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 Angel Krause!
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?
Honestly I didn’t have one. The journey as more like, I had always just been running around writing stories? My mom and I used to have timed writing challenges as a fun thing to do together and my parents always indulged my need to have a ton of notebooks to write in. As I got older, I started writing fan fiction and RP style writing in group settings. I honestly had completely given up writing in a real world sense. Then I started doing YT and making horror friends online. A lot of those friends were writers and it got my wheels going. I tried to submit a few pieces over and over and in most cases I didn’t even get acknowledged. So I gave up again. Then I met my partner two years ago and developed really great friendships with Tasha from The Sinister Scoop and Cat Voleur. Those three people are THE reason I put anything out to begin with. I got two acceptances before doing my own anthology with Tasha and then through constant encouragement, I just finally took the plunge and put out my first collection last Nov in 2023. Shortly after, I put out a novella, Misses Claws. I felt like I had a safe community to try in and I am so grateful to those three people for believing in me.
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?
It can be so hard to talk positively about my writing, but the one thing I keep getting told is that people enjoy my characters. The way I have them fleshed out and the way they interact. It is something I think comes from writing RP for so long, because it is more character driven then environment or overall concept. The characters always mean something to me, so it is nice to know they mean something to others as well. (Fun fact, my Christmas werewolf story is all real people, including my character’s dad.) Other than editing things like passive voice and tenses, I think a weakness I have is trying to make the world building too big. I wrote a werewolf piece for the charity anthology we’re doing, and I had to cut so much to get it down to the word count just because of the world building. I also think sometimes I know in my head what the ways of the story are, and I forget sometimes to make sure the reader knows that. I ask a bunch of people to early read stuff. That’s the only way I can get the feedback necessary to tweak things. I’m not able to notice it on my own, so I rely quite heavily on my community to help make my stories better.
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?
Oh! Loaded question. I think it depends on how you define easy. It is “easy” to put a book up on Amazon. It is not easy to edit or format it. It isn’t always easy to find the right cover for the right price. It is not easy to market or get attention. I think my biggest thought on this is actually around Indie publishers. So many of them are taking advantage of writers or disappearing after contract agreements. We have a few that are solid, trustworthy presses (like yourself), but they are so small in number. And because there aren’t that many, they can only take on so many projects. Lesbi-honest, most of us are all still working day jobs. Some of us have families. We are ALL limited on time. So these presses get bombarded when they’re able to open submissions. I think it is hard to get picked up because there are more authors than there are publishers. I hope to be part of that solution some day soon. It is a work in progress. It is a ton of work owning a press and it is a ton of work being a writer. I think there are people in the book community that are not good for it, but I feel fortunate to have built a family with the good ones. One of the things I personally strive to do when I do anthologies, is I pick people who haven’t been published or who aren’t the “bigger” Indie writers that we often see in a lot of projects. I want to see more of that. I want to see a more conscious effort to utilize writers who are new and not selecting people who already have a career and a following. Not because they don’t deserve the light, but because I believe that light should be shared. In all of the anthologies I’ve done, there are first time publishes. And, moreover, in two in particular, first timers make up a very large percentage of the books. That is what we need more of.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
Okay, but you can’t tell the other stories! I have this story called The Soul Eater. It is a story about a priest who, of course, has a disdain for God. He has a dark past where he witnessed neglect of a child that led to demonic possession and he has never forgotten the role that humans play in evil. So present day, this is a short story in my collection by the way, he goes to help another family and ultimately gets possessed himself. But the priest, Cameron, is just so important to me. I battled with faith for a long time before ultimately ended up being a (I guess) agnostic. Cameron wants to help people but he knows they aren’t always at the core, good. This was the first story I ever submitted to an open call. I have submitted this piece probably 10 times at least, and it was FINALLY taken up in ‘Something Bad Happened’, an anthology put together by Jennifer Bernardini. I ended up making some changes before re-releasing a slightly different version in my collection. Cameron’s story is something that showcases what I love about possession films and stories without all the stuff I don’t like. I may or may not already have a full wrap to make this a full novel one day. Other than Cameron, I write a lot of different stuff. I’ve meddled in found footage, monsters, ghosts, and definitely werewolves. I have a soft spot for the wolf babies. There’s always depth to the characters and always social commentary. I have a story in my collection called There Is Only Us, about two lesbians (one is a transwoman) and them taking back the power society has robbed them of. It is important to me to use what I have to speak for the things I believe in. So, a lot of gay stuff, a lot of cuss words, and a lot of questions about religion and whether or not people are innately good.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
Cat Voleur and I release our epistolary zombie anthology ‘Sincerely, Departed’ on May 27th. My co host of my YT channel is helping me do a werewolf charity anthology that will release some time this summer. I have a shark cult book that I’m making a lot of progress on, in hopes of getting it out before September. Otherwise, I’ll be announcing a special anthology with Lauren Carter in August I believe and then shortly after I’ll have a Halloween series that book one of will be out. I’ll also be announcing the next room of the house for my anthology series ‘That Old House’. I am clearly over extending myself! But I love working with others in the writing world and I just want to get these ideas out and in people’s hands. As is the case with many of us, writing is special to me and now that I’ve started? I don’t think I will ever be able to stop.
KANDISHA PRESS 
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