This launched in 1977, and it's still going. In 1992, its title changed to Asimov's Science Fiction. And in 1998, the magazine got slightly bigger than its original digest format... but it's still much smaller than regular magazines, so I still think of it as a digest. Unfortunately, I haven't gotten the magazine in years. I'd really like to get back into it someday, though. Anyway... I've been a fan of Isaac Asimov like forever (meaning since sometime in the mid 80s, I suppose). So it was only natural that I'd eventually check out a magazine that was named for him, even if he didn't write the stories in it or edit the magazine. (I do like other writers, after all.) Though I guess he did write some articles in it, or something. I really don't remember it that well, but it was pretty important to me, for a few years in the late 80s and maybe the early 90s. I'm sure I subscribed to it for at least a couple years, anyway. And I still have a number of issues, though I guess I got rid of some, at some point. Also at some point, probably in the late 80s, I guess a kid on my school bus noticed me reading it or something... because he offered to sell me some old magazines that I guess had belonged to his mom, or something. This included one issue of Amazing Science Fiction from 1976, and two issues of IASFM, one from January/February 1978 and one from January 1979. (I think I paid 25 cents apiece for them, or maybe it was 75 cents... I definitely feel like the number 75 was involved, but I'm not sure if it was each or total. You don't care, do you?) Looking through the issues I still have, I see that they include three from 1988, four from 1989, one from 1997, one from 1998, two from 2001, and two from 2002. I'm not really sure when I stopped subscribing, but it certainly wasn't as late as 1997, so... I must have picked up a couple issues randomly, in the late 90s/early 00s, which seems just a little bit odd to me, but no matter. Um... there's one from February 2002 which I definitely remember reading during the time that I was in physical therapy after breaking my ankle, in November 2001. So there's that.

I'm not sure how many of the stories I ever read in this magazine I would remember now. Some of them no doubt would seem at least a bit familiar if I read them again, and some probably not at all. But I know I enjoyed the magazine quite a bit, for a few years. And at one point, I sent away for submission guidelines, so I could submit stories myself... but I don't think I did much submitting, and certainly nothing was ever accepted. However, I had included a SASE for them to send me the guidelines, and I guess in my request, I said something like they should file it away because it might be valuable someday, when I'm a famous author. And on the back (or maybe it's the front?) of the SASE, they'd written something in reply to my suggestion, which I thought was quite nice. (And yes, I've kept the envelope all these years just because I thought it was so cool of someone to have written that note. And oh look, on the other side I see a postmark of 1997, which explains my buying an issue, that year. And btw, I'm the one who wrote "SASE FOLDS.") I've really gotta work on getting famous, I've left them waiting far too long....