FROM THE BELLY by Emmett Nahil is out now

Hey Ho Tenebrous Cult!

There’s very little for us to say about today’s release that we haven’t already beaten over your head like a cold dead fish for the past couple months…so why don’t we pass the floor over to the proud book papa himself?

Emmett talks FROM THE BELLY

The job of Horror, as a genre, as a modality, even as a community, is to expose the shadow-self of genre fiction. This much we know.

What about the shadow-self of history? The gore, the guts, and the otherwise terrible acts of the near or distant past, which imprint themselves on our brains and minds as soon as we hear about them? Historical horror plays fast and loose in that sandbox, bringing the ills inspired by the worst of us into razor-sharp focus.

FROM THE BELLY was inspired by quite a few sources, from Moby Dick to Black Sails to H.P. Lovecraft’s ethically dubious mythos. But above all, my abiding love of the darker side of history was a primary source in FtB’s inception. Growing up near Boston endowed in me a love of both oceanic history and art. Combined with an innate interest in all things dark and spooky, this naturally led to a fascination with nautical accidents and tragedies.

Whaling and fishing is part of the heritage of the region as a whole, and you can’t have an interest in the darker history of whaling without coming across the wreck of the Whaleship Essex. I won’t recite the whole history of the Essex here, but I encourage folks who are at all interested in the history of horror on the high seas to check it out. I was drawn to the raw humanity of the story: the hubris of the whalers, the pathos of the few survivors, the horrible facts of the whalers’ cannibalism after their ship was decimated by a rogue whale. I set out to create a book that would take inspiration from the Essex disaster, but which would also use genre to bring forward the spirit of that history. By submerging readers in a story that would be both enthralling, romantic, and, ultimately, horrifying, I hoped (and still hope) to engender those same feelings of awe and terror that were incited in me in learning about the Essex.

Ultimately, readers will be the ones who tell me whether I’ve succeeded or failed in that venture; but to me, exploring the darker side of history has helped deepen and accentuate the speculative horror elements of my process. It’s my own small way of trying to honor people who, outside of their suffering, might have been lost to history. The historical background that makes up the spine of FROM THE BELLY hammered home, for me, that the denizens of the past weren’t so different from us, and that history still has important tales to tell about the consequences of consumptive capitalism and imperialism. I hope that you feel the same as you dive deep into the world of Isaiah and the crew of the Merciful.

Here’s to the Tenebrous Cult. Long may we prosper below the surface.

Come celebrate with us at StokerCon

We’re packing, taping, labeling, counting, and hauling damned near the entirety of Tenebrous HQ to StokerCon San Diego right now; and by the time you read this, we’ll be unpacking it all at our table in the Vendors’ room. FROM THE BELLY is going to be there in its Sunday best, and you can get the book—or your body parts—signed by the author. Stop by, send your friends, and holler at Emmett on this, the day of his book daughter’s wedding to the sea.

Let’s face it, there’s little we enjoy as much as meeting our community and being a bad influence in person. Some of our most amazing plans started their journeys at last year’s con (Hail SPLIT SCREAM! Hail TRVE CVLT! Hail THE SKULL & LAUREL!) and to see all those plans bearing fruit now is incredibly exciting for the future of Tenebrous. So, this time around, we’ve decided we’re going to be the ultimate degenerates: we’re gonna hang out, sell books, enjoy ourselves, and celebrate everything we’ve accomplished.

And we’re gonna be slapping (temporary [maybe]) 10p coin tattoos on anyone willing to sit still for long enough!

Hail New Weird Horror.

Hail Indie Publishing.

Hail FROM THE BELLY.

Emmett + Alex + Matt