Last Thursday Harry Turtledove confirmed that, sadly, we were going to have to pull his story from Eclipse Two. This was a possibility we’d been discussing since he first submitted the story, was entirely amicable, and had to do with negotiating permissions for some quotes that he’d used. It was disappointing news, but hopefully the story will appear elsewhere and he’ll be back for Eclipse Three.

When I received Harry’s email I posted here that I had lost the story and was pondering whether to seek a replacement. This was something of an exaggeration. After all, the book is in copyedits and will be published in time for World Fantasy in Calgary this October, so performing major surgery on the manuscript didn’t seem a practical option.

However, two readers of this this blog were clearly more optimistic and I received two late submissions, one on Friday and one on Saturday. I was delighted with both stories and could see how they’d fit into the book I’d compiled. After some quick communications with Night Shade, we decided we could make it work – the stories could go into the book if I was quick. So, yesterday I spent part of Father’s Day redoing the main manuscript for the book, adding in new stories and author’s notes and such, and the book is suddenly redone.

The two new stories are “Night of the Firstlings” by Margo Lanagan, a short fantasy, and “Exhalation” by Ted Chiang, a longer SF tale. I love both stories and can’t wait to hear what readers think when the book comes out. The lineup for the book is now:

1. The Hero, Karl Schroeder
2. Turing’s Apples, Stephen Baxter
3. Invisible Empire of Ascending Light, Ken Scholes
4. Michael Laurits is: Drowning, Paul Cornell
5. Night of the Firstlings, Margo Lanagan
6. Elevator, Nancy Kress
7. The Illustrated Biography of Lord Grimm, Daryl Gregory
8. Exhalation, Ted Chiang
9. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, David Moles
10. The Rabbi’s Hobby, Peter S. Beagle
11. The Seventh Expression of the Robot General, Jeffrey Ford
12. Skin Deep, Richard Parks
13. Ex Cathedra, Tony Daniel
14. Truth Window: A Tale of the Bedlam Rose, Terry Dowling
15. Fury, Alastair Reynolds

I’m hoping we’ll have some kind of launch in Calgary, though I’m not sure. A handful of us will be there, and it’d certainly be barrels of fun. Either way, my thanks to Margo, Ted, Jeremy, Ross and Marty for letting these changes happen, and to Harry for being so good to deal with. I think E2 is a terrific book, and am excited about the way E3 is shaping up.

Amended to add: If I sent you a sneek copy of the ms, let me know and I’ll send a replacement.  I’ll get e-copies out ASAP once copyedits are done.