Happy New Year!  We hope that all of you had wonderful holidays, and that your new year is off to a great start!  If you are looking for beautiful New Year's wishes, check out those by Neil Gaiman and our own Kat Howard--they provide thoughtful, poignant suggestions for ways to make this coming year a fantastic one.

This time of new beginnings seems like the perfect time to tell you about a new project that is looking for supporters--a multi-genre fiction magazine called Fireside, organized and edited by Brian White.  He is interested in creating a magazine filled with good stories of all kinds, and the first issue will include stories by Tobias Buckell, Ken Liu, Chuck Wendig, and Christie Yant. There will be a comic created by D.J. Kirkbride and Adam P. Knave, and the cover artist is Amy Houser.  Currently, the project is looking for funding through Kickstarter; you can learn more about Fireside, including how to donate, on its webpage.  If this is the kind of thing that interests you, we'd encourage you to check it out and learn more!

Here at Fantasy Matters this week, we are once again back to our regular schedule--including our Wednesday short story feature and our fun links on Fridays!  This week, we have posts about Brazilian fantasy literature, Star Wars, and thoughts from Kat Howard on how her teaching and scholarship influence her creative writing, as well as some other exciting features.

Also, at the end of this week, I am headed to the MLA convention in Seattle to present a paper on the function of the fantastic in Nnedi Okorafor's novel Who Fears Death.  I'm part of a panel on Octavia Butler and ethnic American speculative fiction, and if you're planning on being at the convention, I'd encourage you to come.

It should be a great week, and a wonderful start to a new year, so make sure you to stop back often!