Meet the BRAVE NEW WEIRD-o's: Premee Mohamed

Premee Mohamed is a Nebula, World Fantasy, and Aurora award-winning Indo-Caribbean scientist and author based in Edmonton, Alberta. She has also been a finalist for the Hugo, Ignyte, Locus, British Fantasy, and Crawford awards. Currently, she is the Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence and an Assistant Editor at the short fiction audio venue Escape Pod. She is the author of the 'Beneath the Rising' series of novels as well as several novellas.

Premee’s story “Quietus” originally appeared in her collection, No One Will Come Back For Us and Other Stories, from Undertow Publications. It combines epistolary format with traditional prose to make its explorations all the more harrowing.

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Give us the elevator pitch of your BNW-nommed story, please.

Unhinged military scientists experiment on the brain of a young test subject, trying to make him asleep and awake at the same time—but where does he go when he isn't conscious?

What does your writing routine look like? Do you have an office? A preferred coffee shop? The back of the bus? Standing under your neighbor’s eaves, avoiding the rain? Are you one of those true modern Weirdos who write your entire novel on your phone?

I do 99% of my writing in my spare room, which is my office now! I switch between a notebook (outlining, brainstorming, idea generating, getting unstuck, choreographing fight scenes, doodling maps, whatever) and my clacky mechanical keyboard (drafting). Mostly these days I write when I have time. One thing that I've been surprised helps me a lot is a second monitor, and now I can barely remember how I wrote without it—I keep the draft on one side and the outline or inspiration images on the other side. 

What does “Weird” mean to you, in the context of storytelling? And what creators/experiences/influences helped sculpt this definition for you in your creative journey?

I guess I'm thinking of it as an offshoot of surrealism—you know, in fantasy, we expect strange things to happen that are explained by magic or the gods; in sci-fi, we expect strange things to happen that are explained by either weird physics or something that humans have invented. In Weird, what I expect are strange things happening because they're interesting. I like that move away from constant rationalization and justification, and more into a space of connecting closely with readers who are curious, open-minded, and not too legalistic. I think for my Weird specifically, I've been influenced most by writers like China Mieville, Christopher Priest, Gene Wolfe, and Phyllis Gotlieb.

China Mieville was one of the first influences that the Tenebrous Uni-Brain bonded over, so excellent choice there.

On the Tenebrous Discord, we ask folks to introduce themselves as a Film-meets-Music Artist (Citizen Kane x Metallica, f’rinstance). It doesn’t have to be your favorite, and don’t spend too much time overthinking it; now GO.

*panics*

Mirrormask meets Talking Heads!

What’s the Weirdest thing—capital W—that’s ever happened to you (that you’re comfortable sharing)?

Oh, probably getting my first book deal. I thought you had to have this long list of credentials and qualifications but nope, they'll just give them to anyone! SUPER WEIRD.

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BRAVE NEW WEIRD: The Best New Weird Horror, Volume Two, is out June 26th.

You can preorder it here.

BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two Table of Contents Revealed; Preorders Open

WEIRDER, WILDER, FURTHER INTO THE UNKNOWN

From well over one thousand entrants, to a shortlist of 60 well-deserved nominees, Alex and I have debated and chewed our fingernails down to nubs and bounced opinions off a select few trusted eyes and ears, and here we are:

cover art by Matt Blairstone

BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two Table of Contents

(not final order)

Amitha Jagannath Knight - My Mother, The Exoskeleton

Anemone Moss - Everything You Dump Here Ends Up in the Ocean

Chris Kuriata - Family Not Going To Heaven

Daniel DeRock - Guest Opinion: We must take action regarding the [REDACTED] High School janitor

David Simmons - Food is Poison

Eirik Gumeny - A Balanced Breakfast

Elena Sichrovsky - Embryo

Geneve Flynn - A Box of Hair and Nail

Hussani Abdulrahim - The Library Virus

Ivan Zoric - Our Roots Will Dry Out in the End

Judith Shadford - Endless Yearning

Karlo Yeager Rodríguez - Up In the Hills, She Dreams of Her Daughter Deep In the Ground

KS Walker - River Bargain Baby

LC von Hessen - Transmasc of the Red Death

M.M. Olivas - The Prince of Oakland

Michael Bettendorf - As the Music Plays Groovy

Nelly Geraldine García-Rosas - Lullaby for the Unseen

Patrick Malka - Show Me

Perfect Kiss Strickoll - punctum (o baked alaska for you i am a former american)

Premee Mohamed - Quietus

Rachael K. Jones - The Sound of Children Screaming

Simone le Roux - The Man Outside

Thomas Ha - In That Crumbling Home

In addition to the Table of Contents, we would also like to honor a few notable individuals for their contributions to the New Weird spectrum:

Bravest, Newest, Weirdest in Short Fiction:

BNW Anthology - Jolie Toomajan, ed. - Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic

BNW Special Issue - Suzan Palumbo, ed. - Strange Horizons Caribbean Special Issue

BNW Creative Format - Cormack Baldwin, ed. - Archive of the Odd

BNW Breakout Author - Simo Srinivas - “The Ballad of the Octopus” & many more

BNW Comic - Bri Crozier - Blackbird Hunting

BNW Magazine - Charles Tyra, publisher - Cosmic Horror Monthly

BNW Collection - Lindz McLeod - Turducken

BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two is out June 26th.

We weren’t certain how people would take to the notion of BRAVE NEW WEIRD when we launched it last year. It was driven, primarily, by a sense of fun; if Alex and I couldn’t have fun drawing new eyes to some of the off-the-radar stories peppering the Weirdest corners of the independent publishing world, then why bother putting in the work? Honestly, it’s what drives everything Tenebrous does: we need to have fun doing it.

But it was also driven by a sense of listlessness at seeing the same group of names year in and year out cropping up on numerous “Best of” lists. One of Tenebrous’ primary goals is to jam the door open to new writers, always and forever.

And fun or not, Alex and I take this incredibly seriously. It is vital to the genre to constantly revitalize itself; to perpetually chase the future; to condemn stagnation.

A piss-take and a deadly serious manifesto; things can be more than one thing.

To celebrate the release of BRAVE NEW WEIRD Volume Two, we’re releasing a limited hardcover run of just 50 copies along with bookplates signed by both Alex and myself. And for you completists out there, we’re releasing an even more limited run of 30 hardcover copies of Volume One; also signed by both of us.

Preorder BRAVE NEW WEIRD here.

Everything you need to know about THE SKULL & LAUREL Exquisite Corpse game

In celebration of reaching 150% funding on THE SKULL & LAUREL Kickstarter campaign, S&L Editor Cameron Howard is running an exquisite corpse, a collaborative storytelling game. Sign ups are open now; read on for details.

WHAT IS THE EXQUISITE CORPSE?

The exquisite corpse is an old parlor game in which players write in turn on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal part of the writing, then pass it to the next player to continue. The purpose of the game is to write a collaborative story despite only being given the previous player's contribution.

Exquisite corpse stories can be surprisingly cohesive under the circumstances, with some suggesting that the uncanny connectivity represents a collective muse or some form of unconscious communication between the artists. The name is derived from a phrase that resulted when surrealists first played the game, "Le cadavre exquis boira le vin nouveau." (The exquisite corpse shall drink the new wine.)

HOW IT WORKS

The story's genre and POV will be predetermined, and a single, one-sentence prompt—upon which the story need only be loosely based—will be provided (everyone is given the same prompt).

The game will be played in ten rounds, with players competing each round to write the best continuation of the story. Competitors will only be provided the winning submission from the previous round, so that no player will know the full context of the story as it unfolds.

Each player's submission will consist of two paragraphs, between 50 and 150 words. Players will be randomly distributed and split as evenly as possible per round, and each player will only have one chance to contribute to the story. Each player will be given 24 hours to write their submission once their assigned round begins.

Players should be mindful of how their part of the story interacts with the whole; your piece is all the next writer will have to go off of, and likewise, your reaction to the previous writer's contribution will be the only trace that remains of what transpired before.

While we will accept almost any ripple a player may introduce with their contribution to the story, low-effort submissions or those that attempt to purposefully disrupt the story or troll the following players will be rejected at our discretion.

Once a winning submission has been selected for each round, the story will be assembled and posted on the Tenebrous Press social media accounts. The full story will also be published in the first issue of THE SKULL & LAUREL.

Winning players will be paid a token payment of $5 for their submission and offered a 100-word space on the credits page that follows, which they may use to promote their book/a charity of their choice/compliment their dog/whatever they like.

DETAILS FOR THIS EXQUISITE CORPSE EVENT

Genre: Weird horror

POV: Second person

Prompt: You see a dog at the end of an alleyway, and something unusual comes out of its mouth.

SIGN UPS ARE OPEN

To sign up to participate in the exquisite corpse, send an email to tenebrouspress.mag@gmail.com with the words “exquisite corpse” in the subject line. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about the event as well.

Sign ups will be open until March 30th 5:00 p.m. Pacific Time, at which point the first round will begin.

Learn more about THE SKULL & LAUREL here.

Cover Art Reveal and Preorders Open for Emmett Nahil's FROM THE BELLY

Cover art by Chris Shehan

About FROM THE BELLY:

The whaling vessel Merciful has just made its strangest catch yet: a massive whale containing a still-living man secreted within its stomach lining. Sailor Isaiah Chase is tasked with keeping the enigmatic man alive. 

As their relationship grows, a series of accidents, injuries and deaths quickly befall the ship and its crew. Isaiah is plagued by strangely prophetic dreams, even as the crew continues their endless quest for whale oil under the command of an increasingly unhinged captain. 

As events spiral further out of control, the mysterious man confesses what Isaiah has begun to suspect: the crew of The Merciful has fallen into a cycle of punishment for their greed and destruction. Isaiah must confront the sea's vengeance made flesh, and choose between this new, strange love and the fate of the ship itself.

"The insidious chill of FROM THE BELLY seeps right into your skin, reaching as deep as the bone. It harbours a sense of dread that never dissipates. Emmett Nahil's words will linger long after you're through with this book, because this book will not be through with you." 

• Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

“Emmett Nahil blends the vast, incomprehensible danger of the ocean with the queasy intimacy of body horror to create an atmosphere of dread that feels both timeless and new. Wild, ominous, and darkly romantic, FROM THE BELLY will make its way into your guts and dreams."

• Lindsay King-Miller, author of The Z Word

“A darkly sensuous dive into the chilling subgenre of aquatic horror. Beautifully empathetic and character driven, FROM THE BELLY hits every disturbing note with finesse as Nahil ramps up the tension with pitch-perfect pacing. I loved this book from start to finish.”

• Laurel Hightower, author of Crossroads and Below

OUT MAY 30th! PREORDER FROM THE BELLY TODAY.