DECEMBER 7 , 2021
Man, what a year!
Generally speaking, last couple years have easily been my most productive to date from a writing standpoint. The pandemic (awful as it was) allowed me to quarantine at my desk and produce a bunch of new work, which is now slowly making its way out to market. My hope / aspiration is that things continue to proceed at a workmanlike, steady pace, so I can continue to focus full-time on writing (something I’ve been doing since April of this year). As long as I can keep finding homes for things, I can likely keep afloat financially. But I also need time to make the donuts! So, taking it day-by-day, but really hoping things continue in an upward trajectory.
That all said, it’s been a great publishing year for me. A lot of titles have come out somewhat close together (not by design, believe me) and it’s been fun, if a little exhausting, getting them all as much reader visibility as I could muster. But it’s worked out really well, and I’m so appreciative to the publishers I’ve worked with, and to the amazing readers who have purchased my books. THANK YOU!
2021 Family Photo
To that end, I’ve been fortunate to publish the following titles in 2021:
Beneath a Pale Sky - Story collection - Lethe Press
Boys in the Valley - (debut!) novel - Earthling Publications
Commodore - novella - Strange Aeons Publishing
Tomorrow’s Gone - poems - Hybrid Sequence Media
And I’ve had the following stories published:
“Aquarium Diver” - Humans are the Problem (anthology)
“The Wish” - Assemble Artifacts #1 (magazine)
“The View” - Southwest Review (magazine)
“Marmalade” - The Bad Book (anthology)
“Over 1,000,000 Copies in Print” - New Maps of Dream (anthology)
“Ergamul” - Forbidden Futures (magazine)
In addition to the above, I’ve sold a few stories which will appear in various places in the new year. I’ve got another handful being shopped, and a few on my docket to get written, so I will definitely be adding to that total if at all possible.
I’ve also sold (or am in the process of finalizing agreements on) three novels, a children’s book, and a story collection. All of which will be coming out in 2022 and/or early 2023 (including a big horror novel, A Child Alone with Strangers, coming August from Skyhorse/Talos Press). I have two additional novels being shopped by my amazing, hard-working agent Elizabeth Copps (including a trade edition of Boys in the Valley), and a brand new novel I’m writing now which I’ll be turning in early next year. Hopefully they all find homes.
There will also be international releases for Spain, Italy, and the Czech Republic for assorted titles. Hopefully we can add more territories down the line.
So as things wind down for the year, I just want to say a big thanks to Steve Berman, Paul Miller, Kelly Young and Rick Tillman, Donald Armfield, and all the wonderful editors who have taken on my work.
I’m also so grateful to the incredible artists I’ve worked with in the last year: Brian Vox (Commodore), Francois Vaillancourt (Beneath a Pale Sky), Glenn Chadbourne (Boys in the Valley), and Mark Licari (Tomorrow’s Gone) are all amazing to work with and I feel truly blessed to have done so.
Lastly, there are a bunch of film / tv adaptions in the works for assorted stories. Hopefully we can start announcing some of those next year, as well. My big thanks to Brendan Deneen for repping my stuff to industry folks. It’s been a heck of a ride so far.
I deeply and humbly thank all of you who have supported me in 2021. You guys are the best and I hope I can continue to put out work that thrills and entertains, if you’ll have me.
Happy Holidays!
-PF
PS—To purchase any of my available books, visit my Amazon page. If you’d like Signed copies, visit by Signed Books page. And if you’d like to see a breakdown of all my stories to date, you can check out my Stories page. Thank you again!
(Header artwork by Glenn Chadbourne, from the cover of Boys in the Valley)