Aphelion Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025
 
Editorial    
Long Fiction and Serials
Short Stories
Flash Fiction
Poetry
Features
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Archives
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Flash Writing Challenge
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Issue 187 Volume 18 August 2014

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Archives Editorial Serials and Long Fiction Poetry and Filk Music Short Stories Flash Fiction Features Series

Editorial

Dan L. Hollifield

The Senior Editor's usual rants about whatever…


Serials and Long Fiction

The Mechanical and the Strange
Andrew Reichard
Science fiction noir set in a futurist City of Angels. A hard boiled cop sets out to break up a subterranean animal fight game that uses cyberized rats. Those with rat phobias beware.

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Short Stories

Beware of Hitchhikers II
Jeremy Simons
There's a reason for the "Don't Pick up Hitchhikers" sign in front of the prison.

Caught Out
Madeline Dyer
An unsuccessful hunt puts a family in the sights of a Vampire society.

I, Car: A Conjecture
E.A. Moore
Continued advances in Artificial Intelligence will test everyone's limits.

SEAN CHAIDE
Richard Tornello
A flash of cooking brilliance could save us all.

The Dark Side of Diablo Canyon
Dan L. Hollifield
The old silver mine that brought life to Diablo Canyon is about tapped out, finished, its ores running thin. But the mine still holds a secret that might destroy the town, even if the silver vein was still plentiful…

The Man Who Mooned the World
Rabbi Steven Lebow
Irving Vesper was a genius who was about to put his mark on an entire planet.

The Next Turtle
Charles E.J. Moulton
The foundations of our worlds are discovered in a cereal flake.

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Flash Fiction

A Many Worlds View and the Life of a Mouse
Richard Tornello
You've heard of Schrödinger's cat, but what about… Schrödinger's mouse?

Breaking the Cycle
Ed Sullivan
For top secret agent Alan Tribeca, defeating his arch nemesis was routine. He just had to wait for Dr. Tenricvh to reveal his evil plan, and then a solution would present itself, or so he thought.

Crack of Doom
Charles E.J. Moulton
He was about to travel again and continue his search for the woman who was hiding somewhere in time.

Fill the Hunger
David Ulnar-Slew
He had stalked his prey for months; she was exquisite. Tonight would be the night.

Flies
Roy Dorman
Andy Lofton had never seen anything like it. The flies were everywhere. Millions and billions of flies.

Haute Cuisine
David Ulnar-Slew
Every year the exclusive and reclusive Dark Dinner Club admitted only thirteen members. Every month four names were drawn. The first three got to eat…

Hullabaroo
Kim Trotto
Redesigned kangaroos had eliminated the need for expensive robots in contaminated areas. They were even cheaper than humans.

It All Works Out in the End
Ed Sullivan
Venus was great. There was only one little catch, the Venusian tapeworm.

It Gets Worse
David Ulnar-Slew
He looked into the wall of grey-green ripples as he fell. He expected the water to end it all.

Karma Cleansing
Ed Sullivan
Ed said he looked to our inaugural flash challenge for the inspiration for this story. An expression of love between two speculative fiction characters, a golden Buddha idol…

No Dogs Allowed
Victor Henry
In the most exclusive restaurant in the entire universe, no dogs are allowed.

Silence the Crows
Ed Sullivan
The avatar, a little blonde girl of about seven, waited for Mr. Andrews in the stark white void.

Singularity
Botond Teklesz
Drunk and high, Thomas Koepke struggled to complete an online IQ test, and then his mind wandered.

The Hole Story
Ed Sullivan
"Why are you down in that pit?" the hiker asked. "I fell in," the voice said.

The Aphelion Flash Fiction Contest

We run a monthly flash fiction contest in the "Fun and Games" folder in Aphelion's forum. In the contest we post a challenge with a specific theme and genre and participants write a flash story based on the challenge guidelines. The contest is a great place to hone your writing skills, meet some fellow writers, receive some feedback, and possibly win a prize. New participants are always welcome. Submissions for the contest are done through the forum. Flash stories from all of our previous contest challenges are archived in the forum as well.

Over 500 stories are included in our archive. To start reading some of these great flash stories, check out either Index 1 or Index 2.

Results of the Aphelion Flash Fiction Contest for July 2014

Congratulations to Michele Dutcher, winner of the Two Heads Laugh Better Than One Challenge. Click HERE to read her winning story, "The Muse."

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Poetry and Filk Music

Driving Our Teslas
Richard Tornello

Full Crossover
Chelsea Prentice

Haiku
Denny E Marshall

Scifaiku
Rafał Zabratyński

Silicon Searchers
Richard H. Fay

Wi-zard
Robin B. Lipinski

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Articles and features

A Word In Your Ear: Social Media
Rob Wynne
Where we once hung together, we now hang separately…

A Case of Spontaneous Combustion by Stephanie Osborn
Dan L. Hollifield
Plus a sample chapter!

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