Word count: 39262 Only 610 new words tonight — but that’s enough for a gold star. I’m sticking up silver stars for 100-500 words, gold for 500-1000, red for 1000+, and an extra green star when I finish a chapter or story. I spent most of the evening doing laundry and putting the manuscripts of Chapter 4 in the mail to the members of my crit group who weren’t there on Saturday. I also got a couple of story responses in today’s mail. One was a reject from MarsDust of a short-short (my 500-word story from the first night of Clarion, still kicking around). I sent it back out to Story House Coffee; they print short-shorts on their coffee labels and are located just a few blocks from here. The other was from Asimov’s. It was in my SASE, and when I opened it up I saw it wasn’t even on letterhead — just a cheap Xerox of letterhead — so I knew it was a rejection, but I hoped for a nice personal note. “Good to see something by you,” it said, “and thanks for letting me see this story. I like this, and I’ll take it.” I had to read it twice. YAHOO!