Sumiko Saulson

Where to find me and Princess Chris Hughes at Clockwork Alchemy:

1) All Weekend in Author’s Alley
at our table in Author’s Alley,
Aster (1st Floor)

2) TTRPG: In Nomine, Presenter Wizard Lizard
Friday, 1:00 pm–5:00 pm (4 hours)
Peninsula 4 (2nd floor)
IN NOMINE: Mad Science for the Hungry Soul Sacramento, 1851. As part of his quest to build an artificial God to replace the one in Heaven, Vapula (demon prince of Technology) plans to usurp the power of Lucifer himself.

3) TTRPG: Deadlands Classic Presenter Wizard Lizard
DEADLANDS CLASSIC: There’s Something in the Lights San Francisco had gas lighting for 14 years before the Great Quake destroyed the city, leaving only rushing water and cliffs full of ghost rock in its place.
Saturday (Friday?), 5:30 pm–9:00 pm (3.5 hours)
Peninsula 4 (2nd floor)

3) Book signing by Sumiko Saulson
Saturday, 11:00 am–Noon (1 hour)
Aster (1st floor)

4) San Francisco By Gas Light
Presenters: Sumiko Saulson, Emily Flummox
Saturday, 1:30 pm–3:00 pm (1.5 hours)
Peninsula 6 (2nd floor)
A history of San Francisco in the era of gas light, which will include things like the gas fire during the 1906 quake, how gas light was used during prohibition, and gas light era San Francisco (Victorian Era through Prohibition Era).

6) The Fog of Time: LGBTQ Horror in the Age of Gas Light
Presenters: Sumiko Saulson, Emily Flummox
Saturday, 6:00 pm–7:30 pm (1.5 hours)
Peninsula 6 (2nd floor)
In honor of Civilization Stained These Young Things and Other Works by Emily Loretta Flummox, the author’s debut collection, we’ll be discussing LGBTQ horror of Victorian, Edwardian, and (American) Prohibition Eras, when gas light was big.

7) Book signing by all the authors
Presenters: T..E. Mac Arthur., J. Scott Coatsworth, M.D. Neu, Lori Saltis, BJ Sikes, Shelley Adina, Dover Whitecliff, Sumiko Saulson, Emily Flummox, Michael Tierney, Erin Tierney, Anthony Francis
Sunday, 9:00 am–10:00 am (1 hour)
Aster (1st floor)

8) Patterns of Light and Shadow
Presenters: Sumiko Saulson, Emily Flummox
Sunday, 10:30 am–Noon (1.5 hours)
Peninsula 6 (2nd floor)
Gas lighting, both literal and figurative, plays a major role in Victorian Horror Literature.The Turn of the Screw and Carmilla include people questioning reality. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde uses gas lights in the streets of London as a metaphor for duality and the horrors of Mr. Hyde, and then Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus where not only gas lighting but electricity represent fear of the dangers of mankind’s hubris and “playing God” when making discoveries.

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This is a FREE adult book Halloween themed book reading that I am participating in at KALW that is BIPOC-centering. Costumes optional! I will be reading horror erotica from my paranormal series The Metamorphoses of Flynn Keahi, and since they said event registration for Eventbrite is low, if you CAN come out, please get a FREE ticket on Eventbrite, thank you.

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I feel super excited about how well things are going in my career as a horror poet, but at the same time I feel like I don’t want people to forget that I also write prose fiction. My poetry seems to be quickly overtaking and usurping my prose fiction career, but I also had three short stories out in the past year: “Blind Pig Shakedown” in The Green Hornet and Kato: Detriot Noir City, “Poppies for Andris” in A Crack in the Code (Mocha Memoirs Press), and “Red is the Color” in the final issue of Sirens Call Magazine. I had an essay in FumpTruck “An Open Letter to Your White Savior Complex.” There is a fourth 2025 short story acceptance that I can’t announce yet.
I also had several works of flash fiction in Weird Fiction Quarterly: “Carcass,” “The Incubus Paramore”, “Journey to Midnight,” “Spiral into Madness,” and “Showdown at the Uncanny Valley Mall.”

And of course the third book in the Metamorphoses of Flynnn Keahi series, Insatiable (Mocha Memoirs Press) is in editing and should be coming out later this year or sometime next year.

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From the Tenderloin Times, October 1987

Demonic Art Possesses the 509

by Preston Brady HI

Art was frightening, so scary that I some passers-by were afraid to enter, ^even in broad daylight. But three neighborhood artists, Mars, Saito, and Sumiko Saulson weren’t about to settle for simply hanging some paintings on the walls. They completely transformed the 509 Cultural Center on Ellis Street into a live museum in the group show, “A Haunting Collection of Art Overshadowed by the Macabre.”

These three Hospitality House art students set the mood for their September 20 exhibition with ghostly music. On a small stage, each artist had designed what resembled an altar. Watched over by a faceless mannequin in a black dress, the altars included candles, incense, brass goblets, and chains. Saito’s altar, entitled “Isabella’s Hair,” even included what appeared to be real human hair.

Saulson’s altar was entitled “The Altar of the Fickle Worshipper,” and Mars’ was called “Past, Present and Future in a Roundabout Way.”

However dramatic the overall presentation of the show, some of the paintings succeeded in their own right. Saito’s “Gates to the Beyond” is a stunning rainbow of pastels blending water, sky and crescent moon in a series of three panels.

My favorite piece was Saito’s “Isabella Sands,” a beautiful, realistic pastel on a par with the work of well known Tenderloin artist Rose Linda. According to Saito, “Isabella Sands was a woman who in 1735 was accused of being a witch, but the truth of that matter was the family was very poor. So in order that their daughter be able to show herself worthy in society, she learned from old manuscripts she had found.”

Other outstanding pieces included “Face,” “Victim,” “Paisley Hell,” and “Jesus in the Infrared Garden,” by Sumiko Saulson, and “Phoenix Enigma,” by Mars.

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Here’s my BayCon Panel Schedule:

Posted in Everything Else