Welcome to the home of Cara Martin's speculative fiction. Cara's early influences include the original Planet of the Apes movie, Twilight Zone (1959-64) reruns, John Wyndham novels, 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.
Cara Martin's Shantallow is an eerie horror centring on a kidnapping and a malevolent abandoned 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.
If you'd like to know more about Cara's C. K. Kelly Martin books please visit her other author website.
"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
Happy Read an Ebook Week! You can find most of my C. K. Kelly Martin books at half price at Smashwords this week to help you celebrate.
It's also a good time to pick up my latest sci-fi, RISE, TOMORROW GIRL, on sale. Set in 2050, in many ways RISE is a love letter to Canada. Healed of plague after years in cryogenic storage, a seventeen-year-old Canadian struggles to integrate into a world that's moved on without her and then must fight to stay alive, fleeing an American invasion.
Russian Mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya wrote these words in 1888, and the
message holds true across miles and years. Stay true. And in this case also, elbows up, Canada. I know
Canadians will do what they can to support their neighbours and
countrymen during this difficult time. We will never again feel the same way about the United States, a once valued friend and ally, no matter what happens from here on out. We will, however, do what we must for our national sovereignty. Because Canada is not the United States. We value different things, and we will control our own destiny, no matter what that costs in dollars and cents.
Like The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie sang in Wheat Kings, "You can't be fond of living in the past, 'Cause if you are, then there's no way that you're gonna last." Together we will move forward from where we currently stand, mindful of what matters, and we will weather the storm.
This country isn't perfect, but it has never stopped striving to be better. Canada is beautiful, strong, and free. And it's ours.
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:Users are now allowed to, for example, refer to “women as household objects or property” or “transgender or non-binary people as ‘it,’” according to a section of the policy prohibiting such speech that was crossed out. A new section of the policy notes Meta will allow “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality . . . The policy also now allows for content arguing in favor of “gender-based limitations of military, law enforcement, and teaching jobs.”
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.
Giveaway ends September 30, 2024.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
