My Journey to Becoming a Published Author
It was early February 1980. I was on a plane sitting on the tarmac at LAX for what seemed like an eternity. Reaching into my attaché case, I began reading that day’s USA Today, left by my hotel door earlier that morning. One news item grabbed my attention: an FBI sting operation involving several dozen targeted elected officials, including then-sitting members of Congress. Living in New Jersey at the time, I was immediately drawn to the name of U.S. Senator Harrison Williams, who represented New Jersey.
Author Martin Herman
The almost two-year investigation, known as ‘ABSCAM,’ initially targeted stolen property and corruption among prominent businesspeople, but later evolved into a corruption investigation of elected officials.
As I read, a thought filled my head: what would my lifelong hero, Thomas Jefferson, have done if someone offered him a bushel basket full of money for his influence? He was almost always deep in debt. He was human. What would he do? Because he was my hero, I hoped he would have thrown the would-be corrupter out of the window, followed quickly by the bushel basket of money. But who knows?
I've been writing short stories for my own pleasure since my 6th-grade teacher turned me on to fiction writing. Occasionally, I sold stories to publications, but mainly, it was something I did for my own enjoyment and as bedtime stories for my daughters. That morning on the plane, I took out a legal-size pad and began pondering, what would Jefferson have done?’ By the time I got home from that business trip, I had written a couple of thousand words, completed an outline, and drafted the final few paragraphs.
Over the next 10-15 years, I added to the piece until one day I had about 55-60 thousand words. I typed it up, made a floppy disk of the word file, and tossed it all on a shelf in my home office. One day, around 2001, I was rummaging through a box of my files and came across the manuscript. I re-read it, penciled in some changes, and tossed it back on the shelf. About 10-12 years later, my youngest daughter, Aimee, came across the manuscript, read it, and encouraged me to publish it. The Jefferson Files was on its way to being published as my first historical fiction novel.
That was Christmas week, 2014. The first case of books arrived in February 2015. Now in its 14th printing, tens of thousands of copies of the series have been sold, and the rest is history. The protagonist of The Jefferson Files, Will James, was such a hit with readers they encouraged me to write another book. One more led to several more and now there are seven books currently in the Will James Mystery Series.
I now have a dozen books in print, other fiction and biographies, with a combined total of over 34,000 individual copies sold—one copy at a time, at various fairs, personal appearances, book clubs, you name it, I was there. My readers range from 10 to 97 years old. I now teach writing at U-CONN's Waterbury, CT campus as part of the O.L.L.I. program for 10 weeks a year, and I love every bit of it.
Now well into my “second life,” I feel happy and surprised to have succeeded my goals to be published and have the ability to teach others the joy of writing!
This series is written for all ages to delight in hours of entertainment!
