HIRAETH PUBLISHING’S
SEPTEMBER 2025 NEWSLETTER
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Quo Vadis, Spaceman?
The late philosopher/novelist Ayn Rand used to maintain what she called a "Horror File." Entries in it consisted of various reports [news clippings, and so forth] of events, policies, and individuals that she regarded as detrimental to objectivist philosophy and epistemology, and to Western Civilization itself. She also published a chapbook newsletter called The Objectivist, some dozen copies of which from 1969 and 1970 I still have [the cover price of each was $0.75, but I understand they have considerable value now as collectors’ items. Who knew?]. In some of the volumes of this chapbook she presented a few pieces from her Horror File for our perusal and speculation. If you're looking for war, famine, pestilence, and death, you'll be disappointed. Recall the line from T. S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men" about the world ending, not with a bang, but a whimper? According to Rand, those things that make you whimper also bring down civilizations.
Here's one, taken from the June 1970 The Objectivist: "A University of California professor named Brown yesterday faulted the schools for overemphasizing the intellect and underemphasizing human feelings -- a process he said produces 'generations befogged in illusion and fantasy.'. . .
"Brown . . . said it is 'unrealistic and illusionary' to assume the primary function of the schools 'is to teach the learner to be intellectually competent.' He said it is impossible to separate the substance of what the student learns from his feelings about it . . . 'How do we know when something is relevant? Something is relevant when it is personally meaningful, when we have feelings about it, whatever "it" may be.'"
And this, from the same issue, from Dr. Ashley Montagu: "Education should be for the teaching of . . . the art of human relationships. Any other skill, like mathematics, is secondary.' . . . And "Students should have the final word on the hiring and firing of faculty, who else know the professors best?"
Goodbye, 1970. Hello, 2025.
A friend of mine is taking a degree in Romani Studies with a minor in History. Upon completion of her degree, she will also receive certifications in Human Rights and Museum Studies. Among other classes, she attends one in creative writing. Naturally, because of her primary interest [you may read "Romani" as "Gypsy," if it helps comprehension, although that term is tantamount to a pejorative], she wrote a story about the Romani during World War II. Like the Jews, the Romani were forced to go to the Nazi crematoria; unlike the Jews, the Romani have virtually zero PR, which is one reason you don't hear much about them during that period. In one passage she wrote of the Schutzstaffen, or S.S., herding Romani aboard the cattle cars for shipment to one of the camps.
Her story was critiqued in class, by her classmates. They allowed as how the story lacked credibility because the S.S. weren't Nazis [emphasis mine].
Say what???
Wanna have some fun? Go to the cash register checkout at any grocery store that hires high school students during the summer, and buy a few things. Say the total comes to $5.63. You hand the clerk a $10 bill. He or she keys that into the register. Then you hand the clerk a $1 bill and say, just give me a $5 and the change. I can't speak for your experience, but the clerk at the register I was rung up at became totally confused. I won't say she looked about ready to curl up into a fetal position, but you could clearly see the thought was there. [I resolved the situation by taking back the $1.00 and just going with what was already keyed into the register]. [I sure hope she's not a math major]. Well, like Dr. Montagu says, skills like mathematics are secondary. It's far more important that the student feel the eight, hold hands with the five, get to know the three, and lovingly caress the nine. Double digits are for orgasms.
I dunno. Maybe I'm not being fair. Maybe contemporary students are quick and sharp. But at one grocery store, at the check-out, the clerk always asks me if I found everything okay. At my response of, "What did you hide?" I usually draw a blank. Huh? What? Well, okay, I’ll concede that sort of response is unexpected. And I know the question was well-meant.
But then there's the young woman who holds up my half-gallon of milk and asks if I want that in a plastic bag. My response of, "Nah, just leave it in the bottle," draws a blank of maybe ten seconds, during which she looks back and forth between the bottle of milk and the bag. Finally, there's a chuckle. Sort of. I probably got this from my Dad. His response to, "Do you want that [milk] in a plastic bag?" was usually, "Nah, it'll just leak out."
What does that mean for us, writers of science fiction and fantasy [and some horror]? Lordy! It's not enough for us to make our voices heard; we also have to be understood. These are our times to write, as the Walrus said, "of many things." We create whole worlds. We create characters to inhabit our imaginary milieux. We deal with the complex themes of humanity and society and technology, and with our secret fears and terrors and anxieties, and hopes and desires. We have something to say.
And the students in this country are not being taught how to read and understand. After all, the intellect produces a fog of illusion and fantasy, right, Dr. Brown? Taking the place of intellectual stimulation is an emphasis on the students' feelings. And now, after decades of emphasis on feelings, our space program is going to be militarized.
Maybe we're no longer smart enough, as a nation, to go Out There.
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THIS IS A NEWSLETTER, SO NOW WE MUST RETURN TO OUR REGULAR PROGRAMMING…
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New guidelines for Shelter of Daylight are posted at: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/shelter-of-daylight
The new submissions address is shelterdaylight@yahoo.com
New guidelines for Cosmic Crime Stories are posted at: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/cosmic-crime-stories-guidelines
The new submissions address is cosmiccrimestories@yahoo.com
JUPITER’S EYE
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Jupiter’s Eye is a digest of science fiction and fantasy and (very few) darker short stories, poems, and art. It is published in April, August, and December. In general, there will be three stories, three poems, three illustrations, and one article in each issue, so competition will be intense. Editors are the Hiraeth Staff. We look forward to seeing your work. Guidelines are posted here: www.hiraethsffh.com/jupiter-s-eye-guidelines
ELDER THINGS EXPEDITIONS
Submissions are now closed. Scheduled publication is in October. Elder Things Expeditions is the seventh in our series of Lovecraftian anthologies. In it, we explore three sections of time in exploration of Antarctica leading to revelations about the nature of the denizens, normal and paranormal, residing there.
DRABBLE CONTEST:
Winners of Drabble Harvest #14: The Witch’s Broom are:
Sara Kate Egan – First Place
Trevor Wright – Second Place
Curtis A. Deeter – Honorable Mention
Diyora Kabilova – Honorable Mention
Congratulations to them, and to all who participated. Incidentally, Diyora Kabilova is in Uzbekistan, and she is our first published author from that country.
NEW DRABBLE CONTEST IS NOW OPEN
The theme is Alien Guide Book for Visitors. Guidelines are here. READ AND HEED THEM! PLEASE!
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WE ARE STILL OPEN TO SUBMISSIONS FOR MEDITATIONS: a Minimalist Poetry Anthology for Christians. We are looking for haiku and tanka written in the spirit of Christian love and peace. It is imperative that contributors read the guidelines.
Guidelines are posted and may be read here: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/meditations
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DIGITAL STORE REMINDER
We have two digital stores, one for PDFs, the other for ePubs. This is the link to our digital store: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/digital-store Come check out our titles! We add more each month!
COLOR INTERIOR ART
Printing in color can be prohibitively expensive. However, the current issues of Drabble Harvest #11 and the Winter (January) Illumen both feature color interiors. You’re invited to check them out. We expect to continue this process with Drabble Harvest, Illumen, and a few other publications, such as Flash Digest.
SCIFAIKUEST AUGUST 2025 ONLINE EDITION
Edited by t.santitoro
This edition is available on our site. It is not the same as the print edition. Come read and enjoy! Here’s the link: https://www.hiraethsffh.com/scifaikuest-online
STORE SALES:
Next up, and at the risk of being somewhat repetitive, because we want our storytellers and poets to be read, and our artists to be seen:
THERE’S A SALE GOING ON!!!
IT’S STILL GOING ON!!!
BUY ALL THE BOOKS YOU WANT AND USE THIS 20% DISCOUNT CODE:
BOOKS2025
THIS DISCOUNT CAN BE USED AS MANY TIMES AS YOU WISH, SO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF IT!
GO TO OUR SHOP AT WWW.HIRAETHSFFH.COM
NO MASKS, NO WAITING, AND WE NEVER CLOSE!
LASTLY, BOOKS MAKE GOOD HOLIDAY AND BIRTHDAY PRESENTS…
NEW RELEASES: WHAT’S NEW?
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PARABNORMAL MAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 2025
Stories
Scattered Messages by R. C. Capasso
Snatched Ghosts by Laura Nettles
Encounter at Nub Knoll by Bill M. Tracer
L’Anse Aux Mort by Stephen Gousie
Ma No Umi by Jess Simms
The Beech Grove Cemetery by Dave Hangman
Not Your Average Haunting by Rianna Martorano
Welcome to Miss Blue’s by K. E. Redmond
Poems
Remote Viewing Hit by Cynthia Gallaher
Old Ghost by AA Alhaji
Jack the Ripper by G. O. Clark
Madhouse by Alan Hardy
The Waiting Shadow by Koror Kipkorir Emmanuel
Articles
Hugo Haas’s Bait: A Bedeviled Man’s Search for the Devil by Denise Noe
Exploring the occult, magic, and mysticism with Lettice Galbraith… by Sonali Roy
In Your Dreams by Palmer Fitzgerald
Treating the eerie atmosphere and the supernatural elements in The Ghost Pirates by William Hope Hodgson by Sonali Roy
Illustrations
Walking Nightmare by Warren Muzak
Ascension by Warren Muzak
Nature’s Demon by Sonali Roy
United and Reunited by Sonali Roy
Ordering links:
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/parabnormal-magazine-september-2025
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/parabnormal-magazine-september-2025-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/parabnormal-magazine-september-2025-2
COSMIC CRIME STORIES SEPTEMBER 2025
Crimes of some form will be with us as long as there are laws to break. Technology helps solve those crimes. But those solutions will always be found by the ones who get down and dirty—the detectives. Come see what the future holds for the dark side of law & order.
Novelettes
Nudger by David Castlewitz
Short Stories
Unkilling by Stephen Kramer Avitabile
Checkers by Barbara Candiotti
Flash Fiction
You Heard What You Wanted to Hear by Tyree Campbell
The Evil That Men Do… by Tyree Campbell
Illustrations
Skull Collector by Sandy DeLuca
Ordering Links:
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/cosmic-crime-stories-september-2025
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/cosmic-crime-stories-september-2025-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/cosmic-crime-stories-september-2025-2
SHELTER OF DAYLIGHT SEPTEMBER 2025
Shelter of Daylight features uplifting stories and poems in the genres of science fiction and fantasy. Although some may start out down, they all finish in the sunlight at the end.
Features
Dune Reviewed by Lee Clark Zumpe
Short Stories
Chavon the Apostate by Jay Litwicki
Ordained by Enchantment by Lee Clark Zumpe
Door of Opportunity by Tom Howard
Poetry
Pumpkin Revisited by Sharmon Gazaway
If It’s Not Too Late by Richard E. Schell
The Distended Lawn by Ray Greenblatt
Black Hole by David Stephenson
Illustrations
The Dragon’s World by Sonali Roy
In the Morning by Sandy DeLuca
Ordering links:
PRINT: SHELTER OF DAYLIGHT September 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: SHELTER OF DAYLIGHT September 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: SHELTER OF DAYLIGHT September 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
THE EDIBLE ZOO BY DAVID C. KOPASKA-MERKEL
The Edible Zoo features poetry for younger readers about combinations of animals and other food. For example, a horse-radish sandwich; a hot dog; a wood-chuck. These and other animals are presented in amusing recipes designed to make children (yes, and adults) laugh. Just wait till you find out what happens to lions and rhinos and bears, oh my! With color illustrations by Valerie Bodell.
Ordering links:
PRINT: EDIBLE ZOO by David C. Kopaska-Merkel | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF; EDIBLE ZOO by David C. Kopaska-Merkel | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: EDIBLE ZOO by David C. Kopaska-Merkel | Hiraeth Publishing
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ICYMI
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JUPITER’S EYE AUGUST 2025
Jupiter’s Eye features science fiction and fantasy stories, art, articles, and an occasional poem. This issue includes stories of forbidden fruit, a Huxleyesque society of false perfection, and two reviews, plus lots more.
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Features
The Protocol reviewed by Alan Ira Gordon
Dune Part 2 reviewed by Lee Clark Zumpe
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Short Stories
The Wrackful Siege by Maureen Bowden
Stitch in Time by Tom Howard
A New Brave World by Eric Choi
Mortal Longings by Laurel Hanson
Poems
Specimen by John Grey
Earth Man, Now Space Man by John Grey
Storm Gate by Denny Marshall
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Illustrations
In Search of a Signal by Denny Marshall
Tracers by Denny Marshall
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/jupiter-s-eye-august-2025
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/jupiter-s-eye-august-2025-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/jupiter-s-eye-august-2025-2
SCIFAIKUEST AUGUST 2025
Featured Poet: Joanne Merriam
PLUS:
The Marie Derley Page
The John H. Dromey Page
Articles by Lauren McBride
and Robert E. Porter
…and much more!!
PRINT: SCIFAIKUEST August 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: SCIFAIKUEST August 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
EPUB: SCIFAIKUEST August 2025 | Hiraeth Publishing
THE END OF INNOCENCE
A Yoelin Thibbony Rescue
Swept up in the interstellar slave trade, Yoelin Thibbony decides to go after the hierarchs involved as well as rescue as many children as she can who have been captured and put to forced labor. Along the way, she moves step by step closer to the hierarch at the top of the trafficking chain. Her suspicions grow after she opens a camp to put slavers themselves to work, for what she learns through interrogations sickens her. But now she has to know for sure who is at the top, even though the knowledge could well ruin her life forever.
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/the-end-of-innocence-by-tyree-campbell
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/the-end-of-innocence-by-tyree-campbell-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/the-end-of-innocence-by-tyree-campbell-2
POSTSCRIPTS FROM SPACE by TERRIE LEIGH RELF
Terrie Leigh Relf loves sending and receiving postcards from the four corners of the universe—and beyond! Postcards tell a story. They are mementos from friends and family—and from total strangers—and provide a glimpse into life’s journeys, observations, and adventures.
Sometimes an additional message is needed. Thus: Postscripts From Space.
PS. Here are some added notes on postcards from space, found aboard a derelict craft that crashed on an arid, lifeless world. The OSPS (Outer Space Postal Service) has delivered these messages to Terrie, who now presents them to you. This is what it is like out there.
PRINT: POSTCARDS FROM SPACE by Terrie Leigh Relf | Hiraeth Publishing
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/postcards-from-space-by-terrie-leigh-relf-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/postcards-from-space-by-terrie-leigh-relf-2​​
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THE TELEMPATH BY T.SANTITORO
This is the first book in The Crojan Chronicles Series.
When a young newlywed with extraordinary mental powers is abducted and sold on the galaxy’s black market, the galactic government is suddenly made aware of a human slave trading operation and a secret army of androids bent on destroying humanity.
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/telempath-by-t-santitoro
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/telempath-by-t-santitoro-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/telempath-by-t-santitoro-2
A ZINC IN TIME
THE PRESENT, FUTURE, AND PAST ADVENTURES OF GRAZYNKA (ZINC) ANDRZEJEWSKA
Time travel like it’s never been done before! Humanity has collapsed! War, pestilence, famine!
As a result of nuclear war, the explosions have created ripples in time, and each ripple that catches Zinc (and others) sends them into another time—ahead a day, or a month, or several years, or even back to before her birth, where she arrives out of time. She is alone in a post-apocalyptic situation. Societies have utterly disintegrated. There are marauders and rape gangs to avoid. There is shelter to find, and food and weapons and clothing. Unfortunately, the area around the cave she has chosen to inhabit is in the middle of these time ripples, so she never knows where she might wake up when she goes to sleep. Even so, she has an ultimate destination; she just doesn’t know it yet.
So meet Zinc, a survivor. Her war has just begun, and like all of us, she wants to know where she’s going, and who is going with her.
PRINT: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/zinc-in-time-by-tyree-campbell
PDF: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/zinc-in-time-by-tyree-campbell-1
EPUB: www.hiraethsffh.com/product-page/zinc-in-time-by-tyree-campbell-2
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Without further ado, then: browse, read, buy, enjoy. If you have any questions or comments, send them to us at hiraethsubs at yahoo dot com. See you in October!
Tyree Campbell
Storyteller and Managing Editor
September 2025
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