Retiring Unprecedented

Numbers get retired all the time. When an athlete does something exceptional their number gets hoisted on a banner, never to be used again. Take Jackie Roosevelt Robinson, for instance. Not only the first Black player in Major League Baseball, but a six-time all star in a ten-year career. Jackie was everywhere and did everything. He was so good that after 1997, no baseball player gets to wear 42. And not just Dodgers. It’s the only number to be taken out of circulation by the whole league.

Jackie Robinson was unprecedented. After 2020, no one should use that word any more, either. Unprecedented should be retired. No, it didn’t shatter the color barrier or bat .342, but it did so much work this year it deserves a break. Send it to a beach. Let it fish. A quick look at Google shows searches for the world increased ten-fold in March of this year. From COVID to the machinations of the Trump administration, the word got used like a lighter at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert. Let’s put it out. I’m sick of it, myself. It has been nearly impossible to make it through a news cycle without hearing it over and over to the point of lost power. In 2020 unprecedented became the “new normal” (which is next on my list.)

Everything is, in a way, unprecedented. Nothing with a human hand in it happens exactly the same way twice. If you want me care about the abnormal – donning masks in public, a loser that refuses to concede, a parade with no spectators watching the bands go by – tell me why in more than one word. Especially when that word is really, really tired.

Go ahead, judge the book by this cover

Well, here it is. The cover of my newest novel, done by the remarkable Cole Johnson. The book officially comes out January 6, 2021. Thank God. The year 2020 just doesn't look right. You can't even correct for it, no matter what kind of lens you grind. 

This is a wrap-around, and the back is just as intriguing as the front. And that's not me bragging, as I had nothing to do with it. If I could illustrate this well, I'd probably never write another novel.

Untouchable will be available in print or epub. Hope you check it out. 

My Cup of Tea

Check out the other Martineck's writing in the Autumn edition of My Cup of Tea.  Nina Martineck's short story "Streetlight" is a quick flash of night in New York, that sadly reminds me of a city more romantic and sparkly, with the kind of prospects one might welcome, as opposed to requiring bed rest or hospitalization.

(Photo note: When the magazine arrived, Nina tossed it down on the table, next to a cup of tea already sitting there, as one always is, and took the shot. No staging.)

Loving this article in Strange Horizons. I'm not anti-capitalist, but I'm not blind to its flaws, either. Which is why I wrote The Milkman and its sequel, The Link Boy. Check it out. ""SOMETHING OF FREEDOM IS YET TO COME": THE ENTANGLED HISTORIES OF SCIENCE FICTION AND CAPITALISM" by Olav Rokne, author and co-fonder of the Unofficial Hugo Book Club Blog. 

I'm also glad there is still some interest out there in economic-based science fiction. I thought I was the only one carrying a sign at my demonstration.

New Book

I may have a new novel coming out soon. It’s a mystery. As in the book is about a crime and because I can’t seem to reliably predict any moment in my immediate future. Long term, sure, things are going to be great. Two weeks from now? Halloween or Thanksgiving? No idea. So who knows when the tome will hit your shelf. I’m going to guess at a late fall release of my next book, The Untouchable.

Watch this space.

The Handler

Melania Trump, 2020 RNC Convention

Russian Military Uniform

I think this is the moment in the movie when the masks come off (metaphorically - you keep 'em on out there) and we realize Melania has been Donald's handler all this time. She's obviously a general in the Russian military. She's really in charge and to be honest, that might be for the best.

Conway the Machine

This is a picture of me and Buffalo rap artist Conway the Machine, who bought breakfast for every bus operator, rail operator and mechanic at Metro. What a freakin' nice guy. He didn't want transit workers to be forgotten during this COVID crisis. They put themselves out there, everyday, like grocery store workers, postal professionals, healthcare workers and first responders. It is a poignant acknowledgement.

He's also pretty talented. I'm partial to Land O' Lakes.

This is approximately the ten-year anniversary of my novel Cinco de Mayo. A book about a global, mind-altering event. I can say now, I pretty much nailed it. Pat on back. Pat. Not that it was too difficult. People are the same in their variety. Some people can adapt to change, some can’t. Some people can accept that the path ahead will not look like the one behind and turn and face backward. Others will keep moving forward even though they don’t have any idea what lies ahead. They know – we all should know – it will, at the very least, be novel.