Tenebrous092: Breakfast is the Most Important, and Weirdest, Meal
I saw a handsome parish lady, Make her entrance like a queen, Why she was totally chenille, And her old man was a Marine
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
Indie publishing—when we’re doing it right—is the act of slow-rolling seventeen different long-term projects steadily but persistently up an incline; laser-focusing on the one immediately in front of us; keeping a loose eye on the three after that; and swatting at persistent but hopefully small lawn fires all the way.
When we’re doing it wrong, it’s just the swatting-at-fires part, they’re substantially larger and burnier, and they’ve usually already singed off my eyebrows.
Right now we’re doing it right, but January has proven itself to be the time when we have the most slow-rolling boulders in play at once, which is its own unique form of stress. We have this amazing lineup of books in front of us for 2025, but we have no clue how any of them are going to perform sales-wise, or if this blurb for this book is gonna come in on time, or who’s handling the interior art for the one coming out in November, or has Library Journal fixed their submissions-uploading portal that seems to have been designed at the dawning of the internet. Did I send e-ARCs to our readers for X yet? Have the print ARCs arrived for Y? Did we catch the typo in the introduction to Z because it is literally all the first 30 Goodreads reviews will want to talk about? When is Ebenstein gonna send me the final files for the next SPLIT SCREAM/why did Ebenstein send me the final files for the next SPLIT SCREAM three weeks ago and not send me eight reminders that he did so, quit bugging me Matt jeezus christ? When the f&%k are we gonna find time to start looking through the 800-or-whatever-it-is submissions for BRAVE NEW WEIRD?
It all looks that much more intimidating if you haven’t started your day off with a good balanced breakfast.
…Hey! That reminds me: cover reveal time!
COVER ART FOR BRAVE NEW WEIRD: THE BEST NEW WEIRD LIT VOL. 3
Here’s the full wrap:
And here’s what the front cover will look like on bookshelves:
Like the previous volumes, I illustrated this one myself, with Alex art directing. Subject matter-wise, it’s a (minor) homage to BRAVE NEW WEIRD alumnus Eirik Gumeny, who tragically passed shortly after the release of Volume Two and whose brilliant short story “A Balanced Breakfast” is contained therein.
The BNW covers have proven to be some of the most rewarding and nerve-wracking things about Tenebrous for me.
Rewarding, because each time around, I get to crawl up my own ass—artistically speaking—and let my id run wild, exploring new techniques I’ve never tried before, diving into the retro-style pulp book covers of my nostalgia-brain, dragging them into a more modern sensibility (I hope that comes through, anyway)
Nerve-wracking, because, well, BRAVE NEW WEIRD is our Weirdo baby. Specifically, it’s Alex’s baby, and I want to do it justice. I want to give it my best effort; it more than deserves that.
BRAVE NEW WEIRD remains a showcase of the New and the Weird from all corners of the independent world, something that doesn’t rely on star power or flashy names in the table of contents, but rather captures a snapshot of a scene that remains healthy and vital in the corners of the world that Big Corporate Publishing hasn’t (yet) infiltrated. We know it’s only a matter of time until Random House or HarperCollins releases a New Weird Horror anthology and acts like they created something from nothing. That’s fine. We don’t claim to have created it.
We’re just The New and The Weird, Now.
Also:
“What the Fuck did I just read” - reader review of BRAVE NEW WEIRD Vol. Two
Ahhhhhh yeahhhh, that’s the stuff.
THE SKULL & LAUREL Issue 002 is out today
Wanna ensure that our home for Weird short stories remains intact? You know what to do:
Issue 002 is all-killer no-filler, as the kids say (I’m pretty sure that’s what they say, they told me so, but the kids are also liars.)
Table of Contents:
Orange Frenzy - Neal Auch
Anoint Your Body, Holy Substrate - Beau Farrow
Clarice, 2073: Body, eyes and glass - Anne Liberton
There is a Coffeeshop - Letícia Werner
Molasses - Cedrick May
Meander - Dmitri Akers
Madman of Candle Point - Jonathan Olfert
The Macabre Dance of the Fiddler and Kore - Atalanti Evripidou
Dose of Dread: I Think I Have Lost Someone - Ria Hill
Nonfiction: Felt, Fur, and Frightful Things - Xochilt Avila
Plus Horror-scopes!
THE 2025 TENEBROUS BOOK CLUB IS OPEN UNTIL THE END OF JANUARY
…And then subscriptions close! We’ve got both Print+eBook and eBook-only options; print subscriptions come with an exclusive t-shirt, but both options will contain fun add-ons that won’t be available elsewhere.
A quick refresher of what we have on the horizon this coming year:
How about one of LitHub’s most anticipated books of 2025?
Also available to preorder on its own:
The latest volume of SPLIT SCREAM: Off the Map!
The latest novella from CROM CRUACH’s Valkyrie Loughcrewe, which broke poor Clay’s brain:
Bonus news: Sirenhead/Scarewaves creator Trevor Henderson just came on board to provide interior illustrations for PUPPET’S BANQUET, which means 666% extra head-f&%kery.
Blood on the ice. Weird Indigenous survival horror with breakneck thriller vibes. WE LIKE IT CHERRY. You want now.
The Bravest The Newest The Weirdest.
REEF MIND by Hazel Zorn; an Eco-Horror/Body Horror lover’s delight. We’re gonna be revealing Becca Snow’s utterly astounding cover art for this one next week, and I assure you you’re not ready for it. Hell, I’m not ready for it and I’ve seen it.
CLAIRVIOLENCE: TALES OF TAROT AND TORMENT by Mo Moshaty. Mo is one of the most vibrant and passionate voices in Horror, across all media, and works tirelessly to elevate everyone around her. It’s about goddamn time more people learn just what she is capable of, and how terrified you should be (the answer is very).
DEAR STUPID PENPAL by Rascal Hartley. Galaxy-spanning, time-breaking and mind-bending, we’re bookending the year with another Weird Sci-Fi outing. You’re gonna be seeing Rascal’s name a lot in the future—her voice is as assured as any seasoned pro, and this story is deeply profound. We’re grateful to help introduce the world to her.
Do the thing.
I gotta go, there’s a lotta boulders to roll. We’ll see you next week.
Hail Indie Publishing. God I love this shit.
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Matt + Alex