Sumiko Saulson

The Evil “Spring Forward” Faerie

Spring is here… a time we associate with new life, rebirth and continuation. You know what else spring is associated with? Fairies. The faerie folk are often closely associated with nature, and nature spirits, and spring is a time when nature’s blooms and bulbs are resurgent after a long and cold winter. New life in spring is something most of us would have a positive association with. It is a season of feast rather than famine. However, human beings are often at odds with nature: perhaps that is why all of the fairy interactions with mankind are not so pleasant.

Rather than getting far off into it, I’ll provide you with this handy link to the Wikipedia page about fairies, where you can read all bout their baby-stealing, tuberculosis causing wicked ways. Not all faerie folk are evil – some, like the leprechaun, have been falsely maligned by Hollywood. The actual leprechauns were shoe cobblers. They were too busy repairing shoes to go around killing people.

Fan Favorite Faerie Foul: actor Warwick Davis as “Leprechaun”

The reason I mention this is because – the last time I had a contest, about ghouls, someone from the magical world known as the “interwebs” came by to post a lot of information about the actual original ghoul legends – you know, things I already knew, because I actually researched ghouls when writing “Warmth”, and things that didn’t heavily play into the story line because the so-called ghouls are actually infected with a virus, as are the so-called zombies, so in the story line, they are in fact infected humans. Because “Warmth” is not a scholarly text on the ghoul legend. No, indeed, it is a horror novel. So I insert this disclaimer here before this guy or someone like him emerges to party-poop and talk about all of the nice faerie folk who didn’t force you to dance all night until you dropped dead.

DISCLAIMER: I do not care about the nice faeries who are fit for horrible, terrible horror. I only care about gruesome and/or scary, and/or disturbing, and/or disgusting takes on the fairy legend that are appropriate for the horror genre, which is the topic of this blog: horror fiction. Also, I further state that if it is okay for Stephenie Meyer to create shiny, sparkly faerie-like vampires, well then gosh darn it, it is okay for my readers to create scary, blood-thirsty faeries for this contest. But if you don’t like it, feel free to bitch about it in the comments. Thank you.

The Contest

Submit a piece of artwork of your own creation in any media (that is: computer generated, photography, three dimensional, two dimensional, pen, pencil, ink, watercolor, acrylic, oils, whatever.. you get the picture.. heck, it can even be claymation. It can be a photo of you in a costume as long as you made the costume) of a spring faerie that is scary. It can be any spring faerie – legendary, or completely from your imagination. I mean, if you want to create a back story for the evil “Spring Forward” time faerie who sucks an hour from every human’s life when we change our clocks and “Spring Forward” on March 11 because of Daylight Savings Time. The evil Spring Forward faerie might be stealing an hour from every human’s life every single year by sitting on our chests in the guise of a housecat and sucking our breath. I don’t care. As long as it’s spring related.

Lucas Cranach the Elder’ Whore of Babylon resembles Spenser’s Duessa 

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes? Clearly, that counts. I mean, evil wood nymphs in the form of tomato plants? We can all see how that qualifies. Leprechaun in the Hood? Why not? Evil Easter Bunnies? I am game. Blood sucking Tinkerbell? Why not? Or, you could just go Edmund Spencer old school with a witch who turns people into trees like “the fowle” Duessa in the Faerie Queene. Any pissed off nature spirit out to kill humans would do. I mean…. Godzilla? Yea. Totally.

Then you post it here:

https://www.facebook.com/authorsumikosaulson

When you post it, feel free to describe it along with any back story you have created to go with the image.

Most Likes Wins.

The Prize

You will win a signed PROOF COPY of the illustrated story “Agrippa”. I just ordered two proof copies, one for this contest, and another so I actually can have it proof read (as a hard copy) and fix any issues with the layout, spelling or grammar that may have been missed on the screen. 

The 35 page, 8 1/2 x 11 comic book is full color, inside and out.

I will totally sign it.

It will be awesome.

See the whole thing online here:

http://www.drunkduck.com/Agrippa/

The Duration

Entries and voting take place between: March 4 and March 31, 2013

Final Tallying of Votes and Award Announcement: April 1, 2013

~ by Sumiko Saulson on March 4, 2013.

Posted in Everything Else
Tags: Comic, contest, faerie, fairy, Gothic Horror, Horror, scary spring faerie, science fiction, Seasons of Screaming, Women in Horror, Women in Science Fiction