Allston moved all over Texas in his youth and graduated from high school in Denton. Allston moved to Austin in 1979 and attended the University of Texas. He became editor of Space Gamer magazine and by 1983 was a full time freelance game designer. He served as editor of Space Gamer from issues 52 (June 1982) - 65 (Sept/Oct 1983), and as editor of Fantasy Gamer for the first issue (Aug/Sep 1983) and co-editor of the second issue (Dec/Jan 1984). He branched into writing and by the mid 1990s had two novels under his belt.

He began writing on the Star Wars X-Wing series in 1997, when the primary sequence writer Michael Stackpole could not handle the entire workload. Stackpole had worked with Allston in the gaming industry years earlier. In 2006, Allston launched the The Legacy of the Force series with a hardcover entitled Betrayal.

In 2005, Allston made his directorial debut on the independent film Deadbacks, which he also wrote and produced. The project is in post production.

In early April 2009 Allston had a heart attack and underwent an emergency quadruple bypass surgery while on the book signing tour for Outcast, the first book in the Fate of the Jedi series.

Allston lives in Round Rock, Texas.

Non tie-in

• Galatea In 2-D (1993)

Doc Sidhe

• Doc Sidhe (1995)
• Sidhe-Devil (2001)

Star Wars

X-Wing

• Wraith Squadron (1998)
• Iron Fist (1998)
• Solo Command (1999)
• Starfighters of Adumar (1999)

The New Jedi Order

• Rebel Dream (2002)
• Rebel Stand (2002)

Legacy of the Force

• Betrayal (2006)
• Exile (2007)
• Fury (2007)

Fate of the Jedi

• Outcast (2009)
• Backlash (2010)
• Conviction (2011)

Terminator

• Terminator 3 Terminator Dreams (2003)
• Terminator Hunt (2004)

Non-fiction

• Strike Force (1988)
• Dungeons & Dragons Rules Cyclopedia (1991)
• Complete Ninja's Handbook (1995)
• Champions, Fifth Edition (2002)