First Journey to Mars
by Lawrence Martin
In the year 2035, three married couples are the first humans to travel to Mars. Before long, one crew member contracts a mysterious illness, and a meteor shower knocks out the ship’s antenna, cutting off communication to Earth. Interpersonal dynamics in the small vessel soon turn nightmarish. Will any of the crew make it to Mars—and more importantly, will they ever return home?
I began writing early in my medical career in Cleveland, starting with a book about pulmonary medicine (my specialty) for the lay public. Over the years I wrote several more medical-themed books, some for physicians and others for the general public. I did not tackle fiction until 2011, with a novel about Civil War Savannah. Since then I have self-published several other fictional works, plus two books for children.
I learned quickly that fiction is a whole different craft than non-fiction. In my non-fiction books I never had to worry about “point of view,” dialogue or character development.
The Boy Who Dreamed Mount Everest won 2nd place in the 2016 Florida Writers’ Association Royal Palm Awards category of Middle Grade Fiction (Unpublished). Liberty Street: A Novel of Late Civil War Savannah won 2nd place in the 2018 RPLA competition for published historical fiction. Several short stories have also won RPLA awards.
A list of my books, medical and non-medical, can be found at www.lakesidepress.com/books.html. My 3 Civil War novels are described and compared at www.lakesidepress.com/CivilWarNovels.html.
Writing is my main retirement interest but I have another: music. I never played an instrument and decided retirement is the time to learn, starting with the ukulele. This is the go-to instrument for many retirees because it is relatively simple (compared to the guitar) and, especially in The Villages, there are many opportunities to play with others. As a way to learn basic music theory for the uke, I started writing myself explanations. One thing led to another, and I ended up with a 140-page “Uke Syllabus: An Introduction to Basic Music Theory for the Ukulele”. It is posted free online at http://www.lakesidepress.com/UkeSyllabus.pdf. Then I took up piano, and also wrote a basic music theory syllabus for that instrument: www.lakesidepress.com/PianoSyllabus. pdf.
My wife and I are blessed with three wonderful daughters (two in Chicago, one in New York), and 5 grandchildren.