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William Martin Books

A Place in the Present Where History Meets Fiction

Patriot's Day in Boston

April 16, 2013
Tags: Boston, Patriot's Day, Boston Marathon, American Revolution, Boston Public Library, New York, Oklahoma City
I have not blogged in some time, but I offer this today. I wrote it last night, refined it a bit this morning. THIS, I think is how most Bostonians feel this morning.

I am going to bed. No more to learn tonight. This was a terrible thing on a beautiful day on Boston's biggest annual weekend, when we celebrate the beginning of the American Revolution with the oldest marathon in the world. Somebody - or somebodies - saw a twenty-six mile long target of opportunity. They might be Islamic terrorists. They might be homegrown wackos. We don't know yet. But  Read More 
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A Blog's Title

October 14, 2012
Tags: Back Bay, Boston, Peter Fallon, Evangeline, The Lincoln Letter, Abraham Lincoln, Washington, Washington DC, historical fiction, mystery, Civil War
Thirty-two years ago, I published my first novel. It was called Back Bay. It "starred" a young graduate student in history named Peter Fallon, who meets a girl named Evangeline Carrington and together, they go hunting for a Paul Revere tea set buried beneath the streets of Boston. So... a literal buried treasure yarn, with plenty of buried family secrets, too. But I knew that to sell my novel to the publishers and excite the readers who had never heard of me, it would have to be something more.
So I decided to add another dimension. I would follow the passage of the treasure through time. I would bring its history to life.In parallel chapters, the story of Peter and Evangeline would alternate with historical chapters, so that we would see the way in which past and present affected one another.
It must have worked, because Back Bay became an instant bestseller and people are still reading it. They are stll reading the Peter and Evangeline adventures, too, including the latest, The Lincoln Letter, about the search for Lincoln's diary. In the novel, Washington DC comes to life as both the shiny, sleek city of today and the muddy, intrigue-filled Civil War capital. Two stories reverberate , and we are reminded, yet again, that in American politics and history, in human nature itself, the more things change, the more they stay the same. Read More 
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