Sumiko Saulson's Blog, page 30
May 20, 2016
New Print Edition of Say Uncle Now Available
Not horror, but I loved this touching story…
Get the new print edition of my first novel Say Uncle today at: http://thedinnerpartyshow.com/albums/say-uncle/
And, don’t forget to pre-order your copy of Prince’s Psalm, coming June 7! http://thedinnerpartyshow.com/albums/the-princes-psalm/
May 4, 2016
Sumiko Saulson’s Black Women in Horror Writing #11: Helen Oyeyemi
I love that Bryan Cebulski is doing this – he is reading and reviewing various selections by authors profiled in “60 Black Women in Horror” check out his blog.
The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi
Review by Bryan Cebulski (@BryanOnion)
To be honest, I haven’t been sure on what I should write as regards The Icarus Girl. My foremost thoughts are that it’s worth reading—an effective novel operating as both ghost story and bildungsroman. I’m impressed that Helen Oyeyemi wrote it when she was only in her late teens. I have complaints, in particular the lackluster ending and underdeveloped themes, but it was an enjoyable read throughout. Creepy, moving, well-written—aspiring to something beyond the trappings of a horror novel (perhaps because Oyeyemi never consciously constructed it as such in the first place). A creative mixture of Nigerian folklore and Jane Eyre-style Gothic tropes. Certainly a work worth emphasizing its strengths before examining its weaknesses.
I suppose in trying to write a review about this novel, I inadvertently led myself to question what kind of…
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Press Release: Once Upon a Scream
Check out this exciting new HorrorAddicts anthology!
HorrorAddicts.net Press is proud to announce that we have just released our 4th anthology entitled Once Upon a Scream. This book is edited by Dan Shaurette and it takes the classic fairy tales that you grew up with and gives them a horror twist.
Once Upon a Scream
…there was a tradition of telling tales with elements of the fantastic along with the frightful. Adults and children alike took heed not to go into the deep, dark woods, treat a stranger poorly, or make a deal with someone-or something-without regard for the consequences. Be careful of what you wish for, you just might get it.
From wish-granting trolls, to plague curses, and evil enchantresses, these tales will have you hiding under the covers in hopes they don’t find you. So lock your doors, shutter your windows, and get ready to SCREAM.
A return to darker foreboding fairy tales not…
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May 3, 2016
My BayCon Schedule
Friday 2:30 pm – 4:00 pm, Connect 4 (San Mateo Marriott)
Maybe in space nobody can hear you scream, but our panelists will sure give it a try! Come join them as they discuss their favorite sci-fi horror.
Sumiko Saulson (M), Colin Fisk, Jacquelyn Bartel, Megan O’Keefe, Kay Pannell
The New Adult Coloring Fad
Saturday 10:00 am – 11:30 am, Connect 4 (San Mateo Marriott)
Artists who have created coloring books discuss how to go about creating and producing them.
Emerian Rich (M), Beth Barany, Beckett Gladney, Sumiko Saulson
Magical Mystery Panel
Saturday 11:30 am – 1:00 pm, Convene (San Mateo Marriott)
Mystery: A thing which we do not tell you until you get there, but for which we blame M. Todd.
M. Todd Gallowglas (M), Kathleen Bartholomew, Jenni Brush (M), Dario Ciriello, J. L. Doty, Ms Sandra Durbin, Margaret McGaffey Fisk, Bonnie Gordon, Taunya Gren, Xander Jeanneret, Wanda Kurtcu, Jacquelyn Bartel, Steven Mix, John O’Halloran, Cody Parcell (M), Tory Parker, Tom Saidak, Sumiko Saulson, Elnath D. Shanks, Douglas Shepard, JC Arkham, Fred Wiehe
Horroraddicts.net
Saturday 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm, Connect 1 (San Mateo Marriott)
The most horrible people we love come together to get spooky! Join us as we explore the darkness of fairy tales and our book release Once Upon a Scream. Come to win door prizes, favors, and goodies!
Mrs. Laurel Anne Hill, Emerian Rich (M), Sumiko Saulson, Jason Malcolm Stewart, Dan Shaurette
Publishing Wishlists
Saturday 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Connect 6 (San Mateo Marriott)
What editors of magazines, blogs, and indie publishers are looking for or NOT looking for. How to wow us and get your story/article published.
Emerian Rich (M), Sumiko Saulson, M Christian
Autograph Session: Sumik0 Saulson
Sunday 2:00pm – 3:00pm, Convene Lobby (San Mateo Marriott)
Sumiko Saulson autograph session, books available for purchase.
Fan Art
Sunday 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm, Connect 6 (San Mateo Marriott)
Is fan inspired art (the art equivalent of FanFic) actually creating your own art? Discussion of how artists do it and make it their own!
Mr. Chris Butler, Amy-Elyse Neer, Sumiko Saulson (M), Anastasia Hunter
Disability representations (or lack thereof) in comics, genre literature, film and television.
Monday 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm, Connect 6 (San Mateo Marriott)
Where are the disabled in media and why can’t we have more?
Sumiko Saulson, Pat MacEwen (M), Jennifer Nestojko
Kinky and Geeky
Monday 2:30 pm – 5:00 pm, Connect 1 (San Mateo Marriott)
18 AND OVER ONLY, PLEASE!
Why do these seem to go together? Is it just a myth? Panel talk about the myths & truths of exploring our geeky & kinky sides in Sci Fi and the real world.
Jean Batt (M), Sumiko Saulson
April 1, 2016
Scholarship From Hell Recipient Announced
The HWA would like to congratulate Sumiko Saulson, winner of Horror University’s Scholarship From Hell! The scholarship includes roundtrip domestic travel to Las Vegas, accommodations at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, registration to StokerCon 2016, and as many workshops as she can attend! Additionally, the HWA awarded a runner-up mini-scholarship (registration & […]
Source: Scholarship From Hell Recipient Announced
March 13, 2016
Interview with Crystal Connor
Master Imaginationist and Instagram photographer Crystal Connor is a Washington State native who loves anything to do with monsters, bad guys (as in evil-geniuses & super-villains. Not ‘those’ kind her mother warned her about), rogue scientific experiments, jewelry, sky-high high-heeled shoes & unreasonably priced handbags.
When she’s not terrorizing readers she reviews indie horror and science fiction films for both her personal blog and HorrorAddicts.net
She is also considering changing her professional title to dramatization specialist because it so much more theatrical than being a mere drama queen. The End is Now is the 5th book that has been unleashed by Connor’s awarding winning imagination.
Download your free copy of …And They All Lived Happily Ever After! audiobook from Podiobooks.com and see why the name Crystal Connor has become “A Trusted Name in Terror!”
http://podiobooks.com/title/and-they-all-lived-happily-ever-after
Interview
Q. I understand you are working on the third book in the Spectrum Trilogy. What’s it all about, and what are you calling it, and when can we expect to see it?
A. Lol, actually the third book in The Spectrum Trilogy, In The Valley of Shadows, was published in 2013 =) and it’s the epic conclusion of the of the story that was built upon books I and II
Q. “The Darkness,” the first book in the Spectrum Trilogy, was an International Book Award finalist. How did you feel about the honor?
A. I burst into tears. I fought so hard to keep the lead characters, both of whom are black women, and the tone of the story the way I envisioned it, to tell the type of story I meant to tell. But the lead editor had never read a science fiction like mine. She told me she didn’t like it and kept trying to change it, because I refused to back down she told me that my book The Darkness was the only project in all of her career that she wasn’t proud to be a part of. She even removed her editorial credits from the final draft of the book before it was shipped off to printing.
So when I got that award two months after being published, when no one knew who I was, it was such an affirmation that I had done the right thing by fighting tooth and nail to ensure the story I wrote was the one that got published.
Q. “The Darkness” and its sequel “Artificial Light” included elements of both science-fiction and horror, mixing mad scientists with powerful witches. How did you feel about blending the two genres, and will this pattern continue in the third book?
A. Yes, the theme of science vs magic rides through The Spectrum Trilogy until the very last page. And until the awards were announced. I placed in two categories: best multi-cultural and best cross-genre. Until the awards and the critic reviews came in I didn’t even know there was such a thing as cross or crossover genre. For me when something is scary it’s just scary I don’t separate them. I think that’s up to the reader to decide how to box up a story.
I consider myself a horror writer. My goal was to write really terrifying stories, which I have done and hopefully will continue to do for a very long time, but I am not going to say that I wasn’t surprised to see reviewers calling the trilogy a medical thriller, a suspenseful mystery, and even a younger reader suggested it was a coming of age story. You just never know what a reader will take from or read into your story and I think that’s my favorite part of reading my reviews … is seeing a fan taken it to a place I never imagined it would go.
Q. Speaking of horror, you’re involved with the Black Horror History Month blog series over at HorrorAddicts.net. What can you tell us about that, and any other work you have done with HorrorAddicts?
A. OMG, becoming a staff writer HorrorAddicts.net has been a dream come true. When I was first involved I was just writing movie reviews. I was already writing them for my own personal blog (which I haven’t updated in hella) but writing them for HA gave me a bigger platform. And way back in the day the largest part of my fan base wasn’t for my books it was for my movie reviews.
When I drifted over to HA I was asked to do music and book reviews and I also had films assigned to me to review. I’m actually glad that I had assignments because it I’ve watched films that I otherwise wouldn’t have seen because they were outside my viewing preference. I didn’t like all of them but having to review books and films I didn’t really enjoy has forced me to really hone in on the way I write reviews. I really don’t not like writing reviews that aren’t glowing but it has to been done when someone sincerely hoping and waiting to hear your opinion.
Overtime I made it to being a full-fledged staff writer and if you could have seen my Facebook and Twitter feed that day you would have sworn I had won the damn ass powerball.
Q. Did you doing anything special for Women in Horror Month this February?
A. Granting and writing interview and trying to get my life together. LOL I’m just kidding, but not about the first part though. I am pretty ambitious so I kinda just point myself in the direction I want to go and allow myself to be highly adaptable to any situation that might come up. I want to control everything, and I mean everything, but of course I can’t so I have to be like water. Fluid enough to flow around obstacles or being strong enough to move the things that are blocking my path. Even if that means leaving a huge path in my wake.
Q. I understand you are hosting your own speculative fiction convention in Seattle next summer in 2017 CrystalCon. What can you tell us about that?
A. Well the one thing that separates CrystalCon from other fan conventions is that CrystalCon is for both STEM professionals (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and SFF writers (Science Fiction and Fantasy) and all of our fans. CrystalCon is a celebration of all things science both factual and fictional!
The hardest part, at first, was getting all of the scientist in real life on board. I even had one doctor tell me that he wasn’t dressing up like Star Trek. I was starting to get really nervous CrystalCon cannot exist without actual scientist. The very 1st rock star scientist I booked was Dr. Peter Ward. He is a paleontologist from the University of Washington and he also a commentator on the History Channel’s The Universe. And the very next day Dr. B. Melina Cimler Senior Vice President from Adaptive Biotechnologies said yes! After that getting scientist in real life to be guest speakers got way easier.
Q. One of the highlights of your presence on social media is reading your hilarious indictments of modern horror movie tropes. What are some of the movie clichés that get on your nerves the most, and why do they irritate you?
A. Oh my gosh, where in the world do I start…lol. The biggest one for sure in the falling down in the woods because you’re not watching were you’re going. I think the biggest reasons this spins me out of control is because once they fall, even if only a nail is chipped it affects their ability to stand, walk, and/or run.
Q. If someone said they wanted to turn “The Darkness” into a movie tomorrow, and they had a multimillion dollar budget to do it with, what would be your dream cast for the movie?
A. A multimillion dollar budget would be required just for the vivid visuals. As far as casting I would want it to be a cast of up and coming actors so that people would focus on the story and not the expectation of big name actors.
If I had any control over the process at all I would champion for the Kenyan super model Ajuma Nasenyama to play Inanna, plus writer/director Jim Chuchu and his entire visionary team that put together the short film called To Catch a Dream, a stunning short in which Ajuma stars in.
For the role of Artemisia it would have to be someone who could unapologetically command the screen, someone like Alfre Woodard. The way she portrayed of Mavis Heller from My Own Worst Enemy was stunning. Only someone as strong as Viola Davis, Alfre Woodard, or Angela Bassett would be able to pull of that character.
Q. If you found out magic was real, would you mess with it?
A. One thing I knew from a very early age without having to be told is that magic is very well real indeed. What I did need to learn, a lesson that I needed to be reminded of time and time again by the elders in my family, especially my grandmother was this: You don’t play games with the Devil and if you do you damn sure don’t get to make the rules. I was just nine when my grandma told me that. And the message was loud and crystal clear…
Leave. This. Shit. Alone
Book Trailer
February 24, 2016
David’s Haunted Library: Two From Sumiko Saulson
In honor of Black History month I wanted to take the opportunity to talk about two books by Sumiko Saulson. The first one is 60 Black Women in Horror Fiction. This book is a compilation of intervie…
Source: David’s Haunted Library: Two From Sumiko Saulson
February 12, 2016
Character Flaws
I don’t know when I first became aware of my passenger. The earliest hints of the other consciousness were so subtle I thought they were daydreams, figments of my overactive imagination. When darkness fell, I was most afraid. My pulse quickened when I felt my cat leap from her perch on the uppermost bunk down on to my futon mattress, or heard the distant sound of raccoons outside rattling through the neighbor’s garbage cans.
The other voices were persistent, but quiet. One voice began to overpower all of the others. Eventually, it grew so loud and demanding that it drowned out the sound of my own internal dialogue, replacing it with a string of bizarre fantasies and demands.
Late at night, the visitor kept me awake with a string of nonsense syllables it babbled like a toddler learning his first words.
The phrases eventually made their way from the inside of my mind to the outside of my body by way of sometimes irresistible force. My body and my mouth moved against my will, forming a series of strange sounds that eventually became first words, then sentences.
I was alarmed to find there was a full-fledged other being living beneath my skin.
I was terrified at first, but soon I became emotionally exhausted to the point of numbness. It may sound strange to you, dear reader, but in time, I entered into an uneasy truce with these foreign invaders living inside my form. I asked the passengers to refrain from speaking to me in public, so I might enjoy some semblance of a normal existence.
It didn’t always work. There were days when the voices forced their way out of my mouth and into the air around me. I was alarmed when they made me speak at inopportune times. It was as if a deep, dark secret had been revealed to the word against my will.
Psychologists, psychiatrists, philosophers and poets might describe these outside voices as aspects of my own splintered persona. They would characterize the interlopers as a part of my fractured native interior life, the fragments of a shattered mind. By contrast, the religious practitioners, the mystics and the spiritualists would ascribe these voices to some generally malevolent external source. They viewed these hangers on as nefarious and parasitic occupying ghosts or demons. I found these notions most terrifying of all.
I chose to believe that they were separate from me but that I was their source, that they were personal imaginings; my characters.
(I’m insane, Sumiko. I’m sorry to hear that, Flynn.
I’m sorry about that, Sumiko. I’m sorry too, Flynn.
My name is not Flynn. My name is Sumiko.)
Some of the voices were terrifying, even threatening. The most consistent of them was generally benign. It tried to encourage and befriend me. In a way, we are friends, but it’s hard not to resent a thing that runs your body like a sock puppet from time to time.
My man is my monster. I grew tired of bickering with him one day, so I gave him a name. I wrote him into my works of fiction, and created a world for him. I thought he would be happy as a character in my books, but at times he seems angry.\
by Flynn Keahi
My name is Flynn Keahi, and I’m one of Sumiko’s characters. Please disregard what she just said about me. She’s very biased. The truth of the matter is, I dislike unnecessary drama. I didn’t want to fight with my author, but she kept putting me through changes.
Being a character really sucks. It’s like being on a reality show written by a psychopath who will do anything for ratings. I’m tired of going through turmoil just to keep the plot interesting and the readers engaged. These horror writers are especially brutal. I guess I should be happy I’m in a dark fantasy. At least for the moment, my suffering is only moral dilemma and existential crisis.
Forgive me if I sound bitter, but she’s working on a fourth book, after she promised me this would only be a trilogy.
February 3, 2016
Black Women in Horror Writing
“60 Black Women in Horror Fiction” is available as a free eBook on Smashwords:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/412513
February is African American History Month here in the United States. It is also Women in Horror Month (WiHM). In 2013, as an Ambassador for Women in Horror Month. This list of black women who write horror was compiled at the intersection of the two. The booklet also includes interviews with nine of the women. The eBook version includes a bonus: an essay, and four short stories not found in the paperback.
The electronic (eBook) edition contains the following bonus materials: four short stories, and an essay, not found in the paperback.
A shorter book that only includes the list and interviews is available as a paperback for $5.50:
https://www.createspace.com/4695298
The Interviews
The Lists (with Bios)
Twenty Women in Black Horror Writing (List One)
Twenty One More Women in Black Horror Writing (List Two)
19 More Black Women in Horror Fiction (List Three)
The Full List (Alphabetical)
Listing with webpage links
5. L.A. Banks
7. Chesya Burke
11. Pearl Cleage
12. Crystal Connor
13. Arielle Crowell
14. Joy M. Copeland
15. L.M. Davis
16. Lexi Davis
17. Tananarive Due
18. Janiera Eldridge
19. Ann Fields
20. Robin Green
21. Dicey Grenor
22. Jewelle Gomez
24. Donna Hill
25. Allison Hobbs
27. Akua Lezli Hope
28. Nalo Hopkinson
30. Monica Jackson
31. Tish Jackson
33. Jemiah Jefferson
34. N.K. Jemisin
36. Tenea Johnson
37. A.D. Koboah
38. Faye McCray
39. Melinda Michelle
40. Donna Monday
41. Toni Morrison
42. Pam Noles
43. Nnedi Okorafor
44. Helen Oyeyemi
45. Ama Patterson
46. A.L. Peck
47. Dia Reeves
48. Evie Rhodes
49. Jill Robinson
50. Leone Ross
51. Eden Royce
53. Anna Sanders
54. Sumiko Saulson
55. Nisi Shawl
57. Sheree R. Thomas
58. L. Marie Wood
59. Zane
60. Ibi Zoboi
