Rod Martinez

Born and raised in Tampa, Florida, Rod was attracted to words at an early age. His first book "The Boy Who Liked To Read" was created with construction paper and pencil in grade school.

Later in life, Rod discovered comic books and in school he was immersed in creating his own comics. His senior year English teacher pulled him aside and told him "Give the comics a rest, write a short story." He listened, and the rest - as they say - is history.

He got serious about writing when his son challenged him to write a story about him and his friends in some kind of adventure... "like The Goonies".

That challenge became his 1st published novel - "The Juniors" and soon many more middle grade books were to follow.

A fervent believer in sparking the bug in youth, Rod does book talks every year in Elementary and Middle schools to keep the fire burning in future writers.