Welcome to the home of Cara Martin's speculative fiction. Cara's early influences include the original Planet of the Apes movie, reruns of The Twilight Zone (1959-64), John Wyndham novels, The Ghosts by Antonia Barber and every ghost story collection she could get her hands on as a child.

A teenage love of scary movies—The Entity, The Amityville Horror, The Omen trilogy, An American Werewolf in London, Ghost Story (1981)—has never left her. She's equally fascinated by time travel, artificial intelligence, and the dreams and fears that fuel us. All of these things are at the heart of her speculative work.

Shantallow is a creepy horror centring around a kidnapping and a malevolent house, and in Rise, Tomorrow Girl a young woman is revived after decades in cryogenic storage, cured of a deadly virus, only to discover "the future isn't what it used to be" and her life is still in danger.


On Sale Now: Rise, Tomorrow Girl



"With its sparring prose, inclusive cast and difficult themes, Cara Martin’s Shantallow is crackling YA. It addresses themes of revenge porn, abuse, drugs and sex, but at its heart is a message all young people should hear: there’s life after transgression, and while it may not include forgiveness, personal amends can be made, behaviour changed and community rediscovered."
Ottawa Book Award jury statement

Shantallow. Gut-wrenching on various levels - Kirkus. Serious, literary and very sary - Booklist





Bye-Bye, Meta (based on an image by Mohamed Hassan)With the same moderation changes that resulted in a torrent of hate speech and disinformation on X now set to roll out on Meta (Facebook, Instagram, Threads) it was time to pull up stakes and spend time places that respect facts and people instead. As for what you can expect at Meta moving forward:
 
I've already left Facebook (and Twitter/X before that) and am currently in the process of packing up my Instagram account. Many of my favourite photographs from 2007 to the present have moved to Flickr. My final day on Instagram will be January 19th. 
 
Here are some other places you can continue to find me:

Bluesky: caramartin
Spoutible: CaraCKMartin
Mastodon: mstdn.ca/@ckkellymartin
Tumblr: ckkellymartin
Flickr: ckkellymartin
Goodreads: C. K. Kelly Martin
 
blackd and white photo of me with my babysitter's dog in the early 70s and image of Puerta Banus, Spain from 2018
 
Once Bluesky's photo-sharing app Flashes is available I'll post photos there too. And of course there are always my websites:

www.ckkellymartin.com
www.caramartin.ca
www.justlikeyousaiditwouldbe.com

You can find up to date links to the social media networks I appear on at each website. 

Today my Goodreads contest is live. If you're in Canada or the U.S. you can enter to win a signed copy of Rise, Tomorrow Girl plus my first sci-fi, Yesterday.


The giveaway books arrived early this afternoon and are waiting for good homes to go to! If you like sci-fi set in the not distant future and enjoy Canadian settings then these might be your jam. They're housebroken and require no food or water.


Goodreads Book Giveaway

Rise, Tomorrow Girl by Cara  Martin

Rise, Tomorrow Girl

by Cara Martin

Giveaway ends September 30, 2024.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter Giveaway


 
You can now pre-order e-copies of my upcoming sci-fi RISE, TOMORROW GIRL at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, and Google. On June 21st e-copies will also be available at Apple and paperbacks via Amazon. Read Chapter One.

 

Pre-order on Google Books

Pre-order on Amazon  

Pre-order on Kobo

Pre-order on Barnes & Noble 

Pre-order on Apple