Hello again, and welcome to another new issue of Aphelion!

First off, if you do the Facebook thing, feel free to join us on the Aphelion page there. The link is Aphelion Webzine. As an aside, the Editorial Mafia and I have found Facebook to be useful while we transition between e-mailing lists. Given our different locations and schedules, it's come in handy as a way to discuss production details of new issues. Sometimes there are several of us using Facebook at the same time, so it's almost like the old chat room days.

Another AnachroCon has come and gone, which was loads of fun to attend. I got to meet up with many old friends, as well as making new ones. I even got to meet some Facebook friends in the flesh for the first time. Lots of stories were swapped, many munchies consumed, and just enough alcohol to give the cold weather less of a bite. There was live music of many sorts, amazing programming to attend, and costumes everywhere. People brought out their best work to show. Vendors brought out their finest wares to sell. I'd guess that there were over 1500 people attending this year. I even managed to sell four CDs, one to a pro writer friend who was lucky enough to get not only my autograph, but Stephanie and Darrell Osborn signed it too! That is going to be one very collectable copy of my Displaced Detective Suite CD sometime in the future.

The hotel was very nice. Very clean, very well decorated, and quite comfortable. The staff bent over backwards to insure everyone's needs were addressed. The hotel's breakfast bar and the restaurant were a bit pricy, but there were many other, more affordable restaurants within a few blocks of the hotel.

I also got to meet up with my publisher. He spends a lot of time on the convention circuit, promoting all the writers, selling books, and introducing new readers to what's on offer. We talked about not only the Mare Inebrium book, but the possibility of my doing others. Not only another Mare book, but we also talked about my steampunk novel and what editorial changes he might recommend to the existing manuscript. If the first book sells well enough, he might be willing to consider the steampunk book next. We shall see.

As to things at the factory, there is a small chance that the daytime-only job I want will come open again soon. But I've been told that the fellow vacating that job will most likely come back to it within three weeks of starting training on another job. It isn't very likely that he'll keep his new job, in other words. It seems as if it wouldn't be worth my while to bid on his old job, but what it boils down to is that I must, just in case he actually keeps his new job. The chances are quite small, but if I want that job I have to keep bidding on it every time it comes open. Sooner or later my friend will finally bid on a job he can keep. When that day comes, I want his old job! Wish me luck, dear readers!

On the home front, my wife and I are planning to gradually replace the storm windows that have been protecting Casa Vila for lo these past thirty years. What we thought we'd do is buy one or two new storm windows each month, so as to ease the strain on our budget. Since I didn't make time to rebuild the well house before the cold weather hit, that expense is still looming over head. To console myself, I've been playing with my blueprints of the proposed replacement structure. The problems I can solve on paper before beginning to buy the raw materials will reduce the cost by leaps and bounds. So far, I've rejected the four sheets of plywood & a roof plan for one that calls for a sheet & a half of plywood per wall. The ideas that remain intact are the super-insulating of the walls & roof, faking the double doors with one larger single door, and keeping the design so that the entire structure can be removed if ever the well pump or pipes should need servicing.

We are also finalizing our plans for our next two vacations. One will be a road trip to visit Lyn's oldest daughter and our grandson. The next is our yearly trek to Chattanooga for LibertyCon. I've already filed for the vacation time for both. And the con memberships and hotel reservations for Liberty have already been secured. We'll have to make a weekend hotel reservation for the visit to our daughter, however. I need to do that soon so that we get a discount on the room by booking early.

Other plans and projects proceed apace. Each evolves as time passes. I'm working on them in easily-completed stages so that none become overwhelming. For instance, yesterday I completed installing a winch on our little cargo trailer. I also installed the back-up camera on the van, though I didn't attempt the wiring for it yet. I plan to get a repair manual for the van so that I can plot the best way to complete the wiring for both cameras and the dashboard monitor. I finally decided the best way to mount the fog lights and front camera, as well as an auxiliary back-up light. I ordered a short piece of aluminum tubing to bolt to the rooftop cargo rails as a crossbar. Another, far shorter piece can be bolted to the back as a mount for the back-up light.

Well, there should be loads of new stories and poetry for you to enjoy in this issue. I really should quit rambling on and let you get to them. Enjoy!

Dan

BOILERPLATE:

Here are some links to pages I have up promoting the music. Rob Wynne is working on one that will better fit into Aphelion's page format, so that our readers will have a far prettier promo page to read. There are links on that page to the Create Space Preview songs, the Create Space page for each album, the Amazon.com listings, and the link to the digital downloads page.

Dan's Music Page This is my promo page here at Aphelion. All the links below, and more information about the albums, are located here.

The Never Bank On A Learning Curve CD on the Create Space website. My first album, with a wide range of styles and genres, covering the past three years of my working with the MAGIX Music Maker programs.

The Second Helping CD on the Create Space website. My second album, with just as wide a range of different musical styles, showing just how much I've learned in the past three years.

Dan's Studio-D Page on the Bandcamp website. Digital downloads of the albums, or each individual song if you prefer it that way. Just click on the album cover thumbnails and you'll see a list of each song on the album. Next to the song titles are links to read the liner notes, or to download the individual song. You can listen to each song for free. There is also a link to download each entire album at one go. I cannot say enough about Bandcamp! This is an amazing website. I have Rob, and many other friends, to thank for finally talking me into checking it out.

And here's a link to my Sound Cloud page:

Dan's Sound Cloud Page where all my music has been stored for your free listening pleasure. These are not as high a quality recordings as the ones on the CDs or on Bandcamp. But SoundCloud does have the virtue of having everything collected together in one place.

Check those links out, buy a CD or download if you like what you hear. And once again, thank you for your time,

Dan