Welcome, Bitter!

Bitter Karella is the horror writer and aficionado behind the three time Hugo-nominated microfiction comedy account @Midnight_Pals. Karella writes gonzo psycho-sexual body horror with a grotesquely humorous edge. His short story “Low Tide Jenny,” originally published in Seize the Press magazine, was a winner of Tenebrous Press’ Brave New Weird award in 2022, and her work has also been published by Eerie River Publishing, Ghoulish Books, and From Beyond Press. 

About The Ballad of Horse Girl

The Ballad of Horse Girl: California, 1860. The corrupt judge and snake oil baron Lazarus Dives murdered her family; now the nameless drifter known only as the Horse Girl is out for revege. But can a man who’s sold his soul to the devil for eternal life be killed? It’ll be no easy task; but with extra motivation in the form of a bounty on the judge by Death herself, the Horse Girl plans to collect – even if it costs her soul. 

Interview with Bitter Karella

Tell us about yourself – what is something readers would be surprised to find out? 

I’m a genderfluid transvestite goblin with a love of all things goth, living in Northern California with my two cats. Besides writing, I’m also a text game designer and cartoonist. I wrote and illustrated three graphic novels, including a comic adaptation of the medieval witch hunting manual Malleus Maleficarum, and I’m co-host of the podcast “A Special Presentation, or Alf Will Not be Seen Tonight,” all about comic strips adapted into TV specials.

What is it about the Weird West genre that draws you to it? What are your favorite aspects or examples of this often-underappreciated genre?

I live in California, and, in the bad old days of westward expansion and manifest destiny, this was sort of as far west as you could go.  So California has always felt like the place where the American Dream goes to die, the last gasp of every charlatan and trickster trying to make it big. The western to some extent arose as a genre because we needed to formalize the myths that made manifest destiny more palatable, all about taming this vast open wilderness for the benefit of progress. Weird westerns often use supernatural or horror trappings to tell a different story, to suggest that maybe this land should have been left alone, that maybe all that manifest destiny was, in fact, bad. They help to reconstruct that mythology and get at some of the rot beneath the veneer, so that sometimes they feel like they’re telling a more honest story even when they’re introducing way more fantastic elements. I also love that weird western will more often center people left out of the typical western — Native Americans, vaqueros, non-white immigrants, sex workers, drunks, scoundrels, con men and gutter trash, the real people who lived in the real west!

What inspired you to write this story?

 I used to work as a tour guide in a historic mansion built by an early California pioneer. It was interesting to see the very bowdlerized version of his life that was deemed appropriate to share with the public, generally the most banal and inoffensive anecdotes, which was especially ironic given that the public was eternally hungry for stories with more blood and gore. We were discouraged from sharing even some fairly innocuous details – for example, the fact that this particular pioneer once mentioned in his diary that he saw a UFO – that might make history look “unserious.” The way that Americans in general grapple with their history is weirdly schizophrenic – we love exciting tales of gore and we’re naturally skeptical of “official” historical accounts, but we’re also extremely quick to anger if anything actually challenges the “official” account that we learned in elementary school. I would have visitors demand that I tell them “the truth” about California history (ie the violent bits) that they were convinced I was hiding, but then get angry as soon as that truth turned out to also include things like the genocide of Native Americans or pogroms against the Chinese. I wanted to write a story that where the bloody background of history was a little more foregrounded.

If you were living in the Weird West, what kind of character would you be?

I am very goth at heart, so I would definitely be the town undertaker. What better thing than to wear a big black stovepipe hat and silently appear out of nowhere with a tape measure right after the heroic marshal announces he’s going to go face down the outlaw’s posse? When you arrive on the scene, you should say “Good evening” and always look like you’re about to do the Monster Mash. Also, it would be good to have a vulture that just sits on the top of your hat. 

Are there any other writing projects you’re working on?

I’m the writer for the microfiction comedy account @Midnight_Pals which asks what if all your favorite horror writers were to gather around the campfire and tell scary stories like in the classic Nickelodeon series “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” We recently adapted the twitter account into a podcast and had a very successful first season. We’re running a crowd funder right now to try to raise money for a second season, so hopefully we can pay the actors a little. It should be really fun, with spoofs of Hellraiser, Interview with the Vampire, and The Shadow over Innsmouth!

What are you reading right now?

I’m exactly halfway through Mister Magic, by Kiersten White. It’s about a mysterious kids show that everyone remembers existed but no one can actually remember any details about! Which makes it feel weirdly prescient for this age we’re living through, where all our memories of everything feel completely fake.

Favorite weird west movie/book/comic/etc. and why?

The Hawkline Monster: A Gothic Western. It’s about two gunslingers who get hired to stop a monster after a scientist invents some possibly sentient chemicals that everyone to lose their minds – and also turn the scientist into an umbrella stand. I like how completely absurdist it is, really skirting the line between comedy and horror where things are so bizarre that you’re not entirely sure whether you should laugh or scream.

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