about petra martin

Petra Martin owns Heron Lake Press, which publishes the Mixed Emotions card deck. She founded the Whidbey Island Writer’s Refuge, which provides writers and other creatives with inspiring accommodations where they can escape the distractions of everyday life and  focus on their work. And she founded a nonprofit organization called Whidbey CareNet, which provided emergency responders with free services that helped them heal body and soul.

Petra grew up in the United States and in Germany, and speaks both languages. Her bicultural upbringing and later travels led Petra to ponder the similarities and differences between people. During a life-changing trip behind the Iron Curtain, Petra learned that that the Russians really did love their children, too. And Petra never looked at “enemies” the same way again.

Petra graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a bachelor’s degree in English, and completed a year-long certification program in poetry at the University of Washington. She worked as a writer and editor in public relations and the software industry for nearly 15 years. While working as a writer, she experienced several bouts of clinical depression and found herself unable to answer the question, “How do I feel?” She concluded that if she, a wordsmith by trade, found it difficult to put her feelings into words, surely others did, too. So she set about creating the Mixed Emotions card deck.

Petra lives in an intentional community (co-housing) on Whidbey Island in Washington State.