Welcome to issue fifty-seven of Fantasy!

Some big news this month: Fantasy (and our sister magazine, Lightspeed) has a new publisher—and it’s me, your humble editor, John Joseph Adams. Our founding publisher, Sean Wallace, decided that he needed to devote more time to his book publishing company, Prime Books, and since I already edit both magazines, I was the natural choice to be his successor. I’m excited to pick up where Sean left off, and I look forward to helming the magazines far into the future.

I officially begin my tenure as publisher with the January 2012 issue, so this is our last issue under the Prime Books banner. But rest assured: Under the new regime, we’ll still be bringing you the same quality fantasy that you’ve come to expect from Fantasy Magazine.

***

We do, however, have some fairly major changes in store:

First, we’ll be merging Fantasy into our sister magazine Lightspeed. But never fear: We won’t be doing away with any of Fantasy’s fiction; each issue of the combined magazine will contain Lightspeed’s four science fiction stories and four fantasy stories from Fantasy. We won’t be reducing the number of stories, or replacing any Fantasy content with Lightspeed content; this will be a true merger.

Second, in order to focus more on the fiction side of the magazine, we’re going to cut down on our nonfiction. Going forward, we will cease publication of the related nonfiction articles accompanying each story and instead publish only two feature interviews per issue. We will, however, still have our usual assortment of author spotlights.

Third, since we’re doubling the amount of fiction in each issue, we’re going to raise the price of our ebooks—but not by double: We’ll be raising the price to just $3.99. So you’ll be getting twice as much fiction, for just a dollar more per issue; plus, from here on out, each ebook edition of Lightspeed will feature exclusive content that you won’t find on our website—namely, in addition to the eight short stories you’ll also find our website, each ebook issue will now feature a novella-length story.

***

And lastly, because we’re in this time of transition, I thought now would be a good time to do a reader survey, to let us get a better idea of who you all are, what you enjoy most about our content, and how you tend to access it, along with general demographic information. If you’d like to participate—and enter for a chance to win a free subscription to Lightspeed from Weightless Books—go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/lightspeed-fantasy-2011-survey and fill it out. It should only take about five to ten minutes of your time. The survey ends December 15, 2011, so don’t delay—and thanks in advance!

So! Exciting times here at Fantasy. We’ll keep the www.fantasy-magazine.com website up as an archive, but all future Fantasy content will appear as part of Lightspeed, at www.lightspeedmagazine.com, so be sure to update your bookmarks and RSS feeds!

Now that we’ve got all that out of the way, here’s what we’ve got on tap this month:

December 5

Our lead story this month is from new author Nike Sulway, who captures the soul-changing powers of grief in “Her Lover’s Golden Hair.”

In our feature interview this month, Andrew Penn Romine talks to Puss in Boots director Chris Miller about the new film and the films that might have been. The interview reveals the scoop on Antonio Banderas, the Golden Goose, and the giant who almost made it into the animated film.

December 12

Everyone casts a shadow, but somehow shadows are still mysterious, powerful, intriguing. Joe R. Lansdale explores one man’s strange relationship with his shadow in “Torn Away.”

Veronica Schanoes examines the role of the shadow in literature and folklore in her article “The Deathly Shadows in Our Lives.”

December 19

Children love to play at being heroes. In Seanan McGuire’s “Crystal Halloway and the Forgotten Passage,” one teenage girl has found a world where she really can save the day. But can she stay there?

Alasdair Stuart examines travel via portal magic in his article “Falling With Style.”

December 26

Journey back to ancient Rome in “Vici,” by Naomi Novik—and learn just what Julius Caesar meant when he said: “veni, vidi, vici.”

Genevieve Valentine divides to conquer the many categories of literary dragons in her article “Three Dragons.”

***

So that’s our issue this month. Thanks for reading!