Happy Halloween, Booksellers!

As the creepy season sweeps over us, we want to tell you about our final release of 2025, coming November 11th: the genre-bustingly brilliant DEAR STUPID PENPAL, an entirely epistolary mixture of heart, humor and horror from newcomer Rascal Hartley.

Read DEAR STUPID PENPAL in its entirety here

About DEAR STUPID PENPAL:

Atticus “Finch” Davani does not want to be an astronaut. He hates space, he hates the ship, and he strongly dislikes his fellow crew members. He makes that painfully clear in his letters to Aku, his corporate-assigned penpal back on Earth. 

Soon, Aku becomes much more than a penpal. But when the crew engage hyperdrive, Aku’s punctual letters start coming at random intervals, and Finch and his shipmates realize that time, for them, is moving all wrong.

As everyone else’s penpals rapidly die of old age, Finch turns, heartbroken, to Aku; who, more than a century later, is still there. 

DEAR STUPID PENPAL is an entirely epistolary exploration of cosmic dread, the passing of time, and the lifelines we cling to against the vast endlessness of space.

Cover art by Carly A-F. Interior illustrations by Matt Blairstone.

"A joyously weird tale of unexpected genre mashups, overwhelming odds, quotable lines, and queer romance that even the most jaded cynic can't help but get swept up in."

•  Íde Hennessey, "Sequoia Point", Split Scream: Off the Map

“Veers from funny to dread-inducing and back again…sits alongside This Is How You Lose the Time War as a blueprint for compelling, propulsive, epistolary [fiction].”

• Emma Cole, Love Never Dies, editor at Harlequin Books

Release Date: November 11, 2025                                                                  $16.99, Trade Paperback

Print ISBN: 978-1-959790-43-3

Read DEAR STUPID PENPAL in its entirety here

And don't forget, our featured title of the Halloween season—Mo Moshaty's CLAIRVIOLENCE: TALES OF TAROT AND TORMENT—is out now!

Release Date: October 21, 2025                                                            

$16.99, Trade Paperback

Print ISBN: 978-1-959790-39-6

About CLAIRVIOLENCE:

The Tarot holds mystery, prediction, and unsettling omens for those who practice, divine, or are sensitive to it. 

A turn of the cards weaves CLAIRVIOLENCE through space and time to delve into the stories of those shaken by life-shattering choices that threaten to tear their souls apart:

A warring couple is forced to reconcile during the end of the world.

A young man is drawn into the surreal prison-scape of an elderly woman.

A dead woman’s curse travels miles and decades to bring her killer to justice.

CLAIRVIOLENCE unearths one novelette and ten short stories—each one exclusive to this volume—beneath the exterior of an otherwise charmed and quiet existence.

Read CLAIRVIOLENCE in its entirety here.

**A reminder that we also do direct wholesale distribution to bookstores. No minimum orders! Find out more here.

Be well, and thank you for all you do for independent publishing.

Alex Woodroe, Editor-in-Chief, Tenebrous Press (she/her)

Matt Blairstone, Publisher, Tenebrous Press (he/him)