Woke up to some good news this morning. My story "Gulls" from Tel: Stories is being reprinted in the next Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, edited by Stephen Jones! Whoo! I've been a fan of that series since I was in junior high, so I'm pretty stoked. "Gulls" is also being reprinted in Best New Fantasy from Prime Books. Which just goes to show that I'm a really poor judge of my own work. "Gulls" is the oldest thing I've ever sold, a trunk story that I didn't send many places when I first wrote it, and only pulled out of mothballs to send to Tel: Stories because it has a certain stream-of-consciousness prose poetry vibe that I thought the editor would appreciate. Not only did that editor like it, but two reprint-seeking editors did, too. I've heard it said that nobody knows anything. I, personally, seem to provide anecdotal evidence in favor of that assertion.

This is a good year for year's bests -- in addition to "Gulls" I've got "Robots and Falling Hearts" (written with Greg van Eekhout) in The Year's Best Fantasy. (I've got another story appearing in a year's best, too, but it's a piece of pseudonymous porn, and I like my secret identity, so I'm not going to say any more about it. Mwa ha ha!)

In other rockin' good news, my wife, the amazing Heather Shaw, sold her story "Mountain, Man" to the next Ratbastards anthology! My wife is a Ratbastard! I'm so proud. Go over and congratulate her.

So, is our luck turning?

Well, maybe not. The car started acting up again last night, and Heather was going to limp it over to the mechanic this morning. Alas, when she tried to start it, the car just sat there like a dead lump. Bizarrely, this may be good news -- it's possible that the battery cables are just loose. Or the car could be stone dead. I guess I'll find out tonight when I try to tighten the cables. Wish us well. Worse case scenario is we become people of the bus for a while, which is a bummer, but we live in a decent neighborhood for buses, so it's not too bad. And maybe I'll sell a bunch of novels and get a bunch of money and we'll be able to buy a new car later this year. I live in hope.