Well, I finally did it. I finished "In the Valley of the All-Father" last night at around midnight, bringing the final total to 5000 words. I'm very happy with the way it turned out, since it went pretty much where I wanted it to go, and did pretty much everything I wanted it to do. It gets critiqued tomorrow.

I got another postcard from both my mother in North Carolina and my sister in Maine yesterday, and it brought a big smile to my face.

Tonight was the "reading" by Tim and Karen at The Archives (and yes, I took my allergy medicine, thank you for asking). Since Tim abhors readings, and Karen didn't want to be rude and do one just to do so, they both talked about plot, and how they come up with stories. Karen told a few stories I'd heard before, and one I hadn't, while Tim talked about his writing process and how we should stay humble even if we do get book deals and start winning awards, since Karma can come back and humiliate you at any point.

I'm just so happy I have my story done. My goal at Clarion was to write six stories (one a week), but I was realistically expecting to do four, which I have now accomplished. Anything more is gravy.

And today, we passed the two-thousand-hit mark in this journal, which pleased me to no end. Again, my thanks for sticking around.