www.bbtmagazine.com
Because Life's too Short Not to Laugh at it

I grew up on "hardcore" genre fiction, and as a result, was quite the snob when it came to anything else.  I was the only first-grader reading The Lord of the Rings, and only I, amongst all my friends, owned a boxed set of the Trilogy as well as a boxed set of The Chronicles of Narnia.  I was, also, the only one reading Tad Williams, Michael Moorcock, Anne McCaffrey, Anne Rice, Mercedes Lackey, Janny Wurts...the list goes on.  And on.  And on some more. 

It was not until high school that I was introduced to that master of all speculative satire fiction, Terry Pratchett.  Once I finished Pyramids, I was hooked for life, and could not wait to read the rest of his Discworld novels and then some.  I looked everywhere for authors like him, and, as can be expected from a pitiful high school library (and rather pitiful selection in that sub-genre at the local Carnegie library, the college library AND the Southern Peaks Public Library,) was beyond disappointed.  Thus, when it came time for college, I continued to read from the Discworld series, bought online and/or borrowed from my friends, and emulate what I saw in my own writing.

After I had my daughter, and my boyfriend and I moved out into a cabin in the middle of nowhere, I had no life.  I was a college student, yes, but the fact remained that I was still the one in the corner who's humor no one understood-and my best friend had gone off to Denver once she got her GED.  So there I was, stuck in the middle of nowhere, taking care of a baby and watching my boyfriend play video games, absolutely aching for something new.  At the time I was addicted to writing in coffee shops.  Hey!  The literary clique had done it for generations, why not me?  When I tired of sitting there in the noisy lobby of the coffee house, I walked across the street to tempt myself in the bookstore.  Well, as fate would have it, one day I was looking at the literary magazines and there, behind some Renaissance magazine, was Blood, Blade and Thruster Magazine of Speculative Fiction and Satire, Issue One.

I picked it up with excitement filling every cell in my body, and read the editor's letter.  I was hooked instantly, and bought that magazine, took it home and read it cover to cover.  It was a life-changing experience (and I did not know then just HOW life changing it would be) and I was so excited the little two room cabin was vibrating with my energy.  I scoured the cover for a website and found, to my great relief, bbtmagazine.com.  The next day at the coffee shop I bummed the free internet and logged on.  The then staff were eager to meet a new person, albeit a weird, teenage college student, and we were soon bantering back and forth about the magazine, genre fiction, satire and other "geeky" stuff.  We didn't stop, much anyway.

And here I am today, wondering what the heck was I writing about in the first place?  Oh yes, that which is funny.  Well, the fact that I'm here is rather funny, isn't it?  In a great, cosmic sort of "funny" way, I, the weird kid wearing too much black who no one understands and finds out, when they try to do so, that I'm really much weirder than first expected.  I, who am now the senior editor of BBT Magzine.  I, who's every other story turns into a spiritual metamorphosis story (dang you Franz Kafka!) rather than a snarky, futuristic soap opera in which the ships quiver and the men go do-er.  Sorry.  Mixed up my genres there. :P 

It is all, really, rather funny.  We all met here in hopes of finding others who understand us-and we have, in spades.  And the fact that our fiction is rather funny makes the situation even funnier.

Now...I think I shall go polish my mandibles and sharpen my claws for the next victi-er...nevermind.

;)

~Bonnie Stone, Senior Editor

By Bonnie Stone

Bonnie is a former BBT "groupie" from way back when Issue One was the only issue available.  She attached herself to former senior editor, Lucien, and his crew like a parasite and has been here ever since.  (They have never quite got over the shock.)  In her free time, she writes under the pen name of D. S. Knight, attends The College of the Sacred Mists, works at her local food co-op, raises a three year old orclet, and reads voraciously.  In her community she is known as 'that weird girl who works at the co-op and lives at the bookstore'.  Some of her fiction and ramblings can be found at http://dsknight.com.