Dishing up Pulp Curry in a new way: why I am starting a Substack newsletter

After much thought I have decided that to experiment with moving the focus of my blogging from this site to a new Pulp Curry Substack newsletter.

Why am I doing this?

The first post on this website appeared on July 2010 (about the incredibly underrated 1979 Australian heist film, Money Movers – you can read the post here). I’ve been writing on the site with varying frequency ever since (579 posts in all), and for the most part have enjoyed it immensely.

But for the last 12 or so months I just haven’t been feeling it – or getting the hits to make it seem worthwhile – and have started to wonder whether it’s worth continuing with the effort. Posting on a website has been starting to feel like the equivalent of trying to read a broadsheet newspaper in a crowded tram carriage, unwieldy and inconvenient.

And, thinking about it, I suspect the blog format is starting to get a bit stale for me and is actually now a brake on my posting more regularly.

I know that I’m no Robinson Crusoe in this regard. The majority of the blogs I used to follow have gradually fallen by the wayside, as people have moved on, grown weary of the effort, found other interests, adopted other means to get their message out, or, in some cases (gulp), died.

This site has never amassed a huge number of subscribers, despite my occasional exhortations for people to sign up. This wasn’t a a big issue with social media, first Facebook and then Twitter/X, which gave me a decent enough audience to post my musings to, and a good, at times great, response.

But, of course, this has changed, too.

Twitter is in decline and much of my following there has fragmented. And while I intend to stick around the platform for the time being, it’s becoming a pain in the arse with the influx of bots, cookers, and far right nut cases, and the changes in how the algorithm functions. As for Facebook, again, while I am not going to leave, I am sick of playing games with an algorithm that appears to mainly reward anger and/or near constant posting, neither of which I have the time or inclination to do.

I have got and continue to get so much out of social media. Everything from obscure book and film recommendations (keep them coming), to work opportunities, to real world friendships that I dearly value. And while I am not going to stop being active in this area as social media shifts I need to rebalance my relationship with it and the time I spend on it, and find a new way to connect with readers in a more direct way that is not dependent on algorithms.

I’ll still be keeping this website but suspect I’ll be posting on it less and less, especially if the newsletter goes well.

I will add current subscribers to my newsletter, please let me know if you want me to unsubscribe you.

If you’ve been following me here, you’ll know what to expect from the new newsletter. If you’re new to things, let me lay it out for you. Some of my regular interests include: pulp fiction in Australia and overseas, noir on the page and screen, hauntology, mid-century science fiction, Australian television history, lost/hidden/marginalised print, cinema and television culture, true crime, etc.

You get my drift.

I’ll also be hawking books and creative projects, my own and those of other people.

And I promise, no more than one or two posts a month.

If this sounds like your thing, please subscribe here and, if f you like what you read, publicise I would appreciate it if you could help publicise my efforts however you can. And bear with me while I get the hang of working on a new platform.