|
Issue 22, Volume 3 -- March '99
Issue 23 will be online 1st week of April.
You are visitor number
Since January 27th 1997
Aphelion is proud to be associated with:
   
 |
The Aphelion Daily Comics Page
Don't miss a single hillarious issue of Bruno the Bandit,
Freefall, or The Melonpool Chronicles!
Check back every day for laughs
from Aphelion's featured cartoonists! |
 |
 |
Happy New Year?
New Years in March? Has your (T)rusty Senior Editor finally lost it?
Hmmm... Nope.
I'm talking about rebirth- of a sort -and birth itself. I'm
about to become a godfather again, as my best friend and his wife are
going to have their first baby together this month. Also, My own life
is finnaly back in high gear after all these months of marking time. It
seems like its now a case of "so much to do and no place to hide", as
an old friend of mine is fond of saying.
Aphelion seems to have weathered the storm of technical
troubles that plagued us in Febuary, spring is on its way, and lots of
stuff that had been on hold is now rushing forward at Warp 9. In other
words- We're back and better than ever!
As I mentioned in the Lettercol in January, most of the Aphelion staff
met at a New Year's Eve party here in Athens. Martin grabbed my camera
and took a few photos of us... I'm going to post those here in place of
my usual boring editorial. There were only four of the pics that turned
out- it seems that Martin was jet-lagged and took a lot of shots of the
floors, but here is the best one that actually had the camera pointed
in the right direction.
The rest are located on
this page. I hope you enjoy them!
Jeff, Kim, Myself, and Rob
In the background, you can see Aphelion's rejected story
files- LOL!!!
Since I don't have anything else to say this month, I'll
let you get to reading- after all, that's why you're here!
Dan
I'd like to thank those of you who have sent e-mails or signed the
Guestbook for your feedback. Keep those messages coming, folks! Without
those messages we will never know what we need to improve upon. Hope
you like the improvements so far!
Aphelion Staff:
Dan
Hollifield
Senior Editor, Publisher
|
Roger
Bennett
Editor Emeritus |
Robert
Wynne
WebMaven |
Cary
Semar
Short Story Editor
|
Lee
Whiteside
SFTV Schedule Reporter
|
Martin
Delgado-Scott
Serials Editor
|
Kim
Holec
Poetry Editor
|
Jeffrey
Williams
Production Editor
|
Serialized Stories
Threat
of Valleor -Part 7-
By Dan L. Hollifield
The adventure continues as the Reever and his
friends visit Tulag, the kingdom of magic. (Thanks for allowing me to
take this time off to get my real-world life back in order.)
|
Zod
-Conclusion!-
By Neil McGill
A side-splitting sci-fi romp through the cosmos.
Look out Douglas Adams! McGill may just steal your thunder!
|
In
Arms We Trust -Part 1 of 5-
By Vasilis Adams A.
|
Maya
-Part 4-
By A.D. Jackson
The mystery of Maya continues...
|
"Ray Guns and Space Ships and Fires...Oh My!"
Not long ago, Cary Semar posted a request on the Lettercol for more
"hard SF" types of stories,
tales involving space ships and science and gun fights and. . . Well,
what started as a joke among the staff ("Gee, why don't we
just have an all Space Opera issue?") is turning into a
reality, with your help of course.
ANNOUNCING APHELION'S FIRST EVER THEME ISSUE!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yes, by popular demand, we are requesting submissions for an issue of
short fiction dedicated
entirely to tales of starships, to ditties about intergalactic war, to
works about strange discoveries in space--in short, an all Space Opera
issue.
When the stories are published, we will pick what we feel
to be the three best pieces submitted
(ranked 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of course). Winners will receive a prized
featured space in the special issue and will also receive a graphic for
their webpage or desktop wallpaper. The graphic will be provided by
esteemed publisher Dan Hollifield and by notorious webmaven Robert
Wynne.
Submissions for this special issue should be sent to
shorts@aphelion-webzine.com and should be
clearly labeled as entries for the Space Opera Contest. (DO NOT submit
serials as they will not be
affected by the contest.) Stories should be no less than 2500 words and
no more than 10,000 words
in length. All submissions for the contest must be received by May 20,
1999. Multiple entries will be accepted. Editorial review will be
limited to technical issues only (format, length, spelling,
punctuation, etc.).
The theme issue itself will be published in July 1999.
This contest is not open to the staff of Aphelion though
their stories may appear in the issue if they
choose to write one and if space is available.
So charge up those disrupter banks, let loose the dogs of
intergalatic war, look out for the Grey Lensmen, and may the best
beings win!
Short Stories
The
Land of Ooo-bla Dee
By D.A. Krikorian
You never really begin to learn until after you
know it all...
|
Sister
Death
By McCamy Taylor
Brother Doctor, do not be afraid to tell me of the
closeness of
death. It is for me the door to life.
|
Human
and Naked
By Franchot Lewis
Fifteen ...human elders in a sorry
chorus ... wailed like infants for the androids to keep doing for us,
and
especially to keep the pabulum coming.
|
Carrots
By Laurie Christenson
The Curse of the Carrot Woman!
|
Yet
Another Reality
By A. J. Thompson
The mind is a very powerful thing and you can do
anything with it if you
choose to.
|
The
Blue Orb
By Mark Archibald
Space Teens Go Cruising...
|
Strange
Business
By Joseph B. St. John
There was a certain King that left on a spring night
to fight the
battle of good and evil.
|
 Harry
Chapin's Waltz
By Jeff Williams
The Mare Inebrium's jukebox holds the key to
mysterious patron.
|
Dark
Hunter
By Martin Owton
A minstrel's song holds the key to defeating a
monster.
|
Swing
Low, Sweet Chariot
By Jim Peters
In this sequel to "The Bluesman" the lives of an
entire species hang in the balance as revenge proves itself to be a
two-edged sword. A Mare Inebrium story.
|
Companion
By Brian Huisman
Gary had no aim in life, until the day he
first saw a talking dolphin.
|
Look
What I Found
By Dave Mansfield
Astronaut Pilot Aaron Breedlove had something to
prove,
to Mission control, to his late comrades, and to his father.
|
Because of the server trouble last month and because
Febuary was so short anyway, we're going to keep these online for one
more issue. Please take the time to vote in the survey.
Dan's Birthday Picks
Some of my favorites from the previous issues of Aphelion
These stories aren't necessarily the best that Aphelion has ever
published, but they are the ones that I have read over and over again.
So many good stories have appeared here that I thought it would be
unfair to call these few the "best of..." so I'm just calling them my
favorites. I hope you like them as much as I do. I didn't include any
of the serialized stories and only one by a staff member, so you can be
sure that there was no nepotism involved and that these are a good
sample of what we have published to date. The Editorial Mafia made me
hold down the number of picks so as to leave room for the rest of this
issue's stories- Otherwise, this would just be another way to access
the Aphelion Archives. LOL!
Waiting
in a Stony Place
By W. Fraser Sandercombe
Fraser has a way of bringing characters to life on the page so that you
actually care about what happens to them when the story is over.
|
A
Man Shoots His Own Dogs
By Bob Blacketer
Bob's work seems to grab you by the throat and shake you. Strong
emotions and convincing backgrounds are his specality.
|
Calling
All Stars
By Frederick Rustam
Its always a delight to recieve a submission from Frederick- his
stories are well thought-out, surprising, and wonderful.
|
Over
the Hill
By Jim Parnell
A gritty little tale of cyberspace, detectives, and future crime- Jim
proves that he's not just a top-flight musician any more.
|
Yesterdays
Glory
By Robert Wynne
Rob's only Mare Inebrium story to date and the best example of how to
add background characters to a Mare story. He even taught me a few
things.
|
Language
Barrier
By Kate Thornton
Kate's shuttle pilots come across as living, breathing people. They're
as real as you or I and just as vital.
|
Dan's
told you his picks. Which was your favourite? Let us know in the
Aphelion Survey!
Poetry and Filk Music
Features
The
Mare Inebrium shared universe project
I open up my own Spaceport Bar to other writers!
Aphelion's
Daily Comics
By Ian McDonald, Mark Stanley, and Steve Troop
Did he say daily? Yep, Aphelion is proud to feature three
of the funniest comic strips on the Internet, Ian McDonald's "Bruno the
Bandit", Mark Stanley's "Freefall", and Steve Troop's "The Melonpool
Chronicles". Bookmark this page, you don't want to miss a single
installment!
|
Dan Hollifield reviews:
This month- Roadmarks
by Roger Zelazny
|
Excentrivial
Musings
The Aphelion Cartoon Page.
|
Mare
Inebrium
Wallpaper Page
51 JPGs you can download and convert to Bitmaps for
wallpaper. This is a slow-loading page, but well worth it.
|
The Awards Page
All of the Awards that Aphelion has won.
|
If you would like to receive notices from Aphelion when
this page is updated, please join our new, revised, automatic mailing
list. To subscribe:
Send a message to
majordomo@america.net with the following in the body
of the message:
- subscribe aphelion <email address>
As always, this mailing list will only be used to notify
you of new issues and will never be given out to anyone else... 'cause
I hate spam as much as you do!
Click here to
see the
Links Page
A Challenge
to
Writers...
Short story submissions; Cary Semar
Serialized stories: Martin
Delgado-Scott
Poetry:
Kim Holec
Features: Robert Wynne
Mare Inebrium Stories: Dan Hollifield
Click here to see the
Submissions Guidelines Page.
Aphelion
Explanations and
Thanks Where the name "Aphelion" came from and other info.
Help support us by supporting Amazon.Com -- When you buy books and music
from Amazon.com through Aphelion, you help us continue to bring you
the best science fiction and fantasy fiction on the web!
Back Issues:
For a time we will have back issues available for you to
read.
These will be removed when space on the new server gets to
be too small. Click on the banner below to go to the Back Issues!
Thanks for your readership for without you, nothing we do has any
meaning.
You
can e-mail the Senior Editor by clicking here.
Sideways to the Mare Inebrium, homepage of Aphelion's Editor: Dan L.
Hollifield
Click HERE
to vote for this page as a Starting Point Hot Site.
Aphelion Webzine is © 1997-98 by Dan L. Hollifield
|
