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Whatever else is or is not done this week, I am finished my Aurealis reading. Just my share of the writing up to do, then the only work left is for our convenor.

I'm happy about being finished the reading and sad about being finished the reading. I got to live in so many worlds and to explore some fascinating places and minds. It was so much fun opening a book and wondering if this was going to be that magic one that blew all the others out of the water.

I can't get over how many good spec fic novelists we have in Australia. It was a real privilege to judge and I hope that I get to do it again.

The King of the Antipodes meets the Werewolf King

I started on those three academic reviews. I assumed vague interest and a bit of discipline was necessary at my end. I thought if I set up pages and format and wrote the first paragraph tonight then those pages would stare at me angrily when I got back from Sydney and this would enthuse me to get them filled with words and to the editor in time. I was allowing for the fact that two of the books contain chansons de gestes and have an off-the-scale cool factor - this is why I assumed I can get all of them done by Friday week. The third volume was the dicey one. It's a collection of Latin tales. Most collections of Latin tales I have seen recently tend towards the drear. I dutifully typed up my little formatting document for each.

Now I wish Sydney was just a day later and I could sit down and do my thorough reading *now*. Just think, instead of packing a suitcase I could be reading "Narratio de Arthuri rege Britanniae et rege Gorlagon lycanthropo." Arthur meets the Werewolf king. As part of the tale King Arthur apparently does a giant sulk and won't get off his horse (which must have been a high horse, under the circumstances) or eat until he understands women. And the next piece in the volume comprises the entirely authentic letters from Arthur in the Antipodes, writing to Henry II.

Anyone still wonder why I'm addicted to the Middle Ages?

If any of you write a story or novel about Arthur meets werewolf Downunder, please credit Mildred Leake Day, who had the good sense to edit and translate these stories. And I can't wait till next week to read them - they will go with me to Sydney and I can write the review there. Then I get the glory of seven chansons de geste next week. And life is very, very good.