MAC Magic

I've mentioned the book review site authonomy.com in previous posts. It's a great online community, and I've made several real friends through it because there are at least five members who live in Madrid. We call ourselves the Madrid Authonomy Community (MAC).

At the end of each month, the owners, mega-publisher HarperCollins, skim off the top five of the chart and give them a professional critique by one of their editors. Last month (February) was particularly exciting for me, because two MAC members were in contention. There was a fair bit of jostling for position in the last few hours, but the midnight GMT tickover saw Paul House at number one and Simon Betterton at number two. Which is pretty amazing considering there are several thousand active members.

Paul and Simon had arranged to meet for a celebratory drink, and I joined them. Madrileños are famous for going out late, but I don't think I've ever actually gone out for a drink at one a.m. before.