I have now completed reviewing submissions for The Book of Witches. There were some wonderful stories sent to me, and after a lot of thought and angst, I was able to winnow them down to a final list of three.

I’ve written to the writers of those stories and am waiting to finalise agreements with them.  I’m not sure when we’ll announce what those stories were, but I’m very happy to have them in the book.

I have also received a number of queries from writers about the status of their stories, mostly because of updates published here saying I was running behind. Although it was not my initial plan to do so, I’ve now written to almost everyone updating them on the status of their stories.

Thank you again to everyone who submitted work to the open reading period for The Book of Witches. My apologies for taking so long to respond to everyone. I have now written to all of the writers whose stories sadly did not make the book. There were so many of them, and they were all great, but now have a final shortlist.

I will be spending the weekend cutting the final shortlist down to the final group of three or so stories, and those writers will hear from me by Monday. I can tell you that the stories on the shortlist are terrific and I’m confident The Book of Witches is going to be fantastic.

There are all sorts of interesting anthologies coming out this year. I’ve edited two – Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance and Tomorrow’s Parties – but there are a lot of great choices. I am putting lists together for myself, just to keep track. Zoraida Córdova’s anthology of Latin American YA SF is already in stores, as are Sheree Renée Thomas’s first anthology of the year. I’ll be chasing copies of the others.  Are there other anthologies you’re looking forward to?

• Reclaim the Stars: 17 Tales Across Realms & Space, Zoraida Córdova ed. (Wednesday)
• Trouble the Waters: Tales from the Deep Blue, Sheree Renée Thomas ed. (Third Man)
• This All Come Back Now: An Anthology of First Nations Speculative Fiction, Mykaela Saunders ed. (UQP)
• Unlimited Futures: Speculative, Visionary Blak+Black Fiction, Rafeif Ismail & Ellen van Neerven eds. (Fremantle Arts Centre Press)
• Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction, Sheree Renée Thomas, Oghenechovwe Donald Ekpeki, & Zelda Knight eds (Tordotcom)

A quick update. I am running behind on The Book of Witches. I hope to have the acceptances for the open-reading period done in the next week, and then will get back to everyone. I have some wonderful stories come in, both from the open reading period and from authors who I have solicited work from, so this should be pretty special. Next thing is to get edits done and to talk to my editor, David, about artwork.

This is just to confirm that the open submission period for The Book of Witches closed at 5.00 pm today, Western Australian time.  Thank you to everyone who submitted. Unfortunately, any submissions arriving after 5.00 pm cannot be considered.