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BY AARON J. FRENCH At Death’s Altar: An Interview with Philip Fracassi

Photo courtesy of Bethany Gilberston

aron J. French: Thanks for chatt ing with us. Could bookstore and art gallery in Venice Beach, founded and A you tell our readers a litt le about your personal back- operated a publishing company, and have worked on and ground and your work in the entertainment industry? off in fi lm & TV production for, well, a long time. Living in the Los Angeles area, our number one commodity is enter- Philip Fracassi: Thanks for having me in this amazing tainment, so a good percentage of folks work, in one way magazine! or another, with fi lm and television. Currently I split my In regards to my background, yes, absolutely. I’ve time between writing and working as a Location Manager, always been a writer. I started writing stories in third grade which means I help fi nd and secure any “real” location a and never stopped. Since I was a big reader of Stephen show might need for fi lming, be a city sidewalk, an offi ce King, Dean Koontz and Clive Barker, I eventually took my building, a house, or an amusement park. Whatever they fi rst crack at writing horror in the seventh grade and fell need to get the scene. It can be a very interesting occupa- in love with the genre. I continued writing, albeit with var- tion, and it’s a lot of fun to work on the big studio lots. ied directions. During the aughts, I primarily wrote liter- Plus, working freelance means I can take off to write when ary fi ction, hundreds of stories and three novels, a sort of needed, which is a key perk, for sure. literary trilogy—“The Egotist,” “Don’t Let Them Get You Down,” and “Happy Holly.” “The Egotist” was self-pub- AJF: You’ve done some screenwriting. Tell us about that. lished and is currently out of print, although I did recently fashion a Kindle e-book which is available online. I’m hop- PF: I sort of fell into screenwriting. Being a writer in Los ing all three novels will see the light of day, because I’ll Angeles, it’s a natural occupation to att empt, but it’s such likely never write straight literary fi ction again. Enjoying a brutal and overwhelmingly well-populated fi eld that it horror too much now to turn back, for bett er or worse. is very hard to fi nd and maintain any success. I was lucky Writing aside, I have quite a varied background—I’ve enough to catch a break writing movies for children that been a music executive, a security guard, I owned a rare involved talking dogs, and one of those movies, “Santa

65 Fall/2016 Paws 2: The Santa Pups,” from Disney Entertainment, was and brutal prose, and MR James for his ability to create a my first credited writing job. This was in 2011. In the five sensation of creepy, yet somehow formal, dread. More cur- years since, I’ve focused all of my efforts on writing hor- rently, Ralph Robert Moore for his intense physicality, and ror and supernatural-themed scripts, one of which sold in lastly Laird Barron, for teaching me that prose can infil- 2014 to Lifetime Television, a thriller called “Girl Missing,” trate the subconscious and, while visiting, do some fairly starring Francesca Eastwood. It’s currently on demand via significant damage. I once said, after reading Barron’s “the Amazon and iTunes. I’m still writing screenplays and am worms crawl in,” that he was a linguistic acrobat, and I still in development on a new thriller called “Vintage,” which hold that he can do things with words that no other writer will hopefully go into production in 2016. So keep an can. It’s okay to call it genius. eye out for that one. AJF: Let’s talk about your 2016 novella “Altar” published AJF: You create an inter- by Dunhams Manor Press. esting atmosphere with This is an awesome read. your writing. Which How did this story come authors most influenced about? your craft? Why? PF: Let me start by saying PF: Thank you for saying my stories would not have so. Let me start by say- seen the light of day were ing that screenwriting is, it not for Jordan Krall and quite obviously, a visual his excellent press, Dynatox medium. There are very Ministries. He was an early few abstract thoughts, hid- adopter of my work, and den actions, pontifications leads the charge of indepen- or philosophizing, in a dent presses finding won- screenplay. It’s Character, derful new authors. Action, Dialogue, Setting. Regarding “Altar,” it’s So I think my work in hard to discuss without screenwriting has allowed giving too much away, but me to visualize, in a some- as with most of my story what unique way, the ideas, it really just popped scenes taking place dur- into my head one day, ing my stories. In turn, at least the core concept. my hunch is that my Sometimes, for me at least, stories—although prose- I’ll just be looking at some- fueled and often filled thing—in this case I was with inner-thoughts and gazing lazily at a swimming descriptive passages— pool—and a dark finger maintain a strong visual will poke my brain and I’ll element for the reader, think, “What if?” And that simply because that’s the “what if” is usually, uh, way I’ve been trained something fairly awful and, to express myself in my likely, supernatural, in the work. sense that it would never As far as tone, I like to really happen. Would it? think of myself as “old- But from that core idea school horror meets the comes the flowering of all new weird,” the combi- the other ideas that go into nation of which can cre- it. In this case, I wanted that ate some interesting textures, for sure. “Altar” is a prime core idea—a fairly implausible, but not totally unrealistic, example. disaster—to be something much bigger, something the- In regards to authors, I’ve said before that there is a dif- matic and, as I said, supernatural. I thought a lot about the ference between authors I enjoy reading and authors who loss of innocence, and about shining a light on the awful influence my work, whether it be the stories themselves or things that happen in the darkest corners of childhood. the way I write them. While I enjoy hundreds if not thou- Then it was just a matter of creating some different per- sands of authors, there are very few I draw from that have spectives, adding a dash of family drama and a pinch of affected my prose. nostalgia and, Viola! Horror. Those who have influenced me, then: from a literary standpoint, I’d say William Faulkner, for the liquidity of AJF: One of the things I like about your writing is that his sentences and phrases, Ernest Hemingway for his blunt you don’t shy away from addiction, family problems,

Dark Discoveries 66 dysfunction—that sort of thing. It seems a common theme AJF: You have another novella out with Dunhams Manor in your stories. Is it deliberate? Press called “Mother” (2015). Tell us a little about that one. Do you prefer novellas as a format to novels? PF: It’s not deliberate, and I’m not sure where it stems from. I had a very standard, happy childhood. I have two PF: “Mother” is the story of what a marriage can become loving parents and a big family of very well-off, stable when neither member has fully established their person- folks. So your guess is as good as mine. alities, their goals and their life ambitions. They have not I will say that I have a tendency to champion the fully become the person they are going to be, in other children. I enjoy writing from a kid’s perspective, but in words. They’re not done changing. Into what? Well, that’s a mature, complex way. I like giving kids a voice, a real the surprise, and often not a pleasant one. voice. Maybe it’s because I have a teenager, but there’s Whether it be from marrying too young, or being definitely a part of me fooled by the other per- that wants to explore the son’s personality, mar- complexities, real emo- riages are often traps tions and incredible suf- rather than unions. fering and decisions we That said, this is really make while growing up. the core idea, and what The contrast between sprouted from that bitter, narrow-minded, germ was something calloused adults and the much more sinister wide-open, sponge-like and monstrous. optimism and fear of a Ultimately, child is a sandbox I cer- “Mother” is about that tainly enjoy playing in. dark night when you’re Things like dysfunction lying in bed next to and addiction exacer- the person you’re sup- bate those relationships, posed to love, sup- among other catalysts, posed to know better so that’s likely why they than anyone else in the rear their ugly heads. world; but when you There’s a lot of truth reach out your hand to to horror, and I think touch them, something that’s one of the things different lies there, that makes it so damn something you have no important. understanding of, and now you have to live AJF: “Altar” is a cool with that person, and blend of vintage ’80s bear the subsequent with Lovecraftian consequences. For bet- undercurrents (literally). ter or for worse. Could you tell us some In the case of of your favorite aspects “Mother,” the latter. of this novella? In regards to novel- las versus novels, it PF: One of the things I really depends on the wanted to do with this story. Is it a “scenario” story was to create a con- story? In other words, tinuous raising of stakes. is something bad hap- Meaning, just when you pening to someone and think things can’t possibly get any worse, they do. And I’m there to relay the information? If so, then a novella, or then they do again. And again. There’s nothing more novelette, might be the way to go. Or, am I world-building? entertaining, especially in this day and age, than pure sur- Is there background information and a large cast of char- prise. Twist endings, unforeseen character choices, deci- acters coming into play? Is this a 3-Act drama? If so, then sions made by the author or creator that legitimately shock a novel might be the proper length. I’ve used this example the reader. We’ve seen this from the ending of “The Sixth before, but take two classics, both novels: Sense,” to the bloody wedding during “Game of Thrones.” “” absolutely needed to be a novel. Lots of Folks love to be surprised, and that’s one of the primary background, lots of world-building with the Overlook and things I wanted to do in this novella. the ghostly residents. Now take “,” a novel that would I don’t want to just scare the reader; I want to surprise have been much better as a 50-page novella. It’s fleshed out them. to 300 pages by needless side-stories that have, ultimately,

67 Fall/2016 no part of the real story, PF: On the screenwriting which is the rabid dog front, as mentioned, I’m and the terror he inflicts working on revisions for on those who get in his my supernatural thriller, way. So the answer is “Vintage” and am plan- that the story dictates the ning to write a feature film length, not the writer. adaption of a Christopher Ropes called AJF: Who are some your “Complicity” in the upcom- favorite authors cur- ing months, time permitting. rently active in the genre? I have a lot of stories banging around right now, PF: Oh gosh, how much and I’ve sold a few stories space do you have? Well, to be published in 2016, two let’s play this like some- of which will be put out by one who’s never read Ravenwood Quarterly and horror outside of the the run by King/Koontz/Barker tri- Travis Neisler. I also have umvirate. Here’s just a a novelette being published few: Laird Barron, Adam in a new anthology, based Nevill, Ralph Robert on or inspired by murder Moore, Paul Tremblay, ballads, by the wonderful , , Egaeus Press, which is due Stephen Graham Jones, late in the year. I believe Ray Garton, Ronald there’s a story in an upcom- Malfi, Brian Keene, ing issue of Dark Discoveries John Langan and S.P. as well! So check that out. Miskowski are a good Looking forward to next start. year, there’s a lot of crazy On the up-and- news. I recently signed a coming side of things, publishing deal that will I’ve greatly enjoyed Ted include a novella, a collec- E. Grau, Gemma Files, tion (my first!) and poten- Christopher Slatsky, tially a novel in 2017 with Jordan Krall, Michael Wehunt, John Claude Smith, Lynda the wonderful press, JournalStone, home of such authors Rucker, John Boden, Damien Angelica Walters; and I’ve as Laird Barron, Jonathan Maberry and Christopher recently read books by Jonathan Janz, Brett McBean, John Golden. Talk about a dream come true! Lastly, in a very Foster, Chris Kelso, Mike Griffin, Scott Adlerberg and John exciting turn of events, I am in talks to create a noveliza- McNee that I liked quite a bit. tion for a major entertainment title, which would be a bit Allow me to throw a few publishers out there, as of a game-changer for me. well: Word Horde, Undertow Publications, JournalStone, In terms of goals, it’s fairly simple. I’d like to be able to Sinister Grin Press, Raw Dog Screaming Press, Lazy support myself as a writer, however I need to piece that Fascist Press, ChiZine, Shock Totem, Dim Shores, Dynatox together. I want to keep writing movies and horror stories Ministries… these are all presses putting out great writing because I really do love it and find it incredibly fulfilling. If that readers should invest in. I could go on for pages… I’m able to write until I’m 90 and have a roof over me and an idea in my head that might terrify a few people, then AJF: That’s a great list. And finally, what interesting proj- that’s a deal I’m happy to take. That’s the great thing about ects do you have on the horizon and what are some of your being a horror writer, you never want to be anything else. long term writing goals?

Dark Discoveries 68