| Orion's Child is: Founder: T. Joseph Cole Co-Founder: Debra Lynn Whitmore-Cole Editor: Gabriel M. Cole Contributing Editor: Miriam L. Cole Art Editor: Ariana Baer Publisher: Orion Press |
| Liftoff |
| October 2009 |
| Orion's Children are: Buzz Guru: ?? Video-Game Avatar: ?? Surround-Sound Popcorn Pilot: ?? Super-Mutant Couch Potato: ?? The Great Game Master: ?? Creeping Convention Crawler: ?? |
| My Old Friend, Murphy Dear Readers, We are late getting this issue to you and for that we are profoundly upset. Every small press has demons to deal with, and it is unfortunately no different in the information age. In mid September the main computer here at our very humble Orion Press was decimated by a very nasty computer virus. We are still not certain how we contracted it, but the results were devastating. Added to the mayhem was a flu that spanned a continent; the Editor came down with it in Ohio, and not two weeks later the Art Editor--a nation away in Nevada--suffered a strikingly similar misfortune. Personally, we lost files. Professionally, Orion's Child has suffered a delay and it could not have come at a worse time of the year. October is our favorite month! This issue is one of the best ever! While it might not have as much art as our powerhouse month in May, (artists, see the manifest page for a link to our submission info!) I think that the fiction we have here is some of the best we have ever offered. Horror novelist Ty Schwamberger returns to OC with his masterful and uber-creepy The Ringmaster. Sean Brennan Hallinan actually submitted his story this past spring, but it was so good that I asked him if we could hold it for October--Ringing in the Dead is really one of the best ghost-stories I have ever read. Period. And Robert Frazier's Banshee of the Badlands is such a great spooky campfire story, that we just had to include it. And as ever, Jason Atwood and Nils Durban continue their respective tales, and we, the readers, must but follow where they lead; for they are the ones who know the way. Orion's Child would also like to thank our returning artist Scott Clarke for a fantastic cover that is so perfectly in the spirit of Halloween. And finally I would like to say, "Hats off to Murphy!" My old friend has once again stopped by, taken me by the hand, and reminded me of his one, unbreakable law. To him I say, "Cheers! And good riddance; at least until the next time." To you I say, "Welcome, and Happy Reading." Gabriel M. Cole, Editor |