Earl CannonBuy the book

A literary horror novella · by Earl Cannon

State
Fair

Everyone at the fair has heard of the red tent. No one will say what’s inside.

One summer day. One fairground. One red tent that nobody talks about. Thirteen-year-old Brice Bellsnyder has until seven o’clock to find his little sister, and to find out why no one else is looking.

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Cover of State Fair by Earl Cannon: a lone ferris wheel with a red hub against an off-white sky

I.The attraction

What is State Fair about?

On a sweltering summer morning at the turn of the century, the Bellsnyder family steps down from their carriage at the state fair. Glen checks his pocket watch. Roslyn smooths her lavender dress. Eleven-year-old Liliana, all fire-red hair and white lace, stops strangers in their tracks. And thirteen-year-old Brice, the child nobody looks at twice, is told to keep his sister close and be back for the banquet at seven.

Then Liliana disappears near a blood-red tent at the edge of the grounds, a tent guarded by men with rifles, a place the fairgoers walk a little faster to get past. Brice searches the midway, the livestock pens and the back lots where the fair workers live, and every adult he begs for help turns away. Every adult but one.

The afternoon is getting on. The banquet is at seven. And the longer Brice looks, the more he suspects that the question isn’t where Liliana went, but why nobody else seems worried.

State Fair is a slow-burn novella of family, class and the secrets polite people keep, for readers who like their horror quiet, literary and impossible to forget.

Genre
Literary horror, American gothic
Length
Novella, about 26,000 words
Chapters
14
Reading time
About two hours
Editions
Hardcover, paperback, Kindle eBook
For
Adult readers
A weathered red canvas tent standing alone in a muddy field at dusk, smoke rising from a brick chimney behind it

Chapter II · The Crimson Veil

“The Red Tent stood alone in a clearing that did not seem to belong to the rest of the fair.”

“The tent was a wound in the world, a place where the rules of decency and love and family had been suspended and replaced with something older and hungrier and more patient.”

From State Fair

“He would carry the secret of the Red Tent inside him like a second skeleton.”

From State Fair

II.Read the first page

Step down from the carriage.

The opening of Chapter One, exactly as it appears in the book.

Chapter 1

A Day at the Fair

The morning sun sat low and fat over the South Florida Fairgrounds, a smear of butter melting across the tops of the canvas tents, and Brice Bellsnyder, thirteen years old and already practiced in the art of being overlooked, stepped down from the family carriage into a world that smelled of sawdust and frying dough and something sharper underneath, something that made the fine hairs on his arms stand up even though the day was already warm and getting warmer.

Glen Bellsnyder stepped around from the other side of the carriage, already consulting a pocket watch, already frowning at whatever it told him. He snapped the watch shut and tucked it into his vest pocket and looked at his family the way he looked at everything: quickly, efficiently, as if he’d already calculated their value and was simply confirming the numbers hadn’t changed since the last time he’d checked.

“The banquet is at seven,” he said, and his voice was cold and firm and carried no more warmth than the watch he’d just put away. “We have several hours before we’re expected. The children can explore the grounds.”

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III.Contents

Order of events

Fourteen chapters. One day, one night, and a banquet at seven.

  1. 01A Day at the FairMorning
  2. 02The Crimson VeilMorning
  3. 03Behind the PenAfternoon
  4. 04Finding LilianaAfternoon
  5. 05A Freed ManAfternoon
  6. 06A Plume of SmokeAfternoon
  7. 07All for NaughtDusk
  8. 08FatherNight
  9. 09SchoolingNight
  10. 10The BanquetNight
  11. 11Summer's EndNight
  12. 12The Final ComplicityNight
  13. 13The Taste of AshNight
  14. 14Forever MarkedDawn
A muddy gravel road winding through fog-covered Missouri farmland, an Amish buggy in the distance
Gravel road, rural Missouri

IV.The author

Earl
Cannon

Earl Cannon grew up in a quiet farm town in rural Missouri, the kind of place where the nearest stoplight is a county away and stories travel faster than the mail. Summers meant gravel roads, county fairs and the steady clop of Amish buggies on the shoulder of the highway. Winters meant listening.

The old-timers at the feed store had their tales: lights in the hollow nobody would follow, a farmhouse that stood empty for forty years with the table still set, a traveling show that came through one August and left the fairground quieter than it found it. From his Amish neighbors he heard older stories still, told low over the hiss of a gas lantern, about pride, temptation, and the things a whole community can agree not to see.

Earl collected those stories the way other boys collected arrowheads, and he never quite stopped. State Fair is his first book.

It is not a true story. He would like you to know that.

V.Admission

Choose your ticket.

State Fair is available now on Amazon in three editions.

VI.Questions

Asked at the gate

What is State Fair by Earl Cannon about?

State Fair follows thirteen-year-old Brice Bellsnyder through a single day and night at a turn-of-the-century state fair. When his younger sister Liliana disappears near a guarded red tent, Brice searches the fairgrounds for help, and finds that every polite, well-dressed adult has somewhere else to be. All he knows for certain is that the banquet is at seven.

What genre is State Fair?

State Fair is a literary horror novella. It reads as quiet, slow-burn gothic horror: the dread builds beneath good manners and sunny afternoons rather than from monsters or jump scares. Readers of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” or Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes will feel at home.

How long is State Fair?

State Fair is a novella of about 26,000 words across 14 short chapters. Most readers finish it in one or two sittings, roughly two hours.

Where can I buy State Fair?

State Fair is available on Amazon in hardcover, paperback and Kindle eBook editions. The Kindle edition can be read on any Kindle device or in the free Kindle app.

Who is Earl Cannon?

Earl Cannon is a horror writer who grew up in a quiet farm town in rural Missouri. His fiction draws on the legends, rumors and half-told stories passed around backwoods towns and the Amish communities of the region. State Fair is his debut.

Is State Fair suitable for younger readers?

No. Although the narrator is thirteen, State Fair is written for adults. It contains violence, physical abuse by a parent, and disturbing themes involving children, handled without gore for its own sake but without looking away.

Show specific content warnings (contains spoilers)

Full content warnings (spoilers): the death of a child and cannibalism.

Is State Fair part of a series?

State Fair is a standalone story with a complete ending. Earl Cannon is writing more fiction set in the same rural American gothic territory.

Glen Bellsnyder, Chapter One

The banquet
is at seven.

Do not be late.

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