I’d like to welcome Philip Fracassi to the blog for #WriterWednesday!

A few of your favorite summer traditions: Like most folks, I love a good barbecue. Burgers and chicken and salmon and sausage with lots of toppings, cold beer in the fridge, and French fries in the oven. Yum.

Something summer-related that you’ll never do again: My wife and I went parasailing once while in Hawaii. It was pretty cool for a few minutes, but after a while I got kinda bored just floating up there. A one-time experience for me, but one I’m glad we did.

Favorite summer treat: An ice-cold gin and tonic.

A summer treat that makes you gag: I’m not a big popsicle guy. They’re too cold, too drippy, and too much work for too little reward.

Best summer memory: I used to love waterskiing on a lake in Michigan, where my family owned a small cabin.

Something you’d rather forget: Pretty much all of high school.

Best summer vacation memory: For a few years running my friends and I would spend Thanksgiving in Big Bear, California. We’d bring tents and beer and spend days on the coast, swimming and hiking. Those were good times.

A summer vacation disaster that you’d rather forget: On an otherwise wonderful trip to Thailand, my wife and I misjudged a travel day that ended up being over twelve hours in a hot, crowded bus, then a hot, crowded van, then a crowded (and apparently shock-free) pickup truck. Not a good day to say the least.

Most favorite place to write/edit in the summer: I tend to do all of my writing in my home office, regardless of the season. But occasionally on the nicer summer days I might take the laptop to a coffee shop patio to get some work done.

The worst place to try to write in the summer because of all the distractions: Not so much because of distractions, but for some strange reason I can’t write on airplanes. Could be that I’m distracted, or the air pressure messes up my creative brain, or that I’m just so uncomfortable.

Favorite thing to do on a summer evening: I like a good sunset walk. There’s a college campus near our home and my wife and I like to walk its perimeter when the day starts cooling down. Two miles that crawls up the hills and offers a stunning view of Los Angeles and the ocean.

Least favorite thing about summer: When the days to too hot. I’m not a big “heat” guy. I prefer a cool day to an overly-warm one. Luckily we hover in the low 70s most days here, but occasionally it crawls up into the 90s and those are no bueno for me.

The thing you like most about being a writer: My favorite moments of being a writer is meeting someone who is a fan of my work; signing a book, taking a photo. Those moments go a long way.

The thing you like least about being a writer: I don’t mind bad reviews, but it really gets to me when reviews are spiteful, or snarky, or angry. I’ve been called a lot of bad things by reviewers, none of them true, and wholly unnecessary in my opinion.

Things you will run to the store for in the middle of the night: Scotch.

Things you never put on your shopping list: Mushrooms, olives, or eggplant. Yuck.

The thing that you will most remember about your writing life: Stephen King tweeting about my upcoming novel from Nightfire will be something I’ll never, ever, forget. Amazing.

Something in your writing life that you wish you could do over: As a writer I tend to let my emotions get carried away and regret a few angry social media posts I’ve made over the years. Yes, you can delete them, but self-control or not responding to something negative is a learned skill.

Most daring thing you’ve ever done: Not sure how daring it was, but climbing an (inactive) volcano in Guatemala was likely the most grueling experience of my life.

Something you chickened out from doing: Don’t recall ever being too scared to do something, but my biggest summertime regret would have to be not seeing Nirvana perform at the Metro in Chicago when I was a young man. A small group of friends had tickets, and I was invited, but I begged off at the last minute. A huge regret.

About Philip

Philip Fracassi is the Bram Stoker-nominated author of the story collections Behold the Void (named “Collection of the Year” from This Is Horror) and Beneath a Pale Sky (named “Collection of the Year” by Rue Morgue Magazine). His novels include A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, and Boys in the Valley.

Philip’s work has been translated into multiple languages, and his stories have been published in numerous magazines and anthologies, including Best Horror of the Year, Nightmare Magazine, and Black Static.

The New York Times calls his work “terrifically scary.”

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