Aw shucks. High praise, indeed

I never cared who was stronger? Hulk or Thor. Never obsessed over continuity. Waste of time. Engage me with a story that pushes buttons, not one that debates weight classes.

It’s all make believe. Emotions are how we make it count for something.

My theory on storytelling is the same as my theory on magic systems. I need it to make sense by its own emotional justification. I don’t need it spelled out in cold equations.

That doesn’t work for everyone and that’s cool. But I stand by most stories are not logic puzzles. Most are experiences.

They certainly might matter in other stories. The Automatic Detective and Gil’s All Fright Diner do take place in specific (imaginary) locations.

Those places succeed in having emotional weight, but don’t ask me to draw a map. Not where my attention lies.

If you pay attention, you don’t often even get a physical description of my human protagonists. Maybe hair color, but not always.

And my larger settings? Most are just city. My fantasy settings? Fortress or castle.

I know it’s contrary to what we’re told, but I don’t often care more than that.

I could describe a room in deep detail, but I’d much rather give you the feeling of that room than how many chairs are in it, how expensive / cheap the furniture is.

I tend to avoid long character descriptions and hardly ever are those description physical details.

I write lean. It isn’t inherently a better way of writing, but it does demonstrate how much can be said without saying a lot in a story.

For me, it will always be about emotion more than anything else, which is why I care less about the details that simply don’t matter.

Write the easiest bit first

I love that the One Piece live action adaptation doesn’t hesitate to look ridiculous. Clown pirate? Bright hair, absurd haircut? Impractical clothes? Sure, why not? It delights me to no end.

A. Lee Martinez's HOT Writing Takes: AI, Editing & Nice Characters YouTube video by Witches of Workshop | A Writing Podcast

Hey. I was invited on this cool podcast about writing, including a very special surprise guest star

m.youtube.com/watch?v=UcmQ...

It’s true that you don’t sell your soul all at once, but a piece at a time. But once you sell that first piece, the rest are easy.

In this episode of Jem, Rio assumes that Unicron is hitting on Jem when he attempts to devour earth and beats him up.

Champion and Professor Fido at the Earth’s Core (Adjacent)

aleemartinez.com/2026/04/cham...

TRUE STORY -- I once worked on a movie about an LA lawyer who finds out she's been chosen to give (virgin) birth to the second coming of Christ. Hilarity ensues. Never got released, don't bother looking.

ANYWAY... said lawyer already had three kids, so we needed lots of toys and tried to...

1/?

That’s a complex question but I’m still here. And here’s a longer answer and update on how things are going.

aleemartinez.com/2026/04/the-...

I still get a little thrill out of it, myself.

“You can’t blockade me! I’ll blockade myself!”

Elon Musk didn’t go to the moon.

Jeff Bezos didn’t go to the moon.

NASA went to the moon.

“A Jose Canseco bat? Tell me, you didn’t pay money for this.”

The cover for DEAD MOON by Peter Clines, showing a very large domed base on the bleak surface of the Moon with the Earth off in the distance above the horizon.

For no reason whatsoever now felt like a good time to remind you I wrote a book about the Moon. DEAD MOON is a fun, happy story about carefree people who love their job and their coworkers and nothing ever goes wrong and they all live happily ever after.

Oh, there may also be a few zombies.

The Belated, Unceremonious Return of A. Lee Martinez

aleemartinez.com/2026/04/the-...

Autistic SFF (+ a lil romance & more) itch.io bundle. 34 works by autistic authors, many with autistic main & side characters. Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, and more in novels, novellas, and short stories. April 1st - April 14th https://itch.io/b/3598/autistic-sff-a-lil-romance-more Covers for: Non-Player Character Veo Corva Yours, Insatiably Aveda Vice Seure the Tempered Rien Gray protoViolence - Definitive Edition Mado FIRST SNOW Jake Vanguard Synthetic Sea - A Queer Cyberpunk Novel Franklyn Newt Rainbow Nightmares Xine Fury Shadow's Light Sylvie Helstaff The Final Voyage of Avery Mothmere Helen Whistberry Into The Forest Calling33 Enemies to Enemies Ash Kreider The Sarcophagus of Lamia Rebecca E. Reyes Song of the Wolf T.C. Smith A Stage Over Ruthless Stars JJ Clapton Tempest, Take Me Home Charlie Knight Lantern Burgundy Athena Pendragon A Demon to Save Me (Found Humanity #1) H.S. Kallinger Hulderotica #12: Killing it on Campus Huldra House The Blood Divide Zan Lowell Bisection Sheila Jenné Merchants of Knowledge and Magic Shadow Spark Publishing Touch of Unicorn Magic Kit Muse Walking the Knife's Edge (Sythe Series #1) Elise Carlson The Skyship of Truskal - fantasy ebook d.m.barnham author Conch L. B. Shimaira A Life in Too Many Margins S. E. Thomson The Damsel Emma Jun Fairyland Briar Ripley Page An Alien Space Dragon and a Fairy L’Poni The Last Lady of Lună Jess Mahler CyberSnow A.E. Bross First Light Book I: Event Horizon Dan F. Bispo The Last Gift-Knight Dylan Madeley My Ex Is A Vampire M.S. Ocampo

Come grab 34 works of fiction by autistic authors with characters on the spectrum. We have fantasy, sci-fi, horror, romance, & more! Many are novels (some quite long) with a few novellas and short stories. Short blurbs available!

itch.io/b/3598/autis...

My number one tip for understanding storytelling:

There is no rational reason that a big robot made up of smaller robots is tougher than the individual robots that make it up.

But there is every story reason why that big robot is indeed tougher.

Understand this. Understand stories.

Call me a spoilsport but I despise April Fool’s Day.

It bugs me very much that Daniel Craig’s James Bond is so bad at his job. Which hardly seems topical to share at this point, but a big reason that I dislike those films.

They Will Kill You was a bloody, violent delight. Equal parts gruesome and absurd with a dash of heart amid all the surreal violence. Loved it.

“Is this writing AI or is it just an unexceptional human doing some unexceptional or bad writing?”

I think the question is blurrier than people want to admit.

That’s not me endorsing AI in writing. It’s dumb and it’s lazy and unnecessary. It’s more work to take AI and make it good than to just write something yourself. But there’s a lot of bad writing out there by humans that I think is unfairly being accused of being AI now.

While I don’t doubt that people are using AI in their writing, I would like to say that in my experience a lot of people already write like AI.

As AI improves, that gap between AI and uninspired writing will decrease. Which is why I have a hard time identifying the difference between the two.

Man I didn't know you were just allowed to say "Can I be on your podcast" but!

I have two books coming out this year! I can be on your podcast to talk about them! :D

Qualifications:
- I write books
- I have a charming Canadian accent*

*charm not guaranteed