Ballista #6 "Pugilists"

[marshall_payne]

I eagerly await the postman to bring me my contributor's copy of the British print zine Ballista, where issue #6 contains my far-future Victorian SF tale "Pugilists." This issue oughta be interesting.

ETA: This is a story about a little girl who takes her skeleton out and can't get it back in. Fun, fun!

Comments

[bogwitch64]

Hey, that's great! Congrats, Marshall.

[marshall_payne]

Thanks, Terri. Oddly, I don't think anyone I know has read this wacky little story. I wrote this back in 2002 before I was online and had any writer friends. I learned about this little Brit print zine from a rejection I got from Gill Ainsworth, senior editor at Apex Digest. She suggested Ballista because she'd been published there. For some reason, these small British zines (Polluto is another) get my offbeat stuff and buy some of it.

[bogwitch64]

You know those crazy Brits. They gave us Monty Python, after all. Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. League of Gentlemen. Douglas Adams. Tim Curry. Wow...the list of off-beat comedy to come out of Britain is endless! Are you sure you're not one of them?

[marshall_payne]

Sometimes I feel like I must be. During my formative teen years I was glued to British comedy on PBS: Monty Python, Faulty Towers, and one of my faves The Fall and Rise of Reginal Perrin. Funny stuff.

[catephoenix]

Congratulations, and that sounds fantastic, Marshall.

[marshall_payne]

Thanks, Cate! You (living in the UK) might be one of the few to see a copy of this zine somewhere. ;-)

[catephoenix]

Probably when I order a copy and it drops onto my doormat. :)

[marshall_payne]

Cool! :D

[ex_camillea]

Ooooo! Fun, fun, indeed!

Do you remember a Ray Bradbury story about a Dr. Munigant, who helped a guy with his skeletal issues? I think it's "Skeleton" in Dark Carnival (1947).

[marshall_payne]

Thanks, Camille! Missed you on LJ lately, btw.

No, I haven't read the Bradbury story. Hope I wasn't cribbing of the master and not knowing it. Though mine is just a scene at the end about a little girl showing off for the adult company by taking her skeleton out. Every now and again when trying to come up with ideas I'll think of writing a story about tattoos, though, but thankfully the idea quickly goes away. *hehe*

[ex_camillea]

Heh. Well, there is an undeniable inverse relation regarding LJ time and novel-writing time. Forget about reading. I'm not sure I can anymore. Slush takes all my available reading brain during our open seasons.

[alaneer]

Oooh, a skeleton. Sounds intriguing, Marshall. Congrats!--and I hope you get your contributors copy soon.

[marshall_payne]

Thanks, Sophy!

[jess_ka]

Coolness!

[marshall_payne]

Thanks, Jessica!