GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author K.P. Kulski!
K.P. KULSKI is a Hawaii-born, Korean-American author, historian, and career vampire of patriarchal tears. Channeling a lifelong obsession with history and the morose she’s managed to birth the gothic horror novel, Fairest Flesh, and novella, House of Pungsu. She bartered nine years of her life to the U.S. Navy and Air Force for food and later taught college history for the captive audience. Trapped by a force field, she currently resides in the woods of Northeast Ohio where she (probably) brews potions and talks to ghosts. Find her at garnetonwinter.com.
What made you want to become an author? Did you have an “Aha!” moment when you knew you were born to write? Or perhaps a beloved book inspired you?
I was a big reader from the time I was a kid. I was a quiet and shy and since we moved a lot (my father was in the military), I was perpetually the new kid. It didn’t help that things at home were difficult and social interactions have never come easily to me, so I was pretty lonely most of the time. I loved fantasy most of all and I think it was the escapism that was important. Some people look up to sports figures, actors, or singers, for me it was always the authors. The time I went to a book signing with Robert Jordan, I was so tongue tied it was hilarious (and I was an adult by then)! I started writing poetry and short stories on my own as an outlet. It was a need more than anything and I can’t tell you when I really decided on a conscious level to become an author, but I suppose there had to be some decision making at some point.
But I think it was the books that really moved me that lent a sense of calling. They made the power of storytelling tangible, books like The Joy Luck Club helped me find myself. I used to carry books around everywhere because they were such a comfort. I used to even call them “my old friends.” I still do these things now that I think about it. In the words of the late great, Mitch Hedberg, “I used to… I still do, but I used to too.”
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
I’m really good at sadness. Hahaha. But really, I think there’s this weird never-ending pit of it inside me that I’m driven to put it on the page. Which can cause some disconnects because interpersonally, I have a tendency to crack jokes and be horribly irreverent. I think I’m good at making descriptions readers can feel on a deeper level. All of this is risky to claim because of course someone one out there’s gonna be like… what the hell she talking about? I dunno. I write pretty but more than anything, I want to write honest. That’s always my goal.
If I need to improve something… and look, I’m constantly feeling I need to improve. That’s my specialty right there, not being overconfident… or confident… or being just neutral about myself. I research my bookshelves. I think what did so-and-so do for their story that I loved so much? What about it drew me in? How did they handle pacing or transition? Sometimes the most important thing for me to do is to put a name to the thing I’m struggling with. Is this a story problem? Dialogue? Etc.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community? Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
I’ve found the Horror indie world to be a positive place on the most part. The community is generally filled with fans who are happy to try indie titles and writers/reviewers/publishers who want to support each other. But the idea of “making it” really depends on one’s perspective on what that means. To publish a book? Get readers? Be widely read? Make a liveable wage? If it’s the liveable wage part, that’s the most difficult. Everyone’s feeling the squeeze. I see many indie publishers busting their butts trying to get authors paid something worthwhile, but it’s just a hard industry to make anything substantial. I really think it has a lot to do with how modern society views art— as something not worth a lot and should be easy come and easy go. There’s a lack of understanding of what art is and how often people consume it to mentally and emotionally survive. I mean, we are only just beginning to even acknowledge mental health as important and a real thing, so I guess it doesn’t surprise me much that we have a hard time viewing the human need for art when it’s not always something very palpable when it comes to impact.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
Maybe it’s because it’s the most recent and isn’t exactly a story but my essay in Unquiet Spirits, “100 Livers” is what I’m most proud of right now. It’s vulnerable and open more than I think I’ve ever been about anything. It discusses some really difficult parts of my life and the act of writing it allowed me to understand things I hadn’t really spent much time considering before. Not just because it’s connected to Kandisha Press but my short “What the Sea Gives” is one of my favorites. There’s a bleak uncanniness that I think the story captures well and when I revisit it, I can hear the waves and that makes me feel like I managed to capture a bit of the ocean in the words.
I’ve been told I write ethereal settings and from my in-the-weeds assessment that seems accurate, although I just sorta write and let the words take on a life of their own. So my work is dark and hard to pin down, but revels in the indefinable-ness. So there.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I’m a bit in a holding pattern right now in terms of publication. I have a book I’m querying at the moment, so it looks like I’m not doing a whole lot but in reality I am doing much behind the scenes. I’m of course working on a new novel as well… something Korean gothic meets the Matrix with glimpses of Korean history, all in a grand old house (of course). I’m also writing short stories and started a new Substack so I can put my opinion-laden thoughts somewhere and stop shouting on social media. Now I can shout in long form on a social media-like, bloggy platform. The worm transforms. The cycle of my life.
I’m appearing at the Akron Book Fest locally. I’m a transplant that ended up in the Akron area accidentally (married an Akronite) but it’s really become home and I adore our local library. So, I’m stoked to be part of the fest and meet local readers, or just introduce local readers to my brand of darkness. There’s another local appearance in the works too, but don’t think I can go into that just yet.
For the other future things, I’m planning to ummm, write more things. Read more things. Watch more things. Continue my transformation into witchy cronehood.
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