Jersey City author celebrates latest tome

SPECIAL TO THE JERSEY JOURNAL

On the surface, Alfred C. Martino doesn't resemble the archetypal writer - wrestling coach or businessman maybe.

In fact, the longtime Jersey City resident is all of the above.

"I came to formal writing late in life," he said recently at a pizzeria in Hoboken, discussing his second novel, "Over the End Line" (Harcourt; $17), a book for young adult readers that came out last month.

In it, Martino explores the downfall of two young men - best friends and team mates - in his hometown of Short Hills.

"The overall theme that I wanted to play around with is that athletes at almost every level get away with more than the average person," he said.

The novel also attempts to deal with the implications of rape, taking a rather chilling turn in its final pages.

"My goal with this book is to really establish him as a (young adult) fiction novelist," said his publisher, Karen Grove, who also worked with Martino on his debut novel, "Pinned" (2005), about the Millburn High School wrestling team.

Growing up in Short Hills, Martino excelled at soccer and wrestling and was captain of the MHS wrestling team his senior year. These experiences would inspire the gripping sports scenes and authentic coming-of-age drama of his novels.

At the time, he was writing short stories and poetry, "the typical teen angst sort of thing," he says now.

After graduating from MHS in 1982, Martino went on to Duke University. In 1993, he received his MBA from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California and co-founded the audiobook publishing company Listen & Live Audio.

It wasn't until 1994 that he began to work seriously on screenplays and pieces of what would become "Over the End Line" and "Pinned."

When he's not managing his own business, practicing jujitsu or coaching wrestling part-time in Millburn, Martino is burning the midnight oil to work on his third novel, about a female high school varsity wrestler in Michigan, and developing a fourth novel, about 1960s Hillside and centered on the game of step-ball.

"When are you a writer?" Martino asked, reflecting on his journey and successes. "(I) was doing a lot of writing, but it's hard to turn to someone and say, 'Oh yeah, I'm a writer,' because they always say, 'What have you published?' But . you simply get better at it over time - and it does take time."