“I’ll be honest, my book being published still doesn’t feel completely real,” said Hannah Martian, author of the queer mystery novel “Long Time Gone.” She reflected on the experience of bringing her work to the public.
“I heard once that all the best stories are love stories,” Martian said. “Long Time Gone is a mystery, but it’s also a love story — between Quinn and Hunter, obviously, but also between Quinn and Cora, Hunter and Cora, Hunter and Wyoming. Love stories don’t always have to be romantic, and I think that at the heart of all good literature is some type of love story.”
Martian, a former WSU alumna who minored in communication and English and earned a master’s degree in sports management, recently published “Long Time Gone.” The queer romance mystery follows private investigator Quinn Cuthridge as she returns to her hometown of Wonderland, Wyoming, to investigate her aunt’s disappearance. Partnering with her aunt’s ranch handler, Hunter, Quinn finds herself drawn to Hunter as they uncover a decades-old murder mystery.
Discussing her sources of inspiration, Martian said, “The idea for the book evolved from taking in popular media and thinking, ‘Oh, I could do this better and gayer!’ Cowboy romances have been popular on social media lately, and I kept wanting to read a [sapphic] cowgirl book, so I decided to write it.”
Martian said that her writing process is unorthodox.
“I write very much scene-by-scene and jump around the book. If I don’t write a scene I’m excited about right then, I can’t write anything else. The more ‘boring’ scenes, I save for when I’m piecing everything together,” said Martian.
Geography presented a challenge during the writing process.
“I did a bit too good of a job isolating Hunter, Cora, and the ranch, to the point that when I needed Hunter and Quinn to investigate, there wasn’t anywhere to go. This led me to invent the town of Wonderland,” Martian said.
Martian based Wonderland on Wamsutter, Wyoming.
“I’ve always been fascinated by how people live in tiny towns. Casper has 50,000 people, and Wyoming folks view that as The Big City. I wondered what it would be like to grow up somewhere like Wamsutter and what kind of person it would shape,” she said.
Explaining her choice to write a queer romance, Martian said, “A lot of lesbian characters in media are stereotyped or killed off. I always aim to write queer characters — particularly lesbian characters, as this is my own identity — who are authentic and real. I hope queer folks see themselves reflected in my stories.”
Martian’s debut novel, “Long Time Gone,” has earned acclaim from publications including Kirkus Reviews and Red Carpet Crash, and author Rachel Crohan called it a must-read.
