Short Fiction, the Internet, and Everything.

I have been reading what you would call short fiction since I was very young (is there anything that more epitomizes short fiction than a Little Golden Book?)  and I was probably 9 or 10 years old when I got my first magazine. I am reasonably sure it was a copy of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine; I still have a couple issues from back then, though not all of the ones I read by any means.

To have lived through some of the heydays of fantasy and sci-fi short fiction and the magazine boom only to then to see it falter, almost disappear completely, and then start to recover was an interesting experience.

Escape

As a lifelong fan of sci-fi and fantasy I have been experiencing make-believe worlds and caring for make-believe people for as long as I can remember. There are those who would have me believe this is somehow unhealthy as if entering into these worlds means I am escaping from my own. Maybe I am escaping the real world... but who would blame me with the world the way it is now.

A Hobbit’s Life: "If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."

There are days, sometimes weeks, where I would give almost anything to have a small comfortable hobbit-hole in the Shire. To sit on a bench in front, relax, and have nothing more important to worry about than if there are enough seed cakes for the supper guests.

J. R. R. Tolkien, Part one - The Hobbit

As I talked about in my post Books That Captivated My Youth though I grew up reading Sci-Fi the past 25+ years or so have been dominated by Fantasy, or Faerie (Fairy) stories especially the sub-genre Epic Fantasy.

I would like to talk specifically about one author who almost single-handed brought me wide-eyed and fascinated into the world of fantastic fiction.