{"id":27218,"date":"2021-01-01T10:54:32","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T15:54:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/?p=27218"},"modified":"2021-01-01T10:54:32","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T15:54:32","slug":"ian-randal-strock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottedelman.com\/wordpress\/2021\/01\/01\/ian-randal-strock\/","title":{"rendered":"It’s time for cookies and conversation with writer\/editor\/publisher Ian Randal Strock in Episode 135 of Eating the Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Happy New Year! As 2021 begins, Eating the Fantastic will continue acting as if we’re living in the world we deserve rather than the one we got, and break bread — albeit remotely — with those we would<\/em> have met in the flesh at various conventions which unfortunately had to cancel their in-person incarnations. This episode, I invite you to join me at the table with writer\/editor\/publisher Ian Randal Strock<\/a> as we pretend the recent Capclave had actually happened as a mass gathering rather than virtually. <\/p>\n

Ian — who may be the person with whom I\u2019ve appeared on more panels than any other — is currently the owner, publisher, and editor-in-chief of Gray Rabbit Publications and its speculative fiction imprint, Fantastic Books. He began his genre career by working at both Analog<\/em> and Asimov\u2019s<\/em> magazines for six years, starting out as an editorial assistant, and rising to be Associate Editor. <\/p>\n

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He left to launch his own magazine of science fiction and science fact Artemis<\/em>, which he edited and published for four years. He\u2019s twice won the Analog<\/em> Readers Poll \u2014 both for his short fiction and a science fact article. He\u2019s also quite a history buff, having published The Presidential Book of Lists<\/em>, Ranking the Vice Presidents<\/em>, and other political titles.<\/p>\n

We discussed what he said upon meeting Isaac Asimov which caused the Grand Master to refuse to write him a limerick, why he prefers The Princess Bride<\/em> novel to the movie, the reason his father advised him not to name his publishing company after himself, why the 1,000-word short story is his natural length, the question editor Stan Schmidt asked before purchasing his first story for Analog<\/em>, the essay which so thrilled him he felt compelled to start his own magazine, the most difficult aspect of running your own publishing company, why ending a story too late isn’t as great a sin as starting one too early, how his fascination with presidential trivia began in the bathroom, and much more.<\/p>\n

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Here\u2019s how you can eavesdrop on our conversation — <\/p>\n

1) Subscribe at Apple Podcasts<\/a> — where I hope you’ll decide to sample a few of the 134 previous episodes.<\/p>\n

2) Use the RSS feed of http:\/\/eatingthefantastic.libsyn.com\/rss<\/a> on the device of your choice.<\/p>\n

3) Or listen using the embed below.<\/p>\n