Today we’d like to introduce you to Martin Turnbull.
Hi Martin, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I had already written three (what I now call) practice novels. They were okay, but not quite good enough for publication. So I was looking around for an idea that I could suck my teeth into.
I found it one day when I was bouncing around the Internet and landed on and an article about a real-life hotel on the Sunset Strip called the Garden of Allah Hotel. As I read the article and saw the caliber of people who lived there, I was amazed that I had never heard of it before.
We’re talking about people like Bogie and Bacall, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Errol Flynn, David Niven, Ginger Rogers, and F Scott Fitzgerald. I also recognized what a fertile field for storytelling it could be, so I looked around to see if anybody had done anything with it. To my amazement, nobody had so, I figured it was up to me. The hotel was open from 1927, just before “The Jazz Singer” introduced the talkies, and closed in 1959 when the studio system was all but dead.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do, which was to tell the story of the history of golden-era Hollywood in a series of nine novels covering all 32 years. We follow the lives of three fictional characters as they live and work and love in Hollywood, interacting with all the celebrities, directors, customers, and movie moguls. I published the first installment – “The Garden on Sunset” – in 2012 and am now working on my 14th novel.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
When I first started, I knew nothing about publishing, or how to go about marketing books. I ended up publishing them independently and didn’t even know anyone who was doing them. I was completely unknown and on my own. Fortunately, social media is free to use so I dipped my toes into it by starting a Facebook page. I write about the history of Hollywood and LA, so I had accumulated a lot of photos as reference material for research.
I had to post *something* on social media so I figured I’d post these photos I had. Maybe one per day? So that’s what I did. Day after day after I was completely ignored. No likes, no shares, no nothing. But I kept at it – for months – and eventually one single solitary person “liked” my post. I was over the moon. It grew from there and now I have 16,000+ following my page and usually get about 300 “likes” per page.
I wish I’d started doing that a lot earlier than I had as I can see now that I wasted a lot of time before the publication of my book and could have launched it in front of a lot more people. But I didn’t realize that until the 2nd book came out – “The Trouble with Scarlett” – by which time I had nearly 1,000 people following me and the difference was enormous. But in the early months, it was hard to keep the faith that people who notice me eventually.
I also wish I’d given Twitter a better go than I did. I tried very half-heartedly for about a year, then gave up. About 7 or 8 years went by and one day I decided to give it another, more concerted go. I was *amazed* to see that I started to find my tribe (ie LA history buffs / old movie fans / TCM watchers within weeks. These days I love it, which I never would have thought back at the beginning.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m known primarily as the author of historical fiction set in and around LA and Hollywood during the studio era, which roughly covers the early 1920s to the late 1950s. My most well-known books are Hollywood’s Garden of Allah series, set at the real-life Garden of Allah Hotel.
I’ve also written a couple of stand-alone novels (one about a silent movie star (and original Garden of Allah owner) Alla Nazimova, and MGM movie wunderkind producer, Irving Thalberg. Right now I’m working on book 3 of a trilogy that takes place in and around Warner Bros during WWII and is set against the making of “Casablanca” and the budding romance of Bogie and Bacall.
Several of my books have hit at or near the top of some of Amazon’s bestseller lists, and the Hollywood’s Garden of Allah series has been optioned by a producer who wants to turn them into a TV show. And all of this just stemmed from an idea I had one day, as well as a functioning laptop, and the self-discipline to write every day.
What sets me apart, I think, is the fact that the books I write – a blend of the fictional and the factual set during Hollywood’s golden era – aren’t like any other books out there. Most of them are private-eye murder mystery-type stuff.
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Being at home during the school vacations and turning into the midday movie. They were always old movies and were introduced by a host who knew everything about the movie, the stars, and the people behind the camera. I found ALL his stories endlessly fascinating and always made sure I tuned in exactly at noon so that I’d catch his introduction.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://martinturnbull.com/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gardenofallahnovels
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TurnbullMartin
- Other: https://www.amazon.com/Martin-Turnbull/e/B006PVNBMM/
