Aphelion Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025
 
Editorial    
Long Fiction and Serials
Short Stories
Flash Fiction
Poetry
Features
Series
Archives
Submission Guidelines
Contact Us
Forum
Flash Writing Challenge
Forum
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Issue 246 Volume 23 December 2019 - January 2020

Cover

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

Editorial

Dan L. Hollifield

The Senior Editor's usual rants about whatever…


Serials and Long Fiction

The Lights
Jim Mountfield
Who'd punish innocent children for something their parents did?.

Elegant Slumming
Richard Tornello
When the Creator got pushed out of office — She took a vacation!

Best Long Fiction of 2019

Selected by Long Fiction Editor Lester Curtis

The House of Master Essen
AD Ross
Elendra joined the trading caravan in hopes of acquiring some needed wealth for her family. What she obtained was altogether different.

Monkfruit Investigates
T. Richard Williams
Old Earth history and ancient artifacts take Stevia Monkfruit's job as an exoarchaeologist in a direction he never expected.

Juggler and Znuek
Emil Eugensen
Lieutenant Plovinski needed every bit of his resourcefulness-and some alien mythology-to accomplish his mission.

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Short Stories

Dead Men Tell Too Many Tales
Daniel Kamin
Surely it shouldn't be too difficult to track down a missing zombie?

History of the Early Dymbrini Era
George Schaade
And so begins a new era of history.

Orion
Andrée Gendron
It's altogether too easy to rip off tourists. Exponentially more so when they aren't the same species.

The Touch of God
Bogi Beykov
The search for a greater power needn't be restricted to one planet.

The Year of Job
Jason Arsenault
Job loved money. Just knowing he had loads more than most was enough to get him out of bed in the morning.

Second Earth
Sergio “ente per ente” Palumbo
Edited by Michele Dutcher
"Art requires action, and action has consequences.… "

Time Warrior
Adam Carlton
Today's lecture concerns our tactics in securing Minsky-4 for the Empire. We had to deal with the aboriginals we called time hunters.

Too Many Thoughts
David Smith
I always heard everything. Why? Why me? Just so many damn thoughts. Too many thoughts.

Wisikewena
Harrison Kim
This story is what Pipikwan legends call the meaning of Wisikewena.

Best Short Fiction of 2019

The Butterflies on a Dead Man's Bed
Kamila Modrzyńska
Queen Inęs sat on the throne. Eyes full of dread, nobody dared to move.

Closing Time at the Speckled Wolf
Rab Foster
Grud's just trying to run a bar. He doesn't have time for any of this nonsense.

San Miguel
Elizabeth Hurley
Do you consider yourself a man of God?

Darren and the Dark Lord
Daniel South
What happens when the villain wins everything they ever wanted?

The Stone Mason
Scott Cafarella
The generations dance on the walls together.

Crossroads
George Schaade
This cafe has a lot more than delicious breakfast specials.

Ultima Thule
J. B. Toner
A million universes, a million timelines, one martial art to span it all.

Brother Thomas's Night
Francis-Marie de Chatillon
“Oh Thomas, you are in trouble. Deep, deep trouble.”

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Flash Fiction

Needle
David Berger
Cosmic darts, anyone?

Best Flash Fiction of 2019

The term Best is a subjective one. These are the tales that the Editor liked best from the short short fiction submitted this year. Your mileage may differ. Product may settle during shipping. Void where prohibited by law.

For Humanity Today and Tomorrow
Sou Saito

Roc-ed
William Joseph Roberts

The Dive
Dan Rice

Unexpected House Guests
Denny E. Marshall

Roswell
C. E. Gee

Survivor Guilt
Christopher T. Dabrowski

Scavenger
Denny E. Marshall

What They Don’t Tell You About Time Travel
Martin Lochman

The Indigo Child
Theresa C. Gaynord

Annunciation
Susan Anwin

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.

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Poetry and Filk Music

Casualties
by Alexis Child

Hemisphere Blues
by Meg Smith

Ladies Man
by Robert Treybur

Mythic Delirium
by Theresa C. Gaynord

Outward Show
by Theresa C. Gaynord

The Heart is a Lonely Ghost
by Alexis Child

The Witch and the Fool
by Ron Larson

Trephining
by Will H Blackwell, Jr.

Windows
by Robert Treybur

The Best Poetry of 2019

The term best is a subjective one. These are the poems that the Editor liked best from the submissions this year. Your mileage may differ. Product may settle during shipping. Void where prohibited by law.

Climate Disaster
by Richard Tornello

Emma
by Erric Emerson

Kezia
by Timothy Tarkelly

The Tarn Of OMGLOL
by J. B. Toner

Good Hunting
by ayaz daryl nielsen

the earth isn't elsewhere
by ayaz daryl nielsen

Planets of Mirth
by Meg Smith

Chatterman
by Scott Hughes

Whisper of the Stars
by Alexis Child

Origins of the Species
by Rick Tornello

Said in Time
by Richard Tornello

Grindr
by Alex Long

Not One of Us
by Alexis Child

Rum Runners and Pirate Saints -
Claria, Part 1: The Birth of the Demon Fish

by Theresa C. Gaynord

Standing still at 67 mph
by Charlotte Ozment

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Articles and features

Alas, there were no feature articles this month.