Aphelion Issue 292, Volume 28
March 2024
 
Editorial    
Long Fiction and Serials
Short Stories
Flash Fiction
Poetry
Features
Series
Archives
Submission Guidelines
Contact Us
Forum
Flash Writing Challenge
Forum
Dan's Promo Page
   
P&E Top Ten Hello, and welcome to the second issue of Aphelion's 20th year!

I haven't a lot to talk about this month for my editorial. February was a short month and has been a busy one as well. One of the things that happened was that all of Ahpelion's files were moved to a brand new server over at out internet hosting service. This was pretty much painless for most of you. Once the move had been made, the staff and I found a few glitches had cropped up. A few days of posts were missing from the Forums section. That happened becasue the copy of our website was made on a Monday and the original files were still avilable for you to use until the following Friday. So any posts made that week didn't cet copied over to the new server. Which included a post by myself warning people to save copies of their posts to re-post once the move was finished. That may be irony. I'm not sure. Another thing that had to be tweaked was a glitch in the settings that didn't allow the pages themselves to be displayed correctly. Rob Wynne fixed that fairly quickly. Another problem was that our FTP wasn't configured correctly for the move. The ISP had to fix that for us. But now we seem to have all the glitches ironed out, so YAY!

So of course we have all the usual goodies on tap for you in this issue. Plenty of stories and poetry, a selection of Best Of items from our 20-year-old backlogs, and so on. We do hope you'll pop over to the Forums and dash off aa few comments on the stories. That helps our writers learn more about writing. It's a big reason why Aphelion has been so successful. Don't be shy, do not fear, the Forums are free to join and free to make comments.

Before I get to the "main event," as it were, I have a couple of announcements to make. Aphelion is taking applications for two positions on our editorial staff. We need a new Flash Fiction Editor and a new Short Story Editor. You are up to the task, or if you know someone who might want to join us, feel free to send us a message.

Nate Kailhofer has been associated with Aphelion for a decade or more, and has served in various editorial positions for almost that long. But the time has come for him to re-dedicate his energy to his own writing. So he has come to the difficult decision that he will have to step down as Aphelion's Flash Fiction Editor and Mastermind of our monthly Flash Contests in our Forums. Yeah, it's the end of an era here, folks. Nate has been one of the best editors to ever grace Aphelion's staff. I've learned a lot from him, myself. Whoever steps into his shoes better be Paul Bunion-sized! It's going to be a difficult example for anyone else to live up to. Now, there are blessings here for Aphelion, because Nate is determined to remain a contributing member of the Forums. But he needs to make time to write his own stories, at last. We may be losing the best Flash Fiction Editor we've ever known, but we are sure to gain another resident pro writer in the near future. If you're one of the people who takes your Flash Fic seriously, and have the bent to teach, now is the time to convince Nate you are willing and able to carry on his legacy. Naturally, Aphelion writers are preferred, because they already understand the way we work. But the job is open, and we need a worthy successor to step up and do the heroic deeds the job entails. Applicants need only to go to the Aphelion Facebook page and indicate their willingness to join our motley crew. And may the best applicant win.

Kate Stewart, our newest editor, recently discovered that there is some off-line embuggerance that is about to go down in her own life that could prevent her from having any time to spare to remain our Short Story Editor. She doesn't want to leave, and she isn't happy about having to leave, but this is something that is going to keep her from having the necessary free time to stay with us. Kate is a fiercely good editor, and a good fit for the crazy that is the Aphelion Staff. We are all saddened that she will be leaving. Her work has been exemplary, her dedication has been without peer, and her absence will be difficult to adjust to enduring. Once again, if you have what it takes to do the hardest job Aphelion has, meet us on the Facebook page and make yourself known. Better do it quick, too. I believe this is Kate's last issue with us.

We are also looking for writers to do audio interviews with, and video interviews as well. That would entail using Skype to meet up with me for a chat. I'll record that, and then splice it into a video to post on You Tube. The link to those would be embeded on a page in the Features Section, or on whatever page that seems to be the best fit. The interviews that are audio only would have some still photos as a slideshow. The video ones would be a simple screen captuse of my monitor while the chat is running. As I see it, scheculing these would be the most difficult aspect. This is, after all, a work in progress. I'll be ironing out the bugs for quite a while.

So, this is now a thing. A video editorial, for which you will be the first victims-- Um, the first to experience something unique in the annals of... whoever keeps annals online, as it were. Yes the following video is a mere proof of concept, which will hopefully lead up to something actually worthy of your time and attention. I decided on this because there weren't any willing victims, um, writers or staff members leaping at the chance to be the test subjects, um, participants in this grand experiment. It'll last about an hour, all told. Well, I am a bit long-winded, as you well know. Future video editorials will no doubt be shorter. I'd like to make them a fifteen minute format. You know, something that wouldn't be too long or too boring for viewers to sit through. I don't know about you, but as I watched myself on the first video, I kept wishing that I'd speed things up a bit and stop rambling so much. I also need to work on the lighting a bit. Everything looks a bit too redish for my tastes. I'm still ironing out those bugs as well. And so, with much ado about nothing, I present to you, Aphelion's second Step into the 21st Century:




Mare Inebrium Collection

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 very useful. 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 back in the 1990s.

My first collection of Mare Inebrium spaceport bar short stories was published in February of 2015 by Dark Oak Press. It is available in both Kindle an Nook e-book formats, paperback, and hardback. I also have three albums of instrumental music out through the Create Space self-publishing website. If you like, you can click on the photo or the link below to fin all the info you would need to purchase my book in your preferred format, or an e-book of Flash of Aphelion, buy a CD of my music, or listen to tracks off of the albums on my Bandcamp website. Enjoy!

Dan's Promo Page

Dan




ON THE COVER

Title: Combined X-Ray and Optical Images of the Crab Nebula

Credits for X-ray Image: NASA/CXC/ASU/J. Hester et al.
Credits for Optical Image:
NASA/HST/ASU/J. Hester et al.