D. Michael Martindale

D. Michael Martindale is a storyteller. It doesn’t matter which medium the story is told in—whether it be film or television or books or music—what’s important is telling stories that people enjoy.

He was born in Minnesota and has been telling stories since before he could write. He started out by drawing comic strips and having his mother fill in the dialog balloons for him. He developed a taste for science fiction and fantasy, and although he’s written screenplays in all sorts of genres, he continues to gravitate back to speculative fiction.

Martindale earned an Associate Degree in Film Production at Salt Lake Community College and a Bachelor Degree in Screenwriting and Cinematography at Utah Valley University.

For a period of time, he focused on telling stories about his religious community, Mormons. He considered the quality of Mormon literature subpar and preachy and wanted to tell stories about his people that he’d want to read, quality stories that were honest and edgy and not the least bit preachy. He’s glad to see that the quality of Mormon art has been improving over the years.

He served three years on the board of the Association for Mormon Letters, a nonprofit organization that promotes Mormon literature and other arts, and acted as their Writers Conference chairperson for four years. He wrote a number of articles and book and film reviews for their literary journal Irreantum.

He worked for a time as a staff writer for The Sugar Beet, an Internet publication of Mormon satire patterned after the infamous website The Onion. Many of these online articles of alleged Mormon “news” were eventually collected into the popular book The Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer.

The editor of The Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer decided to start his own publishing company, Zarahemla Books, and chose as its flagship publication Martindale’s second novel Brother Brigham, which he categorizes as “Mormon speculative fiction.” Brother Brigham went on to receive substantial critical acclaim and was even used as reading material in a college comparative religion class one semester. He also had a science fiction short story “Bokev Momen” published in the anthology Monsters and Mormons, which is included in his collection of short stories Twisted Mind.

Inspired by Jesus Christ Superstar, he composed the musical General Prophet Joseph Smith, based on the events leading up to the assassination of the Mormon prophet Joseph Smith. He produced a concept album recording of it on CDs, and is currently developing a film adaptation of it. He calls it “Les Mis for Mormons.”

Martindale has written two other novels. His first, The Power of the Seeker, is the beginning installment of a science fiction series called The Reincarnate. It remains unpublished, and he describes it as “crap.” He may rewrite it someday. His third novel is a fantasy called Celeste & the White Dragon which he’s in the process of bringing to publication. It’s the first volume in a series, as of yet untitled.

He’s already writing the first draft of his fourth novel, the prequel to Celeste & the White Dragon, which currently has the title Seven Sisters, but he makes no guarantee that title will remain the same. He envisions more volumes to the series and wonders if he’ll live long enough to produce them all.

For nine years Martindale has focused on screenwriting and film making as a director and editor. Film is his favorite medium in which to tell stories. He wrote, produced, directed, and edited eight short films and a feature-length fantasy film called Geeks and Goblins, Elves and Elliot. He has multiple other screenplays ready to be developed into feature-length films, including an adaptation of his short story “Solar Butterfly” that also appears in Twisted Mind. Additionally, he’s been on the development team for three television/web series.

He resides in Salt Lake City, Utah, and is the father of three grown children and the grandfather of the best granddaughter in the world. Do not debate him on this.