Stanley Schmidt
Stanley Schmidt
Stanley Albert Schmidtis an American science fiction author. Between 1978 and 2012 he served as editor of Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionScientist
Date of Birth21 January 1926
CountryUnited States of America
real technological-change pace
There may be something to the suggestion about the pace of technological change intimidating writers, though - it's been awfully hard to keep ahead of real developments.
areas humour
I think humour is one of the most important, difficult, and underappreciated areas of any art, and I'd like to have some in every issue.
equally existing fiction foreign less science
Also, much science fiction is not actually set in any existing place or culture, so it's more or less equally foreign to everybody.
biggest brought desktop happened produce via
Some of the biggest changes that have happened are behind the scenes, in the way we produce the magazine. E.g., much of our production has been brought in-house via desktop publishing.
both enjoy fantasy fiction mind science
I like to do that, too, so I enjoy both science fiction and fantasy - but I always keep in mind which one I'm doing, and they are not the same.
fun thought-provoking woven
intricately and intriguingly woven, lots of fun, and extremely thought provoking.
fashion falling-in-love thinking
I think the rising and falling popularity of areas like hard SF and far-future SF is, to a considerable extent, the same as any other fashion.
fun play ideas
Its limitations are those of the physical universe: it won't let you play with some really wild ideas that aren't possible, but are fun to speculate about.
jobs hate goal
Usually if nobody hates a piece, nobody loves it, either; and a magazine which sets itself the goal of provoking thought is not doing its job if everybody agrees with what it does.
numbers appreciate people
There are a significant number of people who appreciate what we do, and most of them gravitate to Analog because this is where they can find it. The other magazines tend to share their audiences, which may result in each of them having a smaller market share.
tired eye people
When something hasn't been around much for a while, and one example of it turns up and catches people's eyes, they go looking for more like it - until they get tired of it again.
mean writing attention
This means I must pay close attention to the writing, but equally so to the scientific background - which sometimes means doing fairly involved calculations.
thinking other-cultures people
I think the international appeal of SF is quite understandable since the kinds of people who like to read it, are, by the nature of the beast, interested in other cultures, of which other nations on Earth are the closest available example.
issues covering stories
Ideally, I'd like every issue to include a diverse group of stories that meet the qualifications sketched above, but covering a wide range of specific matter and flavour.