How Did Award Affect His Career as a Writer? It Gave Him One

Victor Martinez, who won the National Book Award for young people’s literature in 1996 for his semiautobiographical novel about growing up Mexican American, will be in Santa Ana for a reading and book signing Thursday.

But the 7:30 p.m. appearance at Martinez Books & Art, 200 N. Main St., is only one of the stops store owner Rueben Martinez (no relation) has lined up for the San Francisco author of “Parrot in the Oven: mi vida” (HarperCollins/Joanna Cotler Books).

Martinez will speak at three Santa Ana high schools during the day: Century, Saddleback and Santiago. His school appearances will be followed by a reception and reading from 3 to 5 p.m., open to all teachers, at Martinez Books & Art.

In Martinez’s National Book Award citation, judges called “Parrot in the Oven” a “spirited novel of awkward love, ugly schools, neighborhood feuds--the stuff of a scruffy adolescence. Here we have strikingly authentic literature of poor people.”

The award, presented at a black-tie ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria in November, came with a $10,000 prize and national publicity.

But the question for Martinez is not how the National Book Award has affected his writing career.

“It gave me a career; before, I didn’t have a career at all. Before, I was just a writer, struggling, and I didn’t really make a living off of it,” Martinez, 42, said by phone from his one-bedroom apartment in San Francisco’s Mission District.

The Fresno-born son of migrant farm laborers--he’s one of 12 children--Martinez grew up working in the fields after school and on summer vacations. In high school, his guidance counselor recommended he become a welder. Instead, Martinez earned a degree in English at Cal State Fresno and studied creative writing on a post-graduate fellowship at Stanford.

To support his writing--poetry mostly--Martinez held a variety of jobs over the years. He worked in a bookstore, drove a truck and toiled as a clerk for the IRS as well as teaching part time in the Poetry in the Schools programs in San Francisco, where his wife, Tina, is a handbook coordinator for the city’s Human Services Agency.

Though Martinez had a book of poems published in 1992, “Caring for a House” (Chusma House Publications), and sold a few short stories and local newspaper articles, success as a writer eluded him.

It got to the point five years ago where, he said, “I realized that my dream as a writer was dead: ‘Look, I’m not making any headway as a writer.’ That’s when my wife said, ‘Just keep doing it. You never know what can happen.’ ”

Deciding to write something that would be “interesting to a wide range of people,” he began “Parrot in the Oven,” his first novel. He sold the coming-of-age novel in 1995, receiving a minuscule $4,000 advance for his 2 1/2 years of labor.

“I thought it was a lot of money,” he said. “I look back now and say they didn’t give me anything. I didn’t have an agent or anything to negotiate. If you’re a writer, you don’t really know about those things, and if you’re an unsuccessful writer, you’re so grateful that somebody wants to publish something, you practically sign your life away.”

Martinez has been writing full time for the past year--he’s working on another novel. And now, he says, “I have an agent--a real barracuda.”

So what is his message to the high school students he’ll be speaking to Thursday in Santa Ana.

“I just tell them what I went through--how much I struggled as a writer--and to not be discouraged by failure.”

Also this week:

* Edgar Award-winner Michael Collins, author of “Trunk Music,” will speak and sign at 1 p.m. today at Coffee, Tea & Mystery, 13232 Springdale St., Westminster.

* Monica Brett-Serle, author of “Journeys Come in Many Colours,” will read and sign at 2 p.m. today at Barnes & Noble in Fashion Island, 953 Newport Center Drive, Newport Beach.

* Edd Byrnes (“ ‘Kookie’ No More”), Linda Deutsch (“Headline Justice”), James Prideaux (“Knowing Hepburn and Other Curious Experiences”) and Jason Kelly (“The Neatest Little Guide to Mutual Fund Investing”) will discuss their books at the Round Table West luncheon at noon Thursday at the Balboa Bay Club, 1221 W. Coast Highway, Newport Beach. $35. Reservations: (213) 256-7977.

* Patricia McFall, author of “Night Butterfly,” will conduct a one-day mystery-writing workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at Cal State Fullerton. $95. For more information, call (714) 897-9907.

* Lee Goldberg, author of “Beyond the Beyond,” will sign at 10 a.m. Saturday at Book Carnival, 348 St. Tustin Ave., Orange.

* Jackie Collins, author of “Vendetta: Lucky’s Revenge,” will sign at 1 p.m. Saturday at Rizzoli Bookstore in South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa.

Send information about book-related events at least 10 days before the event to: Dennis McLellan, O.C. Books & Authors, Life & Style, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, CA 92626.