Hello and welcome to the September issue of Aphelion Webzine!

It has been a busy month for us, with several changes. First off, John has decided to step down as Flash Editor. He's done a great job with that since his first day, but he wanted to move on. Luckily, Edward Sullivan stepped up to give it a go. He's already launched his first contest in the Forums and is busily preparing the next challenge. Let's wish both John and Ed well.

Secondly, we also have a new Long Fiction Editor, Lester Curtis, who is taking over from McCamy so that she can devote more time to her own writing. Once again, let's wish them both well, too.

Thirdly, my manuscript for the Mare Inebrium short story collection has moved into the proof stage at the publisher. Cover art is also underway. The book looks to be clocking in at 330 pages for the 6x9 paperback edition, with a possible hardback, as well as e-books in several formats. I will be spending a lot of time going over my proof copy, searching out those nagging little typos that always seem to slip by. As soon as I can pass the proof back to the publisher, the book can proceed on to the next stage of the process. While that is going on, I'll be diving back into the co-writing on the fourth "Cresperian Saga" book project with Stephanie Osborn. I'm learning a lot from working with Stephanie. It's great fun, just as we hope the book will be fun to read as well.

Lastly, it is my unpleasant duty to have to post some guidelines for conduct in the Forums. It seems that some of the discussion there has become a bit more heated than I would like. Tempers have flared, strong words spoken, and some people have had cause to complain. Some have even left the website altogether, looking for a more well-mannered discussion elsewhere. Aphelion, especially the Forums, has always been pretty much a well-mannered anarchy. Sad to say, it seems time for that to evolve along with the rest of the website. The reason the Forums exist is for readers to provide feedback to the writers so we can learn more about becoming better writers. When that feedback becomes a squeal, it's time to crank the overdrive down a notch or two. These guidelines will be simple. Pretty much, they will amount to "Don't be a dick. OK?" It's fine to critique the work, but don't attack the writer. One thing that casual readers forget is that not all of Aphelion's readers are adults, but we should all strive to behave like adults. Debate is fine. Discussion is fine. Disagreement is also fine. Just don't escalate those into a shouting match. When personalities clash, back away from the keyboard and think it through before posting something you may regret later. By all means, PM one of the staff or myself about serious problems, or even PM the other person to try and resolve your differences, if that may have a chance of working. There is a "Report this post" button already in place that will also let the staff know a problem has arisen.

We're going this route rather than have every single post be vetted by a staff member mostly because our Forums are a community. One made up of people we'd like to think can be trusted to do the right thing without some sort of Big Brother looking over their collective shoulders. I know we can do it. Together we can rebuild the trust and community that makes the Forums work.

Now, shall we just step back from the serious stuff and get back to the fun? There are new stories, new poetry, and more on tap in this issue. Let's get on to the reading part that we all love so much!

Dan

BOILERPLATE:

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.

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.

Here are some links to pages I have up promoting my music. When my book comes out I'll add those links to the promotion page, too. So far, 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.

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 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