The Write Stuff

Chris Martin has turned several of his longtime interests into a writing career.

'I'm not sure whether I should be proud or embarrassed,” the Iowa City author says, 'but what I'm interested in now is pretty much the same stuff I've been interested in since I was 8 years old. I just needed to find a way to make that pay the bills.”

He's managed to do just that. For example, his love of motor sports - and a website he launched about world superbike racing - led to many opportunities to write about racing for major publications and online sites.

Martin's new book, 'Modern American Snipers,” arises from another persistent interest, and it has its origins in a project he started just for himself. As he read more and more about the military, he discovered that information about the most secretive units was widely scattered. He created a document to help him keep track of what he gleaned from his reading.

'I thought, maybe I'll do something bigger with it as some point, but I had no concrete plans,” he says.

Eventually, however, he found himself writing some e-books about Special Forces. He developed a relationship with SOFREP.com, a website run by former members of various Special Forces. It was the folks at SOFREP.com who recruited Martin to pen 'Modern American Snipers” for St. Martin's Press.

Because he's been researching this area for years, he was ready to jump into the writing. But to craft the book he wanted, he also needed to complete extensive interviews. He estimates that he conducted - and then transcribed - interviews totaling more than 100,000 words.

'These guys aren't the easiest people to track down,” Martin says. 'A lot of these guys, it's definitely hard to get them to participate due to the nature of their work.”

But Martin earned the trust of many key sources, in part because his father was Green Beret in Vietnam. The elder Martin was a highly decorated soldier, and his son learned more about his service through the writing of 'Modern American Snipers.”

'He's never boasted or bragged about it,” Martin says of his father. 'I learned a bunch of stuff that I only knew bits and pieces of before we sat down for the book, so that was pretty cool.”

Realizing that his audience might well include those who read many military-themed books as well as those new to the topic, Martin worked to strike a balance in the text when it came to jargon and the like.

'A big part of this audience is already going to be hard-core, so you don't want to talk down to them,” Martin explains, noting that he and his publisher were nevertheless mindful of other readers.

In addition to his motor sports and military audiences, Martin hopes to attract a science fiction fan base soon. In March, he will publish the first installment of 'Engines of Extinction,” a serialized novel set in the near future that builds on what Martin calls 'little cracks of the unknown.” His research for the novel and for 'Modern American Snipers” dovetailed, providing the source material for both his fiction and non-fiction.

Martin is pleased with the variety in his writing life. If he were confined to just one topic, he said, 'it starts to feel too much like a job.”