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 Laura Jane Round!
Laura Jane Round is a horror writer and performance poet from the Black Country in England. She lives with Multiple Sclerosis – suffice to say, they don’t get along all that well. She has been published many times by places such as Beyond Queer Words, Tenebrous Texts, Querencia Press and Lumpen Journal
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?
Most people who read my work say they are unsettled. I don’t particularly want to be deliberately edgy but I do take pride in when my writing has a desired effect! I love unsettling, uncanny or uncomfortable stories, particularly in short-form. I love to read it as well as write it. I think that I can be economical with words and get a lot across in a short amount of time – this excludes me talking, by the way. I can ramble on and on for days…
Writing workshops, particularly online, can be useful when I’m struggling with something, especially when I’m grappling with a form that I am not familiar with. I was recently at a Geopoetics workshop that fascinated me and brought forth some intriguing ideas. The best way for me to improve is to keep writing, and to keep a dialogue with other writers around me.
I will say that lately I have found it useful to be a little more solitary lately – partly a choice because of other issues in my life, but partly because I needed to listen to my own voice and what I want from my writing. My peers are so thoughtful and helpful and generally just amazing people, but I was losing myself in performing and promotion when what I wanted to do was write. Making the decision to step back was hard but ultimately worth it. Other people are important and writing can be such a lonely existence without them. It’s also true that you need to write for yourself and trust in your own capabilities. Everyone has been really supportive and I cannot thank them enough.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community?
I do really think of the “industry” and the “community” as separate entities. Even self-publishing, for instance, is usually attached to a huge conglomerate like Amazon – and that’s not a judgement on my part! We’ve had to become dependent on these tools to compete. I’m concerned by publishing companies’ current strategies when publishing a book i.e. you have to know exactly what genre your book is, what its competitors are, what would do good as a double feature… I have worked in marketing and understand marketing research, but that feels like such a stifling of creativity. I want genre-bending mayhem if that’s what the author wants too.
But if we’re talking in terms of those niches, I want Horror to get its day in the sun (or moon, whichever you prefer). It’s certainly had an uptick in popularity but I still see open calls that are ambiguous in what boundaries someone can push or what genre they can marry Horror with. It seems like hesitance to me from these big companies, and I will always champion independent Horror. The mainstream industry seems insurmountable, but maybe that’s because I’ve never been able to crack it.
And I have benefited from marketing in my own small ways! I now have friends in countries I’ve never visited thanks to the internet and putting myself out there – but that’s the community, not the industry. The book community is so different and I think we maybe have a bit more power than we realise. I see people out there doing their thing for the love of it, and that’s important to me. Working writers are professionals and should be paid for their labour, but I also believe in passion and pride for my work. It makes me feel warm inside to see other people thinking in the same way.
Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
It’s a double-edged sword. The power of the people’s press is unstoppable, and “real” publishing is something that is no longer out of reach with self-publishing software. But people want you to do it all. Despite doing it for years, I am not what you would call a natural performer. I was never born for the stage, except maybe in drag as a WW2 soldier for my school play. I often joke to my friends that we need a medieval minstrel revival, someone to tell my stories and recite my poetry for me. I’m not a promoter! I don’t have the “it” factor. But if I want to make any kind of a living, it’s not enough to just be a writer and editor.
I’ve picked up things along the way but I’ve been luckier than most in that regard and I worry about talented authors burning themselves out before their time, jaded from the trappings of becoming a “brand” instead of a person.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
My work focuses on the body – I LOVE Body Horror. The gorier the better, usually, though I know that is not to everyone’s taste. I’m interested in the Uncanny also. My protagonists tend to be Women Who Are Not Quite Right, though the reason differs and twists and turns the longer the story goes on. I take a long time to write anything down, which feels sacrilegious as a writer. I see social media posts every day about how many words people have written or how a short story has turned into a novel seemingly overnight. I’m impressed and I’m in awe but I’m sorry, that could never be me! I take an age. I think that’s okay.
I think the external expressing the internal and vice versa is what I am always trying to get at. I am especially proud of ‘Stitches’, something that was published by an indie press local to me, Tenebrous Texts. Following a young woman in the 1950s, it explores misogyny, Western corporate culture and the consequences of repression. She also has a cat – I enjoyed writing about the cat.
On the poetry side of things, the body is still a prominent feature. My debut pamphlet, ‘The Coveted’, was all about growing up a girl in the era I did and how I felt about it. My second one, ‘TEATH’, was a micro-pamphlet focusing on my messed-up teeth and the dental work surrounding that. I played around a lot with spelling and punctuation, choosing to spell the things that looked write to me and say things that felt right in my mouth. It was released in 2022 and people still come up to me and say “y’know that’s not how you spell teeth, right?” – I have been an editor for years. Spelling is my bread and butter. Let me have a little fun! Maybe next time I’ll look at my book cover and clap a hand to my face in terror!
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
Kick Multiple Sclerosis in the butt. Be a good girl and do my physiotherapy exercises. Swim in a cold lake again. But keep writing, even if it hurts, even if it doesn’t go the way I plan. My novel – a queer Noir set in 1940s Chicago – has been a long time coming but I think I still have miles to go yet. I have a non-fiction piece written on my family coming out later this year and I have two poetry pamphlet manuscripts on the go, so don’t count on me going anywhere. Watch this space.
KANDISHA PRESS 
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