Texan for a husband.
Q: Where can listeners find more of your work?
A: You can find all my recent fiction and humor essays on Amazon.com, especially Kindle. Besides my books, my Author Central Page lists all the magazines and anthologies I've had short stories published in. I also write weekly articles and humor columns for ComputorEdge.com (yes, he spells computor with an "o"). The editor and I have jointly published my past computer humor columns, also available on Kindle. And he even kindly set up an RSS feed to the right on my Author Central Page, for quick accesss to my latest ComputorEdge articles and columns.
Q: Any new work we should keep an eye out for?
A: Since the beginning of the year, I've been writing a series of Science Fiction / Horror / Paranormal / Humor / Adventures called "Hunting Monster Aliens." I currently have six e-books published on Amazon Kindle, for only $.99 apiece.
I also recently published a series of humorous personal essays on how I'm adjusting to Life In Texas (with a Big Texan husband). It too is available on Amazon Kindle for $.99.
Q: What are you reading now?
A: I read all day long on the Internet, every day. Besides researching my articles and columns for ComputorEdge, I also post a lot of links to relevant articles on the Amazon forums I participate in regularly. As far as off-computer reading, I'm working my way through the short stories that were also published in the magazines and anthos that published one of my stories.
Q: Thanks again, Marilyn!
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Editor's Note: If you enjoyed this story, please grab the anthology it appeared in, Lost Worlds, Retraced, available via www.thirdflatiron.com (see Current Issues tab) or via Amazon and Smashwords (ebook/print).
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