AGONY'S LODESTONE is out next week; Tenebrous is on the road; & our next open pitch session is this Sunday!
Slave to some wretched old Imagination of yesteryear Now all that grows in the skulls Of the living are flowers of fear
Hails, 10p Cult!
Well, Scares That Care: AuthorCon 2 is officially in the books and, as expected, it was an exhausting, invigorating blast of positive vibes resounding through the Horror community and everyone in attendance. I don’t really have a more thorough post-mortem to offer; at least not yet, as I’m just barely returned home at this point and still brain-fogged.
Sure, there are always more folks I could’ve chatted up, more proselytizing of the Tenebrous Gospel I could’ve done; but striking a balance between endless networking and preserving a shred of mental tranquility in the midst of constant overstimulation is tricky. I’m just not built to play the schmooze game; I’m at peace with that, and I’m grateful that the true New Weirdos still manage to find their way to Tenebrous, and us to them.
Not pictured above, but it was wonderful to hang out again with Sam Richard of Weirdpunk Books and the rest of the Void Con crew; and to have some good quality conversation with Jennifer Barnes of Raw Dog Screaming Press. Jen has always been gracious with her time, advice and insights; and it’s rare for me to stumble into such effortless chatter as I do with Sam. Cheers, y’all.
(My only real gripe over the weekend is on behalf of the vendors—thankfully not us—who were tabled in various side rooms on the first night of the con, with little to do but luxuriate in the sound of cricket song. Thankfully the folks in charge got them moved into the main area on Day Two. Seems to me that the remedy is to decrease the number of tables available next year, to match the realities of the space…but what do I know? I’m not a convention planner. Shut up, 10p Discord board.)
And now—jeezus, in eight days?!—we do it all over again in San Antonio, at Ghoulish Book Fest. Tenebrous Press will be in attendance, celebrating our next release…
AGONY’S LODESTONE by Laura Keating, out APRIL 14th
You’ve heard plenty from Alex and me—and the author herself—about this wonder of a novella, but next week you’ll get to find out for yourself.
About AGONY’S LODESTONE:
A grave could be visited. Ashes could be scattered.
But simply vanishing?
That ripped a hole in the world the size of a life, and through that hole sighed a terrible wind repeating a single note:
Gone.
For years, Aggie had forgotten the real Joanne, the way her sister had laughed, fought, been.
But now that the videotape made her real again—no matter how many times the recording changed, no matter how terrifying the flickering images—it was all Aggie wanted. To trade the Gone for the One. She owed Joanne that much. To say she was sorry. That it had been her fault.
It had been all their faults.
“Keating has woven a masterfully unnerving tale of complicated family dynamics and the slippery, looping promise of redemption. As macabre as it is compelling.”
Tim McGregor, author of Wasps in the Ice Cream
"Unexpected, enthralling, and deeply emotive…a beautiful and tense story of family dynamics, loss, perseverance and forgiveness. Keating has established herself as a major voice in horror. I'll be looking for everything she writes."
Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Below
"A harrowing tale that forces the reader to immerse themselves in carefully crafted familial dynamics, to step into murky swamps and leave soaked in the visceral atmosphere of the setting.”
Ai Jiang, author of Linghun
We’ll have copies of AGONY’S LODESTONE on sale at Ghoulish Book Fest, natch, and cover artist Trevor Henderson will also be there as a Guest of Honor with some gorgeous prints of the cover art for sale. If you’re not gonna be in Texas, you can preorder it here.
**And extra special bonus: our good friends over at Godless.com will have exclusive early eBook access to AGONY’S LODESTONE starting this Saturday! If you can’t wait til release day, Godless has you covered.
The next 10p Pitch-A-Thon is this Easter Sunday
If you’re not a member of the Tenebrous Discord, now’s a great time to join us; particularly if you’re a writer too.
Our previous round-table Pitch-a-Thon was a blast! If you’ve got a Weird Horror novel/novella you’re working on, and you’d like a chance to sharpen up your elevator pitch for it, come bounce it off Alex and myself. We’ll be hanging out this Easter Sunday, 11am Pacific/9pm Romanian (we try to limit it to a couple hours max; no matter how amazing your pitch is, after a couple dozen of ‘em they start to bleed together, which benefits nobody).
Enter the Tenebrous Discord here!
ARC list sign up
Our next release after AGONY’S LODESTONE will be Danger Slater’s fungal nightmare, HOUSE OF ROT (cover art reveal, and preorder info, coming soon!) and we’re looking to add to our growing list of ARC readers.
Are you a reviewer, podcaster, or blogger in the Indie Horror realm? Do you want early copies of Tenebrous releases in exchange for fair, unbiased reviews and/or interviews with our authors?
No News from Alex
…as she’s in Bucharest today, making what hopefully turns out to be a successful appeal for a quick-turnaround visa so she can join me at StokerCon in June.
So please: SEND US, AND ALEX IN PARTICULAR, ALL THE LUCK YOU HAVE TO SPARE. This whole process has been more grueling than I would have imagined, involving direct petitions from an Oregon congressman and the president of the H.W.A. and an entire clown car (most of the above is 100% true). Ah, U.S. customs, you fickle bitch.
Alex asked me to let you know she’ll be back next newsletter, though; hopefully with good news on her first trip to the states, and to talk about having, cultivating, and expressing tastes on Horror media.
We’ll keep it short-ish this time; my cranky old princess says it’s time to eat.
If you’re at Ghoulish Book Fest next week, we’ll see you there; and if not, we’ll talk at you soon. Behave.
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Hail Indie Horror.
Matt & Alex
It was great speaking with you early at AuthorCon II (we mostly gushed about how great and charming Alex is). Looking forward to seeing you both at StokerCon.