He won! Science Fiction Fans, your ~VOTES~ counted! P&E polls 2016

Chet Gottfried you totally deserve first place! CONGRATULATIONS!

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The amazing Chet Gottfried, photographer, novelist, short story writer and contributor to Perihelion, shared some of his secrets for capturing incredible, gorgeous, and amazing images of bugs (not the staph kind, but spidery and insecty bugs)in the November 2016 issue of Perihelion.

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But then – alas – while filming a glider landing, Chet stood too close to its path. “A wingtip knocked me over and broke several vertebrae in my neck (C2, C5, C6, and C7),” he writes. “C2 means I’m wearing an oversize neck brace; the other ones resulted in some nerve damage to my upper right arm (at first useless) and two fingers. All will be brought to rights. It’s only a question of time (along with the work of some excellent doctors and physical therapists).”

I've been trying to get Chet over to steemit to share his incredible photo gallery (and his short stories!) but health issues may be keeping him from us.

Chet's hilarious space romp, "Into the Horsebutt Nebula," won high praises from the Perihelion book critic (aka me): ()

Diane Ryan, aka @rhondak, also earned a Top Ten badge on her first published science fiction story! (She's published in other genres, in other magazines.)

#10. Space Horses, Diane Ryan, Perihelion SF Magazine, [link][comments]

The story is reprinted here at steemit in five parts: https://steemit.com/fiction/@rhondak/space-horses-sci-fi-short-story-installment-one-of-five

(This short story first appeared in the 12/12/16 edition of Perihelion Sci-Fi Online Magazine)

Zebra babies melted her heart—from a distance. Up close, no human in the cosmos would bother making friends with them based solely on the merits of their charm. Prime example? This foal. He bared his nubby teeth with tufted ears flat against his skull, charging Nilah again and again in the confines of the vetting stall. She crouched, arms out-stretched, halter in hand. In her hip pocket a vaccine hid from view, syringe loosely capped and ready. She’d only get one chance so better make it good. A feint, a head toss and tail flip—then the little shit whirled and landed a halfhearted kick directly on the bridge of her nose.

I'm happy to see Rhonda here and hope to lure more friends to steemit, the way @roomerkind fired me up to join.