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!
Editorial
The Senior Editor's usual drivel about whatever...
Hello and welcome!
Hope you didn't mind the little joke cover. The staff and I came up with it a few weeks ago.
I've been watching the yard green up in the last couple of weeks. Time to dig out the lawn mower. Its also looking like the grandson is going to want to help me with the flowerbeds and maybe even the garden. He went crazy to play with my garden rake yesterday. LOL!
Spring has always felt like the beginning of the new year for me. When the trees begin to bud out new leaves, when the rains come and soak the soil, when the Earth seems reborn after winter's bleak chill... That's when I feel the new year to start. I'm looking forward to making headway against the demon Kudzu again this year. Who knows? I might even knock the weed back to the edge of my property line. Though there is one corner where it looks like a flamethrower would be my best option... And spring seems to get my literary juices flowing as well. I may have a new Mare Inebrium story for you next issue. June at the latest.
At this point, I'd like to propose a toast to England's departed Queen Mother. She was a grand lady, she served her country well thru some difficult times. As an American, the Queen Mother seemed to me to be the very symbol of duty above privilege to which any Royalty ought to aspire. Ladies and gentlemen, to the Queen Mum, the greatest Lady of our age. She will be missed.
After a suitable moment of silence, you folks may want to scroll on down and get to the real April stories. Due to the awkward shortage of poetry submissions, we'll be running some more of Iain's Choice greatest hits. (grin) I hope you enjoy the new issue!
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
Iain Muir
Poetry/Filk Editor
Robert Wynne
WebMaven
Cary Semar
Short Story Editor
McCamy Taylor
Assistant Short Story Editor
Jeffrey Williams
Production Editor/Serials Editor
Ralph Benedetto, Jr.
Assistant Serials Editor
Roger Bennett
Editor Emeritus
Serialized Stories & Novellettes
The Cold War
By Joel Lee Criminal Psychologist, Dr. Ted Welch has found himself assigned to a
murder case, his first assignment since losing his wife and son a tragic
automobile accident. A prominent research scientist has been murdered
and the suspect is in custody. Ted's superiors have stressed the
importance of finding the accused competent to stand trial. Dr. Welch,
however, is finding himself drawn to the accused in ways he can scarcely
contemplate...
Hey God,Got A Minute?
By Noel Carroll Harold is a simple man long troubled by doubts about what he should or
should not believe. One night, alone and distraught, he falls asleep
to the most realistic dream he has ever had, a dream in which he is
approached by the "big guy" come in person to address his pain. Not one
to waste an opportunity, Harold hails him down and then begins a nightly
grilling.
Shadow in the Sky
By Joe Vadalma Desiree was being stalked by a dragon; a real fire breathing dragon as big as a house.
The Dragon's Kiss
By Colin J. Fenwick A warrior maiden rides out to meet her destiny and learn the secret of her heritage.
Dreamers: The Cavern
By Christian Bonawandt No longer in his native dream, Del Gato hunts with renewed vigor for Rothin the Deadly -- but at what cost?
Grave Matters
By Robert Moriyama Al Majius was happy when he raised one dead man. The
other 49 didn't exactly thrill him ...
The Key to Immortality
By Stenger White The world presses in on our consciousness through sight, sound, smell, and touch. Take these away and long suppressed memories might be regained, perhaps even memories of past lives.
Cry of the Phoenix
By Wanda Ernstberger When Father Time learns of the attempt to unbalance
Aurea, he doesn’t want to believe it. Can his
daughter, Infinity Blue, convince him to help her
before their world is destroyed?
Reality
By J. Alan Erwine Gerard Anderson was determined not to be stopped by the people from the hospital. He had somehwere to go.
Spring Girl
By Paul Strain Who was the spring girl, and why did she return each year to the little gas station in Bloomingdale?
Sheffield's Eleventh
By Jeff Williams "Mr. Grym... gives you this challenge. Virtually all of City of Lights
is...'open'...shall we say. To the enterprising entrepreneur, there is an entree into virtually
every business, every bank, every shop, if the cards are played right and if the man or
woman is quick, smart, and intelligent. Every building is transparent to your skills and talents
under the right circumstances. Every building, that is, except one... The Tower, my friends- The one building that has
never been burglarized beyond petty drunks stealing petty bags of petty peanuts. Nothing
more than the occasional ashtray or shot glass. Nothing of any consequence besides
bathroom towels. No one in this room, indeed, no one in the history of Bethdish has ever
broken into the Mare Inebrium Tower and stolen anything of value."
Little Ed
By Robert Starr It might be true that Desira Cathorn was insane, but it seems more likely that she just knew too much. You be the judge.
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!
Tales of the Mare Inebrium
The banner above links to
all the Mare Inebrium Stories on one page!
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 The collected wisdom of Bubba
WARNING: Contains Language.
Aphelion proudly presents the installments of Double Wide all on one page of links. We wanted to make sure that the wit and wisdom of Bubba wasn't lost for new readers, so we made a mini-archive list of just the Double Wide features.
Dan Hollifield reviews: "Clovenstone"
The new novel by Ruth McIntyre-Williams A Celtic Medieval Fantasy Novel
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 --6\08\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.
Dan Hollifield reviews:
--8\8\2000-- 
