The Martiniere Legacy didn’t exist, even in concept, a year ago. I was wrapping up the Goddess’s Honor fantasy series and poking around at starting work on a much-postponed Weird West series (but was still wrestling with issues of colonialism and all that not-so-good stuff, trying to articulate how to write an anti-colonialist settler narrative. Still working on that). And then I learned that a friend was taking book pitches to kick off his small press at OryCon.
What the hell, I thought. I tossed around ideas, and kept coming back to “embattled ranch woman seeks financing to promote a biobot that will save her ranch from being sold out from under her.” I was starting to get fascinated by the exponential growth in agricultural technology and approaches to agriculture that would directly address climate change. But I wasn’t seeing these innovations being reflected in current science fiction, whether it was traditional publishing or self publishing. Hmm. And I knew that the friend had an agricultural background. So why not?
I worked up a rough pitch in twenty-four hours, and got modest encouragement. So. I started focusing on The Ruby Project, as I was calling it at the time. I spent two months reading agtech articles and poking at the story.
It became more complicated, as the ex-husband who was supposed to be the baddie of the story rebelled, telling me that he had a complicated backstory that I needed to think about. All of a sudden issues of debt-caused indentured servitude became a part of the story. Ruby and Gabe had to work together to keep their son Brandon safe. And then a drive from Portland back to Enterprise added an additional element when the Gorge radio station started talking about Small Business Revolution, an online game show where small cities competed against each other to earn cash prizes and promotion from an affiliated PR firm.
Huh, I thought. And so the AgInnovator was born.
But I still needed a driver for just who wanted to see Ruby and Gabe divorced, and who had a big enough grudge to keep coming after them, to the point of endangering their adult son.
Enter the Martiniere family and Philip Martiniere.
And then enter Covid-19. The Ruby Project became a trilogy, and then The Martiniere Legacy.
And now Book One, Inheritance, is out today.
It’s available on Amazon, Kobo, Apple, and Nook. Except that…sigh. Nook is currently problematic because Barnes and Noble has been hacked. THANK YOU 2020….NOT!!!
Anyway. Here are the links.
The next two books in the series come out on October 31 and November 15th, so you won’t be kept in suspense for very long…and they are available for preorder. Paperback copies can be ordered through the Books2Read link.
AND THANK YOU FOR BUYING AND READING!!!
