Big excitement at our place — Book One of Deadly has just arrived from the printers. The pets hate it when a new book arrives because they reckon the book gets all the attention. I've explained to them that after fourteen months of hard work it's only natural to get excited the first time you get your hands on the finished article, but they're still sulking.

I think they're over-reacting a bit. The cat's in the corner scowling just because the book's got its favourite spot. The goldfish is giving me the evil eye too. What's the matter, Willy, haven't you ever seen a bloke sitting in front of the telly bouncing a book on his knee?

The dog's pretty upset as well. Perhaps I did go a bit far telling him he's got to sleep in the laundry tonight so the book can have his basket. I can see from his expression what he's thinking. Why can't the book spend the night with the goldfish?

I wonder if Paul Jennings is having this much trouble at his place? Probably not. He's got a really big dog basket.

Never mind. By the time Book Six of Deadly arrives next March my pets will be used to it. So will I probably. That's the thing about having a new book arrive every month for six months — you get a bit blasé. By March I probably won't even be switching the spotlights on.

Did you spot Dean Gorissen's great new cover on the way through? If you missed it, click here for a squiz, and a sneak-preview read of the first two chapters. Deadly Book One will be released in the shops on 2 October at 9.03am. (We tried for 9.00 but the booksellers reckon they want to finish their coffee first.)

Before you go, here's something else you might want to have a peek at. If you visited last month, you'll remember me being a bit indignant at a West Australian on-line bookseller called nedkelly.com.au who were selling US copies of my books when they really shouldn't have been. Or at least that's what I thought they were doing. I've had a very nice letter from the Book Manager at nedkelly explaining the situation, and it's not as dire as I thought. His letter's included with this month's e-mails in the Visitors Book.

Oo-roo and happy reading

9 September 2000