Word count: 66081 | Since last entry: 357 | This month: 1161 Started in on Chapter F tonight. This is the big climactic chapter that Jason’s whole plotline has been leading up to, the place where Clarity’s plotline started, the place where even the most unobservant reader can no longer possibly fail to notice how the two plotlines are connected. I hope to have this chapter ready for critique before the Nebulas. You may note that the “word count” above has taken a big jump — much bigger than the 357 words I actually wrote tonight. This is because I moved the new/revised chapters I wrote for the Lupton contest into the novel itself. The new chapters are about 2000 words longer than the ones they replaced. But, though those words do legitimately join the novel, so the “word count” goes up, I have rejiggered my word-counting algorithm to subtract them from the “since last entry” and “this month” figures because I already counted them last month. But I am now nearly 2/3rds done with the planned 100,000 word novel. Jeez. In other news, today I received my author copies of the June 2004 Realms of Fantasy, including my story “Charlie the Purple Giraffe was Acting Strangely,” with a neat color illustration. Now I need to whomp up a page about the story for my website. Also, yesterday I picked up copies of Science Fiction: The Best of 2003 with my story “Tale of the Golden Eagle.” There are some really good stories in there!