I started to call this “Periodic Status Update,” but that would apply that there was some sort of regular schedule to things happening that make a status update appropriate, and I’m here to tell you that ain’t the case. Feast or famine is the only schedule I’m aware of, and it’s more of a binary condition than a discreet event…

Ahem. Where was I? Right. Status update. Yesterday I got not one, but two contracts in the mail. Famine is the general condition, but yesterday was more of a feast day. First, I sold the latest Lord Yamada story, “Three Little Foxes,” to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. I think it’ll be online sometime later this year, but I don’t know for sure. I’ll post when I know more. If anyone’s curious, that’s the story that came to me when I was looking at a Gmail background image, so you just never know which direction one of these things is going to arrive from.

The second contract was from Paula Guran. They’re reprinting “The Plum Blossom Lantern” in the anthology Recent Hauntings, coming from Prime Books in September. Here’s the lineup:

Peter Atkins: “Between the Cold Moon and the Earth”
Rick Bowes: “There’s a Hole in the City”
Laird Barron: “The Lagerstatte”
Steve Duffy: “The Rag-and-Bone Men”
Jeffrey Ford: “The Trentino Kid”
Karen Joy Fowler: “Booth’s Ghost”
Neil Gaiman: “October in the Chair”
Stephen Gallagher: “The Box”
Elizabeth Hand: “Wonderwall”
Glen Hirshberg: “The Muldoon”
Alaya Dawn Johnson: “The Score”
Stephen Graham Jones: “Uncle” (original)
Caitlin R. Kiernan: “Apokatastasis”
Marc Laidlaw: “Cell Call”
Margo Lanagan: “The Proving of Smollett Standforth”
John Langan: “The Third Always Beside You”
Joe R. Lansdale: “The Case of the Lighthouse Shambler”
Maureen F. McHugh: “Ancestor Money”
Sarah Monette: “The Watcher in the Corners”
Reggie Oliver: “Mrs Midnight”
Richard Parks: “The Plum Blossom Lantern”
James van Pelt: “Savannah is Six”
Tim Powers: “A Soul in a Bottle”
Barbara Roden: “The Palace”
Ekaterina Sedia: “Tin Cans”
Nisi Shawl: “Cruel Sistah”
John Shirley: “Faces in Walls”
Peter Straub: “Mr Aikman’s Air Rifle”
Melanie Tem: “Dhost”
Steve Rasnic Tem: “The Ex”

I guess one could be in better company, but it’s hard to imagine how. The book is due out in September, though you can pre-order it now if you want to be sure not to miss it.