About Martha Burns:
Martha Burns is an award-winning author and New Mexico native, recognized for her compelling storytelling and rich sense of place. She earned a Doctor of Letters with distinction from Drew University and was awarded the Faulkner-Wisdom Gold Medal for Short Story. Her debut novel, Blind Eye, was a finalist for the Spur Award for Contemporary Fiction and winner of the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Fiction-Other. Her latest novel, Across the Narrows, released on February 27, 2024, continues to showcase her narrative depth and talent. Martha has lived in diverse locations including La Luz, New Jersey, Hawaii, California, and Switzerland, all of which influence her writing. She now resides in Santa Fe, and is currently at work on her third novel, set in Oahu, Hawaii, during the summer of 1985.
What inspires you to write?
Simply a “good story” inspires me. Until I have a story in mind set in a particular place I am stuck. By “story" I mean I know I have the “story” when I start telling a person about it and they want to know more. But then the challenge is how to tell the story or how to get in and get out. I will say that “place" is almost equally important to me. For me a story has to take place in a very particular place.
What authors do you read when you aren’t writing?
Early on in my writing life I found Wallace Stegner and he continues to be a favorite. Later I discovered William Maxwell and Howard Norman. But there are so many: Amor Towles, Donna Tart, Karen Russell…
Tell us about your writing process.
My writing process is totally dependent on where I am in the manuscript or if I am in the “sit down and write it” stage. Right now I am working on a novel that is in the "sit down and write it stage” but it took a year to get here. Now I know my story and place and so I try to write something every day. It is a goal but I often don’t make it. I write in long hand often in a coffee shop and then commit an unreadable draft to the typed file on my beloved MacBook. And then I revise that file – it is often a chapter. I work with a writing coach and a first reader who reads my work when I have a chunk of it. She keeps me accountable and I have worked with her for over ten years. I am her first reader as well.
For Fiction Writers: Do you listen (or talk to) to your characters?
Interesting! I do not talk to my characters because I am not in the story with them. But I listen to them as I write and as I am thinking about what I want to sit down and write. I hear their voices. I am listening to an audiobook of my first novel now and it is very pleasing to hear voices. Most of the voices are how I expected them to sound.
What advice would you give other writers?
If asked I would of course tell them to read but to read critically. I’d tell them to find a reader who holds them accountable and I’d tell them to embrace revision. It’s a wonderful time to be a writer where I think we all can find an audience if we do our work.
How did you decide how to publish your books?
I wanted readers and I wanted a publisher who I could be proud of but for a long time I knew I was not ready to be published. Many years ago my sister and I published a Reading Group Journal (Reading Group Journal Notes in the Margin- Abbeville Press) with a big NYC publisher and boy did we learn a lot. It was my goal to write literary fiction and so I went back to school and studied my craft too. Then after many years I knew my book was ready to be published and then I started that long process of getting it published which is such a different task from writing. I published with a hybrid publisher that I admire. First I checked out their book list. Before all this I tried the agent route but it was frustrating and greatly discouraged me as a writer.
What do you think about the future of book publishing?
As I said I think it is a great time to be a writer! Whatever your goal is or your genre or your energy level if you work hard you can find a way to publish and find your reader. It is changing of course and at breakneck speed. I don’t know what the future is for the big publishers – they have had to embrace change. The corner office and the 2 martini lunch days with your editor might still be around for some writers, but the hybrid publishers with staffs spread around the world is around too. So with all the innovative “young” folks out there pushing change and the older ones too, I think the future is bright.
What genres do you write?: True Crime, Thriller, Suspense
What formats are your books in?: Print
Website(s)
Martha Burns Home Page Link
All information in this post is presented “as is” supplied by the author. We don’t edit to allow you the reader to hear the author in their own voice.
