Martin Roy Hill - Editor

I offer a wide variety of editorial services to authors and publishers, including:

* Copy editing.
* Proofreading.
* Publishing advice/consultation.

My editorial experience includes:

* Writing and/or editing for newspapers, magazines, and websites.
* Freelance articles published in numerous national and international publications.
* Editor, San Diego Business Journal, 10 years.
* Senior Editor, San Diego Magazine, 7 years.
* Science/Technical Writer/Editor/Researcher, Naval Health Research Center, 15 years.
* Award-Winning Independent Author/Publisher.
* Editing novels (mystery, thriller, sci-fi), memoirs, business and self-help books (more than two dozen books). I am well versed in the Chicago Manual of Style, American Psychological Association, and Associated Press stylebooks.

A 27-year veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve, U.S. Navy Reserve, and the California National Guard, I also offer consulting services for authors needing advice on writing about the military.

In-house contractor (employer Leidos). Researched medical capability requirements for combat casualty care, terrorist response, humanitarian assistance and disaster response for U.S. Marine Corps, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force. Authored and edited peer-reviewed journal articles, technical documents and reports, and presentations based on research for DoD-wide distribution.

Managed editorial department of weekly business newspaper with staff of 15 editors, writers, and researchers. Duties included coordinating production of newspaper and magazine supplements with other departments, personnel and budget management, organizing research and coverage of companies involved in defense, health care, and technology industries, editing and writing news stories and editorials, and administration of local area network. Improved the quality of writing and reporting so the newspaper became a national award-winning publication and a must-read among the local business community.

Full-time investigative journalist. Recipient of more than 20 journalism awards, including two national William Allen White Awards for investigative reporting. Thrice cited by Investigative Reporters and Editors’ annual report on best investigative reporting. Rights for reproduction of articles for use as educational materials acquired by USCD, U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and the Naval War College. Edited and re-wrote news articles written by freelance contributors.

Reporter for waterfront/maritime news weekly. Opened first Los Angeles bureau, covering waterfront news in LA and Orange counties, including Catalina Island. Wrote and edited news articles for all three editions.

Reporter for daily newspaper responsible for covering politics and crime throughout the Coachella Valley.

Crossing Borders

"This splendid collection of border fiction is haunting and intense. Bravo to San Diego Sisters in Crime." --T. Jefferson Parker, Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Good Guy Good stories start with characters crossing borders and finding themselves in worlds filled with hurt, harm, and danger. In Crossing Borders, the first anthology from Partners in Crime, the San Diego Chapter of Sisters... read more

"This splendid collection of border fiction is haunting and intense. Bravo to San Diego Sisters in Crime." --T. Jefferson Parker, Edgar Award-winning author of The Last Good Guy Good stories start with characters crossing borders and finding themselves in worlds filled with hurt, harm, and danger. In Crossing Borders, the first anthology from Partners in Crime, the San Diego Chapter of Sisters... read more

The Day Before I Died

Jf Whitaker

The Day Before I Died is a memoir of an innocent Irish Catholic boy on his journey from the quiet New England coast and the apple orchards of Pennsylvania to Vietnam and, ultimately, to the brink of suicide. Traversing minefields both at home and abroad, the author shares these intensely personal stories of overcoming the scars of war, disfigurement, emotional abuse, sexual orientation, and bu... read more

The Day Before I Died is a memoir of an innocent Irish Catholic boy on his journey from the quiet New England coast and the apple orchards of Pennsylvania to Vietnam and, ultimately, to the brink of suicide. Traversing minefields both at home and abroad, the author shares these intensely personal stories of overcoming the scars of war, disfigurement, emotional abuse, sexual orientation, and bu... read more

Blue Sky Lightning: How To Survive And Thrive When Life Blindsides You

Jeff Kuhn

All of us deal with trauma, lightning bolts that disrupt our lives in small or devastating ways. But no matter what you’re facing, you can recover—through strength, fortitude, and belief.Jeff Kuhn survived the unthinkable: burns over 80 percent of his body and a rare neuromuscular disease. Despite it all, Jeff found the courage to keep moving on. In Blue Sky Lightning, he shares both his unbel... read more

All of us deal with trauma, lightning bolts that disrupt our lives in small or devastating ways. But no matter what you’re facing, you can recover—through strength, fortitude, and belief.Jeff Kuhn survived the unthinkable: burns over 80 percent of his body and a rare neuromuscular disease. Despite it all, Jeff found the courage to keep moving on. In Blue Sky Lightning, he shares both his unbel... read more

Get Real: The Power of Genuine Leadership, a Transparent Culture, and an Authentic You

Anna Crowe

“Fake it till you make it.” The old adage may be a hallmark of our personal and professional lives, but the truth is inauthenticity leads to dissatisfaction—and disaster. To be happy, successful, and sustainable, you need to be genuine and be yourself.Years of working in public relations, along with her personal experiences, have shown Anna Crowe that authenticity is the most important skill i... read more

“Fake it till you make it.” The old adage may be a hallmark of our personal and professional lives, but the truth is inauthenticity leads to dissatisfaction—and disaster. To be happy, successful, and sustainable, you need to be genuine and be yourself.Years of working in public relations, along with her personal experiences, have shown Anna Crowe that authenticity is the most important skill i... read more

Lost in Startuplandia: Wayfinding for the Weary Entrepreneur

E. Keller Fitzsimmons

Entrepreneurship seems like a thrilling, lucrative adventure--until things go horribly wrong. As crisis after crisis hits, even the most seasoned founder can get disoriented. Whether you're in the throes of business woes or just getting into the game, E. Keller Fitzsimmons has written a field guide outlining the terrain to help you avoid getting Lost in Startuplandia. Keller has been there, do... read more

Entrepreneurship seems like a thrilling, lucrative adventure--until things go horribly wrong. As crisis after crisis hits, even the most seasoned founder can get disoriented. Whether you're in the throes of business woes or just getting into the game, E. Keller Fitzsimmons has written a field guide outlining the terrain to help you avoid getting Lost in Startuplandia. Keller has been there, do... read more

A Dangerous Element: An Espionage Thriller

Gregory S. Lamb

"A Dangerous Element" is based on current events. Through the eyes of a former combat pilot who knows how to work the system, the story will transport readers beyond the Iranian borders into their nuclear weapons development and uncover a top-secret weapon developed by DARPA. A covert operation to destroy the nuclear enrichment program at Natanz, Iran goes bad when a virus is discovered in the... read more

"A Dangerous Element" is based on current events. Through the eyes of a former combat pilot who knows how to work the system, the story will transport readers beyond the Iranian borders into their nuclear weapons development and uncover a top-secret weapon developed by DARPA. A covert operation to destroy the nuclear enrichment program at Natanz, Iran goes bad when a virus is discovered in the... read more

Busting the Real Estate Investing Lies: Build Wealth the Smart Way: Through the Most Time-Tested, Least Volatile Path to Financial Freedom

Kim D.H. Butler, Jimmy Vreeland

If you think that real estate investment is risky, costly, time-consuming, and complicated, think again. Investing in real estate is actually the smartest, most powerful tactic to create a reliable, passive form of income--if you use it right.In Busting the Real Estate Investment Lies, real estate expert Jimmy Vreeland has teamed up with life insurance guru Kim Butler to show you how to break ... read more

If you think that real estate investment is risky, costly, time-consuming, and complicated, think again. Investing in real estate is actually the smartest, most powerful tactic to create a reliable, passive form of income--if you use it right.In Busting the Real Estate Investment Lies, real estate expert Jimmy Vreeland has teamed up with life insurance guru Kim Butler to show you how to break ... read more

Mechanical Bull: How You Can Achieve Startup Success

Cheryl Contee

Silicon Valley can be a wild ride for an entrepreneur, especially if you’re a woman, a minority (or both!). But not being a white dude dropout from Stanford shouldn’t stand between you and startup success—there’s a path forward for everyone, including you. In Mechanical Bull, Silicon Valley veteran Cheryl Contee takes readers through her entrepreneurial journey with humor and candor, sharing p... read more

Silicon Valley can be a wild ride for an entrepreneur, especially if you’re a woman, a minority (or both!). But not being a white dude dropout from Stanford shouldn’t stand between you and startup success—there’s a path forward for everyone, including you. In Mechanical Bull, Silicon Valley veteran Cheryl Contee takes readers through her entrepreneurial journey with humor and candor, sharing p... read more

Step on the Mat: Life Lessons of the Ninja

Ninja Nguyen

The martial arts can be exciting and fun for young people, but they are more than just kicking and punching. The valuable lessons found in the routines and rituals of karate, jiu jitsu, and other disciplines can bring joy and purpose to everything else you do in your life—even if you’ve never executed a roundhouse kick or split a board with your bare hand.Ninja Nguyen’s martial arts adventure ... read more

The martial arts can be exciting and fun for young people, but they are more than just kicking and punching. The valuable lessons found in the routines and rituals of karate, jiu jitsu, and other disciplines can bring joy and purpose to everything else you do in your life—even if you’ve never executed a roundhouse kick or split a board with your bare hand.Ninja Nguyen’s martial arts adventure ... read more

Why Choose Home Birth: Yes, It’s an Option, and Yes, It’s Right for Women Today

Monika Stone

What comes to mind when you hear the words home birth? If you’re like most people, you have some thoughts, emotions, or questions around this practice, but you don’t truly understand what makes home birth a legal and safe birth option for women today.Monika Stone is a certified professional midwife (CPM), licensed midwife (LM), and pediatric nurse who has taken care of hundreds of women during... read more

What comes to mind when you hear the words home birth? If you’re like most people, you have some thoughts, emotions, or questions around this practice, but you don’t truly understand what makes home birth a legal and safe birth option for women today.Monika Stone is a certified professional midwife (CPM), licensed midwife (LM), and pediatric nurse who has taken care of hundreds of women during... read more

Soon She Will Be Dead: A Comprehensive Guide to Losing Your Parent Without Losing Your Mind

Brita Long

You cannot afford to lose your mind when your parent is dying. Whether you have a highly demanding career, have your own children to care for, have a great relationship with your parent, or not, Soon She Will Be Dead: A Comprehensive Guide to Losing Your Parent Without Losing Your Mind is a step-by-step guide that teaches:What you can expect when your parent is ill or dying.How to keep the res... read more

You cannot afford to lose your mind when your parent is dying. Whether you have a highly demanding career, have your own children to care for, have a great relationship with your parent, or not, Soon She Will Be Dead: A Comprehensive Guide to Losing Your Parent Without Losing Your Mind is a step-by-step guide that teaches:What you can expect when your parent is ill or dying.How to keep the res... read more

Our American Dream: Cultivating a Life of Success, Joy, and Purpose

Andrew Samuel

Are you looking for motivation to live a life of purpose? If so, you’re not alone. Now more than ever, it’s difficult to find the balance between purpose in your work, financial success, and happiness at home. The world wants you to believe fulfillment comes from making money, but the further you go down that road, the more you’ll realize the fulfillment you were promised is not there.As Andre... read more

Are you looking for motivation to live a life of purpose? If so, you’re not alone. Now more than ever, it’s difficult to find the balance between purpose in your work, financial success, and happiness at home. The world wants you to believe fulfillment comes from making money, but the further you go down that road, the more you’ll realize the fulfillment you were promised is not there.As Andre... read more

Day In, Day Out: The Secret Power in Showing Up and Doing the Work

Nicholas Dancer

Are you working hard, but continue to feel stuck? Does every day come with more responsibilities that make life feel like a task to be completed rather than enjoyed? In Day In, Day Out, Nick Dancer invites you to build a life on the timeless principles that have brought out the best in humankind since the beginning. Technology has changed our lives, but nothing has changed about the battle ins... read more

Are you working hard, but continue to feel stuck? Does every day come with more responsibilities that make life feel like a task to be completed rather than enjoyed? In Day In, Day Out, Nick Dancer invites you to build a life on the timeless principles that have brought out the best in humankind since the beginning. Technology has changed our lives, but nothing has changed about the battle ins... read more

On Guard and On Point: Mastering the Duel between Life and Work

Jamie Douraghy

At some point life begins to change—and not always for the better. Despite being successful, you can begin to grow tired of playing split roles that pull you away from your authentic self. The life you’ve built might appear to others like a dream life, yet it’s a far cry from your reality. You may wake up every day feeling stuck, and instead of enjoying your life at the fast pace you’d envisio... read more

At some point life begins to change—and not always for the better. Despite being successful, you can begin to grow tired of playing split roles that pull you away from your authentic self. The life you’ve built might appear to others like a dream life, yet it’s a far cry from your reality. You may wake up every day feeling stuck, and instead of enjoying your life at the fast pace you’d envisio... read more

Keen on Retirement: Engineering the Second Half of Your Life

Bill Keen

As you approach retirement, questions begin to stack up that you may not have the answers for:Do I have enough, or will I run out of money later in life? What will happen to my spouse if I die? How do I avoid costly mistakes and maximize my resources going forward?More than anything, you want to know: Am I going to be OK?These questions exist because preparing for retirement is not easy. You’r... read more

As you approach retirement, questions begin to stack up that you may not have the answers for:Do I have enough, or will I run out of money later in life? What will happen to my spouse if I die? How do I avoid costly mistakes and maximize my resources going forward?More than anything, you want to know: Am I going to be OK?These questions exist because preparing for retirement is not easy. You’r... read more

The Last Refuge (The Peter Brandt Thrillers Book 2)

Martin Roy Hill

Iraq, 1991: Operation Desert Storm. In a terrible friendly fire incident, a U.S. helicopter massacres a small convoy of American MPs. Among the dead: a mysterious American civilian engineer discovered by the soldiers behind enemy lines.San Diego, CA, 1993: A freelance journalist is hired to write a story about a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the dead engineer's widow against the government a... read more

Iraq, 1991: Operation Desert Storm. In a terrible friendly fire incident, a U.S. helicopter massacres a small convoy of American MPs. Among the dead: a mysterious American civilian engineer discovered by the soldiers behind enemy lines.San Diego, CA, 1993: A freelance journalist is hired to write a story about a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the dead engineer's widow against the government a... read more

Eden: A Sci-Fi Novella

Martin Roy Hill

“If this is Paradise, how bad could Hell be?”A sandstorm uncovers a long buried secret in the Iraqi desert, an ancient Sumerian temple dating back at least 6,000 years to the beginning of civilization. An American army patrol sent to investigate the ruins is trapped inside the temple’s eroded walls, first by an insurgent ambush then by another, even more powerful sandstorm. When an enemy morta... read more

“If this is Paradise, how bad could Hell be?”A sandstorm uncovers a long buried secret in the Iraqi desert, an ancient Sumerian temple dating back at least 6,000 years to the beginning of civilization. An American army patrol sent to investigate the ruins is trapped inside the temple’s eroded walls, first by an insurgent ambush then by another, even more powerful sandstorm. When an enemy morta... read more

Empty Places (The Peter Brandt Thrillers Book 1)

Martin Roy Hill

He warned her. People die in lonely and empty places. But she didn't listen.Peter Brandt is a war-scarred news service reporter who has seen more than he can bear to remember. Returning to the States, he discovers his former wife, TV reporter Robin Anderson, brutally murdered and the local cops doing nothing to find her killer. Driven by guilt and regret over his failed marriage, Peter sets ou... read more

He warned her. People die in lonely and empty places. But she didn't listen.Peter Brandt is a war-scarred news service reporter who has seen more than he can bear to remember. Returning to the States, he discovers his former wife, TV reporter Robin Anderson, brutally murdered and the local cops doing nothing to find her killer. Driven by guilt and regret over his failed marriage, Peter sets ou... read more

The Butcher's Bill (The Linus Schag, NCIS, Thrillers Book 2)

Martin Roy Hill

2017 Best Mystery/Suspense Novel (Best Independent Book Awards)2018 Clue Award for Best Thriller (Chaticleer International Book Awards) Meet William Butcher, aka The Butcher, former Navy SEAL, now a disgraced ex-NCIS agent. Those who stole $9 billion in cash from Iraq want him dead. The cops want him for murder. Butcher's only hope is his former NCIS colleague and closest friend, Linus Schag.T... read more

2017 Best Mystery/Suspense Novel (Best Independent Book Awards)2018 Clue Award for Best Thriller (Chaticleer International Book Awards) Meet William Butcher, aka The Butcher, former Navy SEAL, now a disgraced ex-NCIS agent. Those who stole $9 billion in cash from Iraq want him dead. The cops want him for murder. Butcher's only hope is his former NCIS colleague and closest friend, Linus Schag.T... read more

Duty: Suspense and Mystery Stories from the Cold War and Beyond

Martin Hill

A collection of previously published and new short stories by author Martin Roy Hill. In the title story, "Duty," a Cold War soldier faces the prospect of starting WWIII. In "Something Far Away," a former Coastguardsman must face his ghosts from the past. A Navy investigator faces a different kind of ghost aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier in "Destroyer Turns." "Brandenberg's Diaries" tells th... read more

A collection of previously published and new short stories by author Martin Roy Hill. In the title story, "Duty," a Cold War soldier faces the prospect of starting WWIII. In "Something Far Away," a former Coastguardsman must face his ghosts from the past. A Navy investigator faces a different kind of ghost aboard a nuclear aircraft carrier in "Destroyer Turns." "Brandenberg's Diaries" tells th... read more

The Killing Depths (The Linus Schag, NCIS, Thrillers Book 1)

Martin Roy Hill

A killer lurks beneath the waves of the western Pacific Ocean. The USS Encinitas, the first attack submarine crewed by both men and women, stalks the Crescent Moon, a renegade Iranian sub armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. But another predator hides aboard the American sub, a murderer who has already left a trail of dead women behind on shore. While the crew of the Encinitas plays a deadly ga... read more

A killer lurks beneath the waves of the western Pacific Ocean. The USS Encinitas, the first attack submarine crewed by both men and women, stalks the Crescent Moon, a renegade Iranian sub armed with nuclear-tipped missiles. But another predator hides aboard the American sub, a murderer who has already left a trail of dead women behind on shore. While the crew of the Encinitas plays a deadly ga... read more

Alt Hist Issue 6: The Magazine of Historical Fiction and Alternate History

Mark Lord, Douglas Texter, Jonathan Doering, Andrea Mullaney, Lynda Vanderhoff, Martin Hill

The latest issue of the bestselling historical fiction magazineDo you love historical fiction, alternate history or historical fantasy? Then you will love Alt Hist.Alt Hist Issue 6 includes four wonderful alternate history stories, plus a great “straight” historical fiction set in 1914 about a teenage girl accused of war crimes. The alternate history stories cover some classic areas for specul... read more

The latest issue of the bestselling historical fiction magazineDo you love historical fiction, alternate history or historical fantasy? Then you will love Alt Hist.Alt Hist Issue 6 includes four wonderful alternate history stories, plus a great “straight” historical fiction set in 1914 about a teenage girl accused of war crimes. The alternate history stories cover some classic areas for specul... read more