A new qualification.

I have passed Zombie Science 1z, with only a second-class result, but given that I live in a swamp full of dangerous animals and plants, zombies aren't much of a problem locally. So it's a good enough pass and another certificate to add to my collection.

It also allows me to consider applying for the position of Zombie Integration Outreach Co-ordinator at Leicester City Council. They have openly admitted that they have no contingency plan in the event of a zombie apocalypse and looking at the news, it seems they have a problem.

It would mean leaving the swamp and interacting with people, but maybe I can run it mostly through the internet and really, interacting with zombies isn't too onerous.

They tend not to bother people with small talk.

Zombie reference book.

I have sent a review on this book to the Horror Zine. A very, very interesting book indeed, especially if you have a zombie story in your 'must get around to finishing that' pile.

Now I just have to wait and see if my Email is working. It seems to be approaching the randomness of the British postal system these days.

The chrysalis market.

I have seen a new review for Jessica's Trap, which isn't up yet but should be shortly. This is less glowing than previous reviews but still mainly positive.

Interestingly, it is the second review to refer to this story as 'young adult'. I have never deliberately written anything for 'young adult' because I don't know what it means. Surely you're either young or adult? Is there some intermediate stage? Certainly, Dume children do not have a chrysalis stage but we are fairly isolated here and I am assured we're also a bit different from the rest of the population. Which is good. I've seen the rest of the population.

Could a chrysalis even read? Well, I suppose it couldn't do very much else. That might be why the 'young adult' market is sought after. All those chrysalis-stage people lying around just desperate for a good story to while away the growing pains of their metamorphosis into a lumbering hairy pitchfork-weilding villager.

Now I come to think of it, I have not seen any intermediate form in the village between the child-forms and the hairy lumbering pitchfork forms. I had assumed it happened overnight. It does not apply to the women, of course. Their metamorphosis is different. They don't have pitchforks.

Therefore there is an intermediate stage between 'young' and 'adult' and it seems Jessica's Trap falls into this chrysalis market. Hmmm.

This calls for a little change to marketing strategy, I think.