Science fiction may have been my first love. I’ve always said that my first SF book was A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs; that the novel was read to me by my father when I was five. Now that I’ve stopped to think about that book and other SF works that have influenced me, though, I don’t believe that that statement is actually true. My father owned The Gods of Mars and The Warlord of Mars, two later volumes in the series. As a teenager, he had purchased them from Johnson’s Second-Hand Bookstore in Springfield, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, he could no longer find a copy of A Princess of Mars, so he told me the story instead. It was a story that was more exciting than any fairytale I’d ever heard. I can still remember being captivated by that beautiful and brave princess, Dejah Thoris, I remember being thrilled by John Carter and terrified by the sight of Tars Tarkas in my mind’s eye, and, of course, I vividly recall the austere alien vista of Burroughs’s dying Barsoom. Perhaps A Princess of Mars was not really a science fiction novel–even in 1912 I don’t think that there was much science in it–but with that one story (which I hadn’t even read), I fell in love with science fiction forever.

I grew up in Holland, Massachusetts, a town that then consisted of roughly four-hundred people three seasons of the year (the population swelled with "summer people" in the warmer weather). I spent the summer outdoors and barefoot. There were no bookstores in the town, and my mother didn’t have a driver’s license. I read everything that the tiny two-room library had to offer, but the books were all about a hundred years old. My father and my grandfather promised me that there were many books to read, but I had no idea how to get hold of them. Although they didn’t name their sources, they told me stories based on the works of Damon Knight, Arthur C. Clarke, Richard Matheson, and Ray Bradbury.

Moving to a suburb of Springfield, Massachusetts, made books of all sorts more accessible–now I could find Robert Heinlein, Mad-eleine L’Engle, Andre Norton, and Robert Silverberg in the library. My father’s membership in the Science Fiction Book Club, however, was my true emancipation. Suddenly I could devour the works of Samuel Delany and Frank Herbert, Harlan Ellison’s Dangerous Visions, and then Again Dangerous Visions, Isaac Asimov’s The Caves of Steel, Robert Silverberg’s Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Roger Zelazny, Clifford Simak, Philip K. Dick, Ursula K. Le Guin, and more and more Heinlein.

One day, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy arrived. My brother Bobby asked for it first, but I was the faster reader. Every time he put it down, I snuck the book away. My father was furious. Though generally an obedient child, this time I willfully and gleefully disobeyed his direct order to stop reading the book and let my brother finish it. I was awe-struck by the sweeping story and completely enthralled with the author as well.

Isaac edited The Hugo Winners Vols. I and II, and at fifteen, I discovered it through the book club, too. While reading his hilarious introductions to the stories in the book, I made the amazing discovery that there were science fiction magazines. At that moment, I knew that working on an SF magazine had to be the most wonderful job in the world.

My mother was not a fan of science fiction. She had the hard job of raising five children with a husband who was lost in his books. She also had a masters degree in microbiology, which meant that she had read much of Isaac’s nonfiction science works. Although her reasons were different, the one thing she shared with my father was a deep respect for the Good Doctor. She didn’t really want to encourage my interest in science fiction, and she wasn’t certain about my interest in reading in general. She wanted me to enjoy life, to wear makeup and be popular. She wasn’t about to discourage my interest in Isaac Asimov, though.

While working on an advanced degree in philosophy in St. Louis, Missouri, I purchased issues of Asimov’s and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction from Paul’s Bookstore. One night, my best friend Kristin asked me if I could go anywhere in the world and do anything I wanted what would it be? With a copy of F&SF on my lap, I said that I would go to New York City and get a job on a science fiction magazine.

A couple of years later I did exactly that. Since I managed to land a position at Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine, my parents were equally delighted. I’ve worked on this magazine for twenty-two years, and, for me, it has truly been the most wonderful job in the world.

I had the extraodinary experience of working with Isaac Asimov for ten years. He was as rational and intrepid, and as warm and funny in person as he was in those introductions to The Hugo Winners. (I’ll talk more about Isaac in future editorials). I’ve held every position at the magazine from editorial assistant to executive editor. I’ve grown in each position, and each job has been a lot of fun. I’ve worked with terrific editors, including Shawna McCarthy and Gardner Dozois, and have had a number of wonderful assistants. My latest assistant, Brian Bieniowski has been with the magazine for over four years. Brian is witty and smart, and a joy to work with.

My own editorial tastes are not wildly divergent from either Gardner’s or Shawna’s. I enjoy intelligent, well-written science fiction with strong and believable characters and innovative ideas. I have a preference for hard science fiction, but don’t plan to fill the magazine up solely with that sort of story. Isaac, himself, wrote fantasy for Asimov’s (the then editor made him change his demon into an alien, but Isaac changed it right back for book publication), and the magazine has a heritage of running some very fine fantasies over the years. We’ve also run a lot of different kinds of science fiction stories in the magazine, and I intend to continue this tradition.