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September 19, 2025 67 mins

Our #IndieSummer journey comes to an end this week, but it's not a finish line that awaits us, this is just the beginning. Today Indie author powerhouse Craig Martelle joins us to talk about building a plan to launch your work into the world and to see the success that book deserves. 

Craig is a million-selling author of science fiction (post-apocalyptic, military sci-fi, and space opera), thrillers, and non-fiction. 

Craig retired from the Marine Corps after a long career in the military intelligence community, having worked with most of the U.S. Government's three-letter agencies. After a short stint with physical security, Craig went to law school, graduated summa cum laude, and went into business consulting. From intelligence, to the inner workings of company board rooms, to on-the-ground leadership, Craig has seen it firsthand. 

His books are an extension of his experience, putting the trials and tribulations of a fast-paced world into your hands. Whether in Science Fiction, Thrillers, Fantasy, or even his Non-Fiction, you'll find consistent themes of justice and doing right by those who are counting on their leaders. Leadership is a service, not a crown to lord over others. 

No matter where Craig went, he always had a book with him. Thanks to 21st Century technology, He now has thousands of books at his fingertips and with him wherever he goes. How many books would he have read on deployments had he not had to carry a physical book? 

No one is encumbered like that now. Craig loves the works of Robert Heinlein, Anne McCaffrey, Andre Norton, JRR Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, and so many more. He has been compared to Andre Norton and that is humbling - she was an incredible author with a huge list of novels to her credit. With every new book, Craig aspires to live up to those that you, the readers, have compared him to.

Through a bizarre series of events, Craig ended up in Fairbanks, Alaska. He never expected to retire to a place where golf courses are only open for four months out of the year. But that's the way it is. It is off the beaten path. He and his wife get to watch the northern lights from their driveway. Their dog has lots of room to run, just until temperatures reach fifty below zero. They have from three and a half hours of daylight in the winter to twenty-four hours in the summer.

It’s all part of the give and take of life. If they didn’t have those extremes, then everyone would live in the sub-arctic.

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