Preston Fassel (born September 11, 1985) is an author and journalist primarily known for his work in the
horror,
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
, and crime genres. His work has appeared in
Fangoria
''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr.
The magazine was originally released i ...
,
Rue Morgue, Screem magazine, and on Cinedump.com. He is the author of ''Remembering Vanessa,'' the first biography of actress
Vanessa Howard
Vanessa Howard (born Vanessa Tolhurst, 10 October 1948, Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom – 23 November 2010), later known as Vanessa Chartoff, was a British film actress and professional backup singer.
Early life
Howard was orphaned by the age o ...
, published in the Spring 2014 issue of Screem. From 2017 to 2020, he was a staff writer for Fangoria; in 2018, the magazine published his debut novel,
Our Lady of the Inferno
''Our Lady of the Inferno'' is a novel by horror journalist and author Preston Fassel and the first officially licensed novel published by '' Fangoria'' magazine under their ''Fangoria Presents'' imprint. It was originally published by Fear Front ...
, as the first entry in their "FANGORIA Presents" imprint. The book received an overwhelmingly positive critical response, and was named one of the ten best horror books of 2018 by
Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
.
Early life
Fassel was born in Houston, Texas, but spent his childhood between
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...
and
Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
Broken Arrow is a city located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Oklahoma, primarily in Tulsa County, with a portion in western Wagoner County. It is the largest suburb of Tulsa. According to the 2010 census, Broken Arrow has a popul ...
.
[ He was raised ]Catholic
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...
; his mother's family coming from a line of Poles
Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...
and ethnic Jews
"Who is a Jew?" ( he, מיהו יהודי ) is a basic question about Jewish identity and considerations of Jewish self-identification. The question pertains to ideas about Jewish personhood, which have cultural, ethnic, religious, political, ...
who had converted.[Coming Soon - Interview with Preston Fassel. Published 12 October 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2019]
/ref>[Kuebler, Monica. Five for Frightening: Preston Fassel. Pub. 11 September 2018. Retrieved 20 November 2019]
/ref> His father worked for the phone company
A telephone company, also known as a telco, telephone service provider, or telecommunications operator, is a kind of communications service provider (CSP), more precisely a telecommunications service provider (TSP), that provides telecommunicat ...
, and he grew up around telecommunications
Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that fe ...
equipment, later comparing part of his childhood experience to the aesthetics of Videodrome
''Videodrome'' is a 1983 Canadian Science fiction film, science fiction body horror film written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring James Woods, Sonja Smits, and Debbie Harry. Set in Toronto during the early 1980s, it follows the CEO o ...
.[
When he was seventeen, Fassel dropped out of high school and obtained his ]GED
The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...
after budget cuts resulted in the elimination of most of his school's elective course
In higher education a course is a unit of teaching that typically lasts one academic term, is led by one or more instructors (teachers or professors), and has a fixed roster of students. A course usually covers an individual subject. Courses gener ...
s. After obtaining his GED, he interned for the Broken Arrow police department evidence room, where he received the President's Volunteer Service Award
The President's Volunteer Service Award is a civil award bestowed by the President of the United States. Established by executive order by George W. Bush, the award was established to honor volunteers that give hundreds of hours per year helping ...
for his work.[Staff Report. "Broken Arrow Native will be coming Soon to Bookshelves Near You." The Broken Arrow Ledger. 8 January 2017. Retrieved 20 November 2019]
/ref> He attended community college at Lone Star College
Lone Star College (LSC) is a public community college system serving the northern portions of the Greater Houston, Texas, area. In 2017 it enrolled about 95,000 students. The headquarters of the Lone Star College System are located in The Wood ...
in Conroe, Texas
Conroe is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Texas, United States, about north of Houston. It is a principal city in the metropolitan area.
As of 2021, the population was 98,081, up from 56,207 in 2010. Since 2007, the ...
, where he began writing short stories set in 1970s Times Square
Times Square is a major commercial intersection, tourist destination, entertainment hub, and neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is formed by the junction of Broadway, Seventh Avenue, and 42nd Street. Together with adjacent ...
that were published in the campus's literary journal.[Danielle, Tori. "Pop Horror's Q&A with Rue Morgue's Preston Fassel. Retrieved 19 November 2019]
/ref> He late transferred to Sam Houston State University
Sam Houston State University (SHSU or Sam) is a public university in Huntsville, Texas. It was founded in 1879 and is the third-oldest public college or university in Texas. It is one of the first normal schools west of the Mississippi River and ...
, from which he graduated in 2011 with a degree in psychology.[Kendall, Gavin. "Author Preston Fassel Chats to Kendall Reviews. Pub. 30 July 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2019]
/ref>
Fassel spent his teenage years renting grindhouse
A grindhouse or action house is an American term for a theatre that mainly shows low-budget horror, splatter and exploitation films for adults. According to historian David Church, this theater type was named after the "grind policy", a film ...
, horror, and exploitation films from local video rental stores in Oklahoma, initially out of a desire to desensitize himself to disturbing imagery and as an act of defiance against what he perceived of as the oppressively conservative
Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...
culture of rural Oklahoma; he would later credit his love of horror cinema as contributing to his desire to become a horror writer.[Tramel, Jimmy. "Horror writer conquered fears, found career by visiting Broken Arrow video stores." The Tulsa World. Pub. 19 October 2019. Retrieved 19 November 2019]
/ref>[ He further credited his mother's purchasing him a copy of ]Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's The Shining with inspiring him to become a horror writer,[Barkan, Jonathan. Fangoria Releasing OUR LADY OF THE INFERNO Under Fangoria Presents Label. Dread Central. Published 19 May 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2019]
/ref> and Bill Landis and Michelle Clifford's Sleazoid Express
''Sleazoid Express'' (1980–1985, and later editions) was the house journal of the grindhouse movie scene in New York circa 1964-1985. Founded as a one-sheet (later to expand to four to six pages) by Bill Landis, an NYU graduate, projectionist, ...
with interesting him in 42nd street culture.[
]
Career
Fassel initially began writing for an optometric trade publication
A trade magazine, also called a trade journal or trade paper (colloquially or disparagingly a trade rag), is a magazine or newspaper whose target audience is people who work in a particular tradesman, trade or industry. The collective te ...
while working as an optician
An optician, or ''dispensing optician'', is a technical practitioner who designs, fits and dispenses lenses for the correction of a person's vision. Opticians determine the specifications of various ophthalmic appliances that will give the nec ...
, receiving a job offer after writing a letter to the editor. He later transitioned into writing for Rue Morgue after pitching a story to their editor-in-chief at a horror convention, beginning by writing reviews and later transitioning into writing feature stories.[ During his time at the magazine, Fassel was nominated for the ]Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award
The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award, often called the Rondo Award, is an annual award founded in 2002 that honors journalism, scholarship and film preservation in the horror genre, particularly of classic horror film and their modern-day counterp ...
for an interview he conducted with Herschell Gordon Lewis
Herschell Gordon Lewis (June 15, 1926 – September 26, 2016) was an American filmmaker, best known for creating the " splatter" subgenre of horror films. He is often called the "Godfather of Gore" (a title also given to Lucio Fulci), though hi ...
. Concurrently to his time with Rue Morgue, Fassel also contributed to the pop culture websites Cinedump.com and HeardTell.com, being nominated for a further two Rondo awards for an interview with Kelli Maroney
Kelli Maroney is an American film and television actress. She appeared in the films ''Fast Times at Ridgemont High'' (1982), ''Night of the Comet'' (1984), and ''Chopping Mall'' (1986), and also appeared on television in the soap operas ''Ryan' ...
and in the best category article, respectively. He spent 2013 researching the life of actress Vanessa Howard
Vanessa Howard (born Vanessa Tolhurst, 10 October 1948, Shoreham-by-Sea, United Kingdom – 23 November 2010), later known as Vanessa Chartoff, was a British film actress and professional backup singer.
Early life
Howard was orphaned by the age o ...
, culminating in the first published biography of her, "Remembering Vanessa," printed in the Spring 2014 issue of ''Screem'' magazine.[McGillvray, Maddi. "Fangoria Presents Our Lady of the Inferno, Coming this September." Rue Morgue Online. Published 23 May 2018. Retrieved 22 November 2019]
/ref>
Beginning in 2007, Fassel began working on a book he would later call "the theater story" that acted as an expansion of the short stories he had written in college; he worked on it for a period of about six years before shelving the project because "it was really terrible" and, despite being 250,000 words, "nothing had happened in it yet."[Frightmakers 101: Horror Writing with Preston Fassel]
/ref> He would later recycle ideas from "the theater story" into his debut novel, Our Lady of the Inferno
''Our Lady of the Inferno'' is a novel by horror journalist and author Preston Fassel and the first officially licensed novel published by '' Fangoria'' magazine under their ''Fangoria Presents'' imprint. It was originally published by Fear Front ...
.[ Fassel initially sold the book to an independent press called Fear Front based out of ]Georgia
Georgia most commonly refers to:
* Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia
* Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States
Georgia may also refer to:
Places
Historical states and entities
* Related to the ...
, shortly before the company went out of business.[ Around the time of the book's publication, Fassel worked as an extra on the set of Puppet Master: The Littlest Reich, where he met producer ]Dallas Sonnier
Joseph Albert "Dallas" Sonnier IV (born March 31, 1980) is an American film producer, publisher, and entrepreneur. He is best known as the founder of Cinestate and, from 2018 to 2020, the publisher of ''Fangoria'' magazine. He has producing credi ...
, who expressed interest in acquiring the film rights; Fassel later convinced Sonnier to purchase the republication rights as well.[ Fassel additionally asked for a job with Sonnier's production company, Cinestate, as part of the deal, unaware that Sonnier had recently purchased ]Fangoria
''Fangoria'' is an internationally distributed American horror film fan magazine, in publication since 1979. It is published four times a year by Fangoria Publishing, LLC and is edited by Phil Nobile Jr.
The magazine was originally released i ...
magazine; Sonnier subsequently hired Fassel to work for the publication.[ He joined the staff as a writer in 2017; from 2018 until the magazine's 2020 sale, he wrote a column called ''Corrupt Signals,'' focusing on obscure and foreign horror cinema.][ For his work with Fangoria, Fassel was nominated for a Rondo award for best column and (along with Tate Steinsiek) best article.
Fangoria republished Our Lady of the Inferno in September 2018 to generally positive reviews. It was named one of ]Bloody Disgusting
Bloody Disgusting is an American multi-media company, which began as a horror genre-focused news site/website specializing in information services that covered various horror medias, including: film, television, video games, comics, and music. ...
's ten best horror books of 2018, and won gold in the horror category at the 2019 Independent Publisher Book Awards
The Independent Publisher Book Awards, also styled the IPPY Awards, are a set of annual book awards for independently published titles. They are the longest-running unaffiliated contest open exclusively to independent presses. The IPPY Awards ar ...
In 2018, it was announced that a film adaptation of the book was in development at Fangoria, with Fassel collaborating on the screenplay and serving as an executive producer alongside Sonnier and Phil Nobile Jr.
In 2019, it was announced that Fangoria would publish Fassel's second novel, Beasts of 42nd Street, in 2020. In 2020, he served as the editor for Mick Garris
Mick Garris (born December 4, 1951) is an American filmmaker and screenwriter born in Santa Monica, California. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, as well as making Stephen King adaptations.
Early life
Garris was born in Sant ...
' debut anthology, ''These Evil Things We Do.'' Following the 2020 sale of Fangoria to Tara Ansley and Abhi Goel, Fassel said that the publishing rights to ''Beasts'' had reverted to him, and that the option on the film rights to Our Lady of the Inferno would expire in 2022. In 2021, he published his first novella, a science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
horror-comedy
Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three types: "black comedy, parody and spo ...
, ''The Despicable Fantasies of Quentin Sergenov'', with 35% of proceeds going to The Trevor Project
The Trevor Project is an American nonprofit organization founded in 1998. Focused on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, they offer a toll-free telephone number wher ...
.
In 2021 Fassel published his first nonfiction work, ''Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street'', the first ever biography of Sleazoid Express
''Sleazoid Express'' (1980–1985, and later editions) was the house journal of the grindhouse movie scene in New York circa 1964-1985. Founded as a one-sheet (later to expand to four to six pages) by Bill Landis, an NYU graduate, projectionist, ...
founder Bill Landis, which also includes a history of the magazine.Squires, John. Encyclopocalypse Launches Daily Grindhouse Literary Imprint with Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street. Published 1 November 2021. Retrieved 2 November 2021.
/ref>
Personal life
Fassel has referred to himself as Catholic in interviews. He identifies as ethnically, though not religiously, Jewish,[ Danielle, Tori. Fangoria's Our Lady of the Inferno Audio Adaptation Announcement. PopHorror.com. Retrieved 20 November 2019]
/ref> and has said that his Jewish cultural heritage has had a "tremendous impact" on him.[
]
Bibliography
Novels
*2016: ''Our Lady of the Inferno
''Our Lady of the Inferno'' is a novel by horror journalist and author Preston Fassel and the first officially licensed novel published by '' Fangoria'' magazine under their ''Fangoria Presents'' imprint. It was originally published by Fear Front ...
''
*TBA: ''Beasts of 42nd Street''
Novellas
*2021: ''The Despicable Fantasies of Quentin Sergenov''
Nonfiction
*2021: ''Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street''
Anthologies
*2019: ''My Favorite Horror Movie 3: Scream Warriors'' (essay "Videodrome")
As editor
*2020: ''These Evil Things We Do: The Mick Garris Collection'' by Mick Garris
Mick Garris (born December 4, 1951) is an American filmmaker and screenwriter born in Santa Monica, California. He is best known for his work in the horror film genre, as well as making Stephen King adaptations.
Early life
Garris was born in Sant ...
Awards and nominations
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fassel, Preston
1985 births
Living people
21st-century American novelists
American horror novelists
People from Houston
Novelists from Texas
Writers from Texas
21st-century American male writers
Jewish American novelists
21st-century American Jews
American science fiction writers