Hey Ho Tenebrous Cult!

Rascal Hartley's DEAR STUPID PENPAL is out next week! Early reviews are only now starting to trickle in, but the ones we've read go a lot like this:

Look, we know we stand all aloof and enigmatic and eminently unknowable over in the cool kid's club—we can't help it! it just comes natural! then Alex and I both trip walking up stairs and clonk heads like low rent stooge extras—but even we admit that certain books are natural fits for Tenebrous.

Some other books are outliers; they're too good not to publish, and we just friggin' need to see them exist in this mostly-stupid world, preferably with the Skull & Laurel in the bottom left corner of the back cover.

PENPAL is...well, y'know what? It is a natural fit for Tenebrous, actually. But it doesn't feel like it, not at first. It leans into genres that we haven't dipped our toes very deeply into before. And its pages hold some secrets that we're not ready to give away yet, because we don't want to spoil the fun.

And it is fun. DEAR STUPID PENPAL is dear stupid fun, and funny, and heartbreaking and mind-bending and buoyant and whip-smart and it contains these wretched moments of suspense and terror that make your guts plummet like a rollercoaster dip you didn't see coming.

Some folks may balk at trying a new book, because they've never heard of the author before, or because the words queer romance come within spittin' distance of Cosmic Horror. Or maybe just because there are a lot of books in the world—at least a couple hundred, from what I understand!—and we can't read everything. More than fair.

Not as many people will read DEAR STUPID PENPAL as should read it, I know that much. But the ones who do? Get ready to hear them talking a whole lot about it, friends, and for a long time to come. This book changes people. It changed me. It's a little presumptuous to declare something a "cult classic" ahead of time, but hey, usually I'm a lot presumptuous; I'm just taking it easy on you today, I have to get back to dealing with an out-of-nowhere leaky roof that's sluicing through the bedroom ceiling right when Portland is really Portlanding.

DEAR STUPID PENPAL is out next Tuesday. Embrace change and preorder yourself a copy.

Get DEAR STUPID PENPAL

We're actually gonna keep the rest of this missive fairly brief, but we do want to chat up a couple Tenebrous-adjacent things first!

Next Monday, help us support the Oregon Food Bank!

Friend of Tenebrous Wendy Wagner—author of Girl in the Creek and The Secret Skin, editor-in-chief of Nightmare Magazine—has been busting her ass to organize this fundraiser for the Oregon Food Bank. It all goes down next Monday at the Rose City Book Pub.

Storytelling Against Hunger runs from 4p-9p and features a number of readings from local authors—including Tenebrous resident Weirdo Danger Slater, author of HOUSE OF ROT and next year's WE ARE GOOD PEOPLE—framed around a marathon open mic session featuring...well, who the hell knows?! You, maybe, if you show up early enough and sign up!

I'll be on hand all night, doing whatever Wendy tells me to and giving away some Tenebrous books and swag in the various raffles. This country is failing people on an almost unfathomable level right now, so it's up to us to pick each other up.

Read more about Storytelling Against Hunger here.

This is for a great cause; we hope you'll join us!

Friends with Benefits: Preorder CERULEAN SKY

The latest novella from Tenebrous alum and pal David Corse (SPLIT SCREAM Vol. 6: The Parents Ain't Alright, "Mother is Coming Home") is out in just a few days from Polymath Press:

A deadly disease has ravaged the United States, causing people to turn incorporeal before bursting into a shower of light.

When soft-spoken schoolteacher Florence is infected, the only thing left for her to do is atone for her biggest regret: her part in the death of her best friend.

With days left to live, she must cross a dystopian America to find her best friend's mother while being hunted by government agents tasked with controlling the spread of the disease.

But Florence's decision has dire consequences. Peter, her loving but overprotective boyfriend, refuses to leave her side, and every moment he spends with her puts him in danger of catching the disease or being executed for helping her.

As the miles add up, Florence must decide what she's willing to sacrifice for absolution.

Tenebrous Chief Muckity-Muck Alex Woodroe talked with David about it.

Alex: What made you start this story? What was the most exciting thing about it?

David: Most of my stories start with a stray thought. In this case, I had a stray thought about what it’d feel like to float up into the air and disintegrate. When I get an idea like that, it’s like getting a mind itch, so I ask myself why it's happening—just why, why, why? And sometimes my questions lead me to a story. 

But just as often, they lead me to a bunch of pages of nonsense.

Is there a lot of you, the person, in the fiction of CERULEAN SKY?

A million times yes. There is a lot of me in everything I write. I tell people that everything I write is fiction but emotionally true. I draw on my own experiences, especially my emotions, to write characters. It gives me catharsis, but I also believe this choice makes my characters more three-dimensional and relatable.

In this case, I channeled the feelings I had about doing something even if other people don’t understand. In this case—and maybe it’s a little embarrassing—it was writing and publishing a book.

There is a lot of romance in CERULEAN, too. In my early twenties, I was in love with a woman who lived in a different city, and despite both of us wanting to be together, it didn’t work out. I remember supporting her as best I could as she pursued her dreams, even though it hurt. It was the right decision, and I’d do it again. But I am glad I exorcised all those emotions with CERULEAN.

What was the hardest thing about writing it?

As unlikely as it sounds, I started writing CERULEAN SKY in 2019 and finished the first draft just a few weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic spread to the United States. I was living in a one-bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, and it felt like the apocalypse. At that moment, I knew I didn’t have it in me to edit CERULEAN. I was living through a pandemic and didn’t want to live through one in my imagination as well.

So, I let the story sit and gather dust and even more dust. I wrote some more novellas, but I couldn’t get this one story out of my head. At the same time, I was worried that even if I released CERULEAN, no one would want to read it. Eventually, I made the decision to edit it, if for no other reason than to get it out of my head. I honestly never thought a press would pick it up, but I’m glad I was wrong.

What media inspired you to write CERULEAN SKY?

CERULEAN is my love letter to King’s The Stand. It was the first adult book I read when I was a kid, and I’ve been chasing that high ever since. I love the characters and the setting, and just how extremely dark it is. It doesn’t hurt that I have a lot of fond memories of watching the made-for-TV movie with Molly Ringwald with my parents. I recently got my hands on the VHS box set, if that says anything about how much I love it.

The other major influence is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the movie, not the book, though I like the book. I firmly believe that horror and romance are a perfect match for each other. In romance, all your senses are heightened, and the same with horror, so there is a compounding effect. There’s a lot of Mina in Florence, the main character of CERULEAN.

CERULEAN SKY is out November 10th, but it's up for preorder now through Polymath Press!

Preorder CERULEAN

I'll leave you with this sage, incredibly American advice that my insurance agent just gave me:

"Whatever you do, don't file a claim with the insurance company, they're just gonna jack up your rates and maybe even drop your coverage!"

Hopefully you find better use for that advice than I have.

So uh, any cheap-but-quality roof repairpeople in the crowd tonight?

Hail Indie Publishing.

Hail New Weird Horror (+ More!)

Hail the Tenebrous Cult.

Matt + Alex