Lauren McMenemy wears many hats: Editor-in-Chief at Trembling With Fear for horrortree.com; PR and marketing for the British Fantasy Society; founder of the Society of Ink Slingers; curator of the Writing the Occult virtual events.
With 25+ years as a professional writer across journalism, marketing, and communications, Lauren also works as a coach to writers looking to achieve goals, get accountability, or get support with their marketing efforts. She’s usually hanging around various events stepping up as a host, interviewer, moderator and general cheerleader.
She writes gothic and folk horror stories for her own amusement, and is currently working on a novel set in the world of the Victorian occult.
You’ll find Lauren haunting south London, where she lives with her Doctor Who-obsessed husband, the ghost of their aged black house rabbit, and the entity that lives in the walls.
(Photo: Nicolas Laborie)
You’ll also find me doing these things
Writing the Occult is a boutique series of events brought to you by the Society of Ink Slingers, in partnership with Alex Davis Events. Our approach is to bring together the fiction world with folklore and academia to bring a well-rounded view to a specific area of interest to both speculative fiction writers and those with a hankering for the esoteric. Launched in the summer of 2023, topics to date have included witches, vampires, ritual, relics, connection to the land, the fae, hauntology, the uncanny, belief, and cryptids.
Follow @societyofinkslingers on Instagram for announcements.
More details of latest events and line-ups here.
My “fiction brand” (as opposed to the moniker I use when working with the corporate world), The Society of Ink Slingers provides services to writers including mentoring, coaching, hosting, events, and more.
Trembling With Fear is Horror Tree’s free fiction arm, published every week. We publish stories of various lengths in our regular column, our themed calls, and our special editions. And, everything we publish goes into an annual print and digital anthology, sales of which help to fund the site and keep it going.
As Editor-in-Chief, I oversee the various Assistant Editors working with TWF, and am in charge of the weekly edition: reading submissions, contracting with writers (or giving feedback and rejections as the case may be), and introducing the weekly edition every Sunday.
More details here.
I am a volunteer member of the British Fantasy Society’s committee, responsible for the blog and general marketing needs.
Around in various Earthly forms since 1971, the British Fantasy Society is dedicated to celebrating everything to do with speculative fiction from this country. Our members represent all aspects of the speculative world, and we gather to meet, chat, share, help, debate, and create.
It’s for artists, writers, filmmakers, podcasters, producers, editors, publicists, coaches, bloggers, influencers, readers, watchers, listeners, fans—and YOU. More details here.
I spin and polish and create and curate and edit and tell stories that win over audiences. I also run brand newsrooms, support content planning, create content governance processes, and help you get your corporate content marketing machine running smoothly.
An ex-newspaper journalist, I bring editorial nous that’s becoming more and more rare as a generation of copywriters have grown up writing for the algorithm instead of human eyes. But I don’t believe writing for an algorithm needs to mean writing boring, stilted, drippy copy. I bring engaging storytelling to your content programme without sacrificing optimisation. Yes, it’s important to get your content seen – that’s the whole point! – and I’m tech-savvy with an eye on distribution at all times.
I’ve worked in the media, as well as in agencies and in-house marketing communications teams across a range of industries: technology, security, pharma, financial services, professional services, global business, music and film, and mental health. More details here.