Editing Poppy Z. Brite (section)

== Career ==
Martin is best known for writing [[gothic novel|gothic]] and [[horror fiction|horror]] novels and short stories. His trademarks include featuring gay men as main characters, graphic sexual descriptions, and an often wry treatment of gruesome events. Some of Martin's better known novels include ''[[Lost Souls (Brite novel)|Lost Souls]]'' (1992), ''[[Drawing Blood]]'' (1993), and the controversial [[serial killer]] novel ''[[Exquisite Corpse (novel)|Exquisite Corpse]]'' (1996); he has also released the short fiction collections ''[[Wormwood (short story collection)|Wormwood]]'' (originally published as ''Swamp Foetus''; 1993), ''[[Are You Loathsome Tonight?]]'' (also published as ''Self-Made Man''; 1998), ''Wrong Things'' (with [[Caitlín R. Kiernan]]; 2001), and ''The Devil You Know'' (2003). His "Calcutta: Lord of Nerves" was selected to represent the year 1992 in the story anthology ''The Century's Best Horror Fiction''.<ref>John Pelan, ''The Century's Best Horror Fiction'', Cemetery Dance Publications, 2010, two volumes, {{ISBN|1-58767-080-1}}.</ref>

In a 1998 interview,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.darkecho.com/darkecho/archives/brite.html |title=Poppy Z. Brite: Just Not That Weird |last=Guran |first=Paula |date=January 1998 |access-date=2013-09-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509190345/http://www.darkecho.com/darkecho/archives/brite.html |archive-date=May 9, 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> in response to a comment that "Growing up in the American South [shaped him] as a writer", Martin mentioned that Southern writers [[Carson McCullers]], [[Truman Capote]], [[Tennessee Williams]], [[Flannery O'Connor]], [[Harper Lee]], [[Thomas Wolfe]] and [[William Faulkner]] also influenced his writing. Answering a follow-up question about his literary influences, he also included "[[Ray Bradbury|Bradbury]], [[Vladimir Nabokov|Nabokov]], [[William S. Burroughs|W.S. Burroughs]], [[Stephen King]], [[Ramsey Campbell]], [[Shirley Jackson]], [[Thomas Ligotti]], [[Kathe Koja]], [[Dennis Cooper]], [[Dorothy Parker]], [[Dylan Thomas]], [[Harlan Ellison]], [[Peter Straub]], [[Paul Theroux]], [[Charles Baudelaire|Baudelaire]], [[Edgar Allan Poe|Poe]], [[H. P. Lovecraft|Lovecraft]], [[John Lennon]]... I could rattle off ten or twenty more easily; they're all in there somewhere."

Martin wrote ''[[Courtney Love: The Real Story]]'' (1997), a biography of singer [[Courtney Love]]. It was officially "unauthorized", but he acknowledged that the work was done at Love's suggestion and with her cooperation, including access to her personal journal and letters.<ref>[http://www.poppyzbrite.com/bio.html PzB (auto)Biography] discusses the writing of the Love book.</ref>

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Martin moved away from horror fiction and gothic themes while still writing about gay characters. The critically acclaimed [[Liquor (novel series)|''Liquor'' novels]]—''Liquor'' (2004), ''Prime'' (2005), and ''Soul Kitchen'' (2006)—are [[Black comedy|dark comedies]] set in the New Orleans restaurant world. ''The Value of X'' (2002) depicts the beginning of the careers of the protagonists of the ''Liquor'' series—Gary "G-Man" Stubbs and John "Rickey" Rickey; other stories, including several in his most recent collection ''[[The Devil You Know (short story collection)|The Devil You Know]]'' (2003) and the novella ''D*U*C*K'', chronicle events in the lives of the extended Stubbs family, a Catholic clan whose roots are sunk deep in the traditional culture of New Orleans. Martin hopes to eventually write three more novels in the ''Liquor'' series, tentatively titled ''Dead Shrimp Blues'', ''Hurricane Stew'', and ''Double Shot''. However, in late 2006, he ceased publishing with [[Three Rivers Press]], the trade paperback division of [[Random House]] that published the first three ''Liquor'' novels, and is currently taking a hiatus from fiction writing. He has described ''Antediluvian Tales'', a short story collection published by [[Subterranean Press]] in November 2007, as "if not my last book ever, then my last one for some time." He still writes short non-fiction pieces, including guest editorials for the New Orleans ''[[The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate|Times-Picayune]]'' and a food article for ''[[Chile Pepper Magazine]]''.

Martin has often stated that, while he will allow some of his work to be optioned for film under the right circumstances, he has little interest in movies and is not overly eager to see his work filmed. In 1999, his short story ''The Sixth Sentinel'' (filmed as ''The Dream Sentinel'') made up one segment of episode 209 of ''[[The Hunger (serial)|The Hunger]]'', a short-lived horror anthology series on [[Showtime Network|Showtime]].

Critical essays on Martin's fiction appear in ''Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror'' (2003) by [[Brian Stableford]]<ref>Brian Stableford, "Poppy Z. Brite" in [[Richard Bleiler]], ed. ''Supernatural Fiction Writers: Contemporary Fantasy and Horror''. New York: Thomson/Gale, 2003. (p. 147-152). {{ISBN|9780684312507}}</ref> and ''The Evolution of the Weird Tale'' (2004) by [[S. T. Joshi]].

On June 9, 2010, Martin officially stated that he was retired from writing, in a post entitled "I'm Basically Retired (For Now)" on his [[LiveJournal|Livejournal]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://docbrite.livejournal.com/2010/06/09/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130909041431/http://docbrite.livejournal.com/2010/06/09/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 9, 2013 |title=I'm Basically Retired (For Now) |date=June 9, 2010 |last=Martin |first=Billy |website=Dispatches from Tanganyika |access-date=2013-09-09 }}</ref> He stated that he had "completely lost the ability to interact with [his] body of work" and then went on to state that business issues were a partial cause. He also specifically mentioned being unable to disconnect from aspects of his life relating to [[Hurricane Katrina]]. He ended his statement by saying that he missed having relationships with his characters and that he did not feel the need to write for publication. Martin has since created a series of artworks themed on New Orleans and voodoo.

In 2018, Martin announced he had returned to writing with a non-fiction project entitled ''Water If God Wills It: Religion and Spirituality in the Work of Stephen King''.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.patreon.com/docbrite|title = Poppy Z. Brite (Billy Martin) is creating a book in progress and a few other things}}</ref>

In August 2023, Martin announced on his own Facebook page that he was writing fiction again, but that it would be a long time until it would be published.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Billy Martin - I'm not really going to write a sequel to... |url=https://www.facebook.com/billy.martin.127648/posts/pfbid0cJTU9uFgu2VBtY32gXEQNAfo76d3t92RzjTnouuDDdVy9M8aao5E7TaRu2xyQx2sl |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230817003557/https://www.facebook.com/billy.martin.127648/posts/pfbid0cJTU9uFgu2VBtY32gXEQNAfo76d3t92RzjTnouuDDdVy9M8aao5E7TaRu2xyQx2sl |archive-date=August 17, 2023 |access-date=2025-01-18 |language=en-US |url-status=live }}</ref>