10p067: TRVE shall set you free
Here our soldiers stand, From all around the world, Waiting in a line, To hear the battle cry, All are gathered here, Victory is near, The sound will fill the hall, Bringing power to us all
Hey Ho Tenebrous Cult!
Team 10p spent the last couple weeks zipping up and down the west coast, from Portland to San Diego to Cannon Beach and back, with StokerCon—and the release of Emmett Nahil’s FROM THE BELLY—pinning it all in place.
It’s been a breakneck pace at times, and preposterously serene at others; to be honest, Alex and I set out with some ambitious plans to accomplish while she was stateside, and we ended up just…not.
I don’t think “taking a break” has a really solid definition in either of our lexicons, so when the opportunity to actually vacation arose post-Stoker, we did exactly that. And y’know what? It worked. Nothing fell off schedule, nothing broke, and Tenebrous feels creatively rejuvenated. Now we’re both back in our respective hemispheres and buckling down, ready to dive back into the Good Work with gusto.
I’m gonna share some post mortem thoughts on StokerCon in a bit; but first, here’s some news we stealth-released mid-convention that some of you may have missed…
TRVE CVLT Cover Art Reveal, Preorders Open
I don’t know that Tenebrous will ever have a house artist, per se; but if we do, it’s without doubt the absolutely phenomenal Echo Echo. We’ve been working with her nonstop for several years now, and the relationship has become so intuitive that we rarely offer much in the way of suggestions anymore, beyond the minimum necessary.
As you can see above, our faith in Echo is well-placed. She’s the perfect artist to capture the vibes of a project that is very dear to Alex’s and my black little hearts: TRVE CVLT, by Michael Bettendorf, available to preorder now!
The first of its kind from 10p, TRVE CVLT is a Gummo-x-Lords of Chaos interactive gamebook where the reader decides their own apocalyptic occult fate. It’s a Choose Your Own Adventure for the all-grown-up New Weird set, it’s grim as hell and Metal as fük.
And the v v serious corpsepaint-wearing crowd just might hate it:)
At the very least, we’re prepared for the haterade.
About TRVE CVLT:
You wake up with a brutal hangover, but that can't crush your spirits: you’ve been invited to take back the drum throne for Abyss, the cult band you co-founded.
It means setting aside a turbulent history with Abyss' vocalist, Austin. You aren’t sure if he’s invited you back to bury the hatchet or if he’s just desperate because infamous black metal legends Waste Doctrine are rolling through town. They've given you the opportunity to open for them and maybe, finally, get the hell out of this nowhere town.
The promise of the upcoming gig doesn't come without its share of hurdles, though. Austin’s hellbent on creating a ritualistic experience out of the performance, turning the abandoned roadhouse he’s chosen as a venue into a bloody, occult nightmare.
Yes, it’s black fucking metal, but is it too far?
Only you can decide.
As an added incentive, author Betts has customized a handful of drum heads, which we’ll be giving away at random to anyone who preorders TRVE CVLT direct from our webstore! So get on that pronto***
***If you already have TRVE CVLT coming to you via the Tenebrous Book Club, or in a SKULL & LAUREL package deal tier, fear not: you’re eligible to be drawn for one of the drum heads too:)
TRVE CVLT is available everywhere September 25th. You don’t wanna miss out on this one or you’ll end up feelin’ like this guy:
Girls Girls Girls: The SPLIT SCREAM Vol. 5 Story
Pretty sure that editor Alex Ebenstein found more reasons to thematically pair up the two novelettes in the upcoming SPLIT SCREAM volume than the fact that they both have “girl” in the title; but even if he didn’t, both these stories absolutely rip.
We got to hang with co-author Bitter Karella at StokerCon, which definitely fired me up all the more for this release (y’all know Bitter for their wildly popular work with the Midnight Pals, but I don’t think I knew, until they told me, that Tenebrous published their very first prose in YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY a couple years back?! What a wild privilege.)
Anyway! SPLIT SCREAM Volume Five is out July 23rd; you can preorder that one from our webstore as well:
BRAVE NEW WEIRD Vol. 2 is out in two weeks!
Coming up even sooner: our next collection of the Best New Weird Horror of the Year is out June 26th! We’ve got a handful of the limited hardcovers still available (as well as Volume One). Alex and I signed bookplates for them while she was here:
About BRAVE NEW WEIRD:
The World is Weird.
You will be discouraged from participating in it.
However, your participation is not optional.
Zip up your human suit and set sail, imbibing every perspective you can
in order to perfect the persona.
Push to the outer edges. Document your travels, and forget to return.
There will be a test.
Learn what it means to be human.
Forget what it means to be human.
Learn what it means to be human.
Forget what it means to be human.
Do not panic.
BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror, Volume Two encompasses the finest Weird speculative fiction published in (roughly) 2023. Edited by Alex Woodroe.
Table of contents:
Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas - Lullaby for the Unseen
Thomas Ha - In That Crumbling Home
Hussani Abdulrahim - The Library Virus
Patrick Malka - Show Me
Eirik Gumeny - A Balanced Breakfast
David Simmons - Food is Poison
Premee Mohamed - Quietus
Perfect Kiss Strickoll - punctum (o baked alaska for you i am a former american)
LC von Hessen - Transmasc of the Red Death
Simone le Roux - The Man Outside
KS Walker - River Bargain Baby
M.M. Olivas - The Prince of Oakland
Amitha Jagannath Knight - My Mother, The Exoskeleton
Rachael K. Jones - The Sound of Children Screaming
Judith Shadford - Endless Yearning
Daniel DeRock - Guest Opinion: We must take action regarding the [REDACTED] High School janitor
Geneve Flynn - A Box of Hair and Nail
Anemone Moss - Everything You Dump Here Ends Up in the Ocean
Karlo Yeager Rodríguez - Up In the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep In the Ground
Elena Sichrovsky - Embryo
Ivan Zoric - Our Roots Will Dry Out in the End
Michael Bettendorf - As the Music Plays Groovy
Chris Kuriata - Family Not Going To Heaven
Hardcovers, softcovers and eBooks are all available to preorder here:
StokerCon post mortem
Let’s just get this out of the way: we had a blast! We truly did. I mean, how could we not? We caught up with old pals and met some folks who we’ve talked with a bunch online, but never in person. We set a whole host of plans in motion for the future; it’s constant, it’s buzzing, it’s exhausting. D. Matthew Urban got tricked into telling us an insane impromptu cocaine story! Pauline Chow sang us a sea shanty! There were track suits!
And yet, something was a little off this year? I dunno.
The layout of the event didn’t do anyone any favors; there were pretty much two separate conventions going on: one in the Dealer’s Room, where indie presses (including us) and writers were hustling their wares and trying to convert some new readers; and then there was <gesticulates broadly> everything else.
After the whole shebang was over, I was shocked to find out how many friends and acquaintances were actually in attendance that we never ended up seeing! The divide between panels and readings and vendors didn’t seem like much at first, but it was really a pair of separate islands when all was said and done.
The hotel itself, too, was sequestered away from…well, pretty much anything; if you were hoping to remain on foot, at least. Last year in Pittsburgh, there were plenty of options for eating, drinking, and carousing within a ten minute walk of the convention center. Not so much in San Diego.
No sour grapes, though! Unsurprisingly, we checked a few to-do things off our agenda. Last year in Pittsburgh, we walked away having laid the groundwork for absorbing the SPLIT SCREAM series, launching a magazine, and setting TRVE CVLT in motion (check, check and check). This year…well, you’ll just have to watch this space and see, but needless to say, we’re not gonna be sitting on our hands any time soon.
If anything, the experience just means that we’ll be applying Tenebrous resources next year where they’re most effective. More time at the smaller conventions, where community engagement, rather than self-celebration and back-slapping, is prioritized, for one.
And you know we can’t help but get ourselves a little bit underwater and full of ourselves. We have some ideas in mind for a couple years down the road…
TENEBROUS FEST 2026
Assuming we haven’t gotten cancelled yet.
Hail TRVE CVLT.
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail the New Weird Community.
Matt + Alex