Dear Visitor,

Well - I've made it in time for July, even if I am a little late. And why am I late? Because I spoke too soon about my pet virus, that's why. A virus isn't just for Christmas, you know, and this one practically became one of the family. So has it gone now? I think so. I'm still getting weird e-mails, but now NAV is quarantining them - it wasn't before, because it was infected itself, so it was a bit like your doctor giving you the 'flu. At one point I got three hundred e-mails. At last, I thought, I have become a cult figure, but no - it was just good old W.32.Klez.H@mm, sending me returned mail from people I'd never even heard of never mind e-mailed, interspersed with information on Spice Girls concerts and offers of loans from American banks. I didn't open any of them, or their attachments, but it got me again just the same. I had to return the computer to its factory settings, and reinstall everything. Again. And buy an external modem. And a new printer. The last two weren't down to the virus, at least not directly. I won't go into it - you don't want to know all my troubles.

Anyway - I'm back, though I'm making no predictions about next month! Or about receiving my e-mail, because if there were any real e-mails in amongst that lot, I wouldn't know. This time round I did get some real mail, but if you tried to contact me prior to the 24th of June, I won't have kept it, so do please try again. Last month's competition was a casualty, and I thought about letting it run through July, but decided that you'd probably prefer a new one. If I do get any entries for the June competition, though, they will count, so if you did enter, and can remember the answers, enter again. This month's is all about St Agatha (the patron saint of whodunit writers), and the movies inspired by her life and work.

I have some actual news for once - Births Deaths and Marriages is out in the UK this month - on the very day I'm writing this, as it happens. It's being published along with the paperback of Scene of Crime, and I expect the paperback at least will be in some, if not all, good bookshops. And, of course, they are both available from Amazon - just click the link on the Books page. Births Deaths and Marriages will be out in the States in February, where it will be published under the title Death in the Family.

And those of you living in the East Midlands or the west of East Anglia might like to know that I will be doing a radio interview on BBC Radio Northampton on the 15th of July, and will be appearing on BBC East Midlands Today on the 18th. The TV is coincidental to the books coming out (though I hope to give them a plug) - the programme wanted to do a piece on Northamptonshire, and the producer was looking on the Internet for information on Rockingham Castle when he happened on this very website, and thought it might be an idea to feature some of the locations in my books. I'm very pleased about that, and I'll let you know how it goes.

What else? Anything? Oh, yes - keep the suggestions for Judy's mother's name coming, won't you? And don't forget to take a look at the competition this month - for one month only, the first correct entry received will win a pristine first edition of Births Deaths and Marriages, so have a go. The next five will receive one from the archives, as usual.

That's it, I think. Recorded tennis is on the TV, and rain is streaming down the windows - we must be in the grip of a British summer.

Love,
Jill

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