I have a trip to the post office to make this afternoon. In my shoulder bag are three big envelopes. One contains a Missionary Man excerpt entitled "The Fanatic in the Street," bound for The Atlantic Monthly. Another contains an excerpt called "Supercalifornication," bound for Nerve magazine. The last contains my short story "The Two Towers," on its way to Playboy.

Ellen Datlow rejected "The Two Towers" for her ghost-story anthology The Dark. She said it wasn't the only WTC-themed story she had received, but it was certainly the most explicit. I guess I can take that as a good thing. But I figured the story probably wouldn't work for that book, so I wrote a back-up ghost story, called "Timesink." That one's at F&SF now, and if it should bounce from there, I'll send it to Ellen.

Nothing makes me feel more hopeful than dumping a big stack of manila envelopes into the mail!