Allison Martin | Updates

Quill & Kettle Podcast: Season One launched on Kickstarter

Allison Martin — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I launched a new project called The Quill & Kettle Podcast: A Writing & Creative Reclamation, as part of Kickstarter’s Witchstarter. IT'S LIVE! ACK! It’s a podcast for misfit authors and rebel creatives who are ready to bring the magic back to the creative process — blending craft, psychology, and intuition. But I haven't forgotten about readers in the process! Imagine if you got to sit down with your favourite author and hear the fascinating BTS of how your six-star readers were born? That's the ultimate goal. These interviews feel like coffee with your bestie, a creative mastermind, and an induction into a secret society all rolled into one. Writers, readers, and all publishing creatives are welcome! I'm interviewing authors, PAs, award winning designers, illustrators, and booktok/bookstagram influencers in season one.

A little something special for you!It launched today on the New Moon, October 21st, and as a thank-you, I’m offering a 24-hour Early-Bird Reward — a New Moon Creative Tarot Journal. It’s a short guided reflection you’ll receive when the campaign closes on the next new moon in November — a way to close one creative cycle and open another. It's not just for authors either. The questions are geared toward creative energy and how it flows through you, so whether you are an author or just have a creative hobby these moon-guided questions will lead you toward finding joy in the process!

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Three Things You Should Know Before Reading My Books...

Allison Martin — Sat, 18 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Have you looked through my website yet and scratched your head, wondering what the hell I’m doing with my writing and why you’re even here?

You wouldn’t be alone, I assure you. If I had a quarter for every time I heard the advice to ‘niche down’ and choose a genre, I probably wouldn’t have to write.

I could live off the income of other writers telling me I’m doing it wrong.

The truth is that this has made my life harder. I don't disagree with these experts in the slightest. I believe the fastest, most straightforward way to have a thriving writing career is to choose a genre and build it up.

But after over ten years of trying to force myself into the conventional wisdom, I decided that I am too old for this shit, and I will do what I want, how I want, and when I want. I’m going to take five steps in four different directions, and I’m going to accept what goes along with it.

So if you’ve read one of my books or are thinking about it, here are three things about me that will help you decide if it’s worth the risk to join me on my haphazard, willy-nilly, multi-genre journey.

I like unlikeable women.

The morally grey character has their day in the sun right now. Unfortunately, the misogyny is still strong in the sense that men and women are judged at a completely different standard regarding the characters’ flaws. Most of my negative reviews centre around the unlikability of my MFC, but that’s a train I’ve boarded and have no plans of getting off anytime soon. I love a woman who is unapologetically herself no matter what. They are more fun to write! So you can expect my female characters to have flaws and not just superficial ones like clumsiness.

Love is always a central theme.

There is romance in all my books. Some more than others. Some steamier, some tamer, most of them land somewhere in the middle. But it’s not just romantic love that has my attention. The relationships between family, friends, and lovers drive every single one of my books despite the genre. You can expect a tangled web of relationships and layers of love weaved through all my books no matter the genre.

I use these three rules when I write.

To keep my interest in writing, my heart in the book, and my conscience clear, I use these three rules (three c’s) to align my romances with my personal beliefs and values. I should preface this by saying I do not have wholesome or traditional morals and values. I’m down to get into some weird shit, but always with these three things in mind:

Consent – Whether I’m writing a light-hearted romcom or a dark fantasy romance, consent is front and centre. The kink community is something I belong to myself and wish to portray accurately. Women are important to me, and the safety, confidence, and exploration of my female characters are never overlooked.

Compatibility – I often get to the part of a book where the enemies become lovers, the friends realize feelings, or the second chance is granted, and I’m left wondering why. I like to give equal attention to both sides of the love story. What keeps them apart, and why they belong together. Both are just as important.

Communication – If there is one thing I believe with my whole heart, it’s the value of communication. In any relationship, across any gender, through the span of a life, good communication is the ultimate goal. Learning to be open about our thoughts and feelings, especially with people we love will save conflict and arguments nine out of ten times. If there is a miscommunication in my books, it’s resolved in pages, not chapters.

Now that you know what guides me as an author head over to the Books page and see my genre mish-mash in all its glory!

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Postpartum, motherhood, and romantic suspense

Allison Martin — Tue, 14 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Every book I’ve ever written has started with a question.

What would happen if…Why do people…Is it bad when…Where do people turn to when…Who deserves…When is it okay to…How can someone…

When I began writing Wildfire, it was a women’s fiction. It was solely a story about a woman who would go to any lengths to protect her daughter, including the girl’s father. It was a story about a woman so closed off and afraid that she became the thing that she was scared of.

Throughout Wildfire, Briggs is constantly at war with herself over what to do to keep her daughter safe from a person who is stalking them.

I don’t want to spoil the book for those who haven’t read it, but the entire story culminates around Briggs’s realization that in her effort to keep her child close, she’s pushed her away.

My own daughter is six at the time of writing this, and a lot of Briggs and Millie’s journey is rooted in my fears and struggles as a mother. Mom judgement is vast and deep, especially in the internet age.

We’re all trying our best, and we’re all getting it wrong (according to someone online who doesn’t know shit about our circumstances). The best bit of parenting advice I got when I had a child was:

“There’s only one way to parent.The wrong way.”
-original source unknown

There are so many things to learn when stepping into parenthood, and we’re tossed around in the river of advice while trying not to get sucked into the undercurrent of shame and judgment, all while keeping a tiny human alive.

It’s exhausting and terrifying.

After a long and traumatic pregnancy, I struggled for over a year with undiagnosed postpartum anxiety. Randomly and without notice, I would fall into vivid hallucinations of horrible things happening to my baby, and my body would respond as if it were real.

Slowly, I began to withdraw from everyone around me, staying inside and trusting no one with her care. I was the only one who could protect her from these terrible things that, in reality, were both unlikely and borderline ridiculous. I knew I was being paranoid and that these vivid scenarios were sometimes not even physically possible, so I kept them to myself.

Once I finally broke and told my partner what was happening in my head, things moved quickly to getting help (the perks of a partner who is a mental wellness counsellor-he gets it).

This book was part of my healing process. Briggs is a mom who slowly spirals into unreasonable attempts to shield her daughter that eventually blow up in her face. Danger, stalkers, and having her worst fears realized were how I untangled my overprotective parenting.

Readers don’t like Briggs, and I find that interesting (see above mom-shaming statements) because there are times when I didn’t like her either, even though her fears/paranoia/flaws are based on my own.

But I didn’t set out to make Briggs likable. And like all my books, this one took on a life of its own and shifted from a women’s fiction to a romance to romantic suspense to a family saga.

But I started this book with a simple question that I was grappling with at the time.

What happens when, in an effort to protect your children from suffering, you become the one who causes it?

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