Rascal Hartley

Hails to The Line-Up!
They agree that @rascalhartley.bsky.social's DEAR STUPID PENPAL is a must-read.

This unique blend of sci-fi, cosmic horror, buddy comedy & romance is one of the best things you'll read all...ever.

Out next Tuesday, order now here:
store.tenebrouspress.com

I'm maintaining a perfectly normal volume about this (they lied)

Cover art by Carly A-F: against the blackness of space, a lone astronaut sits at their console, which drifts into the heavens in multicolored pixels. TEXT: LOST. LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME. FRIENDS & LOVED ONES GONE. BUT SOMEHOW, HE IS STILL THERE. AND ALWAYS WILL BE. Blurb: "Veer from funny to dread-inducing and back again...sits alongside THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR as a blueprint for compelling, propulsive, gorgeous [fiction]." -Emma Cole, Love Never Dies, editor at Harlequin Books An epistolary Cosmic Sci-Horror November 2025 from Tenebrous Press.

From today's newsletter:

"Not as many people will read DEAR STUPID PENPAL as *should*. But the ones who do? Get ready to hear them talking about it a whole lot, for a long time to come. This book changes people. It changed me."

Preorder @rascalhartley.bsky.social's debut:
store.tenebrouspress.com

Cover art by Carly A-F: against the blackness of space, a lone astronaut sits at their console, which drifts into the heavens in multicolored pixels. TEXT: LOST. LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME. FRIENDS & LOVED ONES GONE. BUT SOMEHOW, HE IS STILL THERE. AND ALWAYS WILL BE. Blurb: "Veer from funny to dread-inducing and back again...sits alongside THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR as a blueprint for compelling, propulsive, gorgeous [fiction]." -Emma Cole, Love Never Dies, editor at Harlequin Books An epistolary Cosmic Sci-Horror November 2025 from Tenebrous Press.

I like to think that, every few books, we yeet a new one into existence that catches even our core audience off guard; the ones who put their full faith in us, knowing that the ride will at least be memorable.

@rascalhartley.bsky.social's DEAR STUPID PENPAL is one. I'm dying to see yr reactions🖤☠️

Dear Stupid Penpal Review My review of Dear Stupid Penpal by Rascal Hartley.

I'm at it again with the book reviews. Check out my adoring rambles about Dear Stupid Penpal by @rascalhartley.bsky.social, published by @tenebrouspress.bsky.social:

www.leootherland.com/post/dear-st...

Front cover

Back cover

Test pressing looks damn gorgeous. @rascalhartley.bsky.social’s genre-blurring Cosmic Sci-Horror Queer Romance epistolary novel DEAR STUPID PENPAL is out in less than two weeks!
Preorder it here: store.tenebrouspress.com

Cover art by Carly A-F, in the dark of deep space a lone astronaut sits at a console in their spacecraft, multicolored and pixelating into space. blurb by Emma Cole

"A joyously weird tale...that even the most jaded cynic can't help but get swept up in" - @ideofmarch.bsky.social

Thrilling Sci-Fi, Cosmic Horror, & Love that spans light years🚀💀

@rascalhartley.bsky.social's brilliant DEAR STUPID PENPAL launches November 11: store.tenebrouspress.com

Cover art by Carly A-F, in the dark of deep space a lone astronaut sits at a console in their spacecraft, multicolored and pixelating into space. blurbs by Emma Cole and Ide Hennessy

Our 35th(?!) book is out next month. Here’s the full cover wrap for @rascalhartley.bsky.social’s DEAR STUPID PENPAL, featuring stellar art by @carlydraws.bsky.social

Cosmic Horror x Queer Romance in an entirely epistolary story. You gotta read it to believe it🖤☠️

Preorder: store.tenebrouspress.com

Hate when I have two ideas for a scene and one is obviously better but the other has a very funny joke. Like how am I meant to choose in these conditions

In the style of a terrible clickbait ad. There's a very stereotypically-dressed vampire on the left (pale, black hair, cape with red lining) holding a copy of Dear Stupid Penpal. On the right it says "Romance? In MY queer horror book?" Beneath that: It's more likely than you think. As a fake yellow button with red words: PREORDER NOW!

Preorder DEAR STUPID PENPAL ✌️ store.tenebrouspress.com/products/dea...

Cover art for CLAIRVIOLENCE: by Bri Crozier; flora and fungi sprout from a diseased illustrated heart; a green snake slithers out.

Cover art for PENPAL, by Carly A-F; pixelated colors drift out into the blackness of space from a computer terminal as a lone silhouetted astronaut looks on

Terror in the cards.
Terror in the stars.
Still to come this year, incredible fiction from @momoshaty.bsky.social & @rascalhartley.bsky.social!

CLAIRVIOLENCE: TALES OF TAROT AND TORMENT is out October 21st.

DEAR STUPID PENPAL is out November 11th.

Preorder:
store.tenebrouspress.com

The front cover of a book entitled The Salt in the Sea by J. D. Rivers. Stylized artwork shows two men in a loose embrace, one shorter, light-skinned, and pale-haired, the taller one dark haired and darker skinned, both in casual modern-esque clothes. The taller one kisses the shorter one on the forehead, his hand clasping the shorter one's cheek. They stand before a blood-red circle with a star on it, and a brilliant blue wave surges behind them. Illustration by: planetsandmagic Typesetting by: Hermits Writes

🐺 A downtrodden ex-soldier.
🦭 A lost inn-owner.
❤️ Blossoming feelings.
🗡️ A dead body.
🏝️ An island, where justice is deadly.

Selkie x werewolf
Urban fantasy!

Buy direct: tinyurl.com/DPPSalt
duckprintspress.itch.io/the-salt-in-...

GR: tinyurl.com/ys57r2rm
TSG: tinyurl.com/2shv5aed

📚🌈📚💙📚🪐

In the middle of this is the cover of Dear Stupid Penpal by Rascal Hartley, which is mostly dark deep space except the silhouette of a man at an instrument panel that's lit in rainbow hues that trail into space. Surrounding it, in terrible order and form, are the following: Insipid flirting People keep saying it's good (my discord DMs are filled with keysmashing) Not gay as in happy, queer as in i love you An author that definitely knows how to market Queer [this is in all rainbow] Oh also it's in space BTW Aroace characters (this is very important to me Written entirely in letters An amount of queer that would make your grandma clutch her pearls (they're my pearls now gimme) Comedy :) Tragedy :( Just kidding (or am I) If I put queer on here one more time I get a bingo Unknown whispers Taco Bell I had to look up multiple words while writing this Horror romance Homance, if you will Rorror? HORROMANCE (it was right there!) End ID

Graphic design is my passion. Preorder today!

store.tenebrouspress.com/products/dea...

store.tenebrouspress.com/products/dea...

[Smacking Finch on the top of his head] this bad boy can fit so much anxiety in him

Img ID: a collage. At the top are fancasts for Aku (Ekin Koç) and Finch (Dev Patel). Between them is an image of an astronaut. In the middle is a galaxy that looks like an iris, and superimposed over that is a painting of two men grasping one another (the painting is The Fall by Alan Stephens Foster). Beneath, at the bottom, is an oil painting of a swirling galaxy. Over this all are prose lines: I won't be in the history books. That's for you. But I loved you first. As long as they get that right, I don't care what they say. End img id.

In the spirit of preorders opening, please enjoy this collage I made for my blorbos like. ages ago. Aku and Finch my beloveds

The King in Yellow by Robert Chambers! Just the first four short stories within, but Carcosa is one of the most fun literary rabbit holes I've ever been down. (It neither starts nor stops here)

DEAR STUPID PENPAL **Preorder** - a novel by Rascal Hartley (softcover 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 c...

Preorders for my debut novel are open! [SNL voice] it's got everything... astronauts, Lego nerds, aroace characters, Taco Bell, existential dread, letters between two people separated by time and space, the Snarkiest Man You've Ever Met, and uh [checks smudged writing on hand] a vodka grandma!

Cover art by Carly A-F, in the dark of deep space a lone astronaut sits at a counsel in their spacecraft, multicolored and pixelating into space. blurb by Emma Cole

Cosmic Horror.
Sci-Fi time shenanigans.
And…

…Tenebrous finds LOVE??? 🖤🖤🖤💀💀💀

It’s true.

@rascalhartley.bsky.social’s DEAR STUPID PENPAL is up for preorder now!

store.tenebrouspress.com

Stunning cover art by @carlydraws.bsky.social

Cover art by Carly A-F: against the blackness of space, a lone astronaut sits at their console, which drifts into the heavens in multicolored pixels. TEXT: LOST. LIGHT YEARS FROM HOME. FRIENDS & LOVED ONES GONE. BUT SOMEHOW, HE IS STILL THERE. AND ALWAYS WILL BE. Blurb: "Veer from funny to dread-inducing and back again...sits alongside THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR as a blueprint for compelling, propulsive, gorgeous [fiction]." -Emma Cole, Love Never Dies, editor at Harlequin Books An epistolary Cosmic Sci-Horror November 2025 from Tenebrous Press.

Okay so:

What if Weird Cosmic Horror...

...but also QueeRomance?

We've got you covered, don't fret.

DEAR STUPID PENPAL, an epistolary Sci-Horror novel, out this November from @rascalhartley.bsky.social

Preorders coming soon🚀👁️📡💀

Cover art by @carlydraws.bsky.social

This art is such a knockout, as is the story it represents. Preorders for @rascalhartley.bsky.social's DEAR STUPID PENPAL are coming next month!
🖤☠️

AND IT'S SO WONDERFUL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH

dear stupid penpal by rascal Hartley art by Carly A-F a person waits for a message at a lit up console

dear stupid penpal by rascal Hartley art by Carly A-F a person waits for a message at a lit up console

dear stupid penpal by rascal Hartley art by Carly A-F a person waits for a message at a lit up console

dear stupid penpal by rascal Hartley art by Carly A-F a person waits for a message at a lit up console

DEAR STUPID PENPAL

A recent book cover for DEAR STUPID PENPAL by @rascalhartley.bsky.social with @tenebrouspress.bsky.social

charcoal with digital colour

wanted to capture a quiet atmosphere, packets of data messages, the feel of waiting and soft hum of consoles

#art #bookcover

Promo for DEAR STUPID PENPAL Text: Lost. Countless Light-Years from home. Your friends and loved ones are gone. But somehow, He is still there. And always will be.

Cover art by Carly A-F A lone astronaut sits in shadows at the bottom of the cover; glorious green yellow pink and blue lights pixelate up the page from his computer monitor, culminating in the words DEAR STUPID PENPAL across the top of the page.

🎉💀COVER ART REVEAL💀🎉

DEAR STUPID PENPAL, the debut from @rascalhartley.bsky.social is out November 11, & we're so stoked to be sharing this gorgeous art, courtesy of @carlydraws.bsky.social

An existentially terrifying, all-epistolary Cosmic Sci-Horror novel about Weird Love.

As you do🖤☠️

Our 33 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Books for the Rest of 2025 Lit Hub’s list of the most anticipated books of the second half of the year includes many genre titles, but, one might argue, not enough. What can I say, I’m an excitable boy, still in …

THIS IS WHAT I GET FOR FORGETTING TO CHECK MY SOCIALS FOR MONTHS. I WAS INCLUDED IN A LIST. I'M BEING VERY NORMAL ABOUT THIS.

lithub.com/our-33-most-...

Dear Stupid Penpal by @rascalhartley.bsky.social might still be a little way away, but we promise there's every reason to get excited.
This one's a crier. And a laugher. And a mortifier?

Follow the author & us to hear more or get in on the book club now.
(tenebrouspress.com/blog/2024/12...)

Defend the Internet Archive. Protect the Wayback Machine. Tell the music labels: Drop the 78s lawsuit. Sign our open letter on change.org

📢 The Internet Archive needs your help.

At a time when information is being rewritten or erased online, a $700 million lawsuit from major record labels threatens to destroy the Wayback Machine.

Tell the labels to drop the 78s lawsuit.

👉 Sign our open letter: www.change.org/p/defend-the...

🧵⬇️

The front cover of a book entitled The Salt in the Sea by J. D. Rivers. Stylized artwork shows two men in a loose embrace, one shorter, light-skinned, and pale-haired, the taller one dark haired and darker skinned, both in casual modern-esque clothes. The taller one kisses the shorter one on the forehead, his hand clasping the shorter one's cheek. They stand before a blood-red circle with a star on it, and a brilliant blue wave surges behind them. cover illustration by planetsandmagic (tumblr & bsky)

My most beloved and amazing people!

Pre-orders for "The Salt in the Sea" my m|m bittersweet romance story between a werewolf and a selkie on an island with a murder is NOW LIVE!

📚💙📚💫🚀📚🌈📚🪐

Get your copy and merch now!
Candle!
Cover art print!

duckprintspress.com/the-salt-in-...

yes your honour i did curse him with my evil orb, but in my defence, i thought it would be sick as fuck

Split Scream Volume Seven Volume Seven of the twin-novelette series takes readers…

Five days left to win 1 of 10 copies of SPLIT SCREAM: OFF THE MAP featuring two New Weird Eco-Horror novelettes from @ideofmarch.bsky.social @johnkpeck.bsky.social & L. Mahler!

Just add OFF THE MAP to your Goodreads To-Read pile and you're entered! Info here:
www.goodreads.com/book/show/22...

The graphic has Casper making a goofy face and pointing at a book mock-up in the background. He is a white transmasc person with thick rimmed purple glasses that look blue here and dark blue eyes that look black here. He’s lying on a white pillow case with black flowers on them and is wearing a gray PJ shirt. The photo is taken from above because he is too fucking tired to sit up. The mock-up shows the cover of his debut poetry collection. It looks like this: The cover shows a blurry, light blue hospital background with a leopard plushie in front of it which is wearing a white KN95 mask and blue scrubs. Above it in two different fonts is SURVIVAL & OTHER (then different font) SURPRISES. Below the leopard it says in thing font A COLLECTION OF POEMS BY CASPER E. FALLS. To the left of the cover is black text in front of a pastel blue background. It says „That awkward moment when you have a poetry collection about chronic illness coming out in a month and chronic illness prevents you from marketing it.“ Above the cover it says: THIS COUNTS AS MARKETING. GO PREORDER ❤️

Here’s an exhausted gremlin selfie to tell you that my book about being an exhausted gremlin is coming out in a month! Waaaah!You can preorder it now: books2read.com/u/m00Ja0

If you like accessible but ruthless poetry about disability,heartbreak, & world rage, you might enjoy it😊 #disabled #booksky