by Matthew Tansek | Jun 24, 2020 | Adventures in Reading
So I’ve got the itch to go diving through some old pulp fiction magazines once again and I thought rather than write up a review of it and post it somewhere with the off chance that someone who reads the same obscure things goes looking for someone else who has read it, it would start a group to talk about the story.
I’ll be posting the first story at the beginning of next month, so stay tuned. But it will be in the public domain on the Pulp Magazine Archive, so anyone with an internet connection will have free access to it.
This will be my first Goodreads group, and so I don’t know how much traction I’m going to get, but I figure what the hell. So if you are interested in talking about a fun, quick, and probably over the top little read, this is going to be the group for you!
Here is the link to the group: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1099571-classic-pulp-review
It’s an open group, so feel free to join now, even if you plan on participating later. All are welcome!
by Matthew Tansek | Mar 2, 2020 | Uncategorized
The good folks at the Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers have put together two anthologies with stories written by yours truly in them!
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Both stories were a lot of fun to conceptualize and I feel honored to have my work included alongside other talented local authors. If you’re looking for a fun collection of fantastic dark fiction look no further than these two anthologies.
by Matthew Tansek | Feb 13, 2020 | Adventures in Reading
Fishhead by Irvin S. Cobb
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
What blew me away about this story, and other stories by Cobb is his ability to paint an amazing picture of an exotic landscape. If you spend just a moment and read the first couple of paragraphs of this story you will understand how powerful his words are, and how immersive such writing can be.
This particular story I think serves better as an interesting piece in the greater cannon of material revolving around fish people that can be found in weird fiction and supernatural pulps, than perhaps a stand alone story.
Nevertheless I think because it is so short and it contains such masterful description and relatable situations I would recommend it to almost anyone interested in speculative fiction. You will fly through this story in one sitting and be glad that you did.
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by Matthew Tansek | Feb 5, 2020 | Adventures in Reading
The Horror on the Links by Seabury Quinn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I don’t know what it is about Jules de Grandin stories that I like so much. They are not usually all that inventive, edgy, or linguistically impactful. The characters don’t really develop in any meaningful ways, and the plots usually are pretty formulaic. But with all that said these stories are so endearing and fun to read.
It’s kind of like eating icing, supernaturally laced early 20th-century icing. You don’t want to make a whole meal out of it, but rather indulge in it every now and again between other pieces of fiction. Like a long-running TV series, you’ll come to enjoy the familiar set of characters and their quirks, and begin to look out for the nuances in their personalities and relish the predicaments they find themselves in each episode.
Like a B-movie mashup of Hercule Poirot and Sherlock Holmes, these stories are great fun. I would recommend them to anyone who is looking for a great introduction to classic Weird Tales magazine material, or anyone who enjoys splashing around in the shallow waters of occult investigation stories.
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by Matthew Tansek | Feb 4, 2020 | Musings
So I was asked the other day why it is that I read horror fiction. It’s a fair question, and probably one that resonates with a lot of those that don’t find themselves drawn to stories that are quite so dark. It might even sound like an unpleasant experience being drawn into a story where things are going to go from good to horrible. But before I dive into the reasons that I read horror fiction, let me tell you first off that it’s not like I read all kinds of horror fiction. Like most people, there are certain types of stories that I find way more pleasant to read and get my mind firing. I am NOT a big fan of super graphically gory fiction or stories that involve truly awful things like rape or mutilation. If the story could be described as Saw-esque it is not for me. And please don’t think I am criticizing you if that is your thing, to each their own. But for me, the kind of horror that I truly find fun to read are stories that are more conceptually horrible, supernatural, or novel in nature. So this is really just a personal list for me, but I think that it will strike a chord in many of you that like me enjoy this particular flavor of horror.
1 – The Stakes Are Higher
In almost every other form of fiction, you are aware that at the end of the day things are going to work out ok for the protagonist. I mean even if they bite it in the end, things are going to go the right way for the good guys. But ho, not so in horror fiction. The best kind of horror fiction builds up the stakes for the good guys, draws you into the characters and makes you invested in them, and all the while you know that there is no promise that things are going to turn out ok. The difference is like bowling with and without the bumpers in the gutters. The risk is real, the tension that is created is more real, and the edge of your seat experience as things ramp up in the story can be so much more intense because of it.
2 – The Appeal of Regular Joe
Good horror is all about relatability, and that means that the protagonist isn’t going to be someone that is going to be all that different from you or me. Regular people trying their best to cope with horrifying situations and cunning evil entities. Protagonists in horror stories have to rely on the simple strengths of humankind, mental resourcefulness, and the WILL TO SURVIVE!
3 – Genera Spanning
If you are reading a western do you know where it is going to take place? How about if you are reading a fantasy novel? But horror? Yeah, not so much. Horror doesn’t play by those rules, it exists wherever the author wants it to exist; just as likely to be lurking in the basement of an old farmhouse as it is in a dialect space vessel. Fans of horror are rewarded with an incredible variety of characters, settings, and world-shaping machinations. The flavors are so varied that it’s a general that you can really never get bored of (at least I never do).
So there you have it, the top three reasons why I read the kind of horror that I do. But if there are aspects of horror that pulls you toward it that are different than mine, please let me know! Little by little, we are going to chip away at this barrier of entry for this type of story, and yunno I think a whole host of people that would have never tried it out will be pleasantly surprised at how much they enjoy it.
Featured image by Aphiwat chuangchoem
