October 31 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: The Old West, in novels and film scripts, is where her imagination roams

How do you write more than 30 Western novels and dozens of screenplays?

One at a time, one day at a time? Or juggle one with another on any given day, week, month or year and just keep writing, writing and writing?

The latter is most likely the answer for Lee Martin of Vacaville, who has indeed produced a voluminous collection of stories about the Old West, several of which have made their way to the silver screen and smaller ones at home.

To get even more details, Martin can answer your questions during Western Day at the Adobe Saturday in Pena Adobe Regional Park in Vacaville, where she will be on hand to talk about her writing profession and sign some of her works. She will share the free event with Old West gunslinger reenactors, a blacksmith, musicians, and, not least, a potato sack race, fun activities for the entire family.

In emails to The Reporter, she said the appeal of her novels is not difficult to fathom.

“Many still love the lore of the Old West,” said Martin. “At least in my Westerns, the good guys win and get the girl. There’s a lot of action but there is also depth and feeling for the main characters. There’s always a story that gets to people. They are character-driven.”

Those made into films include 2013’s “Shadow on the Mesa,” featuring Kevin Sorbo; 2021’s “Last Shoot Out,” starring Bruce Dern; and 2022’s “The Desperate Riders,” featuring Trace Adkins and Tom Berenger.

The first film won the prestigious Wrangler Award as given by the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. It premiered on the Hallmark Movie Channel and was the second-highest rated and second most watched in the channel’s history.

The second movie was based on Martin’s novel “The Siege at Rhyker’s Station,” and the script won the coveted Spur Award from Western Writers of America.

“I’ve always been a movie writer,” said Martin. “Those who read my novels see the movie in them. I wrote both at the same time.”

But she does not confine herself to Westerns. She’s written 20 non-Western screenplays, “Everything,” she said, “from action, mystery, romance, thrillers, kids,and fantasy. But it’s my Westerns that get interest because I’m one of the few still writing Western scripts.”

Again noting her stories are character-driven, the protagonist and others shape the plots.

“And they come from within me whenever I start writing,” said Martin. “They come to life with their own stories. The only thing predictable is the bad guys hit the dust, the good guys win and get the girl. But it’s the stories that readers seem to like. The heart of it.”

Martin revealed that she just completed a novel, “Last Trail of the Assassin.” It’s based on a her screenplay, “which is under option for a movie, if it can be funded,” she said.

“It’s based on rumors throughout the 19th century that (Lincoln assassin John Wilkes) Booth was alive,” she said. “In my novel, he may be a lascivious preacher, protected by fanatics, in Wyoming Territory. There’s a woman risking her life to try to identify him, while a gun-toting lawyer mixes in with a lot of action and intrigue.”

The book is scheduled for printing within the coming days.

A book in progress? “Post at Yellow River,” a novel based on her cavalry screenplay, she said.

Perhaps it’s no surprise, but five of her screenplays “are on option, awaiting funding,” noted Martin. Five are Westerns, based on her novels, and one is a Christmas romance with a Senate candidate falling for a reluctant Cinderella, she said.

Martin was born on a ranch in the mountains east of Garberville. Her father was a foreman on different cattle ranches.

“There were five of us kids, each born a different place,” she said. “From my second grade on, we were on a ranch near Rockville,” that is now a park run by the Solano Land Trust. The family ended up on a ranch that is now housing north of Travis Boulevard, east of Interstate 80 and across from Woodard Chevrolet.

“I had skipped the fifth grade, so I was a little young for Armijo High and graduated when I was 16. Went to work,” she said.

Years later, she attended night law school, then practiced for 13 years before retiring.

Martin started Started writing in the third grade.

But the “need to write started before I was in the third grade, but that’s where I learned to express myself better,” she said. “I wrote short stories in spiral notebooks, in class, mostly Westerns. My mother’s favorite was ‘The Beautiful Outlaw’.”

Later, using a portable typewriter, she sold 43 short stories to Western magazines and later to Woman’s World. He first novels were published by Avalon Books.

For Martin, there is no secret to fiction writing.

“I’m self taught,” she said. “So I can’t speak for others. I just know that when I sold my first short story, I stopped reading other fiction. I wanted my own voice. It was a long hard struggle to get where I am because I did it the hard way.”

“All I can say is my heart is in each story and I live it as I write it,” she added. “I will say John Ford movies with John Wayne showed me what it takes for a good Western and good box office. You need to appeal to men with action, women with love and spirit, and families that have faith.”

Her writing, her pursuit of Western novels and screenplays are a gift, said Martin.

“I was just blessed with it, I guess,” she said. “I have people and stories coming to life the minute I touch a keyboard.  And I just never learned how to give up.”

IF YOU GO

• What: Western Day at the Adobe
• When: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday
• Where: Pena Adobe Regional Park, 4699 Pena Adobe Road, Vacaville
• Cost: Free
• Online: penaadobe.org