Laura-Marie Jenks – Author Spotlight

I’m very happy to introduce you to my latest spotlight author, Laura-Marie Jenks.

1. What do you love most about writing?

I found freedom in writing that I’ve only ever expressed within making music. Within my career I’m lucky enough to be trusted with artists lyrics, their melodies, being able to channel that energy myself, I’m able to create songs, sharing an expression however within writing I found a way to fully express.

2. What do you think readers will love about your book?

I hope readers of From The Ashes will be able to find inner healing, a comfort within my poems with how vulnerable I’ve been. I hope readers find that safe space that at the time when I was going through these experiences I didn’t have.

3. What does poetry mean to you?

Poetry to me is being able to communicate through artistry exactly what your senses are feeling. Letting words form in a way that typical speech wouldn’t deliver, a way to showcase emotions without rules.

4. What do you enjoy about expressing yourself this way?

I find it liberating to be able to have the free flow of expression, I’ve not had that in a long time. Since my media takedown in January 2024 and the pressures of my career, I feel that I’ve now become an introverted person. Writing From The Ashes however gave me the chance to peek from behind the curtain, to tell my truth that has never been told. I’ve found healing and a sense of self love, being able to release energy that I believe was making me ill.

5. What was your writing process like?

I started journaling at first, I had no intention of having my poems published. When I was sharing them with loved ones, who knew what I’d gone through, they encouraged me to publish them. I was very nervous and not all the poems that I wrote made the book. I thought to myself, some of these are for the universe’s eyes only. I reached out to my friend, JT Scott (writer of the Sammy Rambles books) and she supported me through the publishing process. 

6. What inspired you to write something so personal?

I read Pretty Boys Are Poisonous by Megan Fox. I had a heartbreak as I read the pages, relating heavily to some of the experiences expressed within her poems. I found comfort in her words and felt it was time to feel emotions that I feel held me prisoner in my own body.

7. Where can people follow you online to learn more?

You can follow me on snapchat: lauraa-mariieee & https://purpleport.com/portfolio/lauramariejenks

8. Do you have a favorite book or author?

I have so many favorites but the first author that comes to mind is Emily McIntire. I just finished reading Hexed, inspired by The Little Mermaid. (He’s the prince of La Cosa Nostra. She’s the witch who steals his heart.) I love the dark romance of her Never After series.

From The Ashes Book Blurb:

‘I’ve spent several years of my life hiding, holding onto secrets from my past that men have tortured me with. My heart longs to be set free from this burden I carry, their demons once rested in my soul.

I wrote these poems to heal from the illness that has taken over my entire body from all the hurt and pain they have caused me. My truest form of expression lives within these pages, I hope that my words can help those who feel alone in what seems like a never-ending darkness. Don’t stay buried, let your voice be heard, we are all beautiful women who deserve so much better.’

From The Ashes: Poems From Poisonous Love Affairs is a beautiful, sweet debut. No one deserves the darkness or the despair that lives within these pages. The monsters are now dead, peace is now with you.

About the Author

Music Entrepreneur:
 As a teen, Jenks supported musicians getting gigs, festivals, and airtime. She’d spend her days phoning around her local music venues and further afield for opportunities to arise, running merchandise tables on tour. After completing The Princes Trust business course in 2015, Laura-Marie Jenks debuted in the local music scene of Plymouth. Announcing numerous endeavours within the music industry, such as owning her music agency and promotions company, Still Hangin’ Promotions. Jenks would go on to showcase artists of all genres in local music venues, the Underground and The Junction, as well as venues all over the UK and US. Laura-Marie has raised money over the years for multiple charities through gigs and festivals. These charities included The Sophie Lancaster Foundation, ShelterBox and The British Heart Foundation to name a few, Jenks has also raised money for the Plymouth Punx Picnic. As well as owning her agency, the breakout venture was becoming a record label representative for Outsider Records and Punk Babylon Records, the same label that The Cockney Rejects signed to. This led to Jenks being noticed by Event UK, leading her to review music from upcoming artists of a mixture of genres in 2018 for Slice The Pie. In 2022 after a short break, Laura-Marie returned to the music industry with 24/7 Stage & Crew, one of the leading crew companies in Britain. This led her to become a sound engineer and producer, working with independent artists as well as mainstream musicians. Currently Laura-Marie is working as part of the board at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth, she continues to produce music to this day.

Model:
 Jenks has opened up about her struggles with body dysmorphia, confirming on The Christian Reeve Podcast she doesn’t have social media due to the pressures. She said, “I honestly believe social media is the devil, I feel it’s evil. In the past when I’ve had social media I’ve had someone post for me. The apps even being on my phone give me anxiety.” Despite her struggles with body dysmorphia, Jenks made a name for herself within the modelling industry in her mid-teens. Known for boudoir modelling ~ a photographic style featuring intimate, sensual, romantic, and sometimes erotic images. Laura-Marie has modelled multiple brands over the years including Killstar, Boux Avenue and Ann Summers to name a few. Jenks has worked with local photographers Lauren Blue Photography, Ruby Light Portraits and Jojo The Photographer, as well as travelling for shoots.

Writer:
 Laura-Marie made her debut with her poetry book From The Ashes: Poems From Poisonous Love Affairs in November 2024. Giving voices to victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, the poetry collection has elements of Grimms’ Fairy Tales as well as metaphors however nothing is fictional. Within the pages, Laura-Marie wrote poems about her struggles with mental health, her time within the industry as well as enduring physical and mental abuse in a toxic relationship. While she hasn’t named the people she has written about, she told Cornish Stuff, “This is not an exposay, a memoir or burn book, I’ve only been publicly connected to a few people but I’ve been involved with a few others that I’ve never spoken about.”

Jenks opens the book with a letter to her readers, writing about becoming reluctant to use her voice to express her emotions “I was cursed out, striked for using my voice out of term.” She adds: “My silence was not enough, wounded I may have become, these poems that pour out onto the pages show I’ve not fallen. Depression, self-harm, sexual assault, rape, pain, despair ~ these are the heartbreaking experiences that many of us have faced. This book is for anyone who feels they can’t cope anymore, who have suffered and deserve to be heard. This book is my inner healing, for me because I never deserved any of this.”