two new stories, on the (distant) horizon

As someone whose stories are well versed in rejection (par for the course for any writer who has to play the slush-pile game), it's always such a joy when a little glint of sunlight makes it through the almost perpetual gloom. And I'm glad to report that, lately (though, in general, it's been a pretty good year), things have been falling right for me.
Over the past few months I've finished two new stories (sometimes I feel like the slowest writer on the planet...) and sent them out into the world hunting for a home.
A couple of weeks ago, a story that I actually started writing on the train from Beijing to Shanghai back in July was picked up by the Chattahoochee Review.
Then, last night, I received a lovely email telling me that the other story, 'A Death in the Family', will be published as a Ploughshares Solo. I'd been worried about this story in particular, not only because it's 11,000 words, which makes it a bit on the big side for most homes, but also because it's one I've been carrying around in my head (and heart) forever and had tried to write many times, without success. I was beginning to worry that I'd never get it right on the page, but it took until now to find the story's voice, and the way to tell it. I'll have to wait at least a year for it appear in print but, given the already lengthy gestation period (35 years), that feels like mayfly time...