077 - Bloodstained Coral: the complete 2025 Tenebrous calendar is here
A genius without the fame, Know it's love but hate the chain, Mother brain got claws in me, People always say, Meet me on the corner, I will always be your man
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
TRVE CVLT is out in TVE DAYS
We’ll drop a celebratory reminder on release day, but this is your last chance to get a house copy on its way in the mail to you before we’re VoidCon-bound.
Y’know, we all had zero expectations for how TRVE CVLT will go over. We’re a niche press that speaks to a specific—awesome, but specific—strain of human. TRVE CVLT is a niche subject—Black Metal; the kind that makes “trve” Black Metal fans furious☺—inside of a niche style—a Choose Your Own Adventure-type framework that early on breaks its own rules. From a debut author, at that.
But if early interest is anything to go by—and the number of bookstores that are taking a chance on ordering it—then y’all are in for a treat. I could not be more pleased with how this book turned out, and how early readers are receiving it.
Prepare for the torment of Abyss.
Your Attention Please
We’ve known Hazel Zorn for a couple-few years now, but it was at StokerCon 2023 in Pittsburgh where she offhandedly pitched this novella to Alex and me while in the middle of pitching something else. It wasn’t written yet, it was still germinating, but it hooked us hard. We bullied strong-armed cajoled her into sending it to us, if and when she wrote it.
Well, she did write it, and then she did send it; and no surprise, it was exactly what we were hoping for. REEF MIND is the visceral, body horror-eco-cataclysmic-genre-spliced New Weird book you want to see rounding out the 2025 Tenebrous lineup.
Which, for those keeping track, currently looks like this:
We’re gonna give you a brief reminder rundown on all of these titles in the coming weeks, before we open up for Book Club subscriptions once again!
We had 60 subscribers in 2024; not too shabby for our first crack at a program like that. Once again, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up for all of our books with a bit of savings, discounted shipping, and some free exclusive goodies too (still to be determined; we’re currently designing the shirt for 2024 subscribers.)
Quarterly issues of THE SKULL & LAUREL, our New Weird Lit magazine, will be sprinkled throughout 2025 as well, but they’ll be separate from the Book Club.
On that note: the S&L team is currently narrowing down stories for issue 002, and Alex just shared theme ideas with me for issue 003, which has me all kinds of excited. If all goes well, we’re gonna have early copies of THE SKULL & LAUREL 001 available at HP Lovecraft Film Fest here in Portland, where Alex and I will be tabling in early October; and one of the authors should be on hand as well to sign copies.
You can subscribe to THE SKULL & LAUREL here:
SPLIT SCREAM Vols. 7 & 8: submissions close 9/30
We’re open for submissions for two volumes of SPLIT SCREAM, but only for a few more days. Submit your New Weird Horror manuscripts of 10-20,000 words here.
Keeping this sucker legitimately short this week; I’ve got a flight to West Virgineee callin’ my name (well, technically Atlanta→Illinois, then a drive to WV, but never you mind the specifics) and a nasty case of VoidCon waiting at the other end. And next week’s travel plan is even wilder; we’ll tell you about that next time.
Just a reminder, we’ve got a couple other titles up for preorder that we’ll be talking up in the weeks ahead. The sixth volume of SPLIT SCREAM, featuring David Corse and Ryan T. Jenkins, is imminent; as is M.Shaw’s Weird story collection (featured in Publishers Weekly this week!), ALL YOUR FRIENDS ARE HERE.
Modern society doesn’t want you to support independent businesses. Not out of any particular malice, necessarily; it’s just not set up that way. It’s not convenient. We’re accustomed to instant Amazon gratification.
(Hell, I’m guilty of it too. I paused twice while writing this newsletter to order a Euro/US outlet adapter for Alex and some shipping supplies; both of which will have likely arrived by the time I’m finished typing this newsletter. What a time to be alive.)
It just means we all have to try a little harder, go a little extra, to make sure the things we love don’t disappear. To support the work crafted by human hands; the art that speaks to the niche, rather than to the all.
Yes, I just insinuated Tenebrous front and center into the “things you love”. Our presumption knows no bounds.
Presumptuously Yours,
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail the New Weird.
Matt + Alex
oops meant to make an edit to that comment..anyway Trve Cvlt sounds like an awesome concept! E-book purchased!