070. In which Team Tenebrous learns they are not TRVE; and a cover art reveal!
Hey Ho, 10p Cult!
The Tenebrous Endless Summer Vacation is in full swing, and summer is an understatement. It’s been damn near 100 degrees in Portland for two weeks; it’s been damn near 100 degrees in Romania! Jeezus. Everywhere we look, it is ungodly infernal degrees outside.
Among the multitude of daily tasks within the realm of independent publishing, you wanna take a guess at what the first thing that gets kicked to the bottom of the pile is, every time, without fail?
Writing this newsletter.
And I need to get a lot better about it, cuz in almost every quantifiable way, this missive is the most consistent way we have of talking to our audience. It’s the one metric I can use to watch everything from preorder sales spiking to submissions opening. And with the utter fragmentation and uselessness of once-fairly-reliable social media platforms, it’s become even more critical to meet with you here.
It’s wild just how rapidly a couple of insecure egomanical goofball billionaires managed to dismantle an infrastructure that kept so many independent artists and businesses not just surviving, but thriving; yet here we are. Tenebrous was absolutely able to get off the ground thanks to Twitter engagement, there’s no denying it; but thank f&$k we didn’t leave all our eggs in that basket. We never set out to be a press that litigated everything via social media; neither Alex nor I have the temperament to be in those trenches constantly. And (ever so) slowly, we’ve been shifting away from it. There’s only so much chucking our energy into an insatiable, unrewarding pit that we can do before we nope out.
So: we’re trying to find the time to bump these newsletters closer to weekly, but it’s a three-steps-forward, two-steps-back prospect; for now, we’re just a pair of overworked humans on opposite ends of the globe, doing what we can, and doing it reasonably well. It’s working out so far.
We Are Not TRVE
And what is it we’re working on these days? Well, Alex is knee-deep in TRVE CVLT edits…
…which has been an adventure, to say the least. For one thing, the logistics of editing a weavy-windy text that snakes endlessly back on itself like this is a little screwy; but also, how we have chosen to define this book seems to shift by the day.
When author Michael Bettendorf pitched us TvCv at StokerCon 2023, it went, more or less, “Black Metal; Choose Your Own Adventure; Make It Weird”. And it’s definitely that, no doubt about it; but it’s also a meta commentary on religious trauma, and arrested adolescence, and anxiety, and it’s Weird Horror as F&$k.
It is also, to my growing amusement, apparently registering some grumbles from some corners of the Internet Metal Community™®—ever the bastion of reasonable discourse!—who question our credibility to dare use the oh-so-solemn-and-respectable landscape of Black Metal to spin this Weird Horror narrative.
Friends, I can assure you that everyone on this side of the ledger has earned their “TRVE” stripes in all the ways that count in life. Metal rules; it is also hilarious. The more someone tries to police what is or isn’t TRVE, the goddamn funnier it gets.
To sum up:
(Also, my crappy ass junior high thrash band opened for Impetigo in 1990. And Alex is from goddamn Transilvania. You must be this tall to question our metal bona fides🖤)
But I digress.
Cover Art Reveal
Once Alex is done with TRVE CVLT, she shifts gears to Wonderland Award Winner M.Shaw’s Weird-ass collection, ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE, due out in December. Tenebrous Art Machine Echo Echo is providing the cover art for this one as well, and there’s no time like the present to reveal it!
About ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE:
Just your standard, run-of-the-mill collection of New Weird Horror stories about car-vampires; fascist deer; memory-devouring tree gods; and the torment matrix; from Wonderland Award-winning author M.Shaw (One Hand to Hold, One Hand to Carve).
We’ve been trying to play it cool, but at last we can confirm what you’ve secretly always dreamed of: All your friends are here!
Why leave your apartment ever again? All your friends are here.
Why go to outer space? All your friends are here.
Why grow, or dream? Why take that vacation you’ve been saving up for? Why set yourself free?
All
Your
Friends
Are
Here.
Contains a brand new novelette, written especially for this collection, Ready Player (n+1).
More deets coming soon about this’un, including preorder information; but an early ARC reader has already shared their thoughts over on Goodreads.
Which reminds me…
Sign up for our Advance Reader List!
Are you a horror fiction bookseller, blogger, podcaster or reviewer? We’re always looking to expand our ARC readership in exchange for honest, good-or-bad reviews.
Tell us a little bit about yourself and sign up here:
SPLIT SCREAM Volume Five is out in one week
Approximately. Depending on when you read this.
About SPLIT SCREAM Volume Five:
“I devoured ACE doubles back in the day, and SPLIT SCREAM feels like a sleek, bullet-sized iteration of those beauties.”
Laird Barron, author of The Imago Sequence and The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All
The acclaimed SPLIT SCREAM series returns with a pair of vintage-vibed New Weird Horror novelettes from Lyndsey Croal and Bitter Karella!
The Girl with Barnacles for Eyes - Lyndsey Croal
Every year, the enigmatic Curator sails into Evie’s coastal town to display his wonders from beneath the ocean. Each time, Evie is drawn by the fascinating sights. But this year, the Curator’s brought something different: a captive girl with barnacles for eyes. Evie risks everything to free her, ignoring her Ma’s warnings to stay away from the freak of nature. But is the Girl truly a monster, or is there more than meets the eye?
The Ballad of Horse Girl - Bitter Karella
California, 1860. The corrupt judge and snake oil baron, Lazarus Dives, murdered her family; now the nameless drifter known only as the Horse Girl is out for revenge. But can a man who’s sold his soul to the devil for eternal life be killed? It’ll be no easy task; but with extra motivation in the form of a bounty on the judge by Death herself, the Horse Girl plans to collect—even if it costs her soul. A classic Western tale of retribution meets supernatural horror.
SPLIT SCREAM Volume Five is out July 23rd. Order it here.
Hug a Corpsepainted Keyboard Warrior Today
Next time out, we should have some news about our upcoming quarterly magazine, THE SKULL & LAUREL, the first issue of which arrives just in time for Halloween.
And we’ll also get a lot more in depth on our upcoming novel from Carson Winter, the I-can’t-believe-there-isn’t-more-scarecrow-horror-but-also-f&%k-capitalism A SPECTRE IS HAUNTING GREENTREE:
This world is intense right now; but you’re in it, and we’re in it, so that makes it a little more manageable. Be well, y’all.
Hail Indie Horror.
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Matt + Alex
The Skull & Laurel? Okay, do tell. I'd like to know more!