Your Body is a Wonderland/Your Body is a Fever Dream
May 21, 2026 1:31 pm
Hey Ho, Tenebrous Cult!
We're gonna talk about our upcoming anthology YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM but first, this happened this past weekend:
CLAIRVIOLENCE: TALES OF TAROT AND TORMENT, Winner of the Wonderland Book Award for Best Collection of 2025
I was quadruple-booked this past weekend, so I didn't get to take in all of the BizarroCon experience that I wanted to (though I did manage to sit in on the chapter meeting, sling some 10p books at the book fair, listen to the spooky stylings of the Slow Poisoner, and yell about how much AI sucks on a panel) but the highlight of the weekend was undoubtedly accepting this award on behalf of author Mo Moshaty, who was unable to make the trip from the U.K.
CLAIRVIOLENCE: TALES OF TAROT AND TORMENT, WONDERLAND BOOK AWARD WINNER. That's a helluva mouthful, but strangely enough it rolls right off my tongue:)
We want to thank the Wonderland Awards MC, Rose O'Keefe, for her inspiring speech celebrating Weird Fiction in all its forms; Garrett Cook for his lovely presentation of the award; the Wonderland judges for seeing the same special horror in CLAIRVIOLENCE that we so clearly did; all the BizarroCon attendees past and present who voted for it; and of course Mo herself, for trusting us to shepherd her Weird-ass flock in the first place.
Wanna read for yourself what the Wonderland judges fell in love with? Why not get yourself a print copy or an eBook of CLAIRVIOLENCE!
This was my first time attending BizarroCon, and even if Tenebrous has never fully immersed ourselves in the same waters (we'd probably get eaten or...worse? by nymphomanic sharks anyway) we certainly drink from the same fountain, and we recognize our delightfully Weird kindred.
I am happy and honored to say, I get it.
Let's do it again next year. Hails, Bizarro.
YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM: a Horny, Cerebral Affair
Whenever we edit an anthology, I'm always fascinated to see what kinds of themes emerge; whether overtly due to the state of the world, or subconsciously on the parts of both the submitters and the press. With YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM, while there was a moderately loose "guideline" of Cosmic Horror in the call, a couple particular themes reared their heads, both in the broader submissions pool as well as in the stories that were eventually selected.
Theme Number One! Horniness.
Horny in Space, Horny Leages Under the Sea, Horny in Ways I Never Previously Considered. YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM is probably the horniest book Tenebrous has yet published (intermittently; it's not wall-to-wall shark-f&*king or anything). Do with that what you will.
Theme Number Two! Linguistics.
Words as memetic weaponry? Yes. Elocution that changes the speaker physically? Also yes. Hallucinating words that aren't words but mean words? Definitely. There is more than one linguistic expert as protagonist within the stories in YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM, and I gotta tell you, I'm a sweet-toothed sucker in a candy shop for those.
And I didn't even select 'em! I got to play the role of joyous first-time reader this week, while Alex did all the heavy lifting. And speaking as a reader: this book absolutely slays. It's broad in voice while also being shockingly cohesive as a single volume; wickedly funny and heartbreaking, terrifying and gross and sincere and, yes, horny and clever as well.
This book's elder sibling, YOUR BODY IS NOT YOUR BODY, released during the last days of Twitter being a thriving, useful promotional tool. No one with any clout in the industry knew who Tenebrous was—they still don't, he said mostly-proudly—but that didn't stop word of it from spreading enthusiastically. Alex and I busted our asses. We were passionate AF, and so were a lot of our supporters. We were also a little bit lucky, and it was the right place and right time. YB=/=YB hit hard.
If anything, the world is even more politically incendiary than it was four years ago, and the algorithm is fighting firmly against us. We're having to be both savvier and more insistent in getting the word out about YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM in order for it to do as much good as possible.
How can you help?
- Preorder a copy. That's a pretty direct action right there! The two organizations we'll be donating proceeds to are the Trans Legal Services Network and the Trans Doe Task Force.
- Cut to the chase! Donate directly to those organizations! Granted, you don't get a copy of the book that way, and the Tenebrous Accounting Department Bean-Counters*** frown on this advice, but you're doing a helluva lot of good for a helluva lot of people.
- Recommend YOUR BODY IS A FEVER DREAM to your local libraries and neighborhood bookshops! Yes, even the local buyer at Barnes & Noble, if that's your local option! Most libraries have a place you can recommend books to purchase if you have a library card. Let 'em know this book exists (or that it will come October).
- Tell the Queer and Trans-allied organizations in your area about it! Attention leads to attention leads to more attention and we at Tenebrous are shamelessly attention-seeking.
***Me. That's me. I frown on you. Don't worry, it won't be a severe frown.
A Brief(no it wasn't) Editorial Interlude
Hey beautiful cultists, it's Alex here with the weather, and the prognosis in my to-do list is always 'buy new books'.
I can always tell when it's about that time to open up the Tenebrous submission floodgates by the uptick in the daily number of increasingly curious inquiries in our inbox, so I want to answer a couple of super common questions for any writers, artists, & general miscreants who may be interested in working with us someday.
Yes, I am opening submissions again soon. I promise. Always, as long as I am able, as long as I am here, whenever Tenebrous needs books, I will be looking at open submissions. The schedule may not always be the easiest to define—Case in point, We're about a month late opening, and may be longer. At the time of writing there's about ten manuscripts left in the queue that we're very seriously considering, and it's painful and drawn-out and awful because any one of them could come home with us, but only like, three of them actually will. Nobody's having fun at this stage. (Okay that is a lie, getting to read these and debate them and plan their future is SO MUCH FUN).
So hang tight, but don't worry, Tenebrous is not a limited-time opportunity. There will always be more.
Yes, I'll look at composite novels, mixed media scavanger hunts, comicollections, tri-chapbooks, fusepunk whoseenanits, and any other weird thing you've asked me about. I will look at anything. I will look at the evolution of your dating profile over a decade, I will full request your grocery list/mental breakdown. As long as it's dark and weird and fits the other parameters and you think it might fit in with us, make *what* exactly it is our problem.
No, pretty please, don't email your manuscripts. Not only can we not spare the labor of tracking two different submission methods, but at this stage with all the automated AI-gen spam hitting us, I can't promise we will even see an email with an unknown attachment, or open it if we do. The guidelines are on the website, the methods there are secure and make sure nothing gets lost.
But if you're an artist with a portfolio link, or a reviewer with a request, or a reader with a question, or a bookseller with a complaint, or for any other reason need to chat with us, we really, really do love hearing from you.
(how your email finds me)
And finally, I can't stress this one enough: while we can't give people any privileged treatment in the query trenches and the stories will always be the stories no matter who they come from, any help you need short of that, we're open. In this scary, closed-off, and ego-driven field, I would rather everyone ask a hundred basic questions than feel left alone for one single mistake. We love it when press owners and editors reach out to chat about our systems, or when writers ask us what we think about a concept, or when the excellent people on our Discord Server get tapped for info on contracts. We know artists and voice actors, we have people who like to critique short stories, we know a guy who can fix a mean Aperol Spritz. Talk to us. We're Scary (But We Ain't That Scary Yet).
<3 Now back to your regularly scheduled tomfoolery.
ALICIA IS IN THE BASEMENT is out in less than a month
Just in time for summer to slip into its groove, we've got the perfect downer novella for you.
One summer afternoon, Santi and Maria's daughter disappears without a trace from a public park. A fruitless investigation passes, the agony only serving to tear Santi’s life and family further apart.
Months go by, and Santi finally stumbles upon a clue: it is hardly a name, barely a whisper, but it is enough to reveal a haunting legacy and unleash an entirely new kind of horror upon the despairing young father:
“He Who Does Not Speak With Children.”
"Eximeno writes with a razor sharp precision, creating an atmosphere of thick dread that never loosens its grip. The end is haunting in the truest sense, devastating and impossible to shake."
- Unstable Books
"One of the most emotionally devastating novellas in recent memory. It earns every goddamn thing it does."
- The Blog Without a Face
Cover art and interior illustrations by Jenna Cha.
Translated to English by Alicia L. Alonso.
ALICIA IS IN THE BASEMENT is out June 16th.
It's been a suck-ass week for discussions about AI in the books and stories we read. The CEO of Barnes & Noble sure thinks it's a neat idea. Literary prizes are being awarded to stories accused of being partially or completely machine-generated. It can feel hopeless. It's exhausting.
But the fight for true art has always been exhausting, and it's a fight we're willing to continue; hell, we're built for the long haul. As long as there are humans who want human-made art, it can never die. Take heart, and don't get lost in the gloom.
Go read a human; we know a few, for starters.
See you soon.
Hail Indie Publishing.
Hail New Weird Horror (+ More!)
Hail the Tenebrous Cult.
Matt + Alex
