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 TenP&E Top TenP&E Top TenP&E Top TenP&E Top Ten







Hello and welcome to the August 2019 issue of Aphelion. LibertyCon was excellent, as it usually is. I got a chance to meet and chat with someone who has been a longtime online friend. Noce to meet him in the flesh, and now I can hear his voice in my head whenever I read his social media posts. I did well in the panels I was in, as well as seeing some interesting ones I as an audience member. In the middle of July, Lyn and I went to my family reunion. Great fun was had by all. Once again, there was entirely too much food, but I managed to get a little of everything. The only bad part about either event is the long drives involved.

It is pouring rain here today--and the power keeps flickering. I keep saving this page every few minutes so that I won't have to recreate so much of it if the electricity goes out entirely. I got the yard mowed again yesterday. The new mower works exceedingly well. It is a little scary on the one hill we have out next to the road, but careful planning and going slowly kept me safe. It is one of those zero-turn mowers, so it is a lot of fun to use. Especially on the flat ground of the front yard. Lyn has been clearing small areas of brush where the sweet gum and pine trees and mimosas keep attempting to reclaim what was once cleared. There are a few little oak trees I want to thin out. I'll keep the older ones, but the new sprouts have to go.

About a week ago I decided to put all the individual Tom Darby stories into one file to see what the total word count happened to be. Lo and behold, it came out to be over 100,000 words! I had no idea there was that much already. And there are new ones I have planned but haven't gotten to yet. The latest ones I have been writing this Summer relate Tom's early life. I have two to four more of those planned, then I'll be at the point where "Abducted" will have to be rewritten. That's a huge chunk of the book, right there. I don't know if "rewritten" is exactly the right word. Possibly more like "heavily edited."

And there is still more stuff in the pipline, too.

The rain is heavier now, and the thunder is crashing in the middle distance. There were a few, earlier, that gave me a jump scare. So I.i going to cut this short in case of a power failure. With luck, everything will be all right.

OK, now I'll shut up and let you get to reading the new stories, LOL!




ON THE COVER

Title: The cosmic bat — NGC 1788

Photo Credit: ESO