My self imposed deadline to get a new book to my publisher by mid July looms as I write this on the last day of June, but I'm going to make it. I have a beginning, a middle, and an end, and now all I have to do it polish, tighten, make changes to some word choices, perhaps add a touch here or there, and send it off to Dutton in the Big Apple.

I've got a cast of characters a mile long, a major bad guy, and a manhunt that lasts for days on a landscape that covers high desert, short grass prairie, rugged wilderness, mountains, small towns, big cities and places in between. Whew.  That's enough excitement for me for a while.

I did take a break last week to travel down to Albuquerque to speak to the local chapter of Sisters in Crime, but I'm not sure if I made any sense because my head was still stuck in the book. Folks were gracious anyway.

There's sad news to report from my web guru Di in Brisbane. Her mum died recently. She lived a long life and according to Di was ready to let go, but that never truly eases the pain. So if you will, send good thoughts Di's way down under. She's a special lady.

We'll keep things simple this month and leave the Hillerman Conference as our featured website for July.

Happy summer to all.