Sometimes Good People Do Weird Things

Jul 16, 2025

Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!

Next week I’ll be vanishing into the Montana wilderness for the better part of a week with a couple pals—TRVE CVLT author Michael Bettendorf among them—to attend Fire in the Mountains, deep in the heart of Blackfeet Nation.

I turn fifty later this year, and the prospect of massive rock festivals—with the massive queues, massive parking snarls, and massive crowds of humanity that inevitably follow—has lost the allure that it may have once held to twenty-year-old me. Hell, I’m at the point where, unless my own band is actually playing, it’s a 50/50 proposition whether I’ll even show up to a small club show I actually bought the ticket ahead of time for.

So when Betts asked me to join this particular adventure, I agreed before I could think about it for too long; and then we ironed out the plan for him and our other pal Ryan to fly into Portland and use my house as ground zero for the trip, just to further ensure that I couldn’t back out at the last minute.

I’m also not exactly an expert outdoorsman by any definition; very much a trunk-of-my-car type of camper. Combine that fact with my meticulous, neurotic over-analysis of absolutely every small decision, and the next week of preparation is gonna be a smorgasbord of second-guessing and overthinking.

All of which is to say, there likely won’t be a newsletter next week; I’ll be in the mountains, most likely without a digital signal, ears ringing, bones sore (but there at least will be yoga!) and deeply attuned to nature. Or doing my very best approximation of it. Maybe I’ll grow a mountain-man beard as cool as Betts’, too.

It’s already sorta like looking in a mirror.

But I do at least get to say my favorite words:

Next week, Alex is flying the plane solo.

(those are actually Alex’s favorite words too)

Before then, let’s take care of some business:

Danger on the Horizon: Supersize Your Content Warnings

Signing Announcement!

This sounds like marketing hype, but I swear it’s true: this is the book that Danger has been writing toward his whole career. I’ve read most all of his published work; WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE is a genuine level-up. Hell, this is better than HOUSE OF ROT, and we love HOUSE OF ROT! We published it!

Hey go buy HOUSE OF ROT why don'tcha

WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE is also…very much not going to be for everyone. We signed it enthusiastically, knowing full well that as soon as one particular plot point comes into the light, a decent percent of our core audience might “nope” their way right out of reading it; a 100% valid option, and it’s why these details will be made available well in advance, so that no one is blindsided by the subject matter.

We signed it because this story is brilliant. The subject is exquisitely, dreadfully perfect for the world we live in today; it’s about the people that a great many of us truly are, and the uncomfortable truth of that fact. I see myself in these characters, and I see a whole lot of people I know and love in them. It is laugh-out-loud hysterical in places, and laugh-to-keep-from-screaming in others. You might laugh your way right into blacklisting Tenebrous for this one, but we promise you’ll be laughing at some point.

It’s a Danger Slater joint, and it’s his best one (so far).

WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE will drop sometime around Halloween of 2026.

Speaking of Danger…

…he’s also playing a strong supporting role in the book release party for Jacy Morris’ WE LIKE IT CHERRY in three short weeks:

If you’re in the Portland area, join us at world-famous Powell’s Books (SE Hawthorne branch, i.e. the cool indie-flavored one) for a reading from Jacy, followed by a “heavily” “researched” Q&A conducted by Danger that I’m 17% certain will not fly off the rails. And then buy a copy of the book and have Jacy sign it. In that order.

Of course, if you’re not in the Portland area, you could get a copy of WE LIKE IT CHERRY direct from us! We’ve still got some signed copies of our own left, too:

Preorder WE LIKE IT CHERRY

About WE LIKE IT CHERRY:

Documentarist Ezra Montbanc thinks he's hit the jackpot when he receives an invitation to document the rites of a mysterious, hitherto unknown tribe: the Winoquin, who reside in the harrowing, inhospitable Arctic.
It’s a shot at the prestigious journalism career he's long envisioned, and a path out from the borderline-exploitative series detailing the celebrations of Indigenous tribes he’s been mired in with his life and filmmaking partner, Stu.
Buzzing with possibility, Ezra and his crew depart for the home of the Winoquin, only to find themselves in a frozen and bloody battle for survival atop an inaccessible glacier ritual site, where men and mythical horrors hunger for sacrifice.

“A biting satire of cultural tourism and lateral violence [that] brings heart and horror to its themes of identity and history.”

Tiffany Morris, author, Green Fuse Burning

“Not for the faint of heart. Morris’ narrative does not pull punches…Highly recommended for fans of Stephen Graham Jones.”

Booklist, starred review

One of Paste Magazine’s Most Anticipated Horror Books of Summer 2025: “A combination of indigenous folk horror and arctic survival horror…and one of the best small-press releases of the summer.”

WE LIKE IT CHERRY is out August 5th!

Preorder WE LIKE IT CHERRY