Last night I got a call from Jason Williams at Night Shade Books, one of my favorite small presses, and he told me he wants to publish my second collection, Hart & Boot & Other Stories. Needless to say, there was jumping around, and chortling, and other expressions of delight. Night Shade has done some of my favorite books in recent years, they've recently signed a new distribution deal that gets them into a lot more bookstores, and they do gorgeous work. I couldn't be happier. There's no contract yet, so this is all theoretically subject to change and there are still details to be worked out, but I'm comfortable enough about it to tell y'all diehard journal readers. I'll post a table of contents and whatnot sometime soon (when I'm not trying to dash off an entry before taking a morning shower). There might be as many as three unpublished stories in there. For thematic reasons, I wanted to include some stories that haven't sold yet (but are presently out for consideration at various magazines) -- "Impossible Dreams", "Komodo", "Dream Engine". I'd love it if a couple of those got first publications somewhere else, and that's a possibility since the collection won't be out until sometime in mid-to-late 2006, but regardless, I'll put them in the book. I'll make sure there's at least one completely original, impossible-to-read-elsewhere story in the collection, though, no matter what.