In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.
Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.
After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.
Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.
But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.
As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.
book links
request it on Netgalley: link to Netgalley page
add it to a TBR: link to TheStoryGraph | link to GoodReads
preorder: link to BookShop | link to Barnes & Noble | link to Kobo | link to Amazon
thanks to my incredible agent, I have a two-book deal with Mira Books. publication for The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, a standalone cozy fantasy, is tentatively scheduled for Spring 2025.
for plot folks
cursed with immortality, Peter Shaughnessy prefers hunting ghosts to making mortal friends. when the residents of an Ohio town beset by a vengeful spirit adopt him as their own, he has to choose: leave to protect his heart, or stay to save their lives?
for trope folks
vengeful spirit
tired immortal who just wants to die
elderly gays
found family
small-town setting
trees, cemeteries, and birds
yearning
a n g s t
I love this book so much, y'all. it's a love letter to Northwest Ohio and soft old men. it's about love and grief and trying to navigate loss. it's deeply queer. it's deeply me. it's a book I wasn't sure I could write BUT THEN I DID and I'm so proud of it that it hurts.
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I'm in Publishers Weekly!! Keeper is in Publishers Weekly!! Edna is in Publishers Weekly (and there's been a spike in Goodreads adds today for her which I didn't even consider when I saw this, so that is delightful!!)
getting a deal announcement in Publishers Weekly just makes me feel like A Big Deal in the best way, although it also makes me wish (again)(again again)(again again again)(always) that my grandfather was alive to see this. he never did publish, but he worked on the same manuscript from 1994 until his death and subscribed to all the trades
the grumpy old immortal ghost-hunter in The Keeper of Lonely Spirits is heavily based on him in many ways, so keep an eye out for that book if you want to know more about my favorite person on earth I guess lmao
anyway you can read the full article here: click to read PW Book Deals Week of January 8
I got my print copies of my issue of Publishers Weekly in, so naturally I had to do a photoshoot with the cat lmao. he did a great job and also obligingly covered up bill maher's face in most of the pictures.
the print edition is actually erroneous because it's a two-book deal but both books are standalones aaaaaand the first one is the only one that's set. for some reason they broke up the first book's description and attributed it to both books? the online edition was fixed before I shared it lol, but print is forever!
still wanted it, though, because. I mean. I'm in Publishers Weekly wtf, we're framing that mofo
click here to read the deal report online (but watch out for the bill maher jump scare)
okay technically I already alerted everyone to my new book, but now I have LINKS! The Keeper of Lonely Spirits can be found on TheStoryGraph or GoodReads.
(or preordered from select retailers, but the book data is still being imported from the publisher so it's not everywhere yet.)
video ID at the end of this post!
In this mesmerizing, wonderfully moving queer cozy fantasy, an immortal ghost hunter must confront his tragic past in order to embrace his found family.
Find an angry spirit. Send it on its way before it causes trouble. Leave before anyone learns his name.
After over two hundred years, Peter Shaughnessy is ready to die and end this cycle. But thanks to a youthful encounter with one o’ them folk in his native Ireland, he can’t. Instead, he’s cursed to wander eternally far from home, with the ability to see ghosts and talk to plants.
Immortality means Peter has lost everyone he’s ever loved. And so he centers his life on the dead—until his wandering brings him to Harrington, Ohio. As he searches for a vengeful spirit, Peter’s drawn into the townsfolk’s lives, homes and troubles. For the first time in over a century, he wants something other than death.
But the people of Harrington will die someday. And he won’t.
As Harrington buckles under the weight of the supernatural, the ghost hunt pits Peter’s well-being against that of his new friends and the man he’s falling for. If he stays, he risks heartbreak. If he leaves, he risks their lives.
add it to your TBR today: link to TheStoryGraph | link to GoodReads
video ID: opens on images of clouds in the sunrise, then woodland flowers. typewritten text appears over different flowers, reading "a ghost," then over a forest reading "a curse," then over a camera panning out from a small town, reading "a town in peril."
as the music picks up, close up of a pocket watch with spinning hands, then a shot of someone's pants and boots as they walk through a forest. typewritten text over a cemetery reads, "to save an Ohio town," cuts to sun streaming through trees, then text over an old man laughing, reading, "he'll have to risk his heart."
images flash across screen with increasing swiftness: an old man leaning against a door, shaking his head sadly; an old man's hands repairing a pocket watch; a forest from above; a ghost; an abandoned building in the countryside; an old man running through a yard with two children; a headstone; someone running in the sunrise; pinkish spray twisting in the darkness; a woman sitting on the floor, drinking tea; two old men kissing; closeup of an eye with a tear spilling; yellow flowers; an old letter; then a longer shot of two old men with their foreheads pressed together.
as the music slows again, a shot of an old man in the sunlight, from behind, followed by typewritten text over flowers in the sunset, first reading, "you get used to it," then "I hope I never get used to being alone." the video ends with a man walking down a road alone, with text above and below reading, "The Keeper of Lonely Spirits, E.M. Anderson, Mira, 2025." music is X Ambassadors' Unsteady. end ID.
The Keeper of Lonely Spirits (2025) | link to theStoryGraph
I love when my friends draw fan art of my book 🥹 @shaynarlambert drew this moment from The Keeper of Lonely Spirits when the main character brings a new friend back to her home after a ghost-related incident and worries himself over her twisted ankle, and then he FEELS FEELINGS (the horrors!!) because she teasingly calls him "grandpa" for worrying about her
here's the whole thing all together 💖
if you want to read a cozy, spooky fantasy about an old immortal ghost-hunter who flips out over feeling strange new feelings like "friendship" and "affection," keep an eye out for The Keeper of Lonely Spirits in 2025
link to theStoryGraph | link to goodreads | link to hardcover & eBook preorder | link to audiobook preorder
the Remarkable Retirement birthday shenanigans continue! this being Tumblr, I probably should've scheduled this for last night lol but oh well. anyway, I'll be answering questions all day about THE REMARKABLE RETIREMENT OF EDNA FISHER or my upcoming cozy fantasy THE KEEPER OF LONELY SPIRITS, so stop by and ask your questions!
