   
Hello and welcome to the April/May 2025 issue of Aphelion!
I am sorry about missing the entire month of
April, but there were some family emergencies that kept me so
distracted that I couldn't concentrate on anything except worrying. Two
of my grandsons wound up in the emergency room, two weeks apart from
one another and I was a tad distraught. The older one was
poisoned--yes, the investigation is ongoing, and the other has a
congenital heart condition due to lack of neonatal care. Both are out
of the hospital now, but the older one's health is still
strained. The doctors gave him two weeks to live, but he's
already made three and his mother tells me that he is making a slow
recovery. I hope you will forgive me for the publication delays.
My own health has greatly improved since the end of Winter. I lost a
lot of weight, but my wife is intending to fatten me back up. By the
way, she is recovering from her fall in the hallway of our house;
tripping over the dog in the darkness and breaking her collarbone. I've
been told that it was probably the pain meds from dental surgery that
were making her dizzy, and the dog has a bad habit of sleeping in the
darkest part of the hallway. Her left arm is in a sling and she is
sleeping in the armchair in the living room. Looks like at least
another three weeks or so with the sling and she'll be right as rain.
One bit of good news is that after years of waiting, the prequel to
"Adbucted" is now available for Kindle right now. A Disposable Man
is over
on Amazon, with a release date of March 21st. Yes, there is a hardcopy
version out as well. Another bit of good news is that I received
permission to release "Fly By Wire" from the Nightwatch series creators
and developers It has been submitted to my publisher, so that will also
be out once the editing process has
begun and been finalized.
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
Title: Messier 78: a reflection nebula in Orion
Courtesy: ESO/Igor Chekalin
This
new image of the reflection nebula Messier 78 was captured using the
Wide Field Imager camera on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La
Silla Observatory, Chile. This colour picture was created from many
monochrome exposures taken through blue, yellow/green and red filters,
supplemented by exposures through a filter that isolates light from
glowing hydrogen gas. The total exposure times were 9, 9, 17.5 and 15.5
minutes per filter, respectively.
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