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Editorial
The Senior Editor's usual drivel about whatever...
Hello and welcome!
Where do we writers get all our ideas? Has someone pinned you
down with that question yet? No? Well, it’s coming, wait and see. Have
you got an answer? I don't. I've never understood why my mind works the
way it does or from where the inspiration for the characters that I
create comes.
Sometimes I draw details from my own life, but not often. Most
often, things just pop into my head and demand to be written down.
Sometimes it’s a turn of phrase, sometimes a visual image, and once in
a great while its some frightening, blinding, ego-crushing blast of
creativity being poured into your mind from some
unknowable source- and all the time you're cursing about the funnel not
being big enough or your hands not being fast enough to catch and
record it all before you forget.
That hurts. (And yes, I know that I changed tenses in that
last paragraph.)
But what can be retained can be woven into a story, if you
work at it.
That's the thing, see? Writing is work, damned hard work, as
hard as anything I do at the factory. The rewards for doing a good job
feel great, but the punishments for doing a bad job feel awful. So, you
try to do the best you can.
The only advice I can give you to help is to stock your mind
with as many different things as you can manage. The more you have to
think with, the better you can expect your ideas to
be. After that, it’s just work, work, work. And never give up.
Thanks for your time.
Dan
I'd like to thank those of you who have sent e-mails or signed into the
Lettercol 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
Kim
Holec
Poetry Editor
Jeffrey
Williams
Production Editor/Serials Editor
Serialized Stories & Novelettes
The Account
of Lord Salthor
By Madbot "Disaster is the result when a young, untried
commander leads his men against an ancient horror."
The
Anartek --Part 1 of 2--
By Michael Patrick Aiello "For generations the Anarteks had lived apart from the
rest of humanity, isolated in a far corner of the solar system. Their
credo was technological creation, and now they had come up with the
greatest of them all: the instantaneous movement of matter through
space.
For Earth the news couldn't be worse. The
uncontrolled introduction of new technologies into the economy had
already caused untold misery. More upheavals would not be tolerated.
But for private investigator Angelo McAuley, the issues were simple:
survive. So, when a mysterious Earthman named Samuel Tanner asked him
to investigate the disappearance of a drug addicted aristocrat, Angelo
could hardly say ‘No’..."
Whose Sword
Is It, Anyway? --Part 3 of 5--
By Ralph Benedetto, Jr. Caitlin, Mal and Rivenbark, somehow surviving the
rigors of part two, run into some odd and surprising things, not the
least of which is some of Mal's more unusual relations. They may also
finally begin to learn a thing or two. It took long enough, don't you
think?
Travels
With Cat
By Joy Hewitt Mann Witches are moral beings, so how can an immoral,
criminal type like "darling" make it in the world of magic? With the
help of a familiar named Cat, of course. But then, Cat is not all she
-- or is that "he"? -- seems to be.
AWarning
From the Red Star
By Frederick Rustam In a story inspired by a Dan Hollifield editorial,
tabloid reporter Jake Weissmeyer investigates a mysterious construction
project in the desert
A Union
in Death
By J. Alan Erwine Eric and Becky wanted two things: Tomorrow and each
other.
Trudy
By Daniel Beaupre' When a mysterious object falls out of the sky and lies
in the road undulating like a bag of liquid, DON'T LEAN OVER IT AND
POKE IT WITH A STICK!
Happy
the Clown
By The Hansen Family "We all looked to J.B. in order to follow his lead for
a reaction. J.B. kept on talking. He kept on droning on as if it was
normal to have a clown walk into the room. My eyes shifted back to the
clown who sat down in an empty chair and put a brief case on the
conference table."
Just the Man for the Job
By Drazen Saskor In a well ordered society, there is a job for every
man, and a man for every job.
Peaches
By Justin L. Peniston A jealous cat is resurrected in her master's shoes.
Rham
the Uncivil
By Craig Cornwell One of history’s least known mythological heroes, Rham
makes Conan look like Harry Potter.
Tinnitus
Interruptus
By Ralph Benedetto, Jr. At long last recovered from a painful soccer injury,
Ralph returns to his keyboard, and the pages of Aphelion with a lively
tale of three memorable fantasy characters.
Spru TV
By Matthew A. Reed A boy, a computer, and a nasty alien race.
Rerun
By Bill Wolfe “In the back of every mind, a monster lurks-chained in
the mind's dark recesses, kept away from the light of day for all
eternity... but chains can break. Corbeatee’s ability to control
biological systems was absolute; he was merely very good with
mechanical devices. But he was learning fast. A Writer's Challenge 2 & a Mare Inebrium story!
Short Stories
The
Moll's Initiation
By Jeanne G'Fellers-Walker Somewhere among the stars lies the prison colony of
Trimar, where the men
are strong and the women are beautiful. Otherwise, they are dead.
Roots
By Kate Thornton This story was first published in "Neverworlds"
issue #2. It takes place
when the first pilot of the Linda Rae was some guy
named Sullivan.
The
Collection
By Noel Carroll The glacier gave up a frozen body which floated down
the river and was
found. On that body was a notebook, still barely readable. The notebook
spoke of
an "ancient treasure" guarded by a frozen corpse. In Alaska, "ancient
treasure" could
only mean one thing. Gold!
Chant
of the Mandala
By Anthony Giovia When people walk into an architectural artwork
called The Mandala but
don't walk out, you send for Manny Levels.
The
Crowd
By Daniel Beaupre' In the future, everyone will be famous for fifteen
minutes. Consider
yourself warned.
Digital
By Ronald R. Delgado C. Have you ever wonder how it is to live in perfect
Clarity?
Deadly
Star
By Ron Capshaw There are no evil sciences, only evil scientists.
Scientist-Hero Johnathan
Silverberg, a.k.a The Ghost, uses Superscience in the unending battle
against Super-Evil.
McJock's
Beanstalk
By Craig Cornwell Once again, we join Snow Spackman as he walks down,
or in this case up, the
mean streets of myth and legend.
Nebula
By Kai Blackbird What happens when a Human scoutship with a crew of
two encounters a
Behemoth class Charlay cruiser? Nothing good.
The
Melody
By Andrew D. Scott To hear the music of the spheres you must have the
right plug-in. Click on
the link to download it now.
Watch
the Monkey
By Ralph Benedetto, Jr. The goal of observation is understanding, The usual
result, however, is
data.
The
Bouncer
By Claude Hopper Every bar has a bouncer, usually really big guys
that could easily be mistaken for heroic statuary, until they get the
signal to kick your butt. The Mare's new bouncer was a little guy, but
that's just a measure of how good he really is. Bruce is one bad
mother- Well, you know what I mean.
Aphelion's Daily Comics
By Mark Stanley, and Steve Troop Did he say daily? Yep, Aphelion is proud to feature two
of the funniest comic strips on the Internet, Mark Stanley's "Freefall"
and Steve Troop's "The Melonpool Chronicles". Bookmark this page, you
don't want to miss a single instalment!
Double Wide
by Jim Parnell Home of the Strange...
WARNING: Contains Language.
In case anyone is curious as to exactly what's been
keeping me so busy, I've planned a few webpages that show the progress
of my landscaping, interior decoration, and housework. Look for it in
my personal pages at Casa
Vila. It’s the beginning of a sort of photographic
timeline of my yard work and such. I don't know why anyone would want
to
see it, but Rob thought that someone might, so I worked it up. Expect
it
to be updated as I get new film developed and scanned. I have two new
rolls of film shot for this page and expect to update it within the
next few weeks.
Dan
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!
Instead of the back issues
the banner below now takes you to the Archives-where all our past
stories are available for you to read.
I've decided to ditch the
back issues in favor of the Archives. The Archives are easier to use
and can be indexed by author or story title. Hopefully this will ease
the task of finding a favorite story. We may start a page of our past
cover art, if there is a call for it. Thanks for your readership for
without you, nothing we do has any meaning.
- 8\8\2000 - A
Challenge to Writers...
