Artist Seppo Makinen and I became acquainted through an APA (Amateur Press Association) back in the mid-1980s. I loved his classic style and we became fast friends. Seppo illustrated a number of my scripts in those days, but this was indeed the first, adapted from an unsold short story I'd written a year or so earlier.
I think you'll agree that the artist did a lovely job here. He also hand-lettered the story and although English is not Seppo's first language, he may well have accurately transcribed my hastily typed script. So any lingering typos and punctuation errors should really reflect back upon me.
Before receiving these scans, it had been at least twenty years since I last saw this little sci-fi morality tale. "A Tonic for the Homesick" has never been published, mainly because Seppo and I became very busy with Scarlet in Gaslight shortly afterward, and I never sought a home for the story. The writing is a bit rough. I see lots of things I would change if I were to revise this story today. But I will never do that. It is what it is.
I have an affection for our strange little Christmas story. And in the spirit of that season, for the very first time Seppo and I offer "A Tonic for the Homesick" as the sentimental gift we always meant it to be.
(Click on the pictures for larger, more readable images.)
Thanks for sharing, Martin. Sophisticated stuff for 25 years ago. Great stuff.
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