The Second Longest Year of All Time, and You Still Only Get One Birthday Cake
New Weird Horror indeed.
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
A lotta folks have been musing that the January that just concluded was, in fact, the longest year ever. And while I certainly appreciate the sentiment, I did a little research for myself; and it turns out all those folks were way off.
Now, the emotional calendar year is a far different beast than the Julian one, of course, and we can’t fault anyone who feels like they’ve aged a century in 2025. It’s…been a month.
That said, I’m hoping we can keep February briefer than a new record 446 days long…emotionally speaking, anyway. It’s not a Leap Year, is it? (It is not).
What does all this have to do with anything? I don’t know, I’m just waxing idiotic in the Shirley Jackson Award-nominated, Cummie Award-winning fashion to which you’ve grown accustomed. I am very charming.
If the calendar doesn’t play any more tricks on us, though, I can confidently declare that we are one week away from the release of Tenebrous’ first book of 2025: Koji A. Dae’s emotionally charged Weird Dystopian Sci-Fi novel about the choices we make for ourselves, and the choices for ourselves that we’re not allowed to make: CASUAL.
We’re handing the mic over to Koji next week to discuss her book’s journey. In the meantime: in case you’ve been tuning us out, here’s some info about one of LitHub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025:
Valya’s neural implant is amazing.
Its game-like app, CASUAL, has managed her depression and anxiety, stabilized her mood, and helped the infertile Valya get pregnant. But new laws forbid her from using the device when she's sole caregiver for her infant. Her gaslighting ex won't help her, and she can't afford a nanny, so her obstetrician insists that Valya wean off CASUAL before giving birth.
Despite a will to quit and a supportive new love interest in her birthing class, disabling CASUAL turns Valya's anxiety into full-blown panic attacks. Her psychiatrist offers to enroll her in a controversial clinical trial that would place a tandem implant in the baby and allow Valya to keep hers active. Valya must decide whether she should attempt parenting without CASUAL or install a minimally tested device in her vulnerable child.
Casual is a stark and cutting glance at a near future that looks uncannily like our present, exploring themes of bodily autonomy and the struggle for mental health in a world increasingly divided.
Still not enough to convince you?
Well, howzabout a wall of other people telling you how incredible CASUAL is?
“Up there with Atwood, Bradbury, Dick, and Gibson. Dae’s novel seems both inevitable and horrifying. A must-read for the moment.”
Literary Hub, The Most Anticipated Books of 2025
"A stunningly written story about class, mental health, women’s autonomy and all the ways a society can seek to control these, in a future so real I could almost touch it.”
Ed Crocker, FanFiAddict
“Eerily believable, incredibly relatable and heartbreaking.”
Booklist
“Compelling and incredibly imagined. Akin to classic dystopian literature like 1984 and Brave New World. It left me reeling."
Ivy Grimes, author of Glass Stories
“A complex and compassionate exploration of mental health and motherhood. Unlike anything I have ever read before.”
Emily Ruth Verona, author of Midnight on Beacon Street
“Thoughtful and character-focused. Kept me thinking long after I had finished the book. Highly recommended."
Christi Nogle, author of Stoker Award® winner Beulah
CASUAL is out February 11th. It releases almost a year to the day after we signed the contract with Koji.
While the turmoil over bodily autonomy has been churning anew for a couple years now, ain’t no way that any of us were prepared for just how timely this book was gonna be in February of 2025, mere days after the Second Longest Year in History™.
Final Week to Subscribe to the 2025 Book Club
I know, I know, we said we were closing subscriptions last month, but a few folks asked for an extension. Which we’re thrilled to grant; the More the Weirder Merrier!
I’m chuffed to say that we’ve increased our Book Club subscription numbers by over 60% (so far) from last year, while also retaining over half of 2024’s subscribers.
This tells me something: you dig what we do, the voices we choose to amplify, the chances we take. It’s not an easy thing, to invest a chunk of change in anything right now; much less an indie publisher that’s not really interested in playing the same game that some publishers do. Who proudly emblazons NEW WEIRD HORROR across the banner of everything we do…and then promptly releases books that fall outside of even that nebulous description (hence the “+ MORE” that we’ve recently quietly added.)
At the end of the day, it’s the Weird that matters. The Weird that defines us. Story over star power, at all costs. Alex and I trust implicitly in our curatorial vision. And we’re grateful that you do too. Thank you, sincerely. Y’all have impeccable taste.
(And might I also say that you look extraordinarily well groomed in that outfit, you are truly an individual of style and grace, the world is barely worthy of you, you’ve never looked better. You smell pretty nice too, is that…wait, that’s your natural musk?! No way! Incredible. You never fail to astound.)
Here’s the list of what we have in store for you, one more time:
And here’s where you can read more about each of them.
SPLIT SCREAM: OFF THE MAP is now available to preorder!
If you’re not after all of our titles—maybe you’re a fan of the SPLIT SCREAM series, for example; and who could blame you? they’re great! Paired novelettes that bite quickly and deeply and leave a permanent mark—then good news: the seventh volume is up for preorder now.
But mind your GPS, or you’ll find yourself roaming some rather Weird pindrops…off the map:
Volume Seven of our ongoing series of paired New Weird Horror novelettes takes readers on nightmare excursions to lonely locales!
Íde Hennessy - Sequoia Point
California's rugged “Lost Coast" has long been a treacherous place where dreams—and people—go to die. Meg's adrenaline junkie husband had been so drawn to Sequoia Point’s beaches that he'd requested his ashes be scattered on their black sands. Reeling after his death and a miscarriage, Meg decides to put down new roots in this strange place.
What she finds is a van-life conspiracy theorist seeking refuge from 5G radiation; mysterious packs of roving dogs; cryptic talismans on doors; and a mute woman who looks exactly like her. When a mudslide cuts the town off from civilization, Meg must overcome her debilitating fears to unravel the mysteries of Sequoia Point.
John K. Peck & L. Mahler - Evergreen
Wrapping up the loose ends of her mother's death, Deirdre makes a startling discovery: a tree growing in the closet of her childhood home, and a bizarre collection of knick-knacks buried in its soil. She soon learns that her mother had a hand in her hometown’s long history of odd disappearances and misfortune, and that this ominous tree is her legacy.
Nurturing the tree's soil with filched mementos, Deirdre learns that she can control the vast system of roots thriving beneath the town to a terrifying degree, and she soon finds herself fighting her darkest desires to wreak terrible vengeance on the town that wronged her.
“Evokes the atmospheric quality of David Lynch’s work, the sense of shadow and darkness that is both Void and pulsing with life.”
Books for Decaying Millenials
Echo Echo returns to illustrate her fourth SPLIT SCREAM, and series founder Alex Ebenstein has honed in on a pair of stories that rank among my personal favorites yet in the series.
Regardless of how far Tenebrous may veer into the “+ MORE” occasionally, SPLIT SCREAM remains locked in tight on the “NEW WEIRD HORROR” part of the equation.
OFF THE MAP is out March 27th; but if all goes well, we’ll have a small run of it to debut at Ghoulish Book Festival two weeks early!
THE SKULL & LAUREL Issue 003 Cover Reveal
This Dimension’s Greatest New Weird Fiction Magazine™ hurtles toward its third wild issue; this gorgeous cover comes courtesy of Mx. Morgan G Robles, who provided our stellar YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY cover a few years ago:
Table of Contents for Issue 003 will be announced shortly, with a release date of April 15th. In the meantime, you can still pick up Issues 001 or 002, or “subscribe” to get all four currently-scheduled issues while saving a couple bucks!
We’ll see you next week, with some guest words from Koji A. Dae, and the arrival of CASUAL.
Breathing seems like such a pain in the ass lately, and frankly more trouble than it’s worth, but keep doing it anyway. For us. And because it pisses the right people off.
Hail the Tenebrous Cult (that’s you, Weirdos).
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail New Weird Horror (+ More).
Matt + Alex