By KEVIN HOOVER
THE DESPICABLE FANTASIES OF QUENTIN SERGENOV, Preston Fassel’s 2021 horror-comedy novella released to help raise funds for The Trevor Project, has won the Independent Publisher’s Gold Medal for Horror.
Set between the mid-90s and early-2000s, the John Waters-inspired story documents the exploits of Quentin Sergenov, a closeted pro-wrestler whose affair with a fellow athlete causes him to be blacklisted from the industry and subsequently transformed into a dinosaur by a collective of mad scientists. After escaping his captors, he decides to try and reintegrate into society in his new form, with disastrous results. The book was released during Pride Month 2021, with 35% of all proceeds going to benefit The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that provides suicide prevention services to LGBT+ youth.
Founded in 1996, the Independent Publisher’s Book Award (also known as the IPPY) recognizes works by authors unaffiliated with any of the “Big Five” publishing companies, to “reward those who exhibit the courage, innovation, and creativity to bring about change in the world of publishing.” An official ceremony is held annually in New York City for winners to receive their medals.
“It’s a little surreal to me that this thing actually won,” says Fassel, who initially conceived the story as a way to entertain himself and his brother during walks to and from work and college during a period in their youth when they lacked a car. “It all started out as this piss-take on homophobes and bigots we knew in high school, and was really just this insane joke, like, ‘what if John Waters got the money to make a straight-up horror movie?’ Then it evolved into this sort of love letter to all of my pop culture influences and what it felt like to be young and optimistic in pre-9/11 America; I was like 20 at the time and had just gone through my first breakup, and I ended up putting a lot of my regrets and anxieties into it and it got me through. And now it’s won a literary award. I’m really grateful and hope this draws more attention to it and The Trevor Project.”
The book was released by Encyclopocalypse Publications, the independent publishing and audiobook company founded by Mark Miller, former Vice President of Seraphim Films and producer of the Rondo-award winning Nightbreed: The Cabal Cut. “I’d written this thing years ago and would just pull it out at parties to make people laugh,” says Fassel. “Then one day Mark called me up after he’d begun the transition from solely producing audiobooks to publishing original paperbacks as well, and he said, ‘What’ve you got? I’ll publish anything you have for me as long as it’s good.’ And the ‘anything’ part really jumped out at me and I said, ‘Well, there’s this story about a gay dinosaur wrestler …’ And I also told him about Trevor Project and what it meant to me and how I’d like for this to be this sort of ongoing source of donations to them. And 10 minutes later, I’d sold Quentin. I pulled it out and started revisions on it immediately, and here we are.”
The book also features unique art by Dallas-based painter Dan Gremminger, who painted an original 20×30 acrylic portrait of Quentin which was then digitally scanned and used for the cover image. “I’ve been developing this painting style over the last few years,” says Gremminger. “The original inspiration was the works of Chuck Close. I have attempted to make this grid style my own by fusing it with my love for screened comic artwork and pixelated computer imagery. These portraits also explore color theory and the ability of the human mind to ‘read’ facial images that are presented in non-representational ways. This style feels ideally suited to portray the protagonist … Quentin’s entire world has become a fractured, fragmented place and impossible to look away from.”
The win is unique for Fassel in that it represents his second win for his second book, having also received the 2018 IPPY gold medal for his debut novel Our Lady of the Inferno. “My third book is coming out in 2023, which I can’t talk about yet. But maybe I can make it a hat trick,” Fassel says.
The Despicable Fantasies of Quentin Sergenov is currently available exclusively through Amazon. Fassel’s other books, Our Lady of the Inferno and the nonfiction Landis: The Story of a Real Man on 42nd Street, a biography of Sleazoid Express founder Bill Landis, are available through Encyclopocalypse via Amazon, Barnes and Nobel, and wherever books are sold.
