The introduction to Jessica Amanda Salmonson's “Tales of Moonlight
II”, published in 1989 by TOR Horror paperbacks, show us an
underworld that existed in the late eighties and early nineties of
horror fiction... The genre-writers' horror 'zines, or, the
“Shoestring and Small Press Horror Magazines”. This was a viable
outlet in the 80s and early-to-mid 90s where talented amateur horror
authors could get their start by having their short stories published
and circulated through a lot of magazine outlets and retailers, or
even by mail-subscription. Huge talents came out of this launching
pad, including Stephen King (in the 70s), Richard Matheson (earlier
than that), Thomas Ligotti, Charles L. Grant, Spider Robison, Stephen
Gresham, and the editor of “Tales by Moonlight” herself. In the
sequel to her first paperback anthology hit, here in Part II Jessica
Salmonson once again complies, curates, and edits a collection of
stories and authors who made a huge creative impact on some of the
best and most creative Horror Magazines that existed in 1989. Her
resulting book is a little more intense than the usual horror-lit
anthology, a little deeper, a little more hallucinogenic,
experimental, and nightmarish – and all the better for it. The
stories on Salmonson's book are best devoured two or three at a time;
no one is more memorable than any other, they all stand out in their
own personality. It's easy to see why some of these authors went on
to enjoy popular careers as horror writer in the 90s.
The final pages of Salmonson's book are two appendixes, which will
serve to showcase the world of horror-lit at the end of the 80s; with
a high spirit of independence and creativity – Appendix I: How
to Start Your Own Shoestring Horror Magazine, and this detailed
advisory runs three pages. The following four pages, Appendix II:
Current Small Press Horror Magazines, where up-and-coming and
starting-out horror authors could legitimately send their work to be
critiqued and hopefully published, is nothing more than a publishing
obituary now.
The
underworld wonderful and sometimes awe-inspiring (as it was to
Jessica Amanda Salmonson) was undone by newer, faster, independent
publishing abilities with the introduction of the World Wide Web –
and the incomprehensible amount of BLOG outlets. [blog(a
truncation of the expression "weblog"]
For a hardcopy press Horror Magazine to exist as a viable business
within this world, even at $5 per issue for their mail-out
subscriptions, was impossible. Yet the facilities of the publishing
and the curating of genre-lit anthologies still maintain a sort of
importance, a go-to for a snapshot of literary horror from a
particular era.
And no book (or series of books, if you count it as three)
accomplishes this more importantly that David G. Hartwell's epic
horror anthology, “Dark Decent”. Hartwell's anthology (also
published by TOR) is probably one of the longest-running reprinted
horror anthology ever published, and boasts one of the most
thought-out, respectful, impressive and important literal
recollections of the Horror-lit world from the late-seventies to
late-eighties. It's also an an anthology that was so big, that its
three “parts” were actually published as three separate
collections in the mid-nineties under the “Dark Descent” moniker.
(Since then you can find it all put back together again, in one
omnibus, as it was originally meant to be). This collection is also
important as it represent horror fiction prior to the “splatterpunk”
movement of the late-eighties to late-nineties, with some of the
“splatterpunk” authors crossing over.
Funnily,
I came across a copy of each of these two books very recently, and
completely randomly (meaning that I was not actually book shopping,
or even in a bookstore, at the time I found these titles), which led
me to believe that there was something important and interesting to
relay here. I admit that the reason my eyes went to these titles (and
the reason for their subsequent purchases) was that I had been, for
over two decades, on the lookout for a particular Charles L. Grant
short story that I'd read about,
but
had never had the opportunity to actually read.
And
I find myself, at present, still on the lookout for this elusive
short horror tale...
--V.
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