confetti - Featured Writer: Axel Martens

Picture of Axel Martens — **Axel Martens**

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Germany, Axel grew up as the fourth of five siblings who sparked his lifelong love for the kinds of stories that lurk in the shadows. His fascination with hidden worlds and complex challenges led him to study computer science, later earning a Ph.D. in natural sciences. Now settled near New York, Axel fills his days with coding for Google and his nights weaving tales inspired by the stark beauty of Iceland and the haunting castles of Scotland. When not exploring the world or his imagination, he enjoys creative projects like video editing and graphic design.

His debut novel, Mae: Death’s Youngest Daughter, explores the blurred lines between good and evil. Axel’s writing always focuses on the complexities of flawed yet driven characters. Whether crafting a medieval Norse setting or a futuristic world, the process of honing his craft and learning from his peers fuels his literary passion.

INTERVIEW

confetti: Who or what inspired you to write?
Axel Martens (AM): I have a few favorite books that I read over and over again when I need comfort, like chicken soup on a cold winter day. They are of different genres, by different writers, and in different settings—yet all focus on characters first and the imaginary world second. While skiing in France over New Year 2023, I had a weird dream about an evil witch who struggles to be good. The very next morning, I started writing with the desire to tell my story centered around a flawed, complex, and yet likable heroine.

confetti: How would you characterize your writing style?
(AM): I love humor, irony, and sarcasm. My characters are three-dimensional people who speak their minds and sometimes act rashly. I love planning my world with a manic attention to detail. Distances and locations, weather and seasons, technology and culture—I plot everything on my whiteboard. Then, I let my characters loose and follow them where they lead. Many chapters ended quite differently than I had planned at the outset because my characters have minds of their own. I’m just the observer, and sometimes, I can’t type as fast as the voices in my head speak.

confetti: Who is your favorite writer, and why?
(AM): When it comes to the scope of their work and the impact they had on me as a young reader, I would name JRR Tolkien, Brandon Sanderson, and JK Rowling. Their worlds are so vast, and their imagery so vivid. As inspirations for my style and as examples of truly unique characters, my top three at the moment are Michael J Sullivan, Joe Abercrombie, and Neil Gaiman.

confetti: What are you currently reading?
(AM): Lately, I haven’t been reading much since the publication of my debut novel takes up most of my time. I reread Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice a month ago, and I’ve added Brandon Sanderson’s Tress of the Emerald Sea to my audible library.

confetti: What are your three favorite books?
(AM): There are so many. Some, like Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, are childhood favorites. Others are recent discoveries, like The Broken Earth Series by N.K. Jemisin. My top three at the moment are JK Rowling’s Harry Potter, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, and Michael J Sullivan’s Riyria Revelation.

confetti: What are your three favorite movies?
(AM): Movies need to take me into a world that is different from the daily barrage of bad news. I must have seen Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings Trilogy (the extended edition, of course!) over twenty times. In the same vein are Steven Spielberg’s Jurassic Park and the Game of Thrones TV series.

confetti: What is your favorite song of all time?
(AM): Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song” from his final studio album, Uprising, was the first song to have the lyrics touch something inside me. The encouragement Marley projected to his people, knowing that his cancer was terminal, still moves me to this day.

confetti: What advice would you give to young writers?
(AM): Obviously, you need to keep writing to grow as an author. A quote from Neil Gaiman that stuck with me is: “Anything you write can be fixed, but you can’t fix a blank page.” From my personal experience, I would also suggest to always be open-minded. When critique hurts, take the grain of truth that brings you forward and ignore the rest. When the story wears off the plot, stick with it, follow it, and be curious about where it will lead. I like to see my journey as JRR Tolkien’s Bilbo Baggins did: “It’s a dangerous business, going out of your door. You step into the Road, and if you don’t keep your feet, there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

TRAVEL GALLERY

MAE – DEATH’S YOUNGEST DAUGHTER

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to be an evil witch who wants to be good? What must it be like to love somebody who had to kill to stay alive? And why would you still care about others if the entire world hated you?

Well, I have. And I wrote a book. Allow me to invite you to a fast-paced, character-driven Wicked meets Mistborn story in my debut novel, Mae – Death’s Youngest Daughter, a 300-page young/new adult fantasy book about a young witch who is cursed to kill yet yearns to retain her humanity among the darkness of her powers.

Mae, my heroine and the reason I wrote the book, is a troubled young woman. She is complicated, sometimes irrational, socially awkward, and (as a black witch) she has a problem with her temper. All that is fine, and I like her that way.

She is neither an overly powerful warrior nor a skilled seductress. She is small (5’4”) and slender, prefers boyish clothes (black shirt & pants, gray clock), and has silver-blond hair with a pixie haircut. Mae has striking green eyes. She is sometimes moody and sometimes silly. Still, she can be a badass as well as a loyal friend and lover.

My book’s release date in hardcover and paperback, as well as ebook and audiobook, is Midsummer—June 21st, 2024. In the meantime, feel free to check out my website at project-witchcraft.com or drop me a line at author@project-witchcraft.com.

PUBLISHED FICTION SNIPPETS

“Get away from me, witch!”
So, he also exhibited the stupidity of most men.
“Don’t you think it wiser to guard your tongue now that you have deduced my nature?” Mae asked in a softer but even more frightening tone. “I will not ask again, what are you doing here?”
“Lying on the forest floor, trapped by a giant branch.”
Feisty, Mae had to give him that. Still, three more seconds of the witch’s icy stare broke the facade, and a floodgate of information opened.
     —from “The Ambush”

The cat entered. Lucifer slunk between the multitude of legs, bottlebrush tail up in the air … He could have explained it all—the whole mystery that lay at the heart of the religious war between space-time string theory fanatics and the heretics of the quantum loop gravity school. Neither was right, of course, but why should Lucifer deign to correct them? After all, humans gave him food regardless.
     —from “Time”

“Hold on! Slow down … one fact at a time.” Norm realized the bitter irony of him using this phrase. How often had he needed to rein in the explosive flood of words from his wife—his ex-wife? But then, all Freudian psychoanalysts would have a field day dissecting the mental effects of Norm talking to a machine that shared the nickname with his fiery-tempered wife, ex-wife, Lucia Patricia de Alvarez Brinkman.
     —from “LUCI”