Author Spotlight: British Gothic Horror author Laura Clarke Walker

Laura Clarke Walker (she/they) is a writer, teacher, and lover of all things Gothic. When she’s not immersed in the world of Coldharbour, she can be found drinking espressos darker than the night, listening to podcasts in other languages, and running around her local lakes.

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website: lauraclarkewalker.com

Instagram: @lauraclarkewalker

Amazon: Coldharbour

PITCH FOR READERS/BOOK CLUBS:

Three generations preyed upon by pure evil. Two lost souls drawn to each other in the darkness. One compelling story of love, loyalty, and betrayal. A spellbinding mix of murder, magic, and romance, Coldharbour is a thrilling Gothic fantasy full of Nineties nostalgia.

Your debut novel Coldharbour is out now with Rowanvale Books – congrats on your debut! Can you tell us about your indie publishing journey from the premise of your book to publication? How did we get here?

Thank you so much! Well, this is a long story, as I came up with the first character in 2005 and wrote the first draft in 2009. However, I only started taking Coldharbour seriously as a project to be published around 2021, especially as it had become a very personal story to which I really wanted to do justice.

In 2024, I queried agents for a while, but ultimately I decided that maintaining a certain level of creative control was more important to me than gaining literary representation. It’s a completely different journey for every author, but I’m so excited to be hybrid publishing and for Coldharbour to be now out in the wild!

Coldharbour is a Gothic paranormal mystery with 1990s nostalgia, set in Essex. What brought these elements together for you in terms of genre, tone, and setting?

I’m really passionate about the state of British seaside towns, which have been on the decline for a long time, and decayed settings are a huge feature of the Gothic.

Also, we think of the Millennium and we think of looking towards the future, but I can also remember the dread over the millennium bug and how everyone became extremely retrospective – there was a sense of the fin de siècle to everything.

Plus, the paranormal was having a heyday in the Nineties – shows like Charmed and Buffy were an important influence on me growing up, so I definitely pay homage to them in Coldharbour.

What sort of representation can readers expect, and what makes this rep important to you as the author?

There’s a whole variety of representation in Coldharbour, including a range of sexualities and gender identities, ethnic backgrounds, and neurodivergences and disabilities. It can sound a bit like I’m ‘box-ticking’, but it’s just my reality as a neurodivergent Queer person of colour.

I really craved representation growing up and I think the way that the sociopolitical landscape is shifting at the moment, hearing from diverse voices is more important than ever.

What is your favourite trope/theme that appears in this novel? Can you tell us about any that you play with or subvert?

My absolute favourite trope in Coldharbour is the haunted house that reflects the protagonist’s psyche, which really is as Gothic as it gets.

The house in question, 1 St Augustine’s, is loosely based on some that I’ve lived in and I really feel that it, like the town, is a character in its own right. There are locked doors, mysterious bloodstains, things in wells which shouldn’t be, all hinting at the dark family secrets Alex must try to unravel throughout the novel.

However, the love story between Alex and Elizabeth is unconventional: Alex is a single mother in her thirties and Elizabeth has certainly had her own life, so they come together with a certain maturity (and reticence) that comes from being a bit older compared to a lot of relationships depicted in fantasy works.

Also, I really try to avoid the standard romance tropes around love triangles and miscommunication, mostly because the characters have bigger things to worry about!

The most significant trope I subvert is ‘bury your gays’, in which Queer characters tend to die in service of the plot or their loved one’s character development. It is a harmful trope that’s still used prolifically, so while Elizabeth does die, it’s only temporary – because her Power is resurrection. Whether the resurrection always goes to plan, well, that’s for readers to find out!

Let’s talk about your main character, Alex Wilde. How did you develop her from the initial idea, and what makes her who she is? What has been your favourite reader response to her so far?

To be honest, the initial Alex was a very generic protagonist. I was only sixteen when I first devised her and she was very active, enthusiastic, enquiring, just not necessarily interesting.

Alex has evolved as I have.

I really needed to go out there and experience everything adulthood has to offer (both good and bad) before Alex could become a well-rounded character. Homecoming and grief run through the current Alex like Brighton rock, neither of which I could’ve written authentically when I was a teenager.

This Alex is an unreliable narrator and reluctant heroine, which is influenced by many of my favourite books.

Shirley Jackson’s work has been a crucial part of my writing journey and I can definitely see aspects of Eleanor from The Haunting of Hill House in Alex, especially in terms of her mental health.

Readers are usually very sympathetic to Alex as a character, but they tend to respond particularly to her relationship with Elizabeth. The word ‘compelling’ has come up several times and I can’t ask for much more than that!

Elizabeth also sounds really intriguing; where did she come from as a character, how did she develop as you drafted & revised? Were there any moments between her & Alex that you ended up cutting but wanted to keep, or any bits you really enjoyed writing that you couldn’t part with in the final edit? 

I recently described Elizabeth as ‘cold but also compassionate, confident in her abilities but self-conscious as a person, secretive but protective’, so she’s definitely one of the more complex characters in Coldharbour!

She’s also one of the last ones to reach their ‘final form’, as she was an amalgamation of three characters from the pre-2021 story, but once she came together, there she was: Elizabeth the Unkillable.

Elizabeth is particularly morally grey and like Alex, that’s influenced by some of my favourite characters in books and other media. I don’t think I’ve ever cut anything significant for Elizabeth, but I always say that the night of the storm in the first Coldharbour is one of my favourite ever scenes of the entire series.

Minor spoilers, but both Alex and the reader finally have enough pieces of the picture that is Elizabeth Black to decide exactly who she is.

What has been your favourite feedback on the novel so far/favourite reader response?

I have loved all the reviews that have mentioned the atmosphere and the tension in Coldharbour – this was an area of the book I spent a long time cultivating, so to have seen it pay off with readers has been fantastic. I know that Gothic literature can be very particular, so I was really worried that people just wouldn’t get it and I’ve been so happy to discover that actually, people both understand and enjoy the book.

Like This? Try These!

• Author Spotlight: Gothic Fantasy Author Nadine Bells Date February 4, 2026 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Spotlight: Horror/Paranormal Author Amanda Leanne Date May 30, 2025 In relation to Author Interview
• Author Interviews ~ C. M. Rosens (it me!!) Date July 26, 2021 In relation to Author Interview
• My Own Author Interview! Date October 13, 2024 In relation to Author Interview
• Gothic Horror Looks – Meet the Author Date January 8, 2021 In relation to aesthetic
• Author Spotlight: Horror Author PD Alleva Date February 11, 2026 In relation to Author Interview

Jennifer Sklias-Gahan, author of The House in the Middle of the Street #gothicfiction

http://wakingwriter.com/2026/03/27/jennifer-sklias-gahan-author-of-the-house-in-the-middle-of-the-street/

Horror Spotlight: Explore New Weird Coming-of-Rage Novel, “Thirteenth”

GoodReads Stats:

Average rating: 4.54
Ratings: 83
Text Reviews: 27
Want to read: 298
Added to shelves: 408

StoryGraph Stats:

Average rating: 4.25
Reviews: 28

Lovecraftian horror meets kitchen sink drama in this dry, darkly funny tale of toxic families, killers and cannibals, eldritch body horror and antihero female rage.

Katy Porter is the thirteenth child of a thirteenth child in an inbred family of eldritch horrors, and her own eventual metamorphosis will change her into a creature that hungers for her family’s flesh. To some, she’s a threat – to others, a weapon.

Katy needs allies to help her control her Changes, but she’s stuck with her oldest brother, a drug-addled playboy who voted to have her killed but is chaotic enough to have genuinely changed his mind, and her eyeball-eating, god-like cousin, whose idea of protecting her involves abduction, dark rituals, and encouraging her homicidal side.

If anyone is going to survive Katy’s transformation, scores need to be settled and fears need to be faced – and Katy is not the only one who needs to face them.

Title: Thirteenth

Genre: New Weird, Bildungsroman, Paranormal Kitchen Sink Drama, and Urban Fantasy.

Age: Adult

Tropes: Damsel in Distress (will Kill You All), Addiction-Powered Millionaire Playboy (Mad, Bad, and Dangerous to Know), Creepy Family (Half Human Hybrid Eldritch Abominations who are Inbred and Evil), Poorly Chosen One (she Just Wants to be Normal), Lovecraft Lite (with Body Horror), Angry Teen Mentored by Grumpy Killer (Against Everyone’s Will).

How I feel about it: If anything, I’m even more proud of this one than my debut. I really got into my horror-comedy voice, and allowed myself to have so much fun with another angle of the world I’ve built. This is the book I once compared to Cold Comfort Farm and Slasher: Flesh and Blood with a strong dash of Whyborne and Griffin, so it’s not for everyone!

What surprised me most: Team Wes. What is wrong with you people?! I even made t-shirts and mugs on Redbubble for a short time! People who wanted more of the sombre, creeping dread of the first book often don’t enjoy this one as much, but I wrote this for those who are here for the humour, and the Millionaire Playboys. (Pick up Overexposure as a standalone intro to Wes, and you will understand my confusion).

This is the book that:

I was blown away by the reception to this book. I really loved sharing it with the world, but especially I’ve loved how people have taken my trio of fuck ups to heart.

What Readers Say:

“Like Encanto, but with more gore, incest, impossible geometry, and eldritch abominations from beyond space and time.”

“Thirteenth was such a fun read! I mean, a middle-class family of eldritch abominations living in a sleepy Home Counties town? Sold. Add in familial backstabbing, messy sibling and cousin relationships, a sentient house and a healthy side helping of tentacles, murder and cosmic horror, and you’ve got a fantastic book filled with vibrant characters (who made me feel like a terrible person for snort laughing at some very dark jokes). I look forward to returning to Pagham-On-Sea very soon!”

“This is the perfect series for anyone who likes the creepy cottagecore aesthetic and deeply flawed supernatural beings just trying to survive the next prophecy.”

“If eldritch beings and complicated family relationships has you curious, I definitely recommend this book.”

“This is a story of rotten families, Eldritch monstrosities and a teen girl’s coming of age. … It’s a horrifying and delightfully fun story, where no matter the occasion, someone will still crack a joke and a laugh out of you too. One of the best reads of 2021 so far, filled with horror, fun, laughter, trauma and emotion, it has it all!!”

“completely absurd, violent and absolutely wonderful. perfectly blending eldritch horror with family drama that’s both tender and hilarious.”

Horror Spotlight: Explore Gothic New Weird Novel “The Crows”

GoodReads Stats:

Average rating: 4.15
Ratings: 219
Text Reviews: 78
Want to read: 882
Added to shelves: 1,205

StoryGraph Stats:

Average Rating: 4.10
Reviews: 83

Her fate is sealed. Her death is inevitable.

Carrie Rickard, leaving an abusive relationship back in London, tries to escape her past by throwing herself into her restoration project: Fairwood House, known to locals of Pagham-on-Sea in Sussex as the Crows. Unable to resist as it whispers to her, Carrie’s obsession only grows when she discovers it was the site of a gruesome unsolved murder.

As she digs deeper into the mystery, she awakens dark and dangerous forces. Enter her foul-mouthed neighbor, Ricky Porter, who is as obsessed with the Crows as Carrie is, and who has several secrets of his own…not least of which are what’s really under the hood he wears and what he’s got in the cellar.

Title: The Crows

Genres: New Weird or Gothic Weird, in this case consisting of Gothic Horror, Paranormal, and Urban Fantasy.

Age: Adult

Tropes: Creepy Old House (is Alive), Matriarch (is Evil), Vengeful Spirit (of a Child), Only One Bed (and it’s Disturbing), Boy Next Door (is a Killer), Nancy Drew (and she’s Bad At It), Love Interests (Can’t Be Trusted), Touch-Starved Cannibal (is an Ally), Lovecraftian Abominations (are English Middle Class).

How I feel about it: I’m so proud of this book. It was the best I could do when I wrote it, and that’s that; I think I could re-write it now and it would be very different. However, as a snapshot of 2018-2019 me, and just on its own merits, I love it very much.

What surprised me most: I think I was most surprised by readers’ reactions to Ricky Porter, as I thought he would get mostly negative comments. I’m validated by the fact that readers who say they loved him are also surprised at their own reaction. Overall, I’ve had some amazing responses to this book, where I’m just glad I wrote it for those individuals, even if it was read by nobody else.

This is the book that:

I had no idea it would be this popular, or that it would resonate with readers the way that it has.

What Readers Say:

“It’s weird and gruesome, mysterious yet strangely wholesome. I couldn’t put it down. … The dynamic between the main cast is one that I loved very deeply. I’m a queer, what can I say? I love untraditional love and whatever is going on in Fairwood House is certainly untraditional.”

“A delicate balance between gruesome horror and urban/paranormal fantasy. A fun read!”

“I’m not sure how much of my feelings about this book are actually my own and which have slithered into my brain with slimy tentacles. I am equally horrified as enthralled and I cannot commend the author enough on creating such a riveting tale with the least likeable loveable characters ever imagined. Ricky managed to steal my heart… I’m fairly certain he ate it.”

“…a delightfully disturbing horror, with genuinely funny moments, and brilliant character dynamics.”

“There were heart wrenching moments but I can take it, if characters can make my heart hurt then it means they’ve been written well.”

“C M Rosens has taken some classic elements of a paranormal small town story and created something fresh, interesting and utterly addictive.”

Great New Gothic Romances You Should Definitely Read

Love an atmospheric vibe and a dark story that involves romantic love? Then one of these 6 great new gothic romances will be for you!
https://bookriot.com/great-new-gothic-romances-you-should-definitely-read/

#KissingBooks #RomanceErotica #darkromance #gothicfiction #gothicromance

Women In Horror (Spotlighting Myself)

Thank You So Much!

I’m so grateful to all my supporters and fans (I didn’t think I’d have ‘fans’, but apparently I do, and you’re all amazing!).

I’ve really enjoyed playing in my fictional worlds with everyone who has joined my Ko-Fi so far. I didn’t think I’d get single figures of members, let alone double figures, so again that’s been amazing.

You can check out all the posts, the short fiction available, the rewards to claim, and all the perks, via “My Fiction” in my main menu, above.

My Publishing Journey

It seems very odd to use my own website to highlight myself as a “Woman In Horror”, because you probably know that, or why are you here? But it also seems a bit odd to totally ignore myself while highlighting everyone else.

I started off self-publishing. I had intended from the start to self-publish The Crows, and I had already lined up an illustrator (Tom Brown) to work with. I had been in writing groups on Facebook for years, and had spent a long time querying my Wattpad fantasy series without success. A few people in our group had gone on to get traditional deals or had a very successful self-publishing route. I felt that self-publishing was the way to go for The Crows.

From Twitter Pitch to Self-Publishing

I pitched it on a whim in a Twitter event, and it got a full manuscript request from an editor at Rebellion Publishing, whose imprints include Abaddon and Solaris. It wasn’t what they were looking for in the end, but I had a real boost from the rejection and the feedback. It also cemented for me that I wanted to continue with the self-publishing route.

The Crows went through several beta reader rounds, multiple edits with a professional editor, and I believe it was the best it could have been at the time I wrote it. I think if I wrote that story again, now, it would be a different book; I’m not the same person or writer as I was in 2018-2019.

Its loose sequel took me in a very different direction to the one I thought it would go, and I still think there are stories to be told with a focus on Carrie & Ricky in the intervening months between those two timelines. It had a completely different tone and focus to the one I’d envisioned, but then, The Crows was never meant to be a series.

Thirteenth was received really well – much better than I expected. It was released in 2021, and I am still very proud of it.

How I got Trad Pubbed by Accident

In 2023, I was cold-pitched by the commissioning editor of Canelo Books’ new Horror imprint, Canelo Horror, completely out of the blue. I still don’t know how he found the books in the first place, but he had read both and loved them. I sold the print rights to Canelo for The Crows and Thriteenth, but I wanted to keep to the proposed timetable for The Day We Ate Grandad, which I had advertised to come out in April 2023; the cold-pitch came in March, and was for the first 2 books only.

The Crows and Thriteenth were re-released by Canelo in 2024; Canelo was bought by DK Publishing in 2025, which is in turn an imprint of Penguin Random House, and I now have a Penguin Random House author page.

It’s the consequence of having a good product to start with, and completely random, extreme good luck, that I can’t replicate or explain.

Where We Are Now

I have since published loads more novels and short fiction, and am very happy to be a hybrid author.

I am still unagented – I had a nibble from an agent in 2024, when I was still blown away by the Canelo contract and thought about seeking representation more seriously, but that didn’t come to anything in the end. I remain without representation at this time largely by choice.

I am now an active member of the HWA and British Fantasy Society, and look forward to the next chapter of my author journey.

What’s Next?

You can:

• Sign up to this site so you don’t miss a post
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• Sign up via my Draft2Digital mailing list to be alerted to new releases only, rather than get posts and articles/newsletters.
• follow me on Amazon for alerts to new releases
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• follow me on social media:
  I’m @cmrosens.com on Bluesky
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  Find me on Facebook, Pillowfort and tumblr at CMRosens.
  I’m very easy to locate!
• follow me on GoodReads or find me on StoryGraph.

You can also:

• Check out all my work via my main landing page, linked in the main menu (“My Fiction“). You can bookmark this page!

Check Out These Authors!

International Women’s Day: Meet my FMCs!

Meet my Main Female Characters this International Women’s Day! I have multiple books, both traditionally published and independently published, but here are the ones with female main characters!

You can grab my novel Yelen & Yelena for $1 in the current Itch bundle sale for International Women’s Day which runs to 10th March, so a few more days to grab 32 titles at $32! Title card graphic by Niranjan, host of the bundle.

FMCs in Eldritch Gothic Horror/Urban Weird Fantasy

Carrie Rickard is the FMC in The Crows, available now from Canelo Horror/Penguin Random House.

This is a Gothic Horror with tentacles tale, about a doomed woman dealing with trauma and a pathological need to fit into her surroundings, and a lonely eldritch abomination makes a friend and gets the house he’s always wanted.

Katy Porter is the FMC in Thirteenth, now available from Canelo Horror/Penguin Random House.

This is an urban weird fantasy featuring eldritch family drama, contemporary small town (English) Gothic undertones, body horror, and dark humour. Katy is a girl transforming into something she doesn’t understand, and her family are divided on how to handle it – some want to use her, some destroy her, and some want to help her… but none of them can stop it.

Katy and Carrie also appear as secondary characters in THE DAY WE ATE GRANDAD, which can be read as part of the Pagham-on-Sea series, but you do not not necessarily need to read them in order.

Overexposure is a short story where detail-orientated photographer, Charlie Eversley-Smith, is the FMC. Available wherever eBooks are sold.

The story is a journey of addiction and obsession, when Charlie meets a man whose image cannot be captured – and in her quest to understand him, she falls into a spiral of self-destruction.

Alice is the 10yo autistic-coded FMC in The Snow Child, who may have identified as auti-gender if she hadn’t been born in the early 1900s.

Written for Books of Horror‘s June Pride book box, but now on general sale.

This is a standalone body horror story featuring the fae, set in rural England in 1917.

FMCs in Gothic Dark Fantasy

Yelen & Yelena is a Dark Gothic Fantasy with Yelena as the titular FMC. Available in eBook, audiobook, and paperback.

This book is an aromantic version of Beauty & the Beast, where there is a deep friends-with-benefits connection but no romance. The Beast doesn’t change back into a man, and there is also bisexual and sapphic rep here too. If you’re looking for something dark, Gothic, and with some body horror, this is the book for you.

FMCs in Contemporary Queer Romances

Carrie is the FMC of Birds of a Feather, which is the contemporary romcom version of The Crows.

If eldritch horror in Gothic settings isn’t your thing, but you do want the dynamics of a traumatised woman getting over an abusive relationship with the help of a local self-employed, asexual, ADHD jack-of-most-trades and his elderly St Bernard (to whom nothing bad happens) and there’s an HEA, then try this instead.

Sarah Wheelock is the FMC of Best Friends Bury Bodies.

This is a bisexual whychoose m/m, m/f, f/f second chance romance meets Midsomer Murders novel, with both stable and somewhat messy non-monogamous relationship structures, murder, false identities, addiction recovery, and middle-aged best friends getting up to unwise shenanigans.

Check out Other Bundles and Sales

• A Very Queer March – 01-31st March 2026: 63 titles with a variety of queer rep for $60 – ON NOW.
• Ko-Fi Box Set of all my independently published work – 12 eBooks for £15, less than half what it would cost to buy them individually! This is its usual price for 12 books.
• THE SOUND OF DARKNESS will be a newsletter magnet and downloadable for free in the Occult and Supernatural Giveaway 03 Apr-03 May 2026.

Which reminds me...

We'll meet at the cemetery (aka on Zoom) THIS SATURDAY!

Tix still available, and they cover access to the live event as well as recordings of everything you might've missed to, y'know, go on that hot date or something: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-the-occult-love-and-death-tickets-1977504239413

#writers #writing #books #reading #horror #darkfantasy #death #mortality #love #romance #darkromance #gothicromance #gothic #gothicfiction #gothictales #wutheringheights

The cards don't lie: it's just THREE days until we meet for a day of love & death.

Head to: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-the-occult-love-and-death-tickets-1977504239413

#writers #writing #writingevent #horror #darkfantasy #darkromance #romance #love #death #graveyard #cemetery #mementomori #wutheringheights #obsession #gothic #gothicfiction #occult