Trading on the Oldest Profession

The Ladies of Trade Town
Lee Martindale, ed.
Harp Haven Publishing, 297 p., $16.99

Yes, you read the title of this post correctly.  The anthology under review is about the world’s oldest profession.  But before we get into that, a few words regarding what this book is not are in order.  This book is not porn.  Nor is it erotica.  Lee Martindale has been working on getting this book published for a while, and part of that process involved, if you’ll pardon the phrase, pimping it at various conventions to prospective contributors.  Her words when explaining the restriction about explicit sexual content were, and I quote, “How good a writer are you?”  In other words, she was more interested in well written stories about the characters themselves than the details of said characters’ plumbing.  Some of the stories have essentially no sexual content.  Sexual themes, yes; sexual content, no.

Also in order is a small disclaimer.  Lee is a longtime friend, as you know if you’ve read the interview with her.  That does not mean I am automatically going to cut her slack if I think this is a poor book.  (She didn’t cut me any slack when she rejected my submission, and she was right in rejecting it.)  We’ve known each other for too long and have too much mutual respect to let the other get away with substandard work.  I’m going to be honest about what I think.

The Adventures Fantastic Interview: Lee Martindale

Lee Martindale is a renaissance woman in the worlds of science fiction and fantasy, wearing multiple hats, including writer, editor, publisher, mentor to new writers, convention guest, and filker, just to name a few.  She makes multiple convention appearances every year, often accompanied by her husband George, so if she’s at a convention near you, stop and say hello to her.  Recently at ConDFW, Lee sat down with Adventures Fantastic to discuss writing, publishing, her new book (reviewed here), and other interesting topics such as her preferred weapons.  Interviewing her was a blast.  I’ve known Lee for more years than either of us is willing to admit, so there’s more back and forth between interviewer and interviewee than in previous interviews I’ve run.  Here’s what she had to say.

AF:  What got you into writing and why science fiction and fantasy?

LM:  That’s a good place to start.  What got me into writing was being raised by a grandfather who was probably one of the best oral storytellers I’ve ever heard.  He was Irish – it’s genetic – and I grew up pretty much learning the craft at his knee.  I started crafting my own stories before I learned how to write.  And there was, until a tornado took out my house in 1974, a pencil-on-lined-yellow-notebook-paper romance novel hidden away.  Thank God, it ended up in Oz or I’d still be living it down.  I started writing nonfiction and selling it when I was 30.