Author Spotlight: Martin Lochman

Welcome to my weekly Author Spotlight. I’ve asked a bunch of my author friends to answer a set of interview questions, and to share their latest work.

Today: Martin Lochman (born 1989 in former Czechoslovakia) is a Czech author of science fiction and speculative fiction stories. He currently resides in Malta where he works as an academic librarian at the University of Malta. His work has appeared in a variety of venues, including New Myths, Kzine, Theme of Absence, XB-1 (Czech SFFH magazine), and others. His debut collection All Quiet in the Milky Way: Ray M. Holler’s Adventures vol. 1 was published in December 2023. When he isn’t putting words on paper (or on the computer screen), he likes to read, watch an occasional movie or a TV show, work out, and attempt to get at least half-decent at playing Chess.

Thanks so much, Martin, for joining me!

JSC: What is your writing Kryptonite? 

Martin Lochman: Ironically enough, it’s the holidays. I have all the time in the world—okay, let’s say more time than usual—to write, but I usually can’t bring myself to do it. Having a lot on my plate at work, on the other hand, appears to really get my creative juices flowing. I wouldn’t be able to explain this paradox if I tried, but maybe I subconsciously see writing as work rather than a hobby? Maybe, deep down, I really want it to be my only work?

JSC: How long do you write each day? 

ML: Since I have a day job (I work as an outreach librarian at the University of Malta Library), this varies greatly from day to day. However, I try to squeeze in a couple hundred words every day which takes me anywhere from half hour (when I am in the zone) to hour and a half or more (when I am running on empty). Funnily enough, I rarely write on the weekends, even though I have objectively most time then. 

JSC: Are you a plotter or a pantser? 

ML: I am both, but it largely depends on the story I am working on. When I set out to write a flash fiction, I usually just wing from the beginning to the very end. I have an idea about the ending right from the get-go, so it’s a matter of backfilling the rest. On the other hand, when I aim to write a short story or a novelette, I always have at least a general outline in place before I put the first word on paper. The problem is that more often than not, I faithfully stick to this outline for the first third of the story and then the characters kind of start doing their own thing, sending me on a slightly different path. If this new direction makes more sense than what I originally planned, I just go with it and amend the outline to reflect the changes, if not, then I just reign them back in, as painful and wasteful it may feel.

JSC: What are your least favorite parts of publishing?

ML: Marketing, without a doubt. I hate social media, yet they are virtually indispensable for any independent author. Or any author in general, in fact. So I have my author pages on Facebook, X, Instagram, and Threads, where I try my best to promote my work. 

JSC: Name the book you like most among all you’ve written, and tell us why. 

ML: Since I am primarily a short story writer (in fact, I have yet to write a full-blown novel) and I have exactly one book under my belt (All Quiet in the Milky Way: Ray M. Holler’s Adventures vol. 1), I am going to mention one of the short stories, not related to Ray’s universe. It’s called “Holding On” and it was published in Fall of 2022 in Samjoko Magazine. Unlike most of my stories, the science fiction element, although present, is pushed into the background, and at it’s core, it is a character-oriented story. It’s about reconciling past with the present, about the importance of family and familial bonds, about the inevitable clash between our subjective expectations and reality. The most important motive of the story is, however, love. What I particularly like about this story is the fact, that I really leaned into my own personal experience and my own family situation and how it developed over time. Also as an interesting tidbit of information, never shared before – I wrote this story shortly before my wife found out she was pregnant with our daughter, and in the story, the MC tells his mother that she is about to become a grandma to a grand-daughter, so in a way, the story predicted not only the pregnancy but also the sex of my daughter.

JSC: How did you choose the topic for this book? 

ML: I think that to answer this question, we need to first go back a couple of decades, back to when I first picked up a pen and started writing stories. Because it was already back then, in those early days, that I wanted to create my own universe. Yes, technically speaking, you do that every time you write a story, but what I wanted even back then, was to create a well-defined world that felt real and tangible, and most importantly, that I could revisit and build-on in subsequent stories. 

My early attempts at building such universe were heavily influenced by what I was reading and watching at the time, and since I didn’t have that much experience–mind you, I was in lower secondary school–they were also extremely derivative. I remember I wrote a series of stories inspired by Jurassic Park, then another one inspired by Star Trek, the original series, and Perry Rhodan. 

Anyway, let’s fast forward to the last couple of years or so. When I got back to writing, it revived this universe-building idea within me. I wasn’t quite sure how I would go about it and I wanted to focus on writing serious, standalone stories, but interestingly enough, one of the first stories I wrote after this writing hiatus, was “Winning Hands” – the first story of the collection. Again, it was supposed to be a one-off, standalone tale, but once I finished it and edited it, I realized it may have what I needed to start building the universe I envisioned all those years ago – a central character to build around, the environment to expand and all that.

JSC: Star Trek or Star Wars? Why?

ML: Star Trek all the way. It offers compelling narratives, doesn’t shy away from difficult questions and incorporates complex moral, ethical and political themes. The worldbuilding is so detailed and intricate (and, most importantly, internally consistent) that it simply pulls you in. The characters feel like real people.

Star Wars, on the other hand, is a fairy tale dressed in a SF cloak – knights, princesses, sword battles, magic… Not that there is anything wrong with that, but, in my opinion, it does not belong in the same category as Star Trek.

JSC: Would you visit the future or the past, and why? 

ML: Definitely the future. I am a firm believer of moving forward, of not dwelling on our past mistakes or experiences (even the positive ones), but aside from that the past, distant or recent, just doesn’t appeal to me. Even if you don’t want to admit it, we as a species have become too comfortable, too soft, too dependent on our modern, civilized environment, so from where I am standing, the past is hardly an attractive destination—it’s ugly and dirty and dangerous. Honestly, I think people tend to romanticize it way too much.

The future, on the other hand, has the potential to come close to what the more optimistic SF writers like to envision in their work. Unless, of course, 

JSC: What are you working on now, and what’s coming out next? Tell us about it!

ML: Right now, I am working on a sequel to All Quiet in the Milky Way: Ray M. Holler’s Adventures vol. 1. Unlike the first volume, this will be a full-blown novel – my first ever, in fact! – so I am both excited and nervous about it. It will be called A Farewell to Zebbigia and it will bring back the favorite characters from the first book, including Ray, Gina, and C. H. while introducing some new faces. I am already finished the first two chapters, so the writing is going well (and I guess I don’t have to worry about the whole thing being too short for a novel).

I am also working on a third standalone story from the Ray M. Holler Universe, a novelette entitled By the Skin of Their Teeth. The main protagonist of this tale is someone the readers have met in one of the side snippets in vol. 1. 

JSC: Are you happy with where your writer left you at the end? (don’t give us any spoilers). 

Ray Holler: Well, I am not unhappy, let me put it that way. I am still breathing, I still have my ship, and the future is looking… full of possibilities. I could be in a better shape physically and psychologically, but that sadistic bastard my delightful creator likes to put me through the wringer every chance he gets for some reason. I can’t wait to see what he has for me in store next. 

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And now for Martin’s latest book: All Quiet in the Milky Way:

Ray M. Holler is an interstellar shipping freelancer, expert smuggler, and an occasional thief with a troubled past which means that his life is far from the boring, mundane exploits of your average denizen of the Orion-Sagittarius Union, a political alliance of intelligent species inhabiting the Milky Way galaxy. In fact, more often than not, he finds himself up to his neck in situations that require wit, courage, and a decent amount of luck to maneuver out of in one piece. Throughout his adventures in a universe where a safe, peaceful life is possible but not guaranteed, Ray gets to meet a variety of interesting individuals, make new friends, reunite with old acquaintances, and maybe—just maybe—face his own demons.

All Quiet In the Milky Way: Ray M. Holler’s Adventures vol. 1 brings forth five stories, accompanied by an equal amount of side vignettes. This collection will take you on an exciting journey to remote worlds that, in some aspects, may not be all that dissimilar from the one we live in today.

Stories included:

• Winning Hands
• Fair Trade
• Reunion
• Old Habits
• Field Trip

Get It On Amazon

Excerpt from “Fair Trade”, the second story of the collection

“Who are you?!”

My head snapped back as a fist the size of a bowling ball landed on my chin. It belonged to easily one of the largest human specimens I had ever had the pleasure of encountering. The guy was, by my estimation, at least two meters and a hundred and thirty kilos of muscle and fat, and unfortunately for me, very proficient at punching stuff. I had a feeling that even if I weren’t currently tied to a metal pillar and could actually put my hands up, I’d still have ended up beaten like a schnitzel.

“Who do you work for?!”

Another question, another punch. This time he was aiming straight for my nose, so I tucked my chin a fraction of a second before the impact and let his knuckles connect with my forehead. It was a feeble gesture, considering the entirety of my current predicament, but the giant had already caused me so much pain that I just really wanted to return the favor, no matter how futile it seemed in the long run.

I expected him to yelp in agony—the frontal bone of the skull is considerably harder than any of the bones in the hand and the wrist, so you can do the math—but he didn’t so much as flinch. Instead, he laughed amusedly, grabbed me by the hair, and gave me a good old open-palmed slap on the cheek. Ironically, this hurt more than any of the previous punches, and I felt a tooth come loose. 

“Wait!” I grunted.

The guy let go of my hair and stepped back, but not too far, staying within reach of his meaty paws. He hadn’t done so because of my plea, of course, or of his own accord—as you could have probably guessed, he wasn’t exactly the one in charge. That particular role belonged to another individual in the room, who was also the one supplying the questions.

Vebhod walked up to me, his face a mask of barely concealed rage. Next to my torturer, he appeared grotesquely small, like a child or an oversized doll. Granted, he was a Liktonian, and they were generally smaller than humans, but even for their standards, he was a bit on the shorter side. That, however, certainly hadn’t stopped him from pursuing his dreams and becoming an interstellar asshole. 

“Yes?” he gritted through his teeth and looked me straight in the eyes.

I looked away and spat the broken tooth along with some blood out onto the floor. 

“What is it that I am supposed to answer?” I said with a fake perplexed expression. “You are asking too many questions. I am confused.”

He hissed in anger and hit me in the stomach. Compared to what his overgrown lackey had been gifting me with for the past fifteen minutes or so, I barely felt it. Vebhod must have realized that as soon as he saw my reaction—or the lack thereof—and evidently, it only made him more frustrated. Although it was fun to watch him rage like an angry little turkey, I didn’t enjoy it for long, since his underling was quickly instructed to continue his workout.

“You!” I heard him in between the blows. “You think you can just steal from me?! Stop wasting my time and tell me who you work for!”

You might be wondering why I hadn’t humored him yet, and instead let the big guy gradually turn me into a human frittata. The thing is, that while he had no clue about my identity, I knew exactly who and what he was. All jokes about his probable Napoleonic complex aside, he was one of those fellows with whom you didn’t want to have anything to do since any interaction was bound to be detrimental to your health and overall well-being. Since my interaction involved an attempted theft, not spilling my guts was the only thing keeping me alive. The moment Vebhod’s curiosity was satisfied, I would become space trash—his reputation guaranteed that.

Plus, the longer I stalled, the more time I had to come up with a way to get out of this mess, though it was admittedly difficult to think clearly while getting repeatedly hit in the face. 

“Tell me what I want to know, and this will stop,” he told me during the next break, when the big guy shuffled off into the corner to drink some water—beating the shit out of someone is obviously thirsty work!

I was honestly surprised that the Liktonian’s new strategy to force me to talk involved appealing to my common sense instead of, say, pulling my nails or waterboarding, but I knew it wouldn’t make me any less dead in the end.

“Okay,” I said, feigning willingness to cooperate while trying to inconspicuously gauge how well my hands were tied to the pillar behind my back. 

Oddly enough, they hadn’t used conventional handcuffs but a rope, which meant that I had a little bit of wiggle room to work with. Freeing myself was the easier part; the real challenge was getting out of the room. Sure, the Liktonian had the physical characteristics of a middle schooler, so I would hardly consider him an obstacle; my massive fellow Homo Sapiens, on the other hand, was a different story. I didn’t think that there was any way I could remove him from the equation in a fair and sportsmanlike manner. No, I needed an edge, something to tip the scales in my favor. Or someone—

I could grab Vebhod, use him as a bargaining chip, and avoid a messy confrontation with an unpredictable outcome altogether. Naturally, I would have to keep a good grip and drag his sorry ass for God knows how long since I had zero clue where I was, but that would be a small price to pay.

My plan quickly became obsolete when the doors of the interrogation room slid into the walls, and in came a woman—a human woman, just to be clear. She shot me a disinterested look, which told me that she was most likely used to seeing people in my situation, and went straight to Vebhod. 

“His name is Ray M. Holler,” she announced. “I had to dig through the government records to get to it since he does a damn good job keeping his portrait out of public Galactonet. He is a registered freelancer, offering services in transport and logistics throughout the Union space. At first glance: a nobody.”

“A nobody?” the Liktonian repeated. “A nobody wouldn’t target my base, and almost succeed in robbing me.”

“That’s what I thought too. So I threw his name around, and what do you know? It turns out our boy here is quite popular for smuggling—people, contraband, you name it—and breaking into secured locations, although he sticks to the former most of the time. Not exactly the saint he appears to be.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

“Here’s the best part,” she said and tapped on the screen of her wristcomp, then pointed at the one Vebhod was wearing, indicating that she had just sent the info to him.

Vebhod looked at his device. Over the course of the next few moments, the fury slowly disappeared from his face, replaced by a hint of a devilish smile.

“Looking for a hot date?” I asked jovially.

He just smirked and nodded at the woman. They turned around and proceeded to exit the room.

“Where are you going? I haven’t told you what you wanted to know. That’s some sloppy interrogation right there.”

He stopped by the doors.

“Keep making jokes. You won’t be feeling so humorous for much longer,” he uttered and pointed his short, stubby index finger at the big guy: “Watch him, Lacey!”

“Lacey?” I snorted. “That’s a girl’s name!”