A hapless retiree and a devious doctor discover the key to human hibernation—but when their secret goes public, death, deception, and moral dilemmas wreak havoc on their lives.
Inspired in part by the “Frozen Hill People” legend, a Vermont hoax from the late 19th century.
Black Days tells the story of Daniel Fassett, a Vermont man who crashes his vehicle into the Mad River on Christmas Eve, 1992. After nearly drowning, Daniel falls into a four-month-long coma shortly before his retirement date and loses a significant portion of his pension.
Depressed and financially strapped, he enlists the aid of a local semi-retired physician, Dr. William Butcher, to help him hibernate through the winter in a homemade casket housed in a backyard maple sugarhouse.
Despite Daniel’s attempts to maintain secrecy, word of the procedure eventually gets out—and that is when trouble begins.
From across the country, folks eager to escape their woes reach out to Daniel and Dr. Butcher in hopes of becoming the next to pass a season in oblivion. Large sums of money are offered for the privilege—but death, deception, and moral and ethical dilemmas that have no clear solutions wreak havoc on Daniel’s life.
Advance Praise for BLACK DAYS
“The dramatic tension of Black Days is perfect throughout. Nobody is going to put this book down.” —Howard Frank Mosher, author of Where the Rivers Flow North, Disappearances
“Jackson Ellis has come up with a most unusual marriage of fairly straight literary realism and over-the-top phantasmagoria that is the more successful for its quiet, understated narration. It’s fast-paced, compelling, and equipped with a hero-narrator whom the reader likes and sympathizes with from the outset.” —Castle Freeman, Jr., author of Go With Me, The Devil in the Valley
“Jackson Ellis combines the subtlety of a Don DeLillo with the fearlessness of Stephen King. If you love stories that take you on a wild ride from introspective narrative to sinister revelation you’ll enjoy Black Days. You’ll never predict what the next turn in the horrifying journey will be until you take the trip.” —Bill Morgan, author of I Celebrate Myself, The Typewriter Is Holy
Media Reviews
A deeply depressed man takes a break from life via cryogenic hibernation
and wakes to a world of trouble. “Daniel Fassett’s life has been a disappointing one filled with regret, but he sees a second chance in retirement from his factory job in Granbury, Vermont, his hometown. Expecting a generous pension after 30 years of employment, he buys a small cottage in Key Largo, Florida, eager to start life anew at 62 years of age. However, he loses control of his car and drives into a freezing river, where, for at least 20 minutes, he is unconscious before being rescued. When he awakens from his coma four months later, his life is in a shambles—facing a considerable rehabilitation, he discovers his pension was greatly reduced on the basis of a technicality; all but broke, he has no choice but to abandon his retirement home. Utterly despondent and terrified to face a long winter alone, he comes up with a crazy idea, one fantastically implausible but nevertheless fascinatingly developed by the author: Daniel decides he’d like to spend the winter suspended in hibernation and shares his plan with his old friend and physician, William Butcher. Butcher is initially incredulous, but then decides it can be done, and they freeze Daniel in a “hibernation casket” housed in an old sugar shack designed for the production of maple syrup. The plan works—Daniel wakes rejuvenated after nearly 119 days of slumber—but when the world learns what he has accomplished, it turns his life inside out. Ellis’ prose is simple and powerfully foursquare. When Ralphie, Daniel’s son, asks him why he froze himself, he answers plainly: “Desperation. Money. Sadness . . . loneliness.” This is a strange and marvelously unpredictable tale, one that raises provocative questions about the tension between scientific progress and moral goodness. The narrative is intelligently conceived and executed, and refreshingly original. A compelling plot infused with philosophical vitality.”
—Kirkus Reviews
“What happens if you mix a crime drama, gothic thriller and literary fiction novel into one? You get Black Days. . . . part thriller and part dark comedy . . . it was his characters that he [Ellis] wanted the emphasis to be on . . . ‘it’s the emotions that carry the story,’ he said.”
—Jackie DiBartolomeo for The Essex Reporter (link to full review)
“A thrilling story of medical breakthroughs, unsettling secrets, and the border between life and death.” –Reactor
“What begins as a science fiction hoax becomes a psychological thriller,
a double hitter that packs a painful punch. . . .”
(link to full review) —Midwest Book Review
“In Jackson Ellis’s provocative science fiction novel Black Days, a despondent Vermont man’s inspired plan leads to disaster, raising questions about the consequences of unchecked human ambition. . . .The novel confronts challenging issues, such as the question of whether perpetrators of heinous crimes can earn forgiveness. . . .A Vermont man and a doctor team up on a scientific experiment that triggers disastrous results in Black Days, an arresting science fiction novel.”
—David Bushman, Foreword Reviews
“Some books make you think about yourself, your life, and then lift you up in an unexpected way. That’s exactly what Jackson Ellis’s book Black Days does. . . . Overall, memorable characters, thrilling story, and important life lessons make Black Days a highly recommended book. It’s a must-read for everyone who wants to experience a uniquely thrilling tale while also getting reminded about how to look at life to make the most of it.”
—Haunted Vermont
About the Author
Jackson Ellis is a writer and editor from Vermont who has also spent time living in Nevada and Montana. His short fiction has appeared in The Vermont Literary Review, Sheepshead Review, Broken Pencil, The Birmingham Arts Journal, East Coast Literary Review, Midwest Literary Magazine, and The Journal of Microliterature. He co-published VerbicideMagazine.com, which he founded as a print periodical in 1999. His debut, Lords of St. Thomas, received the 2017 Howard Frank Mosher First Novel Prize.
SPECS
Black Days
FICTION
Paperback Original
Trim Size: 5.5 x 8.25
Page Count: 202
Price: $19.95 (CA $27.37)
ISBN: 979-8-9891784-5-2
Publication Date: OCTOBER 22, 2024
Distributor: IPG/Chicago, Ingram.
Rights sold: All rights available.
Rights & PR: Dede Cummings, dede@greenwriterspress.com
Distributor: IPG; also available through Follett/Baker & Taylor, Ingram, and other wholesalers.
Individuals can pre-order directly from Bookshop.org, or contact your local, independent bookstore.
Booksellers, libraries, colleges/universities, gift shops, etc., can order through IPG:
Independent Publishers Group
814 N. Franklin Street
Chicago, IL 60610
Order Placement: (800) 888-4741
To request an advance reader copy—digital or print—email dede@greenwriterspress.com