JUNE 30, 2021
I’m not gonna lie, this is an emotional post for me.
Thirty-odd years of scribbling words, concocting ideas. Endless hours at different desks with different computers (or notepads or word processors without hard drives). Countless submissions to agents and publishers. In the early going, an accumulation of stacks and stacks of torn-open envelopes with rejection notes, letters, and postcards inside. In this last decade, a dark parade of emails saying No, No, No.
Try again. Try harder.
Work harder.
And yes, I’ve published a few books with some wonderful publishers. My debut novel is set to release this Halloween as a stunning limited edition.
But this feels different. My first major trade publishing deal is now a reality, and I couldn’t be more thrilled, more happy. More satisfied.
Well, not satisfied. Not yet. Lots more to do. More deals to try and make. More trying. More work.
I can’t wait.
Henry’s Prison
But for now, I’m going to enjoy this, and I’m grateful to be enjoying it with you, reader. To be sharing with everyone I can reach out to and connect with. Because hell yeah, I’m celebrating this one.
This book was a challenge. Its early drafts saw the revisions of two different literary agents. Not to mention many generous beta readers and friends. It was also a challenge because it was my first horror novel, and I wanted it to be great. I wanted it to be special. Ultimately, I spent over a year writing and re-writing the first chunk of this book. Trying to make it conform, to fit what early agents wanted. But not what I wanted. So I wrote the book I wanted to write.
I wanted to make it nuts. I wanted to make it fun. I wanted to make it BIG.
Hopefully, clocking in at over 600 pages, it will be all of those things for anyone who opens the front cover and dives into the world of Henry Thorne, and all the monsters that live in it.
Ultimately, it was my third (and current, and bestest) agent who read and loved the final manuscript. Worked incredibly hard to put it in front of dozens of editors.
And finally, that bite came. Not a nibble, a BITE. An OFFER.
I’m very grateful to Oren Eades at Skyhorse Publishing / Talos Press for wanting this book. For wanting my work.
A CHILD ALONE WITH STRANGERS is coming Spring 2022 from Talos Press.
It’s official, and I can’t wait.
Thanks for reading. Means the world.
PF
BOOK SUMMARY
When a young boy is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods, and uses that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting the interlopers gone -- there is something hidden beneath the house, tucked away in the dark, damp root cellar... waiting for its return.
EARLY PRAISE
"A Child Alone with Strangers starts out as a slow burn procedural with supernatural elements and inexorably cranks itself into a pulse-pounding symphony of eldritch horrors and all-too-human violence. Philip Fracassi is the best sort of horror writer--one who is unafraid to hunt for light in even the darkest places." - SHAUN HAMILL, author of A Cosmology of Monsters
“Fracassi’s novel hits me like a cross between McCammon and 80s King. Might be one of them summer blockbusters readers love.” - LAIRD BARRON, author of Worse Angels
