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Issue 148 Volume 14 December 2010/January 2011

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

Editorial

Dan L. Hollifield

The Senior Editor's usual rants about whatever…


Serials and Long Fiction

Impact Event
McCamy Taylor
In the near future, Italy is ruled fascists again, and two innocent men are condemned to death. Join them on an elevator ride to hell — or heaven?

Plastic Santa
Kent Rosenberger
A plastic Santa learns the real meaning of Christmas.

The True Death
Colin Heintze
The Rapture has come, and the elect have gone to Heaven, leaving behind a world full of people who can neither age nor die. Being "left behind" is not be such a bad thing for those who are young and healthy. But, what if your loved one has just suffered a horrendous accident and now she has to spend the rest of time horribly disfigured and in pain? How far would you go to end her suffering?

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Short Stories

Welcome to the Short Stories section of the December 2010 / January 2011 edition of Aphelion. Throw another log on the fire, add some more rum to that hot toddy (or use the poker to warm your mulled ale), and start reading…

December

Cleopatra
E. S. Strout
They made a computer from human brain tissue grown from stem cells, and installed it in a weapon of terrifying power. Then things started to go wrong — or right, depending on your point of view.

Druglegger's Run
Kurt Heinrich Hyatt
To the drug lords, the native Eu were less than human, slave labor to harvest the ingredients for powerful narcotics to be shipped offworld and to satisfy the drugleggers' sexual whims. The Eu woman Trine Ahn was an exception, and her half-breed son…

Felis Querent
J. D. Huxley
Ever wonder what your cat thinks of you?

Gone to Abaddon
McCamy Taylor
They were creatures of the Summer Lands, never meant to live in the mortal world. But some fell in love with humans, and paid the price.

Hewa
Richard Tornello
Hewa was a nerd, the very opposite of what most girls wanted. The woman who called herself Terry, on the other hand, seemed to find him very attractive — at least for genetic diversification purposes. (An expanded version of the Flash Challenge story.)

Hollywood Squared
P. F. White
Ace would do anything for his big break — a starring role in Spade Studios' next blockbuster. Ben, once a star, was just as desperate. In fact, half the town was desperate in one way or another — and prone to spectacular violence. It was Hollywood, after all.

Jesus of the West
Joel Doonan
What if Jesus, the tough, angry Jesus who drove the moneylenders from the Temple, appeared in a tough town in the American West?

Let's Talk About Death, Baby…
Sven Kloepping
He led Cassandra to their special place secret ways, sometimes walking, sometimes teleporting. But somehow, he couldn't quite remember why he felt compelled to take her there…

Seconds Lost…
Roderick D. Turner
Jan had 'lost time' on a number of occasions — and no one could explain how or why it kept happening.

Three Pigments, One Dream
Chris McKinney
The gods had made a mistake — the afterlife couldn't handle the influx of souls that started when sin entered the world. Now the skills of three disparate artists — a dwarf, an elf, and a goblin — were needed to make things right. If they could just suppress the urge to insult (or assault) each other, then maybe they had a chance.

Fast Friends
Dan L. Hollifield
In which we learn how the D'rrish Kazsh-ak Teir met and became friends with the Reever and Guiles Thornby, just in time to join the battle against Valleor, the Chaos God of Bethdish.

January

Car Park
Mark Cotterill
The Corley 900dxs was the fastest, most exclusive, and smartest car ever built. It would do anything to protect its owner.

Cellarman
Kurt Heinrich Hyatt
The man from Squash-M came to Colony to rid the Excon factory of an infestation of wirebugs. Fortunately, he was qualified to deal with bigger problems, too.

Frontier Minerva
Anne Spackman
The specialist regulator was just one of many cops in the Minerva colony on Mars, making his rounds to enforce the curfew. It was just bad luck that he was there when a man ruined a Minerva Corps frame-up confronted the man responsible.

Jack and the Box
L. K. Pinaire
Howard Meyer was a decent man, too decent to suit his beloved Helen, who had left him for a more exciting man. The strange box seemed to offer the power to fulfill his most secret desires. But what, exactly, would a decent man wish for?

Neko
Richard Tornello
Neko's past is a mystery to everybody but the Sorceress who treated her as her daughter — more or less. Why is her skin marked in black, ginger and white, while others are mainly a single shade? And why is the black sword magically bonded to her?

On the Reds
Paul Taylor
Different planet, different threats — but the cattle drover's job was the same as it had ever been back in Australia: keep the herd safe.
****CONTAINS ADULT LANGUAGE****

Or Nobody Does
Ian Cordingley
All Paul wanted was to drive into the city. Unfortunately, today they were doing a security check of every vehicle. He had nothing to worry about — right?

The Goblin's Whistle
Bob Griffin
Matthews said he was an author, come to write about the wizards, barbarians, witches, and other interesting types that frequented the Black Toad Tavern. But his real reason for visiting had something to do with the goblin servant, Sanibel.

Turning Out The Lights
Michele Dutcher
In the far future, the human race has changed, modified genetic engineering and cybernetic implants. On old Earth, however, two visitors find what seems to be the last unenhanced human.

Upside-Down
Emma Horn
Sometimes, death is random. It can strike a cluster of people for any reason, or no reason at all. However, there is one way to avoid the breath of the Reaper…

Results of Forum Flash Challenges for November 2010

Congratulations to Michele Dutcher (again!), author of the favorite entry in the November 2010 Forum Flash Fiction Challenge. Check out "The Vanishing Stone" and seven more story openers — after reading the other fine stories, poems, features, etc., etc.

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Poetry and Filk Music

The Accursed Castle
Richard H. Fay

Ancient Environs IX
John Frazee

Change of Climate
Mike Wilson

Encounter
Richard Tornello

Phyto Realism
Teresa Ann Frazee

Temporal Knight's Sword
Robert William Shmigelsky

The Ruined Tower
Jeromy Henry

What Just Happened?
Richard Tornello

Will-o-the-Wisp
Richard H. Fay

A Winter Solstice Prayer
Richard Tornello

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Articles and features

Thoughts on Writing #24: Bibliophile Heroin
Seanan McGuire
Seanan McGuire takes apart the engine of writing to find out how it works, and offers her insights into how to put it back together again.

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