Allison Martine's Blog
April 9, 2021
Reader Seeks Romance!
Allison Martine was recently interviewed by Liz Donatelli on Reader Seeks Romance, right here:
https://youtu.be/5SGxZw5ZmRw
https://youtu.be/5SGxZw5ZmRw
December 31, 2020
The 2020 Goodreads Rundown
When I set my Goodreads Challenge at the dawn of 2020, I naively did the logical thing: took last year’s pattern and figured I’d nudge myself to “outread” 2019, if only by a little. What I didn’t anticipate? 2020.
Beyond COVID’s quarantines and social distancing and the complete upheaval of how most of us lived our lives, my reading life underwent three massive changes.
One: Beta Reading
At the end of 2019, I dipped my toe in this little thing called “PitMad.” (The “mad” part is not hyperbolic.) I stopped being a lonely little author, writing in my own corner of the world, and became part of an international community. I swapped my early drafts with new friends across oceans and on the other side of the equator, doing my best to help them polish their works before submission to agents and editors alike. Some, I read multiple drafts, even watching as an author “unkilled” a character. (I much preferred him “bad” to “dead.”)
Goodreads only tracks published titles; therefore, none of my beta reading counted towards my tally. Well shoot. (The exception? A few titles I beta read at the beginning of 2020 hit the shelves by the end of the calendar year. Score!)
Two: Comp Titles
If you would have asked me in 2019 how many romance books I planned to read, the answer would have been zero.
If you would have asked me in 2019 how many romance books I planned to write, the answer would have been laughter.
If you would have told me in 2019 that I’d be published in 2020 for a book I hadn’t yet written in a genre I don’t read, I would have wondered what sort of messed up Tarot reading I’d stumbled upon. Yet, all those things happened.
I did write romance. And then I wrote the sequel.
And to help get it published, I was encouraged to find “comp(arative) titles” to include in my queries. Easier said than done when you’re not familiar with the genre and aren’t even sure you wrote a romance. (We’ve determined “dibs,” is, in fact, a romance.) I still am grateful to the staff at Bookman in Orange for their guidance to this bookworm who rarely ventured out of the Science Fiction/Fantasy stacks (and even then, it was usually to Horror to see if there was any more Peter Straub I hadn’t read) to help me sort through their massive collection of romance to find comp titles that were contemporary (no dukes, pirates, or princesses please), humorous without being slapstick, and fell somewhere on the heat scale between holding hands and a nuclear meltdown.
I discovered new authors that way, and had other readers later compare my works to some of their favorites, too. I now know my way around Guillory and Holiday, Kinsella and Clayton, and hope that one day, my name ends up listed by theirs on someone’s favorite romance author list. (Well, my pen name, anyway.)
Three: Vox Vomitus Guests
2020 had one more curveball for my “TBR” stack, and that would be Vox Vomitus. Fake Latin for “word vomit,” (it might more properly be translated as “emptied voice,” but my Latin isn’t just rusty, it’s dead), I was invited to co-host a live, weekly podcast with one of the fellow authors I’d first connected with after PitMad. She failed to mention it would be a VIDEO podcast but by then I’d already agreed.
Every Wednesday, we’d go live with a bestselling author or creator, and while our show is most definitely unscripted, I’d do my best to read at least a sample of each of our guests’ work. I had the privilege to talk Lovecraft Country and 88 Names with Matt Ruff and ask about his hidden Easter Eggs (which were there, but the Margo in question wasn’t the one I had guessed), discuss which mashup best describes Natalie Zina Walschotts’ Hench (I’m sticking with The Boys meets Doctor Horrible, but with less singing), and I even fell in love with a Bot. (Thanks, Simon Stephenson’s Set My Heart to Five. I already named my Airfryer, but now I feel bad for putting it in a cabinet.)
Some of these authors I hopefully would have found on my own—eventually—since they’re in my science fiction wheelhouse (or adjacent) but so many of them defy easy categorization. (When in doubt, let the bookstore figure it out!) We’re set to talk to more authors, narrators, and I even managed to reach out to the author of a book I stumbled upon and have him booked for our show in February.
I have no idea what’s in store for me in 2021, but my TBR grows by the hour.
Happy New Year, and Happy Reading
Beyond COVID’s quarantines and social distancing and the complete upheaval of how most of us lived our lives, my reading life underwent three massive changes.
One: Beta Reading
At the end of 2019, I dipped my toe in this little thing called “PitMad.” (The “mad” part is not hyperbolic.) I stopped being a lonely little author, writing in my own corner of the world, and became part of an international community. I swapped my early drafts with new friends across oceans and on the other side of the equator, doing my best to help them polish their works before submission to agents and editors alike. Some, I read multiple drafts, even watching as an author “unkilled” a character. (I much preferred him “bad” to “dead.”)
Goodreads only tracks published titles; therefore, none of my beta reading counted towards my tally. Well shoot. (The exception? A few titles I beta read at the beginning of 2020 hit the shelves by the end of the calendar year. Score!)
Two: Comp Titles
If you would have asked me in 2019 how many romance books I planned to read, the answer would have been zero.
If you would have asked me in 2019 how many romance books I planned to write, the answer would have been laughter.
If you would have told me in 2019 that I’d be published in 2020 for a book I hadn’t yet written in a genre I don’t read, I would have wondered what sort of messed up Tarot reading I’d stumbled upon. Yet, all those things happened.
I did write romance. And then I wrote the sequel.
And to help get it published, I was encouraged to find “comp(arative) titles” to include in my queries. Easier said than done when you’re not familiar with the genre and aren’t even sure you wrote a romance. (We’ve determined “dibs,” is, in fact, a romance.) I still am grateful to the staff at Bookman in Orange for their guidance to this bookworm who rarely ventured out of the Science Fiction/Fantasy stacks (and even then, it was usually to Horror to see if there was any more Peter Straub I hadn’t read) to help me sort through their massive collection of romance to find comp titles that were contemporary (no dukes, pirates, or princesses please), humorous without being slapstick, and fell somewhere on the heat scale between holding hands and a nuclear meltdown.
I discovered new authors that way, and had other readers later compare my works to some of their favorites, too. I now know my way around Guillory and Holiday, Kinsella and Clayton, and hope that one day, my name ends up listed by theirs on someone’s favorite romance author list. (Well, my pen name, anyway.)
Three: Vox Vomitus Guests
2020 had one more curveball for my “TBR” stack, and that would be Vox Vomitus. Fake Latin for “word vomit,” (it might more properly be translated as “emptied voice,” but my Latin isn’t just rusty, it’s dead), I was invited to co-host a live, weekly podcast with one of the fellow authors I’d first connected with after PitMad. She failed to mention it would be a VIDEO podcast but by then I’d already agreed.
Every Wednesday, we’d go live with a bestselling author or creator, and while our show is most definitely unscripted, I’d do my best to read at least a sample of each of our guests’ work. I had the privilege to talk Lovecraft Country and 88 Names with Matt Ruff and ask about his hidden Easter Eggs (which were there, but the Margo in question wasn’t the one I had guessed), discuss which mashup best describes Natalie Zina Walschotts’ Hench (I’m sticking with The Boys meets Doctor Horrible, but with less singing), and I even fell in love with a Bot. (Thanks, Simon Stephenson’s Set My Heart to Five. I already named my Airfryer, but now I feel bad for putting it in a cabinet.)
Some of these authors I hopefully would have found on my own—eventually—since they’re in my science fiction wheelhouse (or adjacent) but so many of them defy easy categorization. (When in doubt, let the bookstore figure it out!) We’re set to talk to more authors, narrators, and I even managed to reach out to the author of a book I stumbled upon and have him booked for our show in February.
I have no idea what’s in store for me in 2021, but my TBR grows by the hour.
Happy New Year, and Happy Reading
April 29, 2020
How to Break a Heart Without Breaking Quarantine
(This blog originally appeared on Breaking Rules Publishing's Website)
Welcome to my brief tutorial on how to write a romance novel (or two) while surviving being trapped in a duplex with three children under the age of ten. Normally, writing a romance should be done in a glamorous setting: a Swiss chalet, cozied up under a faux fur throw; digging your toes into the sand while the waves crash in the background; anywhere you can sip a Manhattan. (Including Manhattan.) Social distancing means you will need to bring the romance to you. You will not have the luxury of being inspired by your scenery unless piles of dirty laundry make you swoon.
Step One: Gather your weapons
You’ll need a computer. Don’t kid yourself. This isn’t the time for a leather-bound journal and calligraphy pen. You will not have a spare moment to copy down what you write from paper to screen. You’ve got one shot before someone needs you to wipe their butt. Don’t blow it.
Coffee is not mandatory but strongly suggested. You haven’t slept well since before Obama was president. Wine is fine. You aren’t driving. Nobody’s driving.
Keep a bowl of snacks nearby. Star Wars fruit snacks, Funyuns, and squeezable apple sauce are recommended. Obviously these are not for you but to hand to anyone who inevitably starts whining that they’re hungry. Toss them as necessary, like you’d throw meat to a lion.
Step Two: Train your senses:
You’ll need to learn to tune out the following noises: the bing-bing-bing of a railroad crossing gate, forty minutes straight, since your four-year-old is still obsessed with watching trains and he can only do that now on YouTube. The sound of an entire Lego bin getting dumped all over the wooden floor—you will step on them later, barefoot. Brace yourself. Rustling in the kitchen—foraging is encouraged because it means they’re not bothering you.
But not these noises: water running—it might be someone washing their hands. It is probably someone peeing on the floor. It is definitely not the dishwasher because only you know what the buttons do or how to run it. The bing-bing-bing that the refrigerator is open. (It is a different pitch than the bing-bing-bing of the railroad crossing; learn to distinguish the two.) Screaming. There will be a lot of screaming. You’ll need to separate the brawlers.
Step Three: Set the Mood
Unless you have a partner willing to watch your munchkins while you lock yourself away in your writing dungeon or what have you—and if so, well done!—you will have to be able to accept the cognitive dissonance of watching your children WHILE trying to simultaneously visualize your characters gazing deeply into each other’s eyes. You’ll have to change a training potty but still envision a hot tub, or stir Spaghetti-Os but summon up the smell of filet minon or crème brulee. You can’t very well light a soft candle because someone will inevitably burn off an eyebrow or set their sister’s doll’s hair on fire.
Vision boards are great for this, so scour the internet for pictures that remind you of the people or places that you want to include in your novel. Obviously this is all a thinly veiled excuse to look up thousands of pictures that you base the love interest on, but it’s for your novel, so it’s okay, and you definitely aren’t a stalker.
Step Four: Write, Maybe
You’ve got your equipment and hopefully some inspiration and you are ready to write that novel. The perfect scene will descent into your brain, as if gifted by Cupid himself. The moment you go to type that out, someone will have found the xylophone and begin to plonk out what might be Three Blind Mice but all you know is the muse has left you and so has your patience.
Repeat as often as necessary until novel is complete.
Welcome to my brief tutorial on how to write a romance novel (or two) while surviving being trapped in a duplex with three children under the age of ten. Normally, writing a romance should be done in a glamorous setting: a Swiss chalet, cozied up under a faux fur throw; digging your toes into the sand while the waves crash in the background; anywhere you can sip a Manhattan. (Including Manhattan.) Social distancing means you will need to bring the romance to you. You will not have the luxury of being inspired by your scenery unless piles of dirty laundry make you swoon.
Step One: Gather your weapons
You’ll need a computer. Don’t kid yourself. This isn’t the time for a leather-bound journal and calligraphy pen. You will not have a spare moment to copy down what you write from paper to screen. You’ve got one shot before someone needs you to wipe their butt. Don’t blow it.
Coffee is not mandatory but strongly suggested. You haven’t slept well since before Obama was president. Wine is fine. You aren’t driving. Nobody’s driving.
Keep a bowl of snacks nearby. Star Wars fruit snacks, Funyuns, and squeezable apple sauce are recommended. Obviously these are not for you but to hand to anyone who inevitably starts whining that they’re hungry. Toss them as necessary, like you’d throw meat to a lion.
Step Two: Train your senses:
You’ll need to learn to tune out the following noises: the bing-bing-bing of a railroad crossing gate, forty minutes straight, since your four-year-old is still obsessed with watching trains and he can only do that now on YouTube. The sound of an entire Lego bin getting dumped all over the wooden floor—you will step on them later, barefoot. Brace yourself. Rustling in the kitchen—foraging is encouraged because it means they’re not bothering you.
But not these noises: water running—it might be someone washing their hands. It is probably someone peeing on the floor. It is definitely not the dishwasher because only you know what the buttons do or how to run it. The bing-bing-bing that the refrigerator is open. (It is a different pitch than the bing-bing-bing of the railroad crossing; learn to distinguish the two.) Screaming. There will be a lot of screaming. You’ll need to separate the brawlers.
Step Three: Set the Mood
Unless you have a partner willing to watch your munchkins while you lock yourself away in your writing dungeon or what have you—and if so, well done!—you will have to be able to accept the cognitive dissonance of watching your children WHILE trying to simultaneously visualize your characters gazing deeply into each other’s eyes. You’ll have to change a training potty but still envision a hot tub, or stir Spaghetti-Os but summon up the smell of filet minon or crème brulee. You can’t very well light a soft candle because someone will inevitably burn off an eyebrow or set their sister’s doll’s hair on fire.
Vision boards are great for this, so scour the internet for pictures that remind you of the people or places that you want to include in your novel. Obviously this is all a thinly veiled excuse to look up thousands of pictures that you base the love interest on, but it’s for your novel, so it’s okay, and you definitely aren’t a stalker.
Step Four: Write, Maybe
You’ve got your equipment and hopefully some inspiration and you are ready to write that novel. The perfect scene will descent into your brain, as if gifted by Cupid himself. The moment you go to type that out, someone will have found the xylophone and begin to plonk out what might be Three Blind Mice but all you know is the muse has left you and so has your patience.
Repeat as often as necessary until novel is complete.
