Q&A: Bitter Karella, Author of ‘Moonflow’

We chat with author Bitter Karella about Moonflow, which is a gloriously queer and irreverent psychedelic trip into the heart of an eldritch wood and the horrors of (cis)terhood.

Hi, Bitter! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’m a genderfluid transvestite goblin, best known as the creator of the three time Hugo-nominated microfiction comedy account @MidnightPals o Bluesky 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?” I write gonzo psycho-sexual body horror and my first novel, Moonflow, is now available from Orbit’s new horror imprint Run For It.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve always loved storytelling as long as I can remember. I think one of my first exposures to it was my mother telling me and my siblings bedtime stories when we were kids. She would just make up stories on the spot, improvising plots and characters until she had created on-going serials that she continue every night. One of the longest running stories she told was about The Three Big Pigs, globe-trotting hotelier tycoons named Milton Hilton, Mario Marriott, and Howard Johnson. There was something so magical about just making stuff up, and I’ve loved doing that ever since.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: The Mouse and the Motorcycle, by Beverley Cleary
• The one that made you want to become an author: Infernal City, by Edward Lee
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Handsome Squirm, by Carlton Mellick III

Your debut novel, Moonflow, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Psychedelic trans cosmic fungal splatterpunk

What can readers expect?

A trans shroom dealer gets lost in a haunted forest and runs afoul of a cult of lesbian separatist hippies and the bound nature god that they keep bound in the cellar. It’s got all the fluids in it!

Where did the inspiration for Moonflow come from?

The original inspiration came from a poorly planned hike that I took with some friends to Lassen National Park, where we set out too late in the day and ended up wanding through the woods in the dead of night. Luckily, there was a full moon so we see enough to follow the path, but whenever the trees got thick we’d just be in total darkness. And it really make me think, gee, what if there was a forest that was ALWAYS like this? That was where the initial idea for the Pamogo came from.

The book is also very much inspired by my own weird ass gender journey. I was more or less still identifying as cis when I began writing this book, and figured out I was some kind of trans enroute. It was very much a “wait, reality is all just a shared delusion, man” moment when I realized it, almost stereotypically similar to a drug revelation. So talking about that through a story about psychedelic mushrooms seemed pretty natural.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

My favorite characters to write were Skillet and the Hell Slut. They started out as a minor character because I needed the cult leader to have some enforcer goons and they were the stereotypical “Big muscle goon and frenetic little shrimpy goon” duo. But they started taking on more life as I was writing with the Hell Slut becoming this almost tragic figure and Skillet becoming a force of pure id. Skillet especially was fun to write because her whole bit is being completely self-interested and always making the worst possible decision at every opportunity. In some ways, that kind of made her easy to write!

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Originally I was very worried about presenting trans issues in a positive light. Since I came to my gender realization pretty late in life, I was really aware that my thoughts probably feel very “baby’s first epiphany” compared to those of people who’ve been thinking about them for a long time. I felt that a lot of my feeling on gender were probably too personal or idiosyncratic to resonate with a general audience, so I tried to tone it down somewhat. But writing a story that wasn’t honest about my feelings turned out to be boring, so eventually I had to say fuck it and just puke up all my worst impulses onto the page!

What’s next for you?

I’m writing a folk horror novel about an extremely obnoxious American family taking a vacation in an incredibly quaint British village where there’s definitely not some sort of secret ancient evil lurking around.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I’ve really enjoyed “These Kids Are Not Alright,” a collection of mostly child-related horror stories by T.L. Bodine; “Chasers,” by Eve Harms and Mariah Darling, about a trans woman who finds a peep hole in her apartment through which she can see all sorts of bizarre and perverted spectacles; “A Song for the End,” by Kit Power, about a song that forces everyone to always tell the truth and the chaos that causes; and “The Divine Flesh,” by Drew Huff, a cosmic horror novel about a woman who has an interdimensional abomination god who happens to be a lovesick bimbo stuck in her head! I’m looking forward to checking out “Teenage Girls Can be Demons,” by Hailey Piper, “Black Flame,” by Gretchen Felker-Martin, and “We Are Always Tender with Our Dead,” by Eric LaRocca.

Will you be picking up Moonflow? Tell us in the comments below!