Hello and welcome to the March 2024 issue of Aphelion!

Well, my first month of full retirement has been relatively painless. Of course there is still paperwork to be filed on various aspects of the retirement process, but most of that requires a full month to pass before it can be completed. It’s difficult to keep from panicking as what was once my weekly payday passes without that “safety belt” of a paycheck showing up in my bank accounts. However, I made sure that there was at least five months of living expenses stashed away before I filed for retirement. I doubt seriously that my pension will take that long to start paying out. Even the normal emergencies that life has a way of throwing at one have been prepared for as best they can be. I am adjusting to the absence of awakening to an alarm clock every day, the once-daily commute to and from the factory being unnecessary, and the lack of workaday stress. Retirement is rapidly becoming fun!

My backlog of Aphelion short story submissions has now dwindled to roughly two and a half months’ worth of emails—with more arriving in my mailbox almost every day. That’s a good thing. Another good thing is that now I have time to get to the submissions much faster. In fact, I expect to begin processing April’s short stories even before readers have a chance to see this issue go online. I’ll also get a head start on the cover artwork for upcoming issues.

Speaking of which, I’ve been learning the basics of several new-to-me computer graphics programs to use in crafting the Aphelion covers this year. Some of them aren’t as intuitive as I would like, but I’ve been fortunate enough to find tutorials for them on YouTube. However, a few of the most detailed ones are not recorded in languages I understand. They are, in any case, worth watching just so I can see the mouse clicks for the various command functions. Still useful, despite the language barrier.

2024 is going to be a special year for Aphelion, folks. In November we will witness our 300 ^th issue go live! I want to thank all the past and present staff members, as well as all our writers and readers, for keeping the zine going for so many years! Without each and every one of you, Aphelion would not be possible. I thank you all for making this possible!

I do hope that everyone has been enjoying the increase in the number of short stories per issue this year. I wanted to reduce the backlog of story submissions and reduce the turnaround time between submissions and publication. What good is having a year’s worth of submissions in the bank, if writers get discouraged by having to wait months and months to see their stories go online. No point in driving the writers to go somewhere else out of frustration. The entire point of Aphelion is for the editors and readers to critique the stories so that the writers can learn where they need to improve. That’s one reason I keep harping on about reading and following the submissions guidelines of every market where they submit their work. After all, every pro publisher I know of automatically rejects, without reading, any submission which ignores their submission guidelines. You can’t sell anything to the pro publishers if they throw your submission in the trash. Guidelines are not merely suggestions! They are, in essence, the first level of how publishers weed out submissions which will take time away from seeing work by more professional, and for the pros—more profitable writers. In this case, wasting an editor’s time is indeed a mortal sin. Don’t do it!

The online streaming shows "Stupid O'clock" and "Last Man Standing" have been uploaded live to YouTube as well as several Facebook pages for over two years now. They are basically live-streaming chat shows covering a range of topics, modeled on the types of conversations people have after hours at SF&F conventions. Joe McKeel and I have archives of past shows on our own YouTube channels. Check 'em out if that sounds like something you'd enjoy I've put links in our Features section that will take you to the YouTube archives of both shows.

With all that said, it's high time I shut up and let you get to reading. 

Enjoy yourselves,

Dan