Grammar guy: Sherry Martin succeeded at various ventures in mortgage lending, then followed his bliss into development of Sentence Says, a word game.

The son of a kindergarten teacher, Sherry Martin grew up in a household where education was stressed and grammar often corrected. Martin found his way into mortgage brokerage, eventually founding two firms. Last year, he turned his attention to a new field: the toy industry. He and partner Jenna Banks formed MarBan Industries Inc. in Chatsworth and launched "Sentence Says," a sentence creation game. Since its May debut, the $29.95 game has sold 4,100 units through independent book, toy and educational stores and becomes available at Toys 'R' Us this week. It has also received Creative Child magazine's Seal of Excellence on its way to year-to-date sales of $75,000.

Question: What was it like growing up with a mother who was a kindergarten teacher?

Answer: She was really, really picky. It was interesting having a teacher as a mother because, unlike most kids, I could never get away with saying, "I don't have homework." She was also a stickler for how you spoke and how you presented yourself.

Q: When did you start thinking about creating a game?

A: I've always had that kind of silly, fun side, wanting to play games. And that side of me, along with a lot of things my mother instilled in me, helped me to want to create something. The game came about almost eight years ago. I was in the midst of doing mortgages with Private Investment Co. and one evening I saw a television show that talked about creating a game. It was the motivating factor.

Q: What goes into creating a sentence creation game?

A: I started thinking of word games originally. I thought about Scrabble and Monopoly and I started to think, what's not out there? What hasn't been done? And within a day or so I came up with the sentence creation aspect of it.

Q: Why did it take eight years to go from there to actually selling the game?

A: I didn't know that you could make a lot of money in the game business, so there was no motivation to move forward, other than to show it to a few friends. My mother became sick about two-and-a-half years ago--she got dementia going towards Alzheimer's and passed this year--and it helped me to start to focus in a different direction. I really wanted to put something together that could be something toward her legacy, that she really helped motivate me to do.

Q: Where did you go from there?

A: I went on the Interact, typed in 'game creators' and got a million lists. I started contacting one at a time. It took me maybe a month of making calls before I finally found a company, MJS Creations out of Pahrump, Nev., that would work with me in putting it together. I had to write up the rules, and I think I'm too much of a perfectionist. I kept writing and destroying, writing and destroying. Along the way, I developed more enhancements. After I finished the rules, then we talked about the components and (MJS owner Michael J. Spahitz) started to send me designs.

Q: How did you hook up with Jenna Banks?

A: I actively started to look for a person to come work with me. I got a call one day from someone who was marketing mortgage leads--that's how we get our business--and it was Jenna. She came off as a different type of person, and I said, "What did you used to do before you did this?" She said, "I used to be involved in marketing." We met for lunch, I brought this game, and for four hours I sat and explained it to her. I knew when we were talking that she was the person. She came to work as a partner in January. I introduced her to Michael and she immediately said, "I like what he did, but we're going to go in a whole different direction." We brought in a whole new team.

Q: How is the game played?

A: The object of the game is to create a sentence utilizing letter cards. You can place them in any order. Each letter represents a word you would use. For instance, using the acronym BORN, you could say, 'Big Onions Rarely Nest.' If you roll a four, you'd get four consonants and you always get one vowel. You get these cards dealt face down and you have 30 seconds to come up with a sentence. Prior to turning the last letter, you're dealt an action card that gives direction on a topic or how the sentence needs to be put together, such as, "Create a sentence in the form of a question," "Create a sentence with at least one color in it," or "Create a sentence with a geographic place." If you're successful, you get points. If you're unsuccessful, a challenger can steal your sentence by creating a sentence in 15 seconds. The first one to 100 wins.

Q: Are you good?

A: I'm the master. I've always had quick thinking. No one has beaten me who's played me and I don't think anyone will.

Q: Does it help to be a grammarian?

A: It's not a matter of being better at grammar; it's a matter of being quick with words. People who seem to be a lot more educated have problems initially because they make it too difficult. They think in terms of structure, and it hinders creativity.

Q: How much has it cost to develop the game?

A: We've spent around $200,000, including designers, purchasing products, shooting the infomercial and going to different fairs to showcase the game.

Q: Where did the funding for this come from?

A: It came from me. During the day I was working as hard as I could to do loans and get commissions. To this day, I still write loans to help to finance the business.

Q: You had three weeks to prepare for the American International Toy Fair last February once the prototype was complete. What was that like?

A: Our prototype got there late. Our banner was delivered late. Our booth was sitting there with absolutely nada. We weren't prepared to write an order, to show you how green we were in this business. Our promotional video really helped, we gave it to everyone who came to the booth as our (calling) card.

Q: Has it been difficult to get meetings with retailers?

A: We came out in the middle of the year, which worked against us since they make their decisions in the beginning of the year. Some were willing to talk even if they weren't going to (buy) until January. If you pursue them they do finally talk.

Q: Is if difficult to get shelf space when you're competing against companies like Mattel and Hasbro?

A: Not to get space. What's difficult is that in the industry, most of the retailers want to talk to people who offer 50 games. They want to buy from this source that has all these games.

Q: How did you end up in mortgage brokerage?

A: I worked as a branch service officer at Wells Fargo bank. I was able to learn more about the wholesale side of real estate in terms of loans, and I started to become very interested in that. I had a lot of customers that came in the bank who were independent brokers that did loans and I noticed them depositing quite a bit of money. That was my motivation to leave and start my first mortgage company, Bayshore Mutual.

Q: How long did you operate Bayshore?

A: Three years. It ended in a partnership split. I swore after that I would never become a partner again in the real estate business. It was one of those business situations that wasn't necessarily a real bad thing, just two people going in different directions. After that, I started a company called Private Investment Co. It was just me and one other person, and I just wrote loans.

Q: Is Sherry your given name?

A: Sherry is my given name. You know, the boy named Sue. Mom wanted a girl. She named me before I was born and she decided to keep it. Growing up in the '60s it was an interesting situation. There were two songs that were really popular back in those days--"My Cherie Amour" and "Sherry." So I used to just hear that every day. Every day, someone would be singing that. I I hated it growing up, but I love my name. I would not want to be named Steve or Cameron.

INTERVIEW

Sherry Martin

Title: President

Company: MarBan Industries Inc.

Born: Los Angeles, 1956

Education: B.S. in speech communications with a minor in business finance, University of Southern California 

Career Turning Point: Seeing a television show about making games and developing one; becoming serious about selling the game when his mother became ill

Most Admired Person: His mother

Hobbies: Bike riding, traveling, basketball, fishing, attending sporting events and writing songs, poetry and children's books

Personal: Single