Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025

Issue 213 Volume 20 December 2016 - January 2017

Editorial

Dan L. Hollifield

The Senior Editor's usual rants about whatever…

Serials and Long Fiction

Six Thegn Quean, Episode Six
David Ulnar-Slew
Everything converges on the now-fortified village, and all hell breaks loose. Well, almost all of it.

The Island
Patrick Niemeyer
When a young servant is drawn into deep political intrigue, turmoil ensues, and his best option is to leave.

The Best Long Fiction of 2016

Selected by Long Fiction Editor Lester Curtis

Winter in Ziegelberg
Agnieszka Halas
A young girl makes a desperate choice to buy her family out of poverty, and the consequences are worse than anything she could have imagined…

Short Stories

Eddie's Lousy Saturday
Susan Anwin
Eddie just wanted to be a helpful neighbor.

Louise of Liverpool
T. S. Kay
This family reunion threatens to end life as Kennard knows it.

Laughing Jack
S. C. Hickman
Amy finds herself all alone in her grandmother's old house.

The Sand Ritual
Agnieszka Halas
The painter, the artist, knows the secret way to ending her pain.

Universal
David Schwitzgebel
All Don wants is to retain his own sense of identity. Is that too much to ask?

The Best Shorts of 2016

The Keeper of the Plains
Allison Wall
He wasn't what she expected of a sorcerer, but he sure liked coffee.

The Voice Catcher
Tyra Tanner
Don't listen to the trees, Pumpkin.

The Wheel
David Alan Jones
Peace is equality.

Alchemy of Oblivion
Glenn M. Diamond
Something bad was happening to the world… or was it nothing?

A Winning Combination
Roderick D. Turner
Angela raced like she was born to win.

An Unguarded Moment
Randall A. Schanze
It was an impossible case, but the client paid very, very well.

Flash Fiction

Allowance
Meghashri Dalvi
Time after time, old habits stay the same.

Departure
Charles E. J. Moulton
The search for extraterrestrial life takes a strange turn.

I Escaped from Santa's Castle
Ray Prew
Bad Santa. Very, very bad Santa. [WARNING: This story is not for little ones. Some graphic content.]

The End of The Song
Dionisio "Don" Traverso, Jr.
It was time to change that tune, in a cosmic sense.

Truck
Denny E. Marshall
You don't see that every day.

The Best Flash of 2016

Letters to Deimos
Ryan D. Harris
An epistolary tale.

Retribution
Ioana Visan
He wanted payback against her and the thing attached to her.

Slide Ruler
Joey To
It was ok for a while, but now enough was enough.

The Anniversary
M. N. Tarrint
It was a very important date to remember.

Rocks
Ken Green
Every family has that one kid who doesn't fit in, even Neanderthals.

Helioflowers
Meghashri Dalvi
It was the vacation of a lifetime to a far-off planet, to… pick flowers?

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.