Hello and welcome to the August 2016 issue of Aphelion!

It seems that Aphelion is in need of a new Short Story Editor. Don Dionisio has stepped down and the staff and I haven't located anyone to fill his shoes. It isn't an easy gig, obviously. Shorts easily gets more submissions than the other sections. You have to read the submissions, pick the ones which best fit the zine, work with the writers to get the edits needed, know some basic HTML, and upload the stories into the website. But that's just the mechanics of it. First of all, you have to know a bit about editing, LOL!

So if you are interested, know someone who might be interested, and wish to help out, contact one of the staff or myself. The fastest way would be through Facebook Messenger, with the next fastest being e-mail, with PMs on the Forums coming in a close third.

Aphelion has been around for a long time. Next February will see the twentieth birthday of the zine. At first, it was just me, then some friends stepped in when I became overwhelmed by it all. That's the point where the quality of the zine really took off. Staff members have come and gone. Some stayed briefly, some stayed many years, and some never left but did change sections they work on. Aphelion has helped over a hundred writers turn pro over the years. Now we need to fill the Short Story Editor slot once again.

Drop us a line, pop up in a chat, private message us, e-mail, post in the Forums, make a suggestion or volunteer yourself. Your task would be to help new writers learn how to become better at their craft. You would be joining a crazy group of people who take the time out of their busy days to help amateur writers learn what they need to begin selling their work. Believe me, there is no feeling quite like getting a message from one of your writers saying ìI just made a sale!î

And now it is time for me to shut up and let you get to reading.

Dan

BOILERPLATE:

First off, if you do the Facebook thing, feel free to join us on the Aphelion page there. The link is Aphelion Webzine. As an aside, the Editorial Mafia and I have found Facebook to be very useful. Given our different locations and schedules, it's come in handy as a way to discuss production details of new issues. Sometimes there are several of us using Facebook at the same time, so it's almost like the old chat room days.

My first collection of Mare Inebrium spaceport bar short stories was published in February by Dark Oak Press. It is available in both Kindle an Nook e-book formats, paperback, and hardback. I also that thre albums of instrumenal music out throgh the Create Space self-publishing website. If you like, you can click on the photo or the link below to fin all the info you would need to purchase my book in your preferred format, or an e-book of Flash of Aphelion, buy a CD of my music, or listen to tracks off of the albums on my Bandcamp website. Enjoy!

Dan's Promo Page

Dan

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ON THE COVER

Title: Hubble Spies a Loopy Galaxy

Photo Credit: ESA & NASA. Acknowledgement: A. Gal-Yam (weizmann Institute of Science)