I’ve just finished watching Andy Murray win his first round match at Flushing Meadows – granted, he made a bit of a meal of it, but he’s through, and that’s the main thing. It’s nice to have a truly young British player riding so high in the world rankings. And Kendrick did give Nadal the runaround at Wimbledon, so he wasn’t necessarily going to be the walkover that he was the last time he played Murray.

Time has passed since I wrote that paragraph – the whole tournament is finished now. Andy did very well to get past his seeding, and – though we weren’t allowed to see it on UK TV, or even listen to it as far as I could ascertain – Martina N flew the flag for ladies of a certain age by going out (if she really has this time) on a Grand Slam win in the mixed. I listened to it on the Open Tennis website, a somewhat frustrating experience as every now and then – almost invariably on game point, or just when the trophy was about to presented – it would cut out and someone would thank me for listening to US Open download radio and tell me to tune in tomorrow. After about five minutes or so, it would come on again. Why? I don’t know – ask a passing five-year-old.

Tennis aside, what have I been doing?

I’ve been updating the site again. Nothing very major, but hopefully helpful. I’m still getting people writing to me having just found out that some of my books have been retitled for the American market. I really don’t want anyone to buy the same book twice, and I have tried all sorts of ways to make it clear on the site that title changes happen, but I’ve yet to discover a way that works. So now the title changes have a page of their own, and I’ve listed both titles in the links on the left side of each page in Books. I hope that works, and I do apologise if you’ve been caught that way, but it truly isn’t why the title changes are made.

And I’ve been restoring the runner-up prizes to the competition. Not as many as before, but now there will be a winner and two runners-up each month. The winner will, as ever, get a choice of a signed first edition or a video/DVD of the TV movie, and the runners-up will get a paperback each. I’m sorry it’s less generous, but my lack of new output has stretched my resources!

There are new photos on the George and Georgia pages for their fans, and those of you who find the Writing Advice pages help with their own writing might like to know that I have added another little article, this time on structure. I hope you find it useful.

See you!

Love,
Jill

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