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from Aphelion's featured cartoonists!
Editorial
The Senior Editor's usual drivel about whatever...
Hello and welcome!
Roger Bennett got
back in touch with me over this past
month and was highly complementary about Aphelion and what we've
become. I asked him for a quote for this issue and this was his reply:
"It is sometimes
quite interesting and indeed
rewarding to see where one's efforts wind up. When I launched my old
webzine, THE DRAGON'S LAIR, way back in 1996, this fellow by the name
of Holifield sent in a submission. I recognized a good writer; and over
the next few issues I realized that he would make a great Editor.
After a severe
disappointment involving loosing a
story to a hardcopy magazine, I decided to close the LAIR. Dan begged
me not to; and in the end he offered to keep it going. I agreed, and
sent him all the files needed to run a 'zine. A name change took place,
and APHELION was born.
Now, several years
later, APHELION has matured into
one of the oldest and perhaps the best 'zines on the Web. With a lot of
innovative changes (including the Mare Inebrium Shared Universe
Project) APHELION offeres the reader a true Science Fiction and Fantasy
experience; one not to be missed.
To Dan and all his
staff, a loud and resounding WELL
DONE!!
RRB"
Roger also said
that although his job takes up more
and more of his time, he's still writing. As a matter of fact, he came
up with a great title as he typed one of his messages to me. I wish I'd
thought of it, actually.
For those of you
who have been reading my editorials
for a while, by now you've figured out that I do a lot of reading on
the internet in a wide range of fields. It has a way of paying off- not
only with story ideas, but because I get a kick out of learning
something. Frankly, it doesn't matter whether its the cutting edge of
science or the history of JFK assassination conspiracy theories... I
just like reading up on things.
Well, science has
finally caught up with one of my
personal favorite genres of Sci-fi and Fantasy- the alternate universe
story. According to the Astrophysicists, "our universe contains an
infinite number of other, similar universes, called O-regions." Cosmiverse-
Space News has all the details, but I'll try to condense it
here.
It seems that
Larry Niven was right and that every
choice you make every minute of every day spawns alternate universes.
There's a universe born for each possibility. Every time you've stubbed
your toe in the dark, another you somewhere else decided to turn the
light on and thus missed out on stubbing their toe. On the other hand,
if you've ever had a narrow escape from death-- some other you
somewhere else wasn't so lucky. Other writers who've explored the field
of alternate universes have covered other aspects of this new
development in Astrophysics. Each universe has a slightly different
history than our own and there ought to be a copy of each of us them
all... Except for the inevitable universe where we didn't happen to be
born in the first place- there'd be one of those for each of us also.
L. Niel Smith, H. Beam Piper, Andre Norton, Keith Laumer, Robert
Heinlein-- and many, many more have explored the idea of
sideways-in-time stories. Now it looks as if they were each and every
one describing a possible version of our reality.
If anything is
possible, then everything becomes
required.
If these
scientists are truly drawing a more accurate
picture of the universe we live in, then M.C. Esher doesn't look so
strange any longer. And, they add, new alternate universes keep being
created as the visible universe expands... Perhaps we writers are
scripting out these emerging universes using nothing more powerful than
our imagination and creativity. Whatever we create exists, somewhere.
One thing to keep
in mind, you are the only copy of
you whose life you can live, so the choices you make in your life
aren't trivial. So what if a billion other yous are doing everything
that you could have chosen to have done? You're still unique, you have
no access to any of the yous on other timelines... Except that the
article also mentions that these researchers think that it may one day
be possible to communicate between these alternate universes. Travel
always seems to follow communication... Where could it all end?
Only time will
tell. After all, who is to say that the
Astrophysicists have got it exactly right this time? Not me. I'm still
waiting for Heisenberg to make up his mind.
Thanks for your time.
Dan
Announcing Aphelion's Next Writing Contest!
Hear ye! Hear ye!
Aphelion is sponsoring another
short story contest. This one's theme: the Return of the King. Not
Tolkien's king. I speak of the once and future king, King Arthur of
Britain. When Mallory closed his famous epic, he left the door open for
a sequel with these lines:
"Yet
som men say in many partys of
Inglonde that kynge Arthure ys not ded, but had by the wyll of oure
Lorde Jesu into another place, and men say he shall com agayne."
Mallory is not
likely to come again, so it is up to
us. The contest rules are simple. Write a story of no more than 5000
words about King Arthur's return. You pick the time, place and manner
of his return. The story can be science fiction, high fantasy or
anything in between. One entry per person. Submissions must be received
by May 15, 2001 and should include the words "Return of the
king contest submission" in the header. Winners will be
printed in the July issue of Aphelion.
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
Kim
Holec
Poetry/Filk Editor
Robert
Wynne
WebMaven
Cary
Semar
Short Story Editor
McCamy
Taylor
Asssistant Short Story Editor
Jeffrey
Williams
Production Editor/Serials Editor
Ralph
Benedetto, Jr.
Asssistant Serials Editor
Roger
Bennett
Editor Emeritus
Serialized Stories & Novellettes
Eternity
Wasted By Guy Hasson Prof. Arthur Bates discovers how one can live
a billion-trillion times the age of the universe. But his technology
has a built-in catch... (This
technology may only be a century or two away!)
Aphelion Special Presentation
Illegal
Aliens
SAMPLE CHAPTER -- ELEVEN By Nick Pollotta and Phil Foglio When a spaceship lands in Central Park, its a
shame that the first humans to gain entry happened to be a street
gang... A sample chapter of the soon to be re-issued
Sci-fi/Humor novel.
Resurrecting
Jack By Vincent L. Scarsella Jack had been dead only three months when Gail
decided to resurrect him.
Eve By John A. Gilmore In the dawn of time the story of our race
began, not with a man and a woman, but with a question. We are still
searching for the answer.
Billy
Bass By Robert Thurston This novelty item is popular all over the
world. Queen Elizabeth has one and she loves
it.
Raw
Terra By Nick Pollotta On Titan, a steam locomotive is towing a
tankcar full of Yum, to clean up the industrial sewer known as
Underdunk. Someone is desperately trying to stop it.
Treasure
of the Mosaic King By Frederick Rustam Clever galactic archaeology students must
outwit their elders to solve the mystery of the
mysterious mosaic busts. The late King Yoy, however, has more than one
trick up his sleeve.
Hitman
By Mark Stanley When systems advance in complexity, they
eventually cross the threshhold of vulnerability.
The human organism crossed that threshhold long ago.
Hunt
for the Chuma-Kaa By Peter Bergman, Jr. Even on distant planets under strange suns,
humans find it difficult to abandon the habit
of ascribing human motives to alien races.
The
Maltese Fiction By McCamy Taylor Her beauty was stunning, she could have had
her pick of almost any male in the Mare Inebrium. But Sydney RueVerte
had come to the Mare searching for someone in particular. And no one
was going to be allowed to get in her way!
Links Updated -- 9-10-00 --
Each of the three links below have changed. Please take note and adjust
your Bookmarks if necessary. The first link below gives you the
introduction to the Mare Inebrium, the banner link now gives you access
to all of the Mare stories, and the third link now gives you acess to
the Mare Inebrium Online Starter kit. The online Starter Kit will be
updated as often as Mare writers make necessary.
The banner above links to
all the Mare Inebrium Stories on one page!
The Mare Inebrium Starter
Kit.
--Updated 12/10/2000-- This is a link to all the background information for
the Mare Inebrium stories so far.
This is a must read for all Mare Inebrium writers
and fans!
Features
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
installment!
Double
Wide
by Jim Parnell "Interview with the Jasper"
WARNING: Contains Language.
Dan Hollifield reviews: "Wizard Sword"-- The
new novel by William Hill A classic fantasy with a unique take on some
of the familiar elements of the genre.
The
Listening Room
by Rob Wynne Rob Wynne bangs his head against Phoenix's
"Into the Fire"
A
Challenge to Writers...
--8\8\2000-- Not a contest, but a series of ideas to spark
off a story. Challenge 1 is the paintings of Daniel Hannaquand,
Challenge 2 is a collection of narrative hooks composed by Dan
Hollifield.
Aphelion Links Page
--1\22\2001--
Click here to see the Links Page. Our fellow E-zines, Astronomy,
research material, entertainment, and much, much more!
Aphelion
IRC Chat
--2\16\2001-- Information about a new feature for Aphelion.
IRC Chat is a fun way to talk to our readers, writers, staff members,
and other netizens. This link takes you to a basic intro and provides
further links to the IRC software that you can download for free. Look
for new updates as we refine this feature.
Aphelion JAVA
Chat
--2\12\2001-- For a quick look at the JAVA chat client, this
link launches a new browser window that takes you to a Log-in form for
a JAVA-based chat in your browser window. No specian programs are
needed. This will be a very simple, but passable IRC client, very
no-frills. This will also tell you if there's anyone else in the
chatroom, by the way.
Aphelion
Banners
And banner artwork for links. If you want to link to Aphelion and want more
than a text link, then this page is for you. Some of these banners are
finished, but most of them lack only my adding text to make them
complete. Unfinished banners can be completed and e-mailed to you
within 8 days. The banner HTML code-- and image --can be e-mailed on
request, or can be more simply copied from the "View / Page
Source" option in your web browser. Finished images can be copied from
the banner artwork page itself. An exchange of links or banner links is
always welcome. Link Swap E-mail should be sent to: Dan Hollifield
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.