Hello and welcome to the December 2023/January 2024 issue of Aphelion!

The re-issue of "Tales From The Mare Inebrium, Volume One" went live on November 23rd. It's available in eBook and paperback, with an audiobook in the works. Three Ravens Publishing has sent it out to a LOT of different markets. Amazon, Books2Read, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and many, many more! Of course, it being a Volume One implies that I need to get busy writing Volume Two, LOL! Three Ravens also has two more of my books in the works. Sometime in the upcomming months of 2024, you can start looking for "A Disposable Man"--the prequel to the Tom Darby novel "Abducted" and my framing novel for Aphelion's Nightwatch shared universe "Nightwatch: Fly By Wire" in the same markets.

I'm as excited about that as I am about my upcomming retirement from the factory after 46 years of employment. I'm not going to lie, that is still more than a little bit daunting. My last day of work will be Thursday, February 8th. You better believe that Stupid O'clock and Last Man Standing that night is going to be one long online retirement party!

In some less-than-awesome news however, Nate Kailhofer has decided to step down as our cover artist. For ten years, he has been doing our wonderful cover art each month, but now he feels a bit burned out and wants to focus on his other art and writing. So let's give him a huge round of applause, and when the Critters Annual Readers Poll begins this month, everyone go and vote for him for the Best Magazine/e-zine Cover Artwork award. He's more than earned it!

Now to lift the mood a bit, I'd like to remind you that since the holidays are fast approaching, this is our jumbo year end issue, and that means that each of our editors has picked out their choices or the Best Of 2023. There will be extra stories and poetry to help get the readers through the two months before we come back in February for the beginning of Aphelion's 28th year of continuious publication. Please be sure to hop over to our Forums section and leave all the writers some feedback on their work After all, that's how we find out what we got right, and where we have room for improvement. That's what Aphelion is all about, really.

All that said, it's time for a change of pace.

The online streaming shows "Stupid O'clock" and "Last Man Standing" have been uploaded live to YouTube as well as several Facebook pages for over two years now. They are basically live-streaming chat shows covering a range of topics, modeled on the types of conversations people have after hours at SF&F conventions. Joe McKeel and I have archives of past shows on our own YouTube channels. Check 'em out if that sounds like something you'd enjoy I've put links in our Features section that will take you to the YouTube archives of both shows.

With all that said, it's high time I shut up and let you get to reading.

Enjoy yourselves,

Dan

ON THE COVER:

Courtesy: NASA, ESA and STScI