A Week of News: Robert Jordan, Brunanburh, and a Playground

It’s been the proverbial one thing after another the past week.  It’s good to stay busy, of course, but it’s also a bit tiring. Here’s the short of it all…

1. Last weekend was the TarValon.net 10th Anniversary event, at which I gave a talk about Robert Jordan and the Tolkien legacy. It was very well attended (170 people, maybe?), and I had a chance to meet some great folks. Everyone seemed quite pleased with the talk — to the point of asking for my autograph, which was unexpected, to say the least!

The other nice thing about the event was it gave me a great chance to catch up with a few folks whom I don’t see often enough, like Brandon Sanderson and the good people of Team Jordan (Jordan’s wife, Harriet, and his incredible assistants, Maria and Alan). I had a good time. I was asked in a rather unofficial way if I’ll give the talk at JordanCon either this year or the next. We’ll see!

2. Because of the weekend’s festivities, I didn’t get my mid-term grading done as efficiently as I would have liked.  In the end I had to knock out a couple days in my office during the week to get things finished up.

3. Just as I was collecting my breath, editorial adjustments came back from the University of Exeter Press for my book on the Battle of Brunanburh.  Nothing back-breaking (thankfully!), but enough to keep me busy for a bit.   On the plus side, we remain on target for the book coming out by May.

4. I’m the head of the parent organization at my son’s school, and a few weeks ago we decided to spend a Saturday morning cleaning up and repairing the playground. I chose this particular Saturday — today — because it was the only one that was completely free this month. After three hours of shoveling dirt and sand, running here and there, and hammering nails … I’m tired.

Which is all a way of noting that I’m taking the afternoon off. 🙂