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My grand realisation of the week (thanks to the youtubery of a kindly academic blogger who knows me not but whose blog is one I enjoy) is that I used to watch opera for exactly the same reasons I now enjoy anime.

It's easier to show anime-lovers what opera is than opera-lovers what anime is, so that's what I'll do. The overlap is not at all precise, but it's sufficient to explain (at least to me) why I don't miss opera while I am in anime mode and vice-versa (except that hair colours and cuts aren't nearly as satisfying for character as leitmotifs, for some reason):

All I need now is Anna Russell to explain, say, Gilgamesh or Full Metal Alchemist and many of life's confusions will be lesser.

Anna Russell and Victor Borge were very popular at home when I was a kid, so my sisters and I understood opera at exactly the same level as we understood everything Martin Gilbert wrote about and Tom Lehrer sang about. I would still operate using these important principles of explanation when life gets too much if only I had a piano or had not dropped maths.

Here's some Anna Russell, so that you, too can understand everything:

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If anyone is interested in seeing (and voting on) draft covers for The Art of Effective Dreaming, there are mock ups on Facebook NOW. My publisher is making a decision very soon, so get your comments in as quickly as you can.

The page should be visible to anyone, but if you're not in Facebook and want to comment/vote then you can do it here. I'll forward everything on.

And you know what this means? Besides me having to be terrified of morris dancers in the near future? The book will be for sale soon. It's happening. Excuse me while I have a moment of quiet joy.

That book has had more adventures than the characters in it. Go look at the possible covers! Be a part of the endgame.