Hello and Welcome

Post date: Sep 20, 2012 1:55:12 AM

Hello and welcome to my writer’s blog.

As you probably know from my site, my name is Martin Roy Hill and I am the author of “Duty: Suspense and Mystery Stories from the Cold War and Beyond,” a collection of new and previously published short stories.

A little background on myself: I was journalist for more than twenty years. I covered crime for a daily newspaper, spent eight years as an investigative journalist for a magazine, and ten years as editor of a business newspaper. I also free-lanced a lot. First I focused on hard news for publications like LIFE and Newsweek. Later, however, I began to concentrate on military history, a subject I enjoy reading and writing about.

I also wrote short stories. Even got some published.

For a while after 9/11, I was on active duty with the Coast Guard as part of Operation Noble Eagle, the nationwide homeland security mission. I realized I no longer enjoyed journalism and began looking for another career. Because I had a background in emergency field medicine from reserve service in the military and law enforcement, I got hired as a Navy analyst in combat medical capabilities. Within weeks, the war in Iraq started and my new career didn’t leave much time for writing.

About two years ago, the “op tempo” at work began to lighten up and I started writing again. Today, I write an Open Salon blog on politics with a historical view. I also articles on military history for Suite101.com and some magazines. And I started writing fiction again.

Then I heard about indie authors and publishing, and thought, “Why not?” So now I am the author of a short story collection and working on getting a novel ready for publication. So stop by now and then. I hope through this blog I can provide some insight on the experiences of a newbie indie author. Perhaps we can exchange some tips on writing and publishing. Who knows? We might even become famous in the process!