BALLISTA issue 4

182BALLISTA issue 4 cover image

Paul Neads

Synopsis

Issue 4 of the northwest’s sharpest magazine dedicated to speculative short fiction is out now and features new tales by new writers exploring modern horror, the paranormal, macabre, mythos, supernatural, science fiction & the downright bizarre. PLUS news of our 2008 Open Short Story Competition judged by the editors and Rosie Garland (aka Rosie Lugosi) - closing date 31 Oct 2008.

This issue features unsettling, twisted, convoluted and unashamedly inspired works by William Meikle, Laura Bickle, Simon Vigneault, Thea Lu, Sophie Bachard, Phill Campbell, Tom Conoboy and Andy Wolverton.

www.mucusart.co.uk/ballista.htm

Reviews

Returning readers will have noticed the enhanced presentation of this volume, now snugly perfect bound and a lot easier to wipe clean. Worryingly, however, this fourth edition of Ballista comes to you with a grim warning. Following a nasty fracas between the editors and a Wicca Priestess at a comic mart in Littlehampton, a series of events took place which, quite possibly, led to a runic curse being placed upon a single copy. Despite our best efforts, the infected copy has not yet been identified. We therefore ask all readers to take the precaution of carefully checking your magazine and its packaging for slips of paper with funny symbols upon them, shaking thoroughly, please. If you discover any such item, do not contact the editors under any circumstances, but attempt rather to pass it on unnoticed to somebody you don’t like very much, maybe by popping it into their lunch box. Even if no such object emerges from your Ballista, we advise you to look out for the following symptoms of a runic curse; a strange feeling of being watched, especially at night; a growing sense of dread and paranoia; an itching at the back of the neck; and a bloody great demon chasing you down the railway track and crushing you to death under its hairy smoking hoof.
As well as the great stories in this issue, don’t forget to check out our brand new biennial short story competition, giving the magazine a damn good shake as you do so. Enjoy the scary stuff.
Andrew Myers, co-editor

Price £4.00

Details
ISBN 17506646mmmmm
Publisher Flapjack Press
Genre Short Fiction
Extent 52pp

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