THE EDITOR’S WORD by Mike Resnick

Welcome to the thirty-sixth issue of Galaxy’s Edge. We got some fine stories for you by new and newer writers Dan Koboldt, Edward M. Lerner, Elly Bangs, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Thomas K. Carpenter, Austin DeMarco, Joy Kennedy-O’Neill, and Christopher Blake, plus old friends Joe Haldeman, Bill Pronzini and Barry N. Malzberg, Todd McCaffery (with a dragon story of course), Jane Yolen, and Joe Haldeman.

In addition, we got our Recommended Books column by Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett, our science column by Gregory Benford, our literary column by Robert J. Sawyer, and Joy Ward’s interview with F. Paul Wilson. And of course, we’ve got part three of our serialized novel, Charles Sheffield’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow.

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This issue marks our sixth birthday, which is about five-and-a-half years longer than most prognosticators gave us. After all, in science fiction’s almost century-long history, there have been “hard” science fiction magazines, “soft” science fiction magazines, fantasy magazines, horror magazines, endless variations on each of them—but until Galaxy’s Edge came along there’d never been one whose purpose was to showcase more than half a dozen beginners and newer writers with every issue.

The field has been responsive from the get-go. We’ve never lacked for submissions, and have seen a lot of beginners begin to lose that “beginner” status after re-selling us or selling elsewhere. A number of top pros—Mercedes Lackey, Joe Haldeman, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, George R.R. Martin, Nancy Kress, Orson Scott Card, Jane Yolen, Robert Silverberg, and quite a few others have offered us reprint stories, not only because of course we admire both the writers and the stories, but because their names on the covers have helped sell the magazine which allows us to continue buying from newcomers. Ditto our regular columnists—Greg Benford, the team of Nye and Fawcett, Barry Malzberg (for the first twenty-six issues) and Rob Sawyer (for the last ten), and Joy Ward’s interviews.

It’s a team effort…and it’s working. One of our stories, by a total unknown, made the Hugo ballot. About a dozen of our new writers have made book sales since appearing in our pages. We’re getting reviewed in a lot of venues that didn’t even know we existed three, four and five years ago.

When publisher Shahid Mahmud asked me to edit a science fiction magazine about six and a half years ago, I said I’d do it only if its primary purpose was to feature new and newer writers, that those of us who had established ourselves in the field had an obligation to pay forward. He agreed, and the authors of every reprint and column we’ve run have felt the same way.

We had no way of knowing that the public would respond with the same enthusiasm, but we’re delighted you did. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go light the six candles that are sitting atop the cake.