Hello and welcome to my website! I’m Laura K. E. Jones, a Canadian fantasy writer, copy editor, and audiobook narrator. Here’s a fairly recent picture of me (December 2021), so you can put a face to the name.

**Fun fact: I decided to use my middle initials in my pen name because “Laura Jones” is such a common name.**

I feel as if my genre chose me, rather than the other way around. I never made a conscious decision to write fantasy, but I’ve always been drawn to magic and other worlds, so it’s naturally what I gravitate towards when I write. In fact, I have trouble writing anything set in the real world! In terms of reading, I’m also a fantasy lover (although I’m very picky about the fantasy I read!), but I try to read a variety of things, and I really enjoy a good history book.

I’m from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, but I’ve also lived in Halifax (Nova Scotia), Fredericton (New Brunswick), and Mascouche (which is just outside of Montreal, Quebec). I’ve been lucky enough to travel a lot, and my travels have taken me from Angkor Wat to the top of Kilimanjaro. I especially love Prague, because stepping into the main square feels like stepping back in time, and I also love Paris and Venice. 

**Another fun fact: I love pigeons, which may be why I like Venice so much. I feel like pigeons and dandelions don’t get enough love, so I love them a lot to make up for it.**

I have a very old cat (seventeen years old!) named Ollie. He’s extremely cuddly and loud. He’s grey, with a white patch on his chest. This is Ollie:

I attended university in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where I got a Bachelor of Music. My instrument was voice, and my major was musicology (which is basically music history). My teachers all disagreed on whether I was a mezzosoprano or a soprano, so I’ve just accepted that I’m vocally divergent. In addition to singing very loudly, I also play piano. Chopin and Debussy composed some of my favourite piano pieces, and my all-time favourite piece is “La fille aux cheveux de lin.”

Because I studied opera, I sang regularly in French, Italian, and German. My spoken French is pretty rusty, though. I took a year of German in university, but I’ve forgotten just about all of it. Some of my favourite operas include Le Nozze de Figaro, Carmen, and Tosca.

I used to do a lot of theatre, with roles ranging from Carol in Black Comedy to Eponine in Les Misérables. I’ve also been in Grease, Legally Blonde, and Chat Blanc: Lost in Montmartre, an Edmonton Fringe show about the French composer Satie, which included a shadow puppet opera! 

During my undergraduate degree, I realized I didn’t like performing anymore. I persisted for a bit and was even a finalist in the Northern Alberta Concerto Competition in 2020, right before the pandemic hit. However, I had the distinct thought “get me off of this stage” during that performance, so I gladly accepted my loss and decided that the competition would be my last solo performance.

**Yet another fun fact: I’ve been vegetarian for fourteen years for ethical reasons, and I’m really glad I made that decision.**

I study publishing at Toronto Metropolitan University, and I do some freelance copy editing work. I also studied journalism for four months. While journalism definitely wasn’t for me, I did discover a passion for audio there, and I now read audiobooks!

I’ve always been a reader, and I started writing stories as a child. I began writing more seriously once I reached university, and I finished my first full-length novel at eighteen. I’ve dabbled a bit in fanfiction over the years, and I’m grateful that it provided the opportunity for me to build my skills and confidence. I first fell in love with writing through fanfiction and quickly realized that I wanted to do it forever! Writing is my passion, and I work hard at it. 

I’m currently querying my novel Into Shadow, affectionately known to me as Dragons!, which was its working title. It was a finalist in a publisher’s speculative fiction contest, and although it wasn’t picked in the end, I’m very grateful to have been a finalist, if only because it helped give me some confidence in my writing. I’ve also had the chance to continue improving Into Shadow since then, and I’m feeling good about the shape it’s in now!

I love the mountains and hate the ocean. Hiking and backcountry camping are wonderful. Mountains often make it into my book settings. I also love the prairies, maybe because that’s what I’m used to. However, I do love the big snowstorms in Eastern Canada much more than the extreme cold of the prairies. In Edmonton, we don’t get as much snow, but we do get a few weeks each year that are consistently colder than thirty degrees below zero. Yes, that’s as awful as it sounds. I love big storms, both the thunder and snow variety. 

Here’s a picture of the aftermath of a Halifax snowstorm:

And here’s a picture of the Rockies, so you can see why I’m a mountain girl! This is in the Tonquin Valley:

**Another fun fact: I collect rocks and mugs as well as journals. My favourite mug has a t-rex in it, which makes me laugh because when I have tea, it’s a “tea-rex.” The mugs come in handy, because I drink way too much coffee. I also have a quirky earring collection, with some of my favourites being pine cones, spoons, clocks, cats, and mini copies of The Book Thief (which is one of my all-time favourite books).**

I have a very eclectic music taste that no one understands, myself included. Why do I like One Direction and musicals, but also Bardcore, ’80s music, and opera? None of it makes sense. 

I have notoriously bad luck, such as falling into a mud puddle on my first real day of work. I kill every plant I touch, even cactuses. Seriously, never ask me to look after your plants, because they will die.

**One more fun fact: I wear glasses and can barely see without them. I’ve tried the contacts thing but my eyes hate them!**

I love poetry and occasionally dabble in writing it. Novels are my love, though! When I’m not writing, I’m often daydreaming about stories. 

If you’ve read this far, you probably know more about me than you ever wanted to, so I may end things here. Thanks for reading!