Grade: A+
Shall I gush specifically?
Wonderful trivia on Penna., Sean Penn, and Aspen. (I plan to “borrow” the latter.)
Nice misdirection and/or ambiguity on Independence, Pentagon, Appendix, Moneypenny, and Peninsula.
Lovely phrasing on Penn and Teller and Open Door.
Great freakin’ cryptic clue. (Full disclosure: I can’t write cryptic clues to save my life.)
If you decide to skip that whole school and career schtick and go into the puzzle biz, let me know. 
Thanks; B++ was way higher than I expected. I guess writing all the little nuances in is tricky; you must need to be very meticulous to edit these.
I don’t quite get the January tabloids clue, but I easily agree with you that my clue needed improving.
I’m going to watch for the next set.
Thanks, twickster! I’m flattered that you like them. (Having solved two or three crosswords a day for the last decade or two was a big help.)
Re. the cryptic clue, I’m usually terrible at them too. I submitted a cryptic puzzle to Games last year, and they weren’t interested.
As the t-shirt says: “Is anal retentive hyphenated?” 
Needs a bit of polishing, perhaps. I was thinking about the fact that that’s where the jet set goes for their winter vacations, so you often read about Aspen in tabloid accounts of star antics in January.
Wasn’t necessarily planning to do another set, but will if that’s what people want. If so, do you want the single-word-with-multiple-clues challenge, or the multiple-words-with-single-clues challenge?