10p055: New Maps of Hell
We're animals with golden rules, Who can't be moved by rational views, Welcome to the New Dark Ages, The world might end tonight
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
Just a shorty for you this week, tying up a few loose ends and updates.
SCARELASTIC BOOK FAIR II is this Saturday!
If all goes well, I should be flying the friendly skies when this hits your inbox, bound for Scarlet Lanes Brewing Co. and the event that MOUTH author Joshua Hull has spent his year painstakingly organizing: Scarelastic Book Fair!
After dropping the kiddo off with my folks in central Illinois, I’ll be driving the four-ish hours to McCordsville, Indiana, loaded up with every Tenebrous title that the honorable US Post Office didn’t lose (such a long, ludicrous story that doesn’t bear repeating here). We’ll have copies of everything on hand—though less than I’d like on a couple titles, so if you have your heart set on anything in particular, come see us early!
One book we should have plenty of, though:
MOUTH MOUTH MOUTH MOUTH MOU-
Officially out on March 15th, we’ll have a few stacks of Joshua’s debut novella on hand…and Joshua too to boot, to sign ‘em for ya!
If you can’t join us at Scarelastic, no worries: MOUTH is up for preorder for a couple more weeks at our webstore:
THE SKULL & LAUREL Campaign Begins March 12th
We’re less than two weeks from launching our crowdfunding campaign to bring you the best damn New Weird fiction magazine that we can: THE SKULL & LAUREL.
To be fair, we expected interest in this to be high, but we were still blown out of the water by just how enthused y’all have been. Absorbing the SPLIT SCREAM titles into our family last year felt kinda like a wings-spreading event to us; I’d say this is an even bigger sprawl. With THE SKULL & LAUREL, we aim to provide a quarterly gateway to short fiction writers new and old, and give them the opportunity to flex their muscles in the Weirdest ways possible (instantly regretting looking up corresponding GIFs of that right now).
You can read more about why we’re doing what we’re doing here. Give it a read, and we hope you’ll consider clicking below to be notified once the campaign launches. I’d love to get that follower count to 500 before all is said and done.
Are you looking for your New Weird Community?
Join one of the warmest*, most boisterous**, hilarious***, good-looking****, and AI-art-hating-est Discord communities out there. Join the Tenebrous Cult.
*Well, Alex is.
**Except when I tell jokes. Then that place becomes a vacuum. A polite vacuum, but still.
***Me again.
****Everyone in that room is a knockout. Not even up for debate.
Emmett Nahil’s FROM THE BELLY is coming: Cover Reveal & Preorders Open March 7th
One week. Just one week before we dive full bore into the madness that is Emmett Nahil’s debut Horror novel. This sucker carries weight, and I am beyond excited to start talking more about it. Our friends at Dread Central will have the exclusive reveal.
Emmett joined L.P. Hernandez on the Dog-Eared Nightmares podcast to talk about about FROM THE BELLY and a whole lot more; it’s a fun conversation if you wanna check it out.
Want a little cover art taste?
One more thought on NEW WEIRD HORROR
Tenebrous is close to announcing our first couple releases for 2025 (I know WTF it’s still February) and a funny thing came up in conversation between Alex and myself.
Alex coined the term “New Weird Horror” in 2021 to identify ourselves when Tenebrous was first finding its feet. Three simple words; they felt perfect.
But some of these new books feel like something beyond even that amorphous term. And the other day, for the briefest of moments, we pondered the possibility of changing that slogan.
Is it time to retire “New Weird Horror”?
Needless to say, that moment came and went. Because hell no, it’s not anywhere near time to retire that term. New Weird Horror is what we are, and what we will remain.
It’ll just be up to all of us—you too, readers—to reinvent what it means all over again.
New, yes.
Weird, hell yes.
But I like to think we’ve been playing loose with our definition of Horror since at least ONE HAND TO HOLD, ONE HAND TO CARVE. And that decision continues to pay off for us to this day.
I guess what I’m saying is: there are no straight roads where 10p is concerned. The future is gonna hold some more Weird destinations that you didn’t see coming.
We’re ever grateful that you choose to join us on this trip.
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Hail New Weird Horror, toss the f&%king map out the window-
Matt & Alex