Sumiko Saulson‘s poem is a dark, sensual, earthy poem that flows so magnificently and brings up such gorgeous visuals. The horror creeps up on you, like mushrooms sprouting from the ground after a storm, it’s haunting in such a breathtaking way. I couldn’t pick a favorite part, but here’s a magnificent quote from the poem:
I inhale gifts you bequeath
Your loamy green venom
Composed of spores Penetrates my tongue
The Must of Your Body Covers Me by Sumiko Saulson, featured in Dark Spores by Crone Girls Press.
Q (Crone Girls Press): What inspired your story in this anthology? Tell us the “story behind the story.”
A (Sumiko Saulson): In this sapphic tale of mother nature, immortality, and willing sacrifice there are nods to the Wickerman and similar folk horror, and the legend of Narcissus, who fell in love with his own reflection and committed suicide only to be resurrected as daffodils. My poem, “The Must of Your Body Covers Me” is also inspired by legends mushroom rings and faerie folk..
Q: Why do you write horror? What about the genre appeals to you as an author?
A: My parents were huge fans of horror, so they took me and my little brother to horror movies when we were little kids. The first book for grown ups I ever read was Peter Straub’s “Ghost Story,” when I was 11 years old. I remember once when I was five or six, being out at the playground at the drive-in and looking up to see a scene from “It’s Alive” on the screen, one where the baby jumps out of the birth canal and bites a doctor on the neck. What I love about the horror genre is that it directly engages with our primordial fears, and in doing so, makes the things that plague the darker corners of our minds just a little less frightening.
Q: There are a number of different flavors of horror. Where does your story fit, and what drew you to this particular category?
A: It’s both folk horror and body horror. I love body horror, and folk horror feels like the perfect place for it to intersect with mushrooms, because of how they relate to faerie folklore and because body horror is very often a part of that genre. I would also say that it is transgressive fiction, because it casts a human sacrifice as immortal in relation to mother nature and the love she feels as she lies corrupting in her grave is a very sapphic connection to mother nature. Witchery or bewitchment might be a part of it. But it is deeply rooted (see the pun there?) in body horror, and in the way the soul connects with the rotting of its body.
Q: What do you love about mushrooms? What drew you to this anthology?
A: There are a lot of great analogies to be drawn from the interconnected underground nature of the mycelium, an underground fungal network from which mushrooms sprout overground. I also love body horror, and mushrooms grow out of decaying things, so the fear of them sprouting from us is always terrifying. That’s why I chose as my mushroom for the promotions for this book, the cordyceps mushroom. Because its been central to so much zombie lore about this terrifying fungi that takes over the brain and sprouts from the body.
Q: When you’re not writing, what might we find you doing? (Free time or for a day job?)
A: I love painting, going out dancing, and going to karaoke, and I’ve been in Zumba classes lately. You can check out my comic books and artwork on deviant art (https://www.deviantart.com/sumikoska) or on TheDuckWebComics (https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/sumikoska/ and you can check out like karaoke videos on Tik-Tok or IG including my karaoke Slipknot cover band NypSlyp 😛
Q: What’s next in your writing journey?
A: I have at least two more books coming out for my paranormal romance series “The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi”. Which starts with Happiness and Other Diseases. The second book came out this year, Somnalia, The third is completed and the fourth is very close to completion. These stories are rooted in Greek mythology about the denizens of the realm of nightmares and in the life and unlife of Flynn Keahi, a young man with bipolar disorder who gets caught up in their intrigues. You can find them on Mocha Memoirs Press.
About The Author
Sumiko Saulson is the Elgin Award and Bram Stoker Nominated author of The Rat King: A Book of Dark Poetry. Their novel Somnalia: The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi is available on Mocha Memoirs Press, and their latest book of verse, Melancholia: A Book of Dark Poetry is out on Bludgeoned Girls Press.
You can find Sumiko on their website https://sumikosaulson.com/
As well as on their Social Media accounts:
Facebook
Instagram
BlueSky
TikTok
Be sure to check out their story in Dark Spores
Crone Girls Press 