 When his wife graduated from Clarke in 1979, he resigned from his job, and being tired of the hard winters in Dubuque, they moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1979, which they had "fallen in love with" after a visit the year before on their way to the worldcon in Phoenix.Martin began selling science fiction short stories professionally in 1970, at age 21.His first sale was "The Hero", sold to "Galaxy" magazine and published in its February 1971 issue; other sales soon followed.