I am no longer eligible for WOTF

That would be the Writers of the Future contest. Because their rules specify:

5. The Contest is open only to those who have not professionally published a novel or short novel, or more than one novelette, or more than three short stories, in any medium. Professional publication is deemed to be payment of at least six cents per word, and at least 5,000 copies, or 5,000 hits.

Now, I've only made two professional short fiction sales. But this other deal went public on Monday...

(thanks to Query Shark for forwarding the PW announcement)

So, to use the parlance, I've "pro'd out" of WOTF. Which is a bit of a bummer, as I've been submitting to them on and off since high school... but overall, I can't really complain about selling two novels to a major publisher!

Aside from the obvious, here are more reasons I'm excited about signing with Thomas Dunne Books in particular:

• They recently published my fellow Portlander Benjamin Dewey's Tragedy Series in a beautiful hardcover edition
• They're also publishing my VPXII classmate Claire Humphrey's debut novel next year
• My editor is the same guy who published David Wong's novel John Dies at the End (and its sequel, This Book Is Full of Spiders: Seriously, Dude, Don't Touch It)
  

Long story short: SQUEE.

This is, of course, not the end by any means: I hope to write more than two Kangaroo books, and I have no idea what to expect when the first one hits next year. But I've got plenty of work to do in the meantime.